“What I was thinking-”
He waited.
“At the hotel. The police. Maybe you can’t come back.” She looked up. “Take me with you.”
“What?”
“Just as we are. You don’t have to- The way we are. I don’t care what people think.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t? Why? Where are you going? At least tell me that. I won’t get in the way. If they follow. And you’re good at this.”
“I can’t,” he said, stopping her. “It’s not just me.” He paused. “You’re safer here.”
“Safer,” she said.
“I’ll be back in a day or two.”
“Maybe. Or maybe shot, like Frank. In your cat and mouse. And then what’s my life?”
“Kay-”
“Well, it’s possible, isn’t it? So tell me what to say when they ask. He went to Ankara? Why? I don’t know. And make up a story for me. What happens. If you don’t come back.”
“I will.”
“And then what?”
“Then we’ll see.”
She was quiet for a minute. “We’ll see. It’s not much, is it?” She stood up, folding her arms across her chest. “My god, look at me. Ready to run away with you. Where? I don’t know. Like criminals. And Frank not even buried. What kind of woman does that?” She held up a hand before he could answer. “I know. You can’t. So now what. Buy an urn. When I’m feeling better.” She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. “The concierge said this one was the best.” She looked over at him. “What did you mean, it’s not just you going?”
“Somebody’s going with me.”
“Who?”
“Kay-”
“And that’s why it’s not safe?”
He nodded, then looked at his watch. “We have to go.”
“Walk away,” she said quietly. “All day, at the hotel, I kept thinking. What if it’s the end?” She looked at him as if she were trying to memorize his face. “Like Frank. It could be. The same work. Secrets. And now he’s dead. For what? His country?” She turned her head. “Whatever it was to make someone do that. It’s funny, what people will do for their country. Things they would never do for each other. So what if it’s like Frank? He’s not coming back.”
“I’m not dead.”
She walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “No. But maybe not coming back, either.” She took a breath. “So. When I leave here-” She left it dangling.
“Go out past the mosque to the taxi rank. If he spots you, he’ll just think you wandered off and he’s picked up the trail again. I’ll wait here. Go back to the Pera. Talk to the concierge.”
“Tell him I couldn’t go through with it. And what’s the rest?” she said idly. “Dinner in my room? Or downstairs, with a book. So they can see I’m not waiting?”
He looked at her.
“Never mind. It’s all right,” she said, moving her hand up to the side of his head, a tentative touch, then brushing his hair back. “I just wanted to see you. In case. Do you know the awful thing? I’m not sorry. Isn’t that terrible?” Her voice breaking a little at the end. “To say that today?”
Leon got up, taking her by the arms.
“No,” Kay said, patting his chest. “No good-byes. Just come back.”
He nodded.
“And then we’ll see,” she said, then suddenly reached forward, putting her arms around him, head next to his. “But for a second. Nobody’s here.”
He felt her tight against him, hands tugging at his coat.
“Just for a second,” she said.
The creak of an opening door.
“Oh,” she said, startled, breaking away.
A woman in a headscarf, looking like a nun in the cloistered walkway.
Kay stepped back, her eyes anxious, as if a platform whistle had just blown, then lowered her head and started walking to the door, leaving it ajar for the Turkish woman, only a quick last glance over her shoulder, then into the square. Where Gulun’s cousin would see her. Willing to run away with him. And then what’s my life? Her hands pulling at him. For a minute he stood still, a ticking in his ear, feeling suspended up on a high rope with his arms held out. Too far away from the edge now to go back. Everyone below looking up, waiting.
Marina didn’t want any more money.
“Just get him out of here, before it’s trouble.”
Alexei had gone into the bedroom to get his duffel, packed and ready, everything as trim as his short hair.
“You’re so rich?” Leon said.
“No. But you’re nice to me. Not so many are. So maybe it’s thanks for that.”
“Nice?” Leon said, thinking of sweaty sheets.
“Call it what you like. You like to think the best. Not like him. He thinks the worst. Of everybody.”
“Maybe he’s right.”
She looked up at him. “He’ll be trouble for you. Someone like that.”
“He talk to you?”
“He didn’t have to. You take someone’s clothes off, you know things.”
He smiled, nodding at her kimono. “Do you ever get dressed?” A life in silk, lying on beds, a painter’s idea of a harem.
“Yes. Like a lady, very nice. Shoes, hat. Sometimes like a Turkish lady, with the scarf. My old friend Kemal comes with me. An escort. So I can go places.”
“Like where?” Leon said, intrigued.
“Here and there. Shops. You’re surprised? You think I live in bed? Waiting for you?”
“No.”
“Yes, you’re surprised. What would you do? If you saw me on the Rue de Pera? Walking there. In a dress.”
“Say hello.”
“No. You’re with somebody maybe. Or you don’t see. You know why? Because you don’t expect it, to see me. You know what I do sometimes? Kemal takes me to the bar at the Park. And I see men who come here. And them? They don’t see it’s me. They don’t expect to see me there, so they don’t.”
“Maybe they think you’re working,” Alexei said, coming out of the bedroom. “The hotel bar.”
“Ha,” Marina said, annoyed. “You think I go looking for business?”
“Not in the streets,” Alexei said, volleying. “Not yet.”
“Go fuck yourself. That’s the language you use with him,” she said to Leon. “What he understands.” She turned to Alexei. “So you’re ready? What are you waiting for?”
“Thanks for everything,” Alexei said, playing with her.
She waved this off. “I don’t do it for you.”
Alexei bowed. “So now I’ve met one. With the heart of gold.”
She said something in Armenian that Leon couldn’t understand, presumably a curse, spitting it out. “I hope they catch you. You deserve it.”
Alexei moved closer to her, putting his hand to her throat, so quickly it seemed to have already been there. “Just don’t help them.”
“Hey,” Leon said, surprised.
“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” Alexei said, waiting for her to shake her head before he took his hand away.
