dias,’ Lantz said.
‘Wan’ coffee?’ Neusa mumbled. ‘I can’t fix no breakfast. I got ’n appointment.’
With Angel. Harry Lantz tried to hide his excitement. ‘That’s fine. I’m not hungry. Why don’t you go and keep your appointment and we’ll meet for dinner tonight.’ He put his arms around her, fondling her pendulous breasts. ‘Where would you like to have dinner? Nothing but the best for my girl.’ I should have been an actor, Lantz thought.
‘I don’ care.’
‘Do you know Chiquin on Cangallo Street?’
‘No.’
‘You’ll like it. Why don’t I pick you up here at eight o’clock? I have a lot of business to attend to today.’ He had no business to attend to.
‘Okay.’
It took all his willpower to lean over and kiss Neusa goodbye. Her lips were flabby and wet and disgusting. ‘Eight o’clock.’
Lantz walked out of the apartment and hailed a taxi. He hoped Neusa was watching from the window.
‘Turn right at the next corner,’ he instructed the driver.
When they had turned the corner, Harry Lantz said, ‘I’ll get out here.’
The driver looked at him in surprise. ‘You wish to ride only one block, señor?’
‘Right. I have a bad leg. War wound.’
Harry Lantz paid him, then hurried back to a tobacconist’s shop across from Neusa’s apartment building. He lit a cigarette and waited.
Twenty minutes later, Neusa came out of the apartment building. Harry watched as she waddled down the street, and he followed her at a careful distance. There was no chance of his losing her. It was like following the Lusitania.
Neusa Muñez seemed to be in no hurry. She moved down Florida Street, past the Spanish Library, and plodded along the Avenida Cordoba. Lantz watched as she walked into Berenes, a leather shop on San Martin. He stood across the street and observed her chatting with a male clerk. Lantz wondered whether the shop could be a connection with Angel. He made a mental note of it.
Neusa came out a few minutes later carrying a small package. Her next stop was at a heladeria on Corrientes, for an ice cream. She walked down San Martin, moving slowly. She seemed to be strolling aimlessly with no particular destination in mind.
What the hell happened to her appointment? Lantz wondered. Where is Angel? He did not believe Neusa’s statement that Angel was out of town. His instincts told him that Angel was somewhere nearby.
Lantz suddenly realized that Neusa Muñez was not in sight. She had turned a corner ahead and disappeared. He quickened his step. When Lantz rounded the corner, she was nowhere to be seen. There were small shops on both sides of the street, and Lantz moved carefully, his eyes searching everywhere, fearful that Neusa might see him before he saw her.
He finally spied her in a fiambreria, a delicatessen, buying groceries. Were they for her, or was she expecting someone at her apartment for lunch? Someone named Angel.
From a distance, Lantz watched Neusa enter a verduleria and buy fruit and vegetables. He trailed her back to her apartment building. As far as he could tell, there had been no suspicious contacts.
Harry Lantz watched Neusa’s building from across the street for the next four hours, moving around to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Finally he decided that Angel was not going to show up. Maybe I can get some more information out of her tonight, Lantz thought, without fucking her. The idea of having to make love to Neusa again sickened him.
In the Oval Office at the White House, it was evening. It had been a long day for Paul Ellison. The entire world seemed to be composed of committees and councils and urgent cables and conclaves and sessions and he had not had a moment to himself until now. Well, almost to himself. Stanton Rogers was sitting across from him, and the President found himself relaxing for the first time that day.
‘I’m keeping you from your family, Stan.’
‘That’s all right, Paul.’
‘I wanted to talk to you about the Mary Ashley investigation. How is it coming?’
‘It’s almost completed. We’ll have a final check on her by tomorrow or the next day. So far it looks very good. I’m getting excited about the idea. I think it’s going to work.’
‘We’ll make it work. Would you like another drink?’
‘No, thanks. Unless you need me for anything else, I’m taking Barbara to an opening at the Kennedy Center.’
‘You go ahead,’ Paul Ellison said. ‘Alice and I are due to entertain some relatives of hers.’
‘Please give my love to Alice,’ Stanton Rogers said. He rose.
‘And you give mine to Barbara.’ He watched Stanton Rogers leave. The President’s thoughts turned to Mary Ashley.
When Harry Lantz arrived at Neusa’s apartment that evening to take her out to dinner, there was no answer to his knock. He felt a moment of consternation. Had she walked out on him?
He tried the door, and it was unlocked. Was Angel here to meet him? Perhaps he had decided to discuss the contract face to face. Harry assumed a brisk, businesslike manner and walked in.
The room was empty. ‘Hello.’ Only an echo. He went into the bedroom. Neusa was lying across the bed, drunk.
‘You dumb –’ He caught himself. He must not forget that this stupid, drunken broad was his gold mine. He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to rouse her.
She opened her eyes. ‘Wha’sa matter?’
‘I’m worried about you,’ Lantz said. His voice throbbed with sincerity. ‘I hate to see you unhappy, and I think you’re drinking because someone is making you unhappy. I’m your friend. You can tell me all about it. It’s Angel, isn’t it?’
‘Angel,’ she mumbled.
‘I’m sure he’s a nice man,’ Harry Lantz said soothingly. ‘You two probably had a little misunderstanding, right?’
He tried to straighten her out on the bed. It’s like beaching a whale, Lantz thought.
Lantz sat down beside her. ‘Tell me about Angel,’ Lantz said. ‘What’s he doing to you?’
Neusa stared up at him, bleary-eyed, trying to focus on him. ‘Le’s fuck.’
Oh, Jesus! It was going to be a long night. ‘Sure. Great idea.’ Reluctantly, Lantz began to undress.
When Harry Lantz awoke in the morning alone in bed, memories came flooding into his brain, and he felt sick to his stomach.
Neusa had awakened him in the middle of the
