meals.
“Miss Cargill,” I called from across the street.
She turned and waved to me as if I were an old friend.
She used her key on the lock and walked in, leaving the door open for me. She was taking a box of chocolate- covered doughnuts from the bag when I came in.
“Have you heard anything about Axel?” were the first words she said.
“Not yet. I had a visit from your friend in the snakeskin jacket though.”
There was fear in her eyes, no mistaking that. But that didn’t make her innocent, just sensible.
“What did he say?”
“He wanted to know where you were.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“I pointed a gun at his eyeball and all he did was shrug. It’s a bad man who’s not even afraid of a gun in his face.”
“Did you shoot him?” she whispered.
“Somebody else asked me that,” I replied. “I sure hope that you’re not like him.”
“Did you shoot him?”
“No.”
The fear crept over her face like night over a broad plain.
“What are you gonna do, Philomena?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nobody is interested in you. It’s those bonds they want, and that letter.”
2 1 3
W a lt e r M o s l e y
“I promised Axel that I’d hold them for him.”
“Have you been calling him?” I asked.
“Yes. But he’s nowhere to be found.”
“Does he know how to get in touch with you?”
“Yes. Yes, he has Lena’s number.”
“What does that tell you, Philomena?” I asked, knowing that her boyfriend was long dead.
“But how can I be sure?”
“Those bonds are like a bull’s-eye on you, girl,” I said. “You need to use them to deal yourself out of danger.”
I didn’t feel guilty that getting those bonds might also net me thirty thousand dollars. I was trying to save Philomena’s life too.
You couldn’t put a price tag on that.
“I don’t know,” she said sadly, hanging her head. She sat down on the bed. “I promised Axel to make sure the world knew about those bonds if he failed.”
“What for?”
“Because they were wrong to do that work. Axel felt that it was a blight on him to live knowing that his father dealt with the Nazis.”
“But his father’s dead and he is too, probably. What good will it do you to join them?”
She clasped her hands together and began rocking back and forth.
Something about this motion made me think about her San Francisco apartment. That reminded me of something else.
“Who do you know in the Westerly Nursing Home?”
She looked up at me. There was no knowledge behind her eyes. She shook her head and stopped rocking.
“You called there from your home phone.”
2 1 4
C i n n a m o n K i s s
“I didn’t. Maybe Axel did. He stayed over sometimes. If he used my phone he’d pay for it later.”
I stared into those lovely eyes a moment longer.
“I don’t know anyone in a nursing home,” she said.
Whether she did or didn’t, I couldn’t tell. I moved on.
“Listen,” I said. “Think about how much those bonds will be worth to you dead. Think it over. Talk with whoever you trust.
I’m gonna write a number down on this paper here on the desk.”
