“It would be useful. He is-what did you call it? Mooning. It’s true, he speaks of her. ‘When is she coming?’” he said, raising his voice in a falsetto. “It would be better for his work not to have these false hopes now. Would he believe me? But you, her sweetheart,” he said, twisting his mouth over the word. “You can say goodbye for her, and he can leave in peace. A small service.” He wiped the corner of his mouth, then crumpled the napkin on the table.
“You’re a real prick, aren’t you?”
“Mr. Geismar,” Sikorsky said, his eyes almost twinkling. “I’m not the one sleeping with his wife.”
“And when does all this happen?” Jake said, pretending to be calm.
“Now. He leaves tomorrow. It’s better, if the Americans know Burgstrasse. They will excite themselves. You can put their minds at rest too. He’s not coming back.”
“They’ll protest.”
“Yes, they like that. But he’ll be gone. Another who has chosen the Soviet future. Shall we go?” He reached for his hat.
“You’re going too fast.”
Sikorsky smiled. “The element of surprise. Very effective.”
“I mean we’re not finished. I still don’t have what I want.”
Sikorsky looked at him blankly.
“Information. That was the deal.”
“Mr. Geismar,” he said, sighing. “At such a moment.” He dropped the hat and took out another brown cigarette instead, checking his watch. “Five minutes. Your friend at the market? I’ve told you, an unfortunate —”
“You were there to point me out. Why?”
“Because you were a nuisance,” he said quickly, bored, waving some smoke away. “You’re still a nuisance.”
“To whom? Not to you.”
Sikorsky looked at him, not answering, then turned to the open window. “What else?”
“You said you wanted to know who killed Tully. Why?”
“Isn’t that obvious to you? My partner in crime, as you would say. Now we’ll have to arrange another source of supply. An inconvenient death.” He turned back. “What else?”
“You met him at Tempelhof. Where did you take him?”
“This matters to you?”
“It’s my story. I want to know the details. Where?”
Sikorsky shrugged. “To get a jeep. He wanted a jeep.”
“At the Control Council?” Jake said, taking a shot.
“Yes. Kleist Park. There are jeeps there.”
“And after?”
“After? It’s your idea that we should make a tour of Berlin? Be seen together?”
“You were seen at Tempelhof.”
“By whom?” he said, suddenly alert.
“By the woman you killed at Potsdam.”
“Ah,” he said, frowning, not quite knowing what to make of this, then brushed it away with some ash on the table. “Well, she’s dead.”
“But you were seen. So why meet him in the first place?”
“You can guess that, I think.”
“To give him money.”
Sikorsky nodded. “Of course. With him it was always money. Such a love of money. An American failing.”
“That’s easy for you to say when you print it with our plates.”
“Paid for with blood. You envy us that bookkeeping? We paid for every mark.”
“All right. So you paid him off for Brandt.”
“As a matter of fact, no. It’s important to you, these details? He was paid for Brandt when they arrived at the border. Cash on delivery.”
“Tully drove him to the Russian zone?” Not a weekend in Frankfurt after all.
Sikorsky leaned back, almost smug, a veteran telling war stories. “It was safer. To fly Brandt out would have been risky-easier to trace. He had to disappear, no trail. So Tully drove him. Not such a great distance. Even so, you know he demanded gasoline for the return trip? Always a little something extra. He was that kind of man. Another detail for you. He went back on Russian gas.”
“So why pay him at Tempelhof?”
“For future deliveries.”
“In advance? You trusted him?”
Sikorsky smiled. “You didn’t know him. Give him a little, he’d be back for more. You could trust him to do that. A safe investment.”
“Which you lost.”
“Regrettably. But it’s not important. As you say, we can print more. Now, you’re satisfied? Come, you can see the end of the story.”
“Just one more thing. Why do you care who killed him? That’s why you asked me here, isn’t it? To see what I could tell you.”
“And you have. You’ve told me what I want to know. You don’t know.”
“But why should it matter at all? You’ve got Brandt. You didn’t care about the money. Revenge? You didn’t give a damn about Tully.”
“About him, no. About his death, yes. A man drives off and is killed. A victim of bad company? In this case, I must say, nothing could be more likely-a man like him, not a surprising end. But the money is still there. Not so likely. Unless, instead, it’s something else. The Americans. If they know about our arrangement. In that case, some action would need to be taken before-well, before anything else happened. So what does our Mr. Geismar want? I wonder. Is he working for them? Then I watch your face as you move your pieces up, your questions, and I know. It’s only you. When you play chess with a Russian, keep something in reserve, Mr. Geismar, a piece in the back row. Now, enough foolishness.”
He reached again for his hat. Jake gripped the edge of the cloth, as if the table itself, like everything else, was slipping away. Do something.
“Sit down,” Jake said.
Sikorsky glanced up sharply, bristling, not used to taking orders, then slowly moved his hand back.
“That’s better. I don’t play chess. And you’re not as good at reading faces as you think you are. What makes you think I’d go anywhere with you? A man who tried to kill me?”
“Is that all? If I wanted to kill you, I could do it here. I still could.”
“I doubt it. Not with witnesses.” He jerked his head toward Brian’s table. “An accident in the market, that’s more your line. Too bad you didn’t do it yourself. I’ll bet you’re a good shot.”
“Excellent,” Sikorsky said, exhaling smoke.
“But a lousy judge of character. Let’s watch your face now and see what comes up. Tully wasn’t going to deliver anything, he was playing you for a sap. He was going home at the end of the week-don’t bother, it’s true, I’ve seen his orders. He was just collecting a little something extra before he ran out on you.”
Sikorsky stared at him stonily, his face showing no reaction at all.
“Mm. I thought so. Want more? He also had an appointment with a Public Safety officer. That interest you? It should. He liked to collect twice. Maybe you weren’t the highest bidder.”
“For what?” Sikorsky said quietly.
“What he was going to use to get to the others at Kransberg. A little going-out-of-business sale. And you can take my word for it, it wasn’t Emil or his wife.”
“Why should I take your word for anything?”
“Because I know where he went that day and you don’t. You just told me so yourself.”
“Where?”
