ambassador? Who won’t believe you, either. So what do you do with this time? Run? Wait for Gulun to come? Maybe the Pera. A tender farewell scene.”
“You’re so sure I’m going to hang for something I didn’t do.”
“Aren’t you? It’s a chance I wouldn’t want to take. Turkish justice. Sometimes not as perfect as one would like.”
“No. And people get beaten too. By Emniyet. They say. Is that next? Try to beat it out of me?”
“I could. And worse. But the Americans don’t understand these things.” He looked over. “And it’s possible you’re-the martyr type. A long job. Anyway, not necessary. People make mistakes when they’re running. It’s hard to think. You’ll make them too. And I’ll be there.” He looked up, meeting Leon’s eyes. “But I don’t protect you then. That’s your choice.”
“Why not just call Gulun in now?”
“You haven’t made the mistakes yet. I don’t have Jianu. And it seems you don’t want to tell me. So Gulun will come in his own time.” He cocked his head. “And maybe it’s a little for the sport, a head start to give Gulun the chase.” He paused. “Before you trip. That’s what you want? To trade your life for a man like Jianu?”
“I haven’t traded it yet.”
Altan stared at him for a second, then reached for the door. “Not yet.” He turned the knob, opening it. “Your fisherman’s waiting. Better hurry,” Altan said, now to Leon’s back. “The clock is running.”
On the stair landing, stopping to catch his breath, he felt he could hear an actual ticking. How long? He looked up the steps. Think for a minute. Down the corridor a police photographer was probably still taking pictures. A crime scene. And the man who could link him to it waiting in his office. First deal with him. Then what? The car in Uskudar. Alexei on the ferry to Haydarpasa. The mountain road. But all that seemed impossible now, the drive endless, exposed. Something else. Think. People make mistakes when they’re running. He tried to slow his breathing. How long before Gulun put things together? Not a complete fool. There would be roadblocks. A car that might be traced back to Mihai, no matter what he said. But how else? Somewhere they’d never look. He felt himself turning to the steps then stopping, his feet refusing to move. He couldn’t count on more than today, Altan’s head start. I believe you, but no one else will.
“Oh, Mr. Bauer, I was just coming down.” Dorothy on the stairs. “What am I supposed to do with him?”
Somewhere they’d never look.
“Coming,” he said, his feet moving now. “Do we have Turkish liras?”
“Petty cash would. I’d need a voucher.”
The fisherman was sitting in the outer office, fiddling with his cap, impatient.
“My secretary is going to get your money,” Leon said, signing the form Dorothy had put in front of him. “Two hundred, right?”
“I didn’t know there would be police,” he said, still uneasy about Altan. “Now they’ve seen me.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not about this. Something else.” He handed the voucher to Dorothy, then waited until she’d left. “Sorry about the delay with the money.”
“Well, you did say-”
“The man who used to arrange the money died. So things got lost.”
“Died? The one they said was shot?” Alert now.
“Yes.”
“And now it’s you,” he said, looking at Leon.
Leon glanced toward the door. “Tell me something. Do you have your boat?”
The fisherman nodded.
“You interested in another job?”
“What, another one from Romania?”
“No, here. One night. Five hundred.”
The fisherman’s eyes widened. “To the Black Sea?”
“I’ll tell you tonight. Not far.”
“But five hundred.” Suspicious.
“There could be police.” He waited while this sank in. “Like last time.”
The fisherman thought for a minute. “Well, that’s always the risk, isn’t it? That’s what you pay for.”
“And you’re good at it. One night. Five hundred.”
“In advance?”
“On the boat. All of it.”
He twisted his hat, thinking. “Where?”
Well, where? Not in town.
“The same place,” he said. “You remember?”
The fisherman nodded.
“As soon as you get the money here, go to the boat and take it out on the Bosphorus. Anybody asks, you’re going home. Go right up, Sariyer, anywhere up there, and put in until tonight.” He took out his wallet and handed him a hundred liras. “Extra. For dinner. No raki. Then come back and pick me up. The same place as before.”
“I’m taking you?”
“Two of us. Then you drop us and go home. One night.”
“What time?”
“Late.” Leon did a mental calculation. “Say, eleven. Okay?”
“Five hundred?”
“On the boat.”
The fisherman looked at him, then nodded. “Five hundred.” A verbal handshake.
“Good. Here’s Dorothy with the money. Count it, make sure it’s right.”
“Mr. Woods wasn’t thrilled about this. It’s a lot of petty cash.”
“I’ll talk to him. All there? Good, I’ll walk you down.” He started to lead him out, turning to Dorothy. “I’m going to take Mrs. Bishop to the hotel. I’ll be back later.”
“Why are they asking questions?” she said, blurting it out to catch him on the run. “If he did it himself?”
Leon stopped.
“He didn’t, did he? It’s just like Tommy. Two now. It gives you the willies. Here. Down the hall.” She caught herself, then glanced over at the fisherman. “How do you want this charged? The petty cash req. We have to charge it somewhere.”
“It’s one of Tommy’s. The payment accounts with the initials. I’ll do a memo when I get back.”
“Oh,” she said, interested, the fisherman part of Tommy’s world.
Tommy, who still had to be explained. If Leon got the chance.
“That reminds me,” he said, taking a file out of the desk drawer and putting it in a briefcase with the others. “Look,” he said to Dorothy, “if it bothers you-about Frank-go home. I’ll be out most of the day anyway.”
“You’d think there’s nowhere safer, wouldn’t you? Marines and gates and everything. And now look. In his office. And you know the way people talk.”
“What way?”
“Well, Tommy, now Mr. Bishop. And you knowing both of them.”
“So I did it?” he said easily, dismissing it. “Dorothy.”
“I didn’t mean- But you were here?” Troubled, wanting to know. “Mr. Burke asked if you were still here. When I left. He thought I’d been with you.”
“You were here late?”
“Not here. Jack’s office. You know, my husband. He has to go back to Ankara. So I waited around.”
With access to the files. Already in the building.
“Well, I was probably long gone.” He looked at her. “Don’t start imagining things, okay? We’ve got too much to do.”
Keep moving.
“By the way, when Hirschmann was here, when they were getting people out, how did they pay?”
Dorothy looked blank for a second, dazed by the quick switch. “To hire the ships, you mean?” she said, feeling her way. “Liras if they could. If they were paying Turks. Otherwise gold. Gold sovereigns.”
