“In this case, well deserved.”
“Maybe he’s more valuable this way. I don’t know. I don’t know what he knows.”
“I know what he is. I said before a butcher. I didn’t tell you why.”
Leon held up his hand. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not up to me-”
“One more thing. Then you decide. The Guard. You remember I said there were excesses. But what’s in a word? Excesses. You know Bucharest?”
“No.”
“Dudesti was the main Jewish district. Three days they went crazy there. First Strada Lipscani, a killing spree, looting. Then out in the Baneasa forest, making them dig pits before they shot them. The reason for this, by the way? No one said. Enough they were Jews. But the second day, before Antonescu decided to send the tanks, the Guard went even crazier. Maybe they drank each other’s blood again, who knows. For courage. What courage? Who was fighting them? Terrified Jews, begging for their lives? That was the day they got two hundred of them-men, women-and took them to Straulesti.” He stopped, then tossed back the rest of the drink. “The slaughterhouse. South of town. An abattoir.”
Leon waited, not moving.
“They put the Jews on the conveyor belts. Stripped, on all fours. They made them bleat, like the animals. Crying, I suppose, maybe screaming, but also bleating like they were ordered. Then through the assembly line, the same treatment the animals got. Heads sliced off, then limbs, then hung up on hooks. Carcasses. And then they stamped them, the carcasses.” He said something in Romanian, then translated. “Fit for human consumption. The inspector’s stamp.” He paused. “You decide.”
Leon said nothing, staring, as if the belt were moving through the room before them, blood spurting, running into gutters.
“And Alexei was there?” Leon said, marking time, his stomach queasy.
“There were no witnesses. Among the Jews. Just the Guard. But he’s still with the Guard then. He was seen. Ask him.”
“He sold the Guard out, you said.”
“When it was convenient. A fine point.” He paused again. “You decide.”
Leon was quiet. “I can’t,” he said finally. “It’s not my decision.”
“It’s somebody’s.”
“Not yours, either.”
“No, I just speak Romanian and drive the car. And keep my mouth shut. That was before. Help a man like this escape? I won’t be part of that. Whoever sent you-maybe he doesn’t know, either. He needs to know. So somebody can decide.”
“You’re not part of it. They don’t even know you were there.”
“That’s not so easy now. Maybe you didn’t think about this, either, what it means for me, what this is now.”
Leon looked at him, waiting.
“So more thinking. I had this time,” he said, waving to the room, “while you were having your drink. Who were they tonight? Russians? All right. Who else would have such an interest? Stop him before- So they send a unit, three, four men. In which case they’ve already cleaned up the mess, got rid of the body. But no one followed us. It’s more important to get Jianu than worry about the fallen comrade. But no one follows. So he must have been alone. Think what that means.”
“I know what it means.”
“Yes? You have thought about this too? No one moves the body. It lies there to be found. And it will be found. Now something for the police, even Emniyet. And what are they looking for? My gun. My car. Who protects me now? The boss you can’t tell me about? Who wants me to help the butcher? I’m working for him now too. I have a right to know.”
“I never meant-”
“It’s too late for that. Do we want to tell the police it was self-defense? Then we have to tell them what we were doing there.”
Leon stared at his drink for a minute. “Can they trace the car to you?”
“This is your response?”
“They can’t, can they? Where is it?”
“The garage.”
“Where it’s been all night, as far as anyone knows. There’s nothing special about the car, if they saw it from the cafe. Unless they got the plate number. It could be anybody’s.”
“So I have nothing to worry about.”
“There’s nothing to connect you to this.”
Mihai looked over. “Except you.”
“If it comes to that, we’ll protect you. I promise you that. I’ll talk to-”
“Protect me. A Palestinian helping the Americans, killing Russians. I’d be out of the country in a day.”
“At least you wouldn’t be in jail.”
“Those are my choices. And my work here? Who does that?”
“You were never there,” Leon said, his voice level. “Nobody knows except Alexei and he’ll be gone.”
“The butcher goes free. And we protect ourselves. So we protect him. That’s what I’m doing now, protecting someone like that. A knot,” he said, twisting his fingers, “not so easy to pull apart.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That’s what the Germans say,” Mihai said wryly. “Every one.” He put down the glass, ready to go. “So, a good night’s work. He’s safe and so are we. Only the Turks have this problem. This body. One thing, though, still to think about. How did they know, the Russians? The arrangements? Where he’d be? Just you. No guns. So easy they could send one man. If they knew all that, what else do they know? So maybe we’re not so safe. And neither is he,” he said, getting up.
The phone rang, twice as loud this late, startling them, like an unexpected hand on the shoulder. Leon glanced at his watch, then looked at Mihai, who shook his head, a tic response. Another clang filling the room, waves of sound. He picked up the receiver, snatching it.
“Leon? I’ve been trying to reach you.” Ed Burke. At this hour.
“I was at the Park.” Accounting for himself to Ed Burke, already making alibis. “Do you know what time-”
“It’s about Tommy,” Ed said quickly. “I thought maybe you’d know something.”
“Know something?”
“Since you were in Bebek. With your wife. We couldn’t get past the police.”
“Police?” Just an echo.
“You haven’t heard? He’s dead. Killed.”
“What?” A first wave of heat rushing through him. Tommy hit too, the one who was supposed to meet the boat, not a freelance. They’d known where he was. He looked over at Mihai, who was watching him.
“Leon, you there?”
Say something. “Killed? In a crash?” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.
“No, that’s the thing. Shot. In Bebek. That’s why I called. I thought you might have heard something before they blocked the whole place off. By the water, just down from that fort.”
“Rumeli Hisari,” Leon said, an automatic response, not hearing himself. “Shot?” His mind racing now, his blood seeming to travel in two directions. “By the water?”
“The boat landing. That’s what I wondered too. Hell of a place to be, that hour. Tommy leaves his own party, I figure he must have something going on. But, Christ, you never know, do you. Maybe somebody saw the car and said, there’s money there. So if he hadn’t left then. But maybe something else.”
“God,” Leon said blankly. “Shot?”
“You don’t expect that here.”
“No,” Leon said. “You don’t.” Fire into the dark and wait for a thud, the crack of a head on the pavement.
“Well, I didn’t mean to bother you.”
“No, no, I’m glad you called. Thanks.” Police cars and lights, questioning people in the cafe. His head filling with blood, face hot.
