'What's the matter?' asked Fall when Littlemore was let in to see him.
'I read the Mexico story in the paper, Mr Senator.'
'Now that's something I'm proud of,' said the Senator, stretching his arms and leaning back in his chair. 'The two presidents-elect of the two largest democracies in the world. It'll be a first. Harding doesn't want to go, but I'll persuade him. Obregon will pull his troops out of the mines and let us keep our oil wells, and all will be right with the world.'
'I don't think Mr Harding should go, sir.'
'You're giving me advice on foreign policy?'
'What if it was Mexico, Mr Fall?'
'What if what was Mexico?'
'What if it was Mexico, not Russia?'
There was a long pause. 'You ain't talking about the bombing, are you, son?' asked Fall.
'Remember what you asked me the first time I met you? What country stood to gain from the bombing, what country had the motive, what country would have felt it had the right to attack us?'
'Sure I remember.'
'Nobody had a bigger motive to bomb J. P. Morgan than the Mexicans,' said Littlemore. 'Morgan's been bleeding them dry — keeping every banker in the world from lending to Mexico for six years. That's not the only motive either. From what I hear, they hate us pretty good down there, sir. Been looking to pay us back for a long time.'
'What for?'
'The Mexican-American War.'
'What kind of-? That's ancient history, boy. Nobody even remembers that war.'
'They remember it, sir. We took almost half their land. Invaded them. Occupied Mexico City. Killed a lot of people. There were some atrocities. I think they think we look down on them, Senator Fall. On top of which they think we're taking all their silver and oil, getting rich while they're dirt poor.'
Fall considered. 'I was going to say that's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard, but maybe it ain't. This new envoy Torres — I'll tell you the truth, he didn't rub me the right way. Like he was hiding something.'
'Let's say they were getting ready to nationalize our oil wells,' Littlemore went on. 'They'd have to show us that even though our army can lick theirs, they can hurt us in a different way — a new way — that an army can't stop. Hurt us badly enough so it wouldn't be worthwhile to invade.'
'You're saying the bombing was supposed to show us how they'd fight if we invaded?'
'I'm saying that if you look at it from Mexico's point of view, it starts to make sense. An attack on Morgan. Revenge for our invasion. And a warning of what kind of damage they can inflict on us if we move in with our army after they take back the oil. All three at once.'
'In that case they'd have to be first-class idiots,' said Fall, 'because they forgot to tell us they were the ones who did it.'
'They wouldn't want to say it right out,' answered Littlemore. 'Then we'd have to send the army in, which is what they don't want. So they'd leave us a sign showing they did it, without giving us any proof.'
'But they didn't leave a sign.'
'They did,' said Littlemore. 'Do you know when Mexican Independence Day is?'
'No.'
'September sixteenth.'
Fall was silent for several seconds. 'You sure about that? Not the fifteenth, not the seventeenth?'
'September sixteenth, Mr Senator. And it's a big day for them, just like it is for us.'
'Well, I don't use the word irony much, but ain't that an irony? They were trying to show us they ain't so puny, but they're so puny we didn't even get the message.' 'Something else, Mr Fall. Two weeks before the bombing, Mr Lamont of the Morgan Bank was threatened. Lamont got it mixed up though. He thought a banker named Speyer was the one making the threat, but it wasn't Speyer. It was a Mexican consul — a guy named Pesqueira — who said that if Morgan didn't start letting money back into Mexico, there would be hell to pay.'
A thought came to Fall's eyes: 'Why, this envoy Torres, he may have been playing me for a fool. I believe I was a fool. They blow us to pieces, and I get the President of the United States to make peace with them — after they've seized our mines. Maybe they are planning to go for the oil next. Damn my eyes for a blind man.'
'We don't have any proof, Mr Fall. Not yet. And the missing link is still the gold.'
'That's right — what about the gold?' Fall's eyes moved back and forth. 'It can't be, Littlemore. You're telling me that by coincidence our gold was being moved on Mexican Independence Day?'
'I don't think it was coincidence, Senator. Like you said, maybe the Mexicans paid off somebody in our government — somebody in a position to arrange when the gold would be moved. I'm going to the Mexican Embassy, Mr Fall. I'm going to talk to this Torres. And Pesqueira.'
'By God, son, if you get to the bottom of this, I'll get you an embassy of your own. Where'd you like to be ambassador?'
'Not my line, Mr Fall.'
'Then how does Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sound?'
The Mexican Embassy, a substantial four-story house on I Street, had a damp and insalubrious odor in its foyer. Discoloration streaked its walls.
'You got mold in here, ma'am,' said Littlemore to the receptionist.
'I know,' she replied. 'Everyone says. Can I help you?'
The detective learned that Elias Torres, the new envoy, had not yet presented his credentials at the embassy, but was expected tomorrow.
Senor Pesqueira, however, was upstairs.
Roberto Pesqueira was a small man with well-oiled black hair, fair skin, an ink-thin mustache and small but perfectly white teeth. He showed no signs of unease when Littlemore introduced himself as an agent of the United States Treasury. If anything, he looked as if he might have been expecting the visit.
'I have reason to think you threatened a man in New York City two months ago, Mr Pesqueira,' said Littlemore.
'What man?'
'Thomas Lamont. Two weeks before the Wall Street bombing.'
Neatly folded white handkerchiefs were piled on one corner of Pesqueira's desk. He removed one of these and applied it to his teeth. 'Your emperor,' said Pesqueira.
'I beg your pardon?'
'Senor Lamont is the king on your throne. Everyone else is his lackey. Wilson, your so-called President, is his lackey.'
'You don't deny the threat?'
'The Morgan Bank strangled my people for six years,' said Pesqueira. 'Your government propped up a corrupt dictator in my country for twenty years. You occupy my country. You steal California from us. You warn us you will make another war if we do not change our constitutional laws. And you accuse me of threatening?'
'I'm just doing my job, Mr Pesqueira.'
'Really? You must have forgotten the first two words of the law of nations.'
'What would those be?'
'Diplomatic immunity. Your law doesn't apply to me. You cannot arrest me. You cannot search my home. You cannot even question me.'
'Nope. You're a consular agent, just like Juan Burns was,' said Littlemore, referring to a Mexican consul jailed in New York City for illegal weapons purchases in 1917. 'You don't have diplomatic immunity.'
'Forgive me, you are not as ignorant as I assumed; one gets so used to it with Americans. But I am not a consular agent anymore. My office is here now, as you can see, in the embassy — and all embassy officials, I'm sure you know, enjoy the immunity of the diplomat. Technically, you are on Mexican soil right now. You cannot even be here without my consent. Shall I call the police, Agent Littlemore?'
Littlemore hurried back to Senator Fall's chambers and, notwithstanding the protest of one of the Senator's assistants, knocked on Fall's door and strode through.
'Don't you come busting in here, boy,' said Fall, seated at his desk, white handlebar mustache contrasting
