Dan Fesperman - The Double Game

“Who was it? Who did you see?”

“Item two. The man I saw, a rather large American with dreadfully styled hair, is at this very moment seated in a cafe directly across the street from your hotel, where he has just arrived along with a rather meaty Russian with some mileage on him, a fellow whose face and reputation-unsavory, believe me-I recall from many years ago.”

“They’re together?”

“Colleagues, by all appearances. In this matter, anyway. So if you do plan on leaving this establishment anytime soon, I’d advise you to exit through the back.”

“But why would-?”

Lothar raised his hand like a traffic cop, cutting me off.

“Item three. You’re better off without her.”

“Oh, so now you’re giving personal advice?”

“Under the circumstances, it seemed advisable.”

“Well, now that I finally have you somewhere you can’t run out on me, there are two more items you can add to your list. Four: Whatever happened to that novel of yours that was never published? Five: What the hell were you doing forty years ago when you went and scared the bejeezus out of Karel Vitova’s father? Were you full-time KGB, or just doing errands for them on the side?”

Lothar laughed so hard that he wheezed. He swallowed some Scotch to tamp down a cough.

“Oh, my. You’re still not adding things up to the right sums, are you? Even after all these days on the job. Which is one of the reasons I’m here. To help straighten you out.”

“Imagine my relief.”

“So you wish to know the details of my brief literary career?”

“Assuming that’s what my handler meant by telling me, ‘Find his work.’ Also assuming you were the model for Heinz Klarmann in A Lesson in Tradecraft. ”

Lothar smiled broadly and knocked back the last of the Scotch.

“Ed Lemaster’s little tribute to me. He got a very nice dinner out of it one weekend in Tangier. Plus one hell of a deal on a rare first edition of Conrad’s The Secret Agent, which I’d found in an absolute shithole of an Oxfam store in deepest, darkest Cornwall. Sold it to him for probably half of what I could’ve gotten from someone like your father. For that alone he should’ve put me in five more novels. But I can tell by the impatient look on your face that you’re not interested in hearing about my greatest hits as a book scout.”

“Why was your novel never published? And when you’ve answered that, maybe you can tell me why the man in the mullet has joined forces with the Hammerhead.”

“No idea on the latter, although it’s an excellent question. As for the former…” He slapped his hands on his knees and stood, more sprightly than I would have thought possible. “Let’s discuss it over lunch. There’s far too much to talk about for us to remain in this cramped old room. And you need to leave before the police come around, so grab your bag and drop the key on the bed. On your way out maybe you should mention to the front desk that you’re heading back to Vienna, for the benefit of all those people who will be stopping by to ask. Then, after lunch, I’ll get you started on a more roundabout route for Budapest.”

“How do you know I’m going to Budapest?”

“We’ll get to that. So what do you say?”

I said yes. How could I not? Then I packed, and followed his advice by mentioning to the desk clerk that I was catching the next train to Vienna. I exited the hotel in the back to find Lothar waiting in the alley, looking like a beggar as he leaned on his cane.

“Sausages and beer?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“I know just the place. Ed used it once, in London’s Own. Or maybe it was Requiem for a Spy. He killed a man there. Novelistically, I mean.”

“It was Requiem. The waiter who got a fork through the eye.”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“Was it based on anything Ed ever did?”

“Lord, no! Ed is many things, quite a few of them disagreeable, but he has never been a killer except on paper. Nowadays, of course, he has no compunction about wiping out entire villages of destitute Muslims.”

“He’s playing to the “red-meat crowd.”

“Angleton would’ve seen that as further evidence of his innocence.”

“So you know about all that?”

“Know about it? I was part of it. Why else would a simple old book scout take such an interest in your movements?” Lothar checked our flanks as we emerged onto a narrow lane at the end of the alley. He seemed so skittish that I wondered if he’d already spotted somebody.

“It’s probably best if we dispense with any further shoptalk until we’ve reached our destination. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Not that Lothar stopped talking. He remarked on just about everything in passing, from the increased number of Czech women wearing high boots and miniskirts-he heartily approved-to the proliferation of Franz Kafka kitsch in the local souvenir shops, which he scorned as hucksterism trying to look intellectual.

He stayed constantly alert, however-head swiveling, eyes in motion. He even refrained from tapping his cane, as if to maintain radio silence. A circuitous route led us a beer joint where we descended to the cellar and took a table by a rear doorway onto a basement-level alley.

No sooner had we sat down and ordered-sausages, sharp mustard, and a pitcher of pils-than Lothar pulled out a small round silver case, unscrewed the lid, and dabbed a pinkie inside. It emerged with a frosting of white powder, which he snorted into each nostril. He briefly shut his eyes as his cheeks flushed. Then he smiled and put away the case. My astonishment must have been obvious.

“You disapprove?”

“Dad told me you’d cleaned up your act.”

“Oh, I have. Smack was my downfall, and I’m off it forever. This is strictly for mood maintenance. Controlled doses, twice a day. No worse than a daily arthritis drug, or the little blue pill. Speaking of addictions, how’d you let her get away so easily?”

His mention of Litzi made me drain off half a glass of beer.

“Well?” he prompted. “Was it something you said?”

“More like something I didn’t say. When I came out of the shower, she was gone.”

“Just as well. She was on to you before I was.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Remember when we met? That bakery around the corner from Kurzmann’s?”

“Yes.” I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this.

“I told you then that a fine-looking woman was on your tail.”

So he had. I’d assumed he meant the woman from Georgetown, whom I’d since forgotten all about.

“It was Litzi?”

He nodded, then frowned sympathetically. The beer sloshed coldly in my stomach as I considered the implications. But why should I believe Lothar? Maybe he was trying to mislead me.

“Bullshit.”

“Call and find out for yourself.”

“I’ve tried. She’s not answering.”

“I don’t mean her mobile. Phone her office. Ask where she is, and how long it’s been in the works. I did, just the other day. The answer was illuminating.”

I wasn’t ready for more bad news, but a creeping sense of dread told me it was unavoidable, so I retrieved her business card from my wallet and punched in the number for the Austrian National Library. Lothar polished off his first pint as he watched, then licked the foam from his upper lip.

A man answered on the fourth ring.

“Litzi Strauss, please.”

“She is away on annual leave.”

That didn’t sound very much like the last-minute getaway she’d described to me.

“When will she return?”

“Two weeks more from Monday.”

“Oh. Well, this is an old friend from the States. I’d, uh, heard she’d been called away on short notice, and I was concerned for her.”