A Quiet Flame

“A creolo just looks out for a girl. Kind of like a bodyguard. Some of the men I dance with. They can get a little rough sometimes.”

“It’s okay about the money. Keep it.”

“You mean, you want to?”

“I mean keep the money. That’s all. It’s information I’m after. Nothing more. No offense, but it’s been a hell of a day.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. Let’s just talk.” I sipped some of my cubano. “You look different from the last time we met.”

A waiter placed a drink in front of her. She ignored it and him.

“So who put you up to it?”

“The cop. The one who brought you. He came to my apartment and said he’d seen me in a show and that he had a special kind of job for me. If I did as I was told, I’d make some money and keep some nice clothes into the bargain. All I had to do was play a rich, worried mother.” She shrugged. “That was easy enough. There was a time when I had a rich, worried mother of my own.” She lit a cigarette. “So I met von Bader and we talked.”

“How long were you there?”

“Most of the day. We didn’t really know what time you were going to show up.”

“And this was all for my benefit?”

“Ostensibly, yes. But Colonel Montalbán wanted me to report on von Bader as well.”

“Yes, that does sound like him. Two jobs for the price of one.” I nodded. “So how was he? Von Bader?”

“Nervous. But nice. A couple of times I heard him on the telephone. I think he was planning to go abroad. He made and received several calls to and from Switzerland while I was there. I know that because once he asked me to answer the telephone. He was in the bathroom. I speak German, as you know. I also speak Polish and Spanish. By birth I’m a German Pole. From Danzig.” She puffed at the cigarette but seemed irritated with it and put it out only half smoked. “Sorry, but I’m a little bit on edge about this. The colonel was none too pleased when I said I couldn’t repeat the performance tomorrow morning. He’s not the kind of man one lets down lightly.”

“So why did you?”

“When von Bader said that you were a famous German detective and that you’d often looked for missing persons, in Berlin, before the war, I’m afraid I rather lost interest in their scheme. Whatever that is. You see, it was I who told Anna Yagubsky about you. And I who suggested that she might approach you for help. I thought that by helping Anna find her missing aunt and uncle you might also help me find my missing sisters. And, since you were helping me, albeit by proxy, I decided to help you. I decided to put you in the picture, as much as I’m able, concerning what the colonel and von Bader are up to. You see, the girl, Fabienne, has gone off with her mother and nobody knows where. That’s pretty much all I know. Von Bader wants to leave the country, but he can’t until he knows they’re safe. I dunno. Something like that. Either way, I’m taking a big risk telling you all this.”

“So why do it at all?”

“Because Anna says she’s sure that you’re the man who’s going to find them. And I don’t mean Fabienne and her mother. I mean our relatives. Anna’s and mine.”

I sighed. “Go ahead. Tell me about them. Tell me about yourself.” I shrugged. “Why not? I’ve paid for your time.”

“My mother got me out of Poland just before the war. I was twenty-five years old. She gave me some jewels and I managed to bribe my way into Argentina. My two sisters were too young to come with me. At the time, one was ten and the other was eight. The plan was that I’d send for them when I could. I wrote to tell my mother I was well, and received a letter back from a neighbor, saying that my mother and sisters were now in France, and in hiding. Then, in 1945, I received word that my two sisters were false weight aboard a cargo ship from Bilbao.”

“False weight?”

“It’s what we used to call an illegal immigrant on a ship. When the ship docked here in Buenos Aires, however, there was no sign of either of them. My then husband made some inquiries. He was a former policeman. He found out that they had both been sold by the captain to a casita. As franchuchas.”

I shook my head.