“How big?”
“Tall, taller than me. Not too heavy, sort of stoop-shouldered. Big beaky nose. Thirty, maybe thirty-five years old, crew-cut. ” I had out my descriptions and my Identikit drawings. “Yeah,” I said. “He’s one.”
“Why is he watching her?” Hawk said. “Maybe he’s not watching her, maybe he’s looking for me,” I said. “Yeah,” Hawk said. “That’s why she don’t do much. Since I tailed her over she just take a couple walks, and come back. Each time the dude with the big honker he follow her, very loose. He stay back of her. He looking for you, see if she was followed.” I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “She’s got some people here. We’ll play their match. I’ll watch her. I’ll let Big Nose watch me, and you can watch him. Then we’ll see what happens.”
“Maybe Big Nose burn you the first time he see you.”
“You’re not supposed to let him do that.”
“Yeah.” The beer was gone. I looked at the empty bottle with sadness. “Let’s get to it,” I said. “Sooner we get them all, the sooner I get home.”
“You don’t like foreigners?”
“I miss Susan.”
“Can’t blame you for that, man, she got one of the finest ass…” I looked up. Hawk said, “Cancel that, man. I sorry. That ain’t your kind of talk about Susan. It ain’t mine either. I forgot myself.” I nodded.
15
I went out of the Sheraton and turned left on Vester Stogade. Most of the buildings along the street were low apartment buildings, relatively new, and middle-class or better. Number 36 was hers. Brick, with a small open porch on the front. Before I got there I crossed the street and lingered inconspicuously near some bushes in the park. A lot of people must walk their dogs, I noticed, ‘along a narrow path that skirted the lake. A light blue Simca cruised by with one man at the wheel. I stayed where I was. I didn’t see Hawk. In a few minutes the Simca was back. A little one, square and boxy. It went past me gqing the other way and parked a half block up toward the hotel. I stood. It sat.
After another ten minutes a black Saab station wagon pulled up in front of Kathie’s apartment. Three men got out and two of them began to walk toward me, the third went into Kathie’s. I looked in the other direction toward the Simca. A tall, dark, stoop-shouldered man with a big nose and a gray crew-cut was getting out. Behind me was the lake. One of us was sort of cornered. The two men from the Saab fanned out a little as they came so that if I had wanted to I couldn’t run straight ahead and split the defense and get away. I didn’t want to. I stood still with my feet about a foot apart, my hands clasped loosely in front of me, slightly below my belt buckle. The three men reached me and spread out in a little circle around me. The tall guy with the nose stood behind me. The two men from the Saab looked like brothers. Young and ruddy-cheeked. One of them had a scar that ran from the corner of his mouth halfway across his cheek. The other had very small eyes and very light eyebrows. Both were wearing loud sport shirts hanging outside their pants. I guessed why. The one with the scar took a .38 automatic out of his waistband and pointed it at me. He said something in German. “I speak English,” I said. “Put your hands on top of your head,” he said. “Wow,” I said, “you hardly have an accent.” He gestured with the gun barrel. I rested my hands loosely on my head. “That seems dumb to me,” I said. “Should ein cop come by he might notice that I was standing here with my hands on my head. He might pause to ask why, nein?”
“Put your hands down at your sides.” I put them down. “Which of you is Hans?” The guy with the gun ignored me. He said something in German to the big-nosed guy behind me. “I’ll bet you’re Hans,” I said to Scarface. “And you’re Fritz.” Big Nose patted me down, found my gun, and took it. He slipped it into his belt under his shirt. “That’s the Captain behind me.” They didn’t seem to be fans of the Katzenjammer Kids. They didn’t seem to be fans of me either. The guy with the small eyes said, “Come.” And we walked across the street from the park and into the apartment building. I was careful not to look for Hawk. Kathie’s anartment was first floor right, looking out on the park. She was there when we went in, sitting on the couch, half turned so she could look out the window. She was wearing a white corduroy jumpsuit with a black chain for a belt. The man in the room with her was small and wiry with a wide, strong nose and a harsh mouth. He had a big gray mustache that extended beyond his lips, and he wore wire-rimmed glasses. He was nearly bald, probably, but he had let what little hair he had grow very long on the left side and then combed it up and across. Thus his part started just above his left ear. To keep it in place he seemed to have lacquered it with hair spray. He was wearing work shoes and tight-legged corduroy jeans. His white shirt was frayed at the collar. The sleeves were rolled up and his forearms looked strong. He was dark, like Big Nose, and middle-aged. He didn’t look like a German, or a crazy. He looked like a mean grownup. He spoke in German to Scarface. Scarface said, “English.”
“Why are you following this young woman?” the guy said to me. He had an accent, but I couldn’t say what kind. “Why do you want to know?” I said. He took two steps across the room and punched me in the jaw with his right hand. He was a strong little man and the punch hurt. Hans and Fritz both had their guns out. Fritz’s was a Luger. Big Nose stayed behind me. “At least you gave me a straight answer,” I said. “Why are you following this young woman?”
“She and a number of her associates blew up the family of a rich and vengeful American,” I said. “He hired me to get even. ”
“Then why did you simply not kill her when you found her?”
“One, I’m too nice a guy. Two, she was the only one I had contact with. I wanted her for a Judas goat. I wanted her to lead me to the others.”
“And you think she has?”
“Some. You’re new, but the guy with the big bazoo here and Hans and Fritz, they look about right.”
“How many people are involved?”
“Nine.”
“You have killed or captured three. You have located four more, and it has not taken you very long. You are good at your work.” I tried to look modest. “Someone that good at his work should not have been so easy to catch standing there in the park like a statue.” I tried to look embarrassed. “You were armed and you look dangerous. In the past you have killed two men lying in ambush for you.” He looked out the window. “Have we followed her down the slaughter chute as well?” Big Nose said something in a language I didn’t know. The little guy answered him. Big Nose went out the front door, moving with a kind of shambling lope. “We shall see,” the little guy said. “What’s your part in all of this?” I said. “I have the misfortune to have this collection of thugs and terrorists in my organization. I do not admire them. They are childish amateurs. I have business a good deal more serious to conduct than blowing
