Chapter 44
Monday morning, I greeted Frank with another box of doughnuts and told him our friend wanted to know how the weather was in San Juan.
“Perfecto,” he said with a wink.
“How would I say—oh, I don’t know—‘It’s awfully cold in Chicago’?”
He had already taken a bite of a doughnut and had to finish chewing. “Chicago esta frío terrible.” That wasn’t so hard.
“Chicago esta frío terrible,” I repeated. Then I realized I needed to ask something else to cover my tracks a little. “What about, ‘Where is the library?’”
“Donde esta la biblioteca?”
I repeated the phrase and smiled at Frank. “Thank you.”
“Anything for my favorite typing pool girl.” I hoped he would be calling me his favorite reporter if all went well tonight.
There was a copy of The Digest on my desk, an article that I hadn’t typed by Jack on the cover. A note paper clipped to the page behind it just said “Lunch today. Duke’s.”
It wasn’t a question. But it also didn’t need to be.
I started working, but doubt began to creep in about my ability to do this.
I had put on my bravest face for Jack, but if Alejandra responded in Spanish, I was in trouble.
There was no way she would risk that in a public place with high-ranking government officials surrounding us. But it was an awfully big gamble.
Patricia stopped by my desk, and I looked up, distracted. “Nassau was lovely, by the way.”
I stared at her for a few seconds, trying to figure out what she meant. Clement, I remembered. She went to Nassau this weekend with Clement.
“Oh! I—” I shook my head. “Sorry. It was good?”
“Dreamy,” she said, sitting on the edge of my desk. “I know better than to believe promises married men make, but Judy, I think he might just mean it.”
“Mean what?”
She laughed. “I thought you were far enough from the farm by now. He said he’s leaving his wife. Of course I told him I’ll believe it when I see it, but that man sure knows how to show a girl a good time.”
“That’s great,” I said weakly.
“What’s wrong with you today?”
“Just tired,” I lied. “My sister had her baby early so her older kids are at my house while she’s in the hospital for the week. Not enough sleep.”
“Sounds like a nightmare,” Patricia said. “Say, Roberta gave her notice if you’re looking for a room. Though if Phillip is telling the truth, I could be moving out too. But that’ll take a while. It’d be fun to have you as a neighbor.”
“When is she moving out?”
“In another month.”
I might just have enough saved by then. I told her I would try to swing it. “Better tell them you’re interested soon—I don’t want to wind up with some square next to me.”
Jack was at the back corner table again at Duke’s, tucked away from prying eyes. I crossed the room to join him. “He got back to town yesterday,” he said, by way of greeting. “Which means we try tonight. If you still want to.”
“Well hello to you too.”
“Hi,” he said tersely. “Now listen—you’re not going to get anything out of her in public. It’s too risky.”
He wasn’t wrong. But it was me on the line here and I didn’t exactly want to go someplace private with the woman Carmen had called la diabla. “Then what do you suggest?”
He reached across the table and put a hand on mine. “I’m not sending you anywhere alone.”
“Meaning what? You pretend to speak Russian? Do you know any?”
“No. I would hide.”
“Where?”
“I’m thinking a bathroom stall.”
I shook my head. “She’ll check the stalls if we go talk in the bathroom. Even Carmen did that.”
“Right. We put up an Out of Order sign and lock the door. And I hide in there with a dictation machine.”
I looked at him. “And if she catches you, you bludgeon her with an IBM Executary? This is insane.” I took my hand back, frustrated.
“Less insane than you going in there alone. If you still want to do this, you need to agree to having me there as backup.”
We stared at each other for a few tense seconds until a waiter came to take our order. Neither of us had so much as glanced at a menu, but we ordered from memory. Fields took a long sip of water when the waiter left. “I can get ahold of something.”
“Something? Like what?”
He lowered his voice. “A gun. I know a guy who has one.”
“Jack, no.”
“I’m not willing to risk your life over this.”
“And I’m not willing to risk yours.”
There was a long pause. “Maybe we walk away. Hell, maybe we run away. If you hadn’t taken that message, we wouldn’t have known about any of this. It doesn’t have to be our problem.” His eyes were unfocused, looking at something I couldn’t see.
“Did you just ask me to run away with you?”
He flushed slightly. “Maybe.”
I reached across the table and took his hand. “But I did take the call. And we’re the only ones who can do something about this.”
He chuckled mirthlessly. “So this is when you give me the Casablanca talk? About how I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if we don’t go through with it?”
I smiled. “Won’t you?”
He took a deep breath, then exhaled it forcefully. “As much as you will.”
“What’s the range on the dictation machine? I only used one briefly when I was in Pullman’s office.”
“It’s not perfect, but we should get something. And it’s portable.”
“Okay, but how do we get you into the bathroom? Roberta’s dresses won’t fit you.”
Fields finally laughed. “No. You make sure there’s no one in there first, then I go in when no one is looking.”
“And just sit in a bathroom stall until I can get one of Che Guevara’s guerrillas to follow me in there?”
“I’ll bring a book.”
“Okay, Atticus Finch.” He looked confused. “To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus sits outside the jail with a book.”
“I haven’t read that one.”
I shook my head. “I’ll bring you my copy for tonight.”
“Okay,” he said. “But even if the dictation machine doesn’t capture it, we’ll both be witnesses, and that puts the story on much firmer ground than if there were just one person.”
It was a solid plan. “Don’t bring a”—I lowered my voice to a whisper—“gun.”
“I think I should.”
“Do you even know how to use one?”
“I haven’t done it before. But how hard can it be? Criminals use them.”
I blinked heavily. “You’re not exactly Al Capone, Jacob Feldstein.”
“Fine. Arnold Rothstein, then. He was Jewish.”
I shook my head and made a hah sound. “How did we get here?”
“You were nosy and took a phone call.”
I squeezed his hand. “And aren’t you glad I did?”
Our food arrived, saving him from an answer. But the look in his eyes told me what I needed to know.