Havana Bay

'Yes.'

'Panamanian?'

'Of course.'

He led her to the office, opened the green briefcase and emptied its contents item by item on the desk.

'Copies of participants' lists from Russia, Cuba and AzuPanama. A list of company directors for AzuPanama and, for those same names, Cuban passports, Cubana tickets and hotel receipts. Plus a Panamanian bank reference from John O'Brien, residing in Cuba, and a deposit slip from the bank for Vice Consul Bugai, also here.'

It seemed to be going well, Arkady thought. Next he could introduce the concept of O'Brien and George Washington Walls, then their involvement with Luna and Pribluda. Osorio cleared her throat and sorted the items more neatly, touching them the way a person did when handling fire.

'I thought you were getting a picture of Pribluda for Dr. Bias,' she said.

'Oh, I am. I happened to come across these first.'

'Where did they come from?'

'Why don't you look to see what they are?'

A slight hiss developed in Osorio's Russian.» I can see what they are. What they are is very evident. Documents manufactured to embarrass Cuba.'

'You can see by comparing names on this certificate of registration with the passports that AzuPanama isn't really Panamanian at all. AzuPanama was set up in Panama by Cuba with the help of a bank controlled by the American fugitive O'Brien. That's what Pribluda was after when he died. So far, AzuPanama has cost Russia an extra $20 million. Men have died for less.'

'Of a heart attack?'

'No.'

'Dr. Bias says so.'

'Anyway,' Arkady went on, 'we can make a positive match of the names from AzuPanama with a roster from the Ministry of Sugar. That's what Pribluda would have done next.'

'We are not doing anything.' Osorio stepped back.» You lied to me.'

'Here are the documents.'

'I'm looking at you. What I see is a man who claims to look for a picture of his dead friend while he gathers all sorts of anti-Cuban materials. I come to help you and you throw these papers, which you don't tell me where they came from, in my face. I won't touch them.'

This was not going the way Arkady hoped.

'You can check them.'

'I'm not helping you. I don't really know anything about you. It's your word and a picture that you're Pribluda's friend, that's all I know. Just your word.'

'No, that's not true.' Her words crystallized what had been vague before. What had bothered Arkady was how his picture got from Pribluda's fiat to Hedy.» Did you give Pribluda's picture of me to Luna?'

'How can you ask a question like that?'

'Because it makes sense. Let me guess. After the autopsy you came here to dust for fingerprints and found the picture of this miserable Russian who had just arrived. You naturally called Luna, who told you to bring the picture to him.'

'Never.'

'Who gave it to poor Hedy. Have you been helping Luna all along?'

'Not in that way.'

'Do all Cuban police carry an ice pick and a baseball bat?'

'When you see Luna with a machete, bolo, that's the time to be afraid. You should have stayed in Moscow. If you had, more people would be alive.'

'There you're right.'

Osorio snatched up her bag. She was out the door before he could consider whether he had really handled the issue of AzuPanama as well as possible. But why would a Cuban be impressed by mere evidence? This was Havana, after all, a place where sugar attaches floated in the dark, where a Havana Yacht Club did, didn't, might exist, where a girl could lose her head two nights in a row. Osorio's lie about the picture had simply been one absurdity too many. All the same there had been a nasty edge to his words that he regretted.

When she reached the street, Ofelia realized that, apart from a bolt on his door, Renko had no protection if Luna came back. What she had not told the Russian was how Luna looked when he stood over Hedy's body at the love motel, how his eyes reddened and the muscles of his face worked like a twitching fist. Or how the sergeant had later sat in the archive room, and how simply moving by him was like walking in the shadow of a volcano.

Traffic on the Malecon-always thin at night-had as good as disappeared. Even the couples who usually courted on the seawall were gone. If Ofelia was angry with Renko, she was furious with herself. She had removed the picture of him from the crime scene. She had broken the law. For what, so he could accuse her of taking the same picture from Pribluda's? She knew by now his taste for frivolous minutiae and then the diagonal question that cut across the board. As for the documents he pulled from the briefcase she was not surprised by the lengths Russians would go to to discredit Cuba. All she needed, Ofelia told herself, was to keep Renko alive until his plane left for Moscow. She wanted a clear conscience.

Determined not to be baited again, she went back in the house. Halfway up the stairs Ofelia heard steps above and a soft knocking at Renko's door. When he opened the door the light of his room fell on an extraordinarily fair woman with braided black hair in a Mexican dress and bare feet. She was a rose on a long stem, a glamorous white flower tinged with blue. Ofelia recognized her from the Santeria ceremony, the friend of George Washington Walls, the dancer.

Ofelia watched Isabel lift her face and kiss Renko. Before they saw her, she retreated down into the dark of the stairs, getting smaller and smaller until she reached the street again.

Chapter Eighteen

'You're making a mistake,' Arkady told Isabel.

'No mistake.'

She guided his hand between her legs so that he could feel her through the cotton of the dress, then kissed him and slipped into the sitting room. Maybe this was a test for signs of life, he thought. The dress was thin to show the slimness of her body and the dark caps of her breasts, and if he were a normal man he would feel healthy lust. The truth was he did feel a first stirring, feeling her breath on his neck, taking in the almond scent of her hair braided like long black silk. Her pale skin made her lips all the more red.

'No mistake,' Isabel said.» I asked you to do something for me. Fair trade. Gordo keeps the rum over the sink.'

'I thought Gordo was the name for the turtle.'

'For both. Sergei, turtle.'

'What do you call George Washington Walls?'

'I call him done with. I have a new boyfriend, no?'

'Well, I can't imagine who that is.'

Isabel touched the coat hung on the back of the chair, and when he pulled her hand away she said, 'Relax. Such a strange man, but I like you.' She found the rum herself and rinsed two glasses.» I like strong men.'

'That's not me.'

'Let me be the judge.' She handed him a glass.» I know you've heard about my father.'

'I heard there was a conspiracy.'

'True. There's always a conspiracy. Everyone complains, and He ...'-she pointed to her chin-'He lets them, as long as they don't do anything. As long as they don't organize. All the same, every year there's a conspiracy, and it's always a mix of conspirators and informers. That's Cuban democracy at work, that's how we will finally vote, when even the informers decide enough is enough and they keep their mouths shut and this country is delivered.' She brushed Arkady's cheek.» But not yet, I don't think. This is the first place where time