He did not seem offended that I had declined his offer, and merely shrugged philosophically.
'Where can I find you if I ever change my mind?'
'FrSulein Hartmann at the Casino Oriental will know where to contact me.' He collected a folded newspaper from beside his thigh and handed it to me. 'Open it carefully when you get outside. There are two $100 bills to pay off the Ivan, and one for your trouble.'
At that moment he groaned and took hold of his face, baring incisors and canines that were as even as a row of tiny milk-bottles. Observing my eyebrows and mistaking their inquiry for concern he explained that he was quite all right but that he had recently been fitted with two dental plates.
'I can't seem to get used to having them in my mouth,' he said, and briefly allowed the blind, slow worm that was his tongue to squirm along the upper and lower galleries of his jaw. 'And when I see myself in a mirror, it's like having some perfect stranger grinning back at me. Most disconcerting.' He sighed and shook his head sadly. 'A pity really. I always had such perfect teeth.'
He stood up, adjusting the sheet around his chest, and then shook my hand. 'It was a pleasure meeting you, Herr Gunther,' he said with easy Viennese charm.
'No, the pleasure was all mine,' I replied.
K/nig chuckled. 'We'll make an Austrian out of you yet, my friend.' Then he walked off into the steam, whistling that same maddening tune.
Chapter 23
There's nothing the Viennese love more than getting 'cosy'. They look to achieve this conviviality in bars and restaurants, to the accompaniment of a musical quartet comprising a bass, a violin, an accordion and a zither a strange instrument which resembles an empty box of chocolates with thirty or forty strings that are plucked like a guitar. For me, this omnipresent combination embodies everything that was phoney about Vienna, like the syrupy sentiment and the affected politeness. It did make me feel cosy. Only it was the kind of cosiness you might have experienced after you had been embalmed, sealed in a lead-lined coffin, and tidily deposited in one of those marble mausoleums up at the Central Cemetery.
I was waiting for Traudl Braunsteiner, in the Herrendorf, a restaurant on Herrengasse. The place was her choice, but she was late. When at last she arrived her face was red because she had been running, and also because of the cold.
'You have a less than Catholic air about you, the way you sit there in the shadows,' she said, sitting down at the dinner table.
'I work at that,' I said. 'Nobody wants a detective who looks as honest as the village postmaster. Being dimly lit is good for business.'
I waved to a waiter and we quickly ordered.
'Emil's upset that you haven't been to see him lately,' Traudl said, giving up her menu.
'If he wants to know what I've been doing, tell him I'll be sending him a bill for a shoe-repair. I've walked all over this damned city.'
'You know he goes to trial next week, don't you?'
'I'm not likely to be able to forget it, what with Liebl telephoning nearly every day.'
'Emil's not about to forget it either.' She spoke quietly, obviously upset.
'I'm sorry,' I said, 'that was a stupid thing to say. Look, I do have some good news. I've finally spoken to K/nig.'
Her face lit up with excitement. 'You have?' she said. 'When? Where?'
'This morning,' I said. 'At the Amalienbad.'
'What did he say?'
'He wanted me to work for him. I think it might not be a bad idea, as a way of getting close enough to him to find some sort of evidence.'
'Couldn't you just tell the police where he is so that they can arrest him?'
'On what charge?' I shrugged. 'As far as the police are concerned they've already got their man cold. Anyway, even if I could persuade them to do it, K/nig wouldn't be so easy to clip. The Americans can't go into the Russian sector and arrest him, even if they wanted to. No, Emil's best chance is that I gain K/nig's confidence as quickly as possible. And that's why I turned down his offer.'
Traudl bit her lip with exasperation. 'But why? I don't understand.'
'I have to make sure that K/nig believes I don't want to work for him. He was slightly suspicious of the way in which I got to meet his girlfriend. So here's what I want to do. Lotte's a croupier at the Oriental. I want you to give me some money to lose there tomorrow night. Enough to make it look like I've been cleaned out. Which would give me a reason to reconsider K/nig's offer.'
'This counts as legitimate expenses, does it?'
'I'm afraid it does.'
'How much?'
'Three or four thousand schillings ought to do it.'
She thought for a minute and then the waiter arrived with a bottle of Riesling.
When he had filled our glasses Traudl sipped some of her wine and said: 'All right then. But only on one condition: that I'm there to watch you lose it.'
From the set of her jaw I judged her to be quite determined. 'I don't suppose it would do much good to remind you that it could be dangerous. It's not as if you could accompany me. I can't afford to be seen with you in case somebody recognizes you as Emil's girl. If this weren't such a quiet place I would have insisted that we met at your house.'
'Don't worry about me,' she said firmly. 'I'll treat you like you were a sheet of glass.'
I started to speak again, but she held her hands over her small ears.
'No, I'm not listening to any more. I'm coming, and that's final. You're a spinner if you think that I'm just going to hand over 4,000 schillings without keeping an eye on what happens to it.'
'You have a point.' I stared at the limpid disc of wine in my glass for a moment, and then said, 'You love him a lot, don't you?'
Traudl swallowed hard, and nodded vigorously. After a short pause, she added, 'I'm carrying his child.'
I sighed and tried to think of something encouraging to say to her.
'Look,' I mumbled, 'don't worry. We'll get him out of this mess. There's no need to be the cockroach. Come on, come out of the dumps. Everything will work out, for you and the baby, I'm sure of it.' A pretty inadequate speech I thought and lacking any real conviction.
Traudl shook her head, and smiled. 'I'm all right, really I am. I was just thinking how the last time I was here was with Emil, when I told him that I was pregnant. We used to come here a lot. I never meant to fall in love with him, you know.'
'Nobody ever means to do it.' I noticed that my hand was on hers. 'It just happens that way. Like a car accident.' But looking at her elfin face I wasn't sure if I agreed with what I was saying. Her beauty wasn't the kind that's left smeared on your pillowcase in the morning, but the kind that would make a man proud that his child should have such a mother. I realized how much I envied Becker this woman, how much I myself would have wanted to fall in love with her if she had come my way. I let go her hand and quickly lit a cigarette to hide behind some smoke.
Chapter 24
The next evening found me hurrying from its sharp edge and hint of snow, although the calendar suggested something less inclement, and into the warm, lubricious fug of the Casino Oriental, my pockets packed tight with wads of Emil Becker's easy money.
I bought quite a lot of the highest denomination chips and then wandered over to the bar to await Lotte's arrival at one of the card-tables. Having ordered a drink, all I had to do was shoo away the sparklers and the chocoladies that buzzed around, intent on keeping me and my wallet company, which left me with a keener appreciation of what it must be like to be a horse's ass in high summer.
It was ten o'clock before Lotte showed up at one of the tables, by which time the flick of my tail was becoming more apathetic. I delayed another few minutes for appearance's sake before carrying my drink over to
