“Your mail is in the study,” said Hofer, and Kator went there.
The dim hall was big and clean. Jesso thought of going upstairs, to the end of the corridor maybe, but then he stayed downstairs and went to the kitchen. They gave him a cup of coffee and he had it there leaning against the long pantry shelf. The maid was putting a tea service away.
“How’s Frau von Lohe?” Jesso asked.
“Quite well, sir. She is resting.”
Quite well, sir. Jesso gave up and lit a cigarette. Then he asked for another cup of coffee. He had it finished before he knew how, and he stamped his cigarette out on the saucer. He kept crushing the butt as if he were trying to burn through the porcelain.
What was he waiting for? He pushed himself away from the pantry shelf and made for the door. When he found himself still holding the cup, he almost threw it against the wall. He went back to the pantry, put down the cup, and got out.
She was resting. She was lying on the bed, wearing a house thing that went down to her feet, and when Jesso came in she didn’t turn at first because she was sleeping.
“Renette,” he said, and he stood looking down at her. Then he said her name again, low this time, but his voice was much more urgent because suddenly waiting was almost like pain.
She had a nice way of waking up. She opened her eyes slowly, saw him, and smiled, and then she lay there a while longer.
“Renette, do you hear me? It’s done. We’ve got to move fast.”
“You’re back,” she said. “You didn’t take long.”
“Renette, did you…”
He stopped then because she sat up and yawned. But she had been listening. She sat up and took Jesso’s hands.
“I’m happy for you,” she said. “It’s over now and you have what you wanted.”
“Almost. Listen, Renette. I’ve got to go to the States. They paid off through some banks in the States. So before something goes sour, we got to jump.”
She got up, fully awake now.
“You have to leave, Jesso?”
“I said the money is in the States.”
“You have no money at all? I can-”
“Listen, Renette. Most of it is over there, so here’s what we do.” He sat down on the bed and pulled her down next to him. “I’m going to ask your brother for a passport. The one I got now couldn’t get across the street without his help, and I want him to fix me a good one.”
“He will. He can-”
“He will like hell. Not unless you help me, Renette. You’ve got to pressure him some way so he gets me a passport quick, because the longer I wait from here on in, the more time he has to figure himself an angle.”
“Stay here,” she said. “We’ll go somewhere and you send for the money. You know, Jesso, we can-“
“Damn it, listen to me. We got to get to the States for this thing. There are angles you don’t know a thing about. Tax, immigration, and a dozen others. Your brother can play any one of them if he’s got the time.”
She got up and pushed her hands into the big pockets of her gown. It almost looked to Jesso as if she were suddenly twice as far away.
“Of course I’ll help you. Johannes will give you that passport.” She turned, leaned against the satin couch by the window. “How long will you be gone?”
“Perhaps-” Then he got up too. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
She just looked back at him. Jesso came closer.
“You’re going along, don’t you hear?”
“You don’t really have to go there, do you?”
He got very patient then. “Look, Renette. You’re arguing about something you don’t know a thing about. Pack something, get me that passport. I’ll get the tickets, and in a few days we’ll come back to-to whatever you had in mind. But don’t argue with me about this thing. It’s too big. You hear me?”
“Of course, I see what you mean.” She took her hands out of the pockets and started to hold her arms. There was a rare indecision in her posture. “Perhaps I mean this, Jesso. Over here, Jesso, I know you, I want you, we are what I know now. You and I. But over there you must be somebody else. I’ve never known you over there and your life is perhaps quite different. Perhaps not, Jesso, but I don’t know. I want you now, here, and not later and somewhere else. You must not start to think of me as something you own, keep around wherever you happen to be. It would not be the same. What we have between us is just the opposite of that. It is the very thing you have given me, Jesso, and it is freedom.” She put her hands on his shoulders. “I want you here. So I’ll wait for you here, Jesso.”
“Renette-”
“You said a few days only.”
She wasn’t going to budge and he knew it. So just a few days. She’d wait and he had to wait. But it didn’t feel right to him.
“You can’t stay here. Dear Johannes, you know, isn’t going to-”
She just laughed and started to turn. “I’m safe here, Jesso.” She walked to the dressing room.
He followed her and watched while she changed to a dress. He lit a cigarette and watched, leaning against the doorframe.
“Just one thing, Renette.” She looked up. “Stay close to the house, stay away from Helmut, and watch Kator like a hawk. When I get back here I don’t want any damage.”
“Yes, Jesso.”
“Now come along.”
He took her downstairs and Kator was in the library. One of the files was open and Kator was leafing through a folder. He stopped when he saw them and shut the drawer. It clanked like a metal door.
“You are overstaying your welcome, Jesso.”
“I’m leaving.”
“Good-by, then.” Kator carried his folder to the desk.
“I got something for you,” Jesso said, and he tossed Snell’s doctored passport on top of Kator’s folder. “And from you I want a going-away present.”
“Johannes, I want you to give Jesso a passport. A good one.”
Kator was leaning back with his hands across his front and there was no way of telling what he thought. For that matter, Jesso couldn’t even figure why Kator hadn’t made his move yet. Or perhaps he had, only the trap hadn’t sprung yet. Or maybe Kator was really through. The deal was closed and paid for and that was it. Kator might be that sort.
“When do you want it?” Kator asked.
If this was bluff, Jesso would play it the same way. “Tomorrow. At eight.”
“Very well,” Kator said. “I still have your pictures.”
Jesso felt flat. Kator had been easy before, but not that easy.
“Provided one thing,” Kator said.
Here it came.
“My sister remains behind.”
If that was his angle, he was welcome to it. Jesso looked at Renette and she looked back. She played it well and made the right kind of face. It had been easy.
“Have the passport ready,” Jesso said. “She’ll stay.” Then he took Renette’s arm and they left the room.
When they got out to the hall they didn’t know where to go. They didn’t know why they felt that way, because everything had gone all right and in only a few days Jesso would be back. They walked into the garden and for a while they leaned over the stone ballustrade of the terrace and looked at the winding walks.
“He didn’t even make a stir,” Jesso said.
“I told you he wouldn’t,” Renette said.
“But he meant to. What if we were going together? That’s how he meant it.”
“I know,” she said. She took some gravel and tossed little stones at a flower bed. “But it doesn’t
