You said you knew the ropes and they didnt seem to understand English Embassy.
Your people dont count for very much here, Im afraid. We provide their arms and then theres the new hydroelectric station we are helping them to build not far from the Iguazú Falls. It will serve Brazil too but Brazil will have to pay them royalties[291]. Great thing for the country.
Very interesting, I said with some bitterness.
Of course Id like to help you, OToole said. You are a friend of Lucindas. Ive had a postcard from her, by the way. Shes not in Katmandu. Shes in Vientiane. I dont know why.
Look, OToole, I said, if you cant do anything else, you might at least ring up the British Embassy. If Im to have ten years in prison Id like a bed and a chair.
Sure, OToole said, I can arrange all that. I guess I could arrange your release too the Chief of Police is a good friend of mine
I think my aunt knows him too, I said.
Dont bank on that.[292] You see, weve had some fresh information about your relative. The police dont want to act I guess some money has passed[293] but were bringing pressure on them. You seem to be mixed up with some pretty shady characters, Henry.
My aunts an old lady of seventy-five. I glanced at the notes I had made on the wall: Rue de Provence, Milan, Messaggero. I would have certainly called her career shady myself nine months ago, and yet now there seemed nothing so very wrong in her curriculum vitae[294], nothing so wrong as thirty years in a bank. I dont see what you can have against her, I said.
Your friend, that black fellow, came to see us.
Im certain he told you nothing against my aunt.
Thats right, he didnt, but he had plenty to say about Mr. Izquierdo. So I persuaded the police to keep him out of circulation awhile.
Is that part of your social research? I asked. Perhaps he suffered from malnutrition.
I guess I sort of lied to you, Henry, he said, looking ashamed again.
Are you in the CIA, like Tooley told me?
Well kind of not exactly, he said, clinging to his torn rag of deception like a blown-out umbrella in a high wind.
What did Wordsworth tell you?
He was in a pretty bitter mood. If your aunt hadnt been so old Id have said it was love. He seemed jealous of this guy Izquierdo.
Wheres Wordsworth now?
Hes sticking around. He wants to see your aunt again when things blow over.
Are they likely to blow over?
Well, Henry, they could. Everyone were reasonable.
Even my sneeze?
I guess so. As for Mr. Izquierdos smuggling racket no one cares a devalued dime about that if only hed be reasonable. Now you know Mr. I.
Ive never met him.
Maybe you know him under another name?
No, I said.
OToole sighed. Henry, he said, I want to help you. Any friend of Lucinda can count on me. We can have this whole thing tied up in a few hours. Viscontis not important, not like Mengele or Bormann.
I thought we were talking about Izquierdo.
You and I and your friend Wordsworth know its the same man. So do the police, but they protect these guys anyway till they run out of cash. Visconti nearly ran out of cash, but then Miss Bertram arrived and paid up.
I dont know a thing, I said. Im simply here on a visit.
I guess there was a good reason why Wordsworth met you in Formosa, Henry. Anyway, Id like to have a word with your aunt and a word from you might make it easier for me. If I persuaded the police to let you go, you and I could see her together
What exactly are you after?
She must be anxious about Visconti by this time. I can reassure her. Theyll only hold him in jail a few days till I give the word.
Are you offering her some kind of bargain? I warn you, she wont do anything to hurt Mr. Visconti.
I just want to talk to her, Henry. With you there. She mightnt trust me alone.
I was feeling very cramped on the sacking, and I saw no reason not to agree.
He said, It may take an hour or two to get you released. Everything is disorganized today. He stood up.
How are the statistics, OToole?
This parades put everything out. I was afraid to drink any coffee for breakfast. All these hours of standing without taking a leak. I ought to cancel today altogether. Its not what youd call a normal day.
It took him more than an hour or two to persuade them to let me go, but they forgot to take the chair from the cell after hed gone and they brought me some thin gruel, and these I took for favourable signs. To my own surprise, I wasnt bored, though there was nothing I could usefully add to the history on the wall, except two problematical dates for Tunis and Havana. I began in my head to compose a letter to Miss Keene describing my present circumstances: I have insulted the ruling party of Paraguay and Im mixed up with a war criminal wanted by Interpol. For the first offence the maximum penalty is ten years. I am in a small cell, ten feet by six, and I have nothing to sleep on but a piece of sacking. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I confess I am not altogether unhappy, I am too deeply interested. I would never really write the letter, for she would be quite unable to reconcile the writer with the man she had known.