María Dueñas - The Time in Between

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As night began to fall, they lit lamps as though it were an open-air dance. The atmosphere was lively without being loud, the music soothing, and Rosalinda was still absent. The group of Germans remained firmly surrounding the guest of honor, but at a certain moment the women had disengaged themselves from their partners’ sides, leaving just five foreign men and the Spanish dignitary. They seemed engrossed in conversation and passed something from hand to hand, bringing their heads closer, pointing, making comments. I noticed that my companion hadn’t stopped covertly watching them.

“You seem to find the Germans interesting.”

“Fascinating,” he said, ironically, “but I have my hands tied.”

I replied with a questioning raise of my eyebrows, not understanding what he meant. He didn’t clarify it for me, but changed the course of the conversation to territory that seemed completely unrelated.

“Would it be very cheeky of me if I were to ask you a favor?”

He tossed the question out casually, just as a few minutes earlier he’d asked me if I wanted a cigarette or a fruit cup.

“That depends,” I replied, likewise feigning nonchalance. Although the evening was turning out to be reasonably relaxed, I still wasn’t at ease, unable to enjoy this party that had absolutely nothing to do with my world. Besides, I was worried about Rosalinda’s absence; it was very strange that she hadn’t been seen once. The last thing I needed now was for Marcus Logan to ask me for another awkward favor: I’d already done enough by agreeing to attend the event with him.

“It’s something very simple,” he explained. “I’m curious to know what it is that the Germans are showing Serrano that they’re all looking at so attentively.”

“And is this personal or professional curiosity?”

“Both. But I can’t approach him: you know how little they think of us English.”

“You’re suggesting I go over and take a look?” I asked in disbelief.

“Without it being too obvious, if possible.”

I was ready to laugh.

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“Entirely. That’s what my job is: I try to find information, and the means of getting hold of it.”

“And now that you can’t get hold of this information for yourself, you want me to be the means?”

“But I don’t wish to take advantage of you, I promise you that. It’s a simple proposition, you have no obligation to accept it. Just think about it.”

I looked at him, wordless. He seemed sincere and trustworthy, but as Félix had predicted, he probably wasn’t. At the end of the day it was all a question of personal interests.

“Very well, I’ll do it.”

He tried to say something, perhaps to thank me in advance. I didn’t let him.

“But I want something in exchange,” I added.

“What?” he asked, surprised. He didn’t expect my action to come at a price.

“Find out where Señora Fox is.”

“How?”

“You’ll know how to do it, that’s why you’re a journalist.”

I didn’t wait for his reply; I turned on my heel immediately and walked away, asking myself how the hell I could approach the German group without being too brazen.

The solution presented itself to me in the form of the compact that Candelaria had given me a few minutes before I left home. I took it out of my handbag and opened it. As I walked, I pretended to look at a tiny part of my face in it, anticipating a visit to the toilettes . Except that while I was concentrating on the mirror I veered slightly off my path and instead of making my way through the clear gaps, instead—what bad luck!—I bumped into the back of the German consul.

My collision stopped the group’s conversation abruptly and knocked the compact to the ground.

“I’m so very sorry, forgive me, I just wasn’t paying attention…,” I said, my voice loaded with fake embarrassment.

Four of the men immediately made as if to bend down and retrieve my compact, but one was faster than the rest. The thinnest of them all, the one with the near-white hair combed back. The only Spaniard. The one with the cat’s eyes.

“I think the mirror’s broken,” he said as he straightened up. “Look.”

I looked. But before fixing my eyes on the cracked mirror I tried quickly to make out what else he was holding in his so-slender fingers.

“Yes, seems to be broken,” I murmured, delicately running my index finger over the splintered surface that he still held in his hands. My just-painted nails were reflected in it a hundred times.

We were shoulder to shoulder, our heads close together, both of us bending over the little object. I could see the fair skin on his face from just inches away, his delicate features and the white at his temples, the dark eyebrows, the fine mustache.

“Careful, you’ll cut yourself,” he said softly.

I lingered a few seconds longer, checking that the tablet of powder was in one piece, that the powder puff was still in place. And in the process I took another look at what he was still holding between his fingers, what just a few minutes earlier had passed from hand to hand between them. Photographs. It was a few photographs. I could only see the first one: people I didn’t recognize, making up a tight little group of anonymous faces and bodies.

“Yes, probably better to close it,” I said at last.

“Here you are, then.”

I brought the two parts together with a loud click.

“It’s a shame; it’s a very beautiful compact. Almost as beautiful as its owner,” he added.

I accepted the compliment with a flirtatious expression and my most dazzling smile.

“Oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it, really.”

“It’s been a pleasure, señorita,” he said, holding out his hand. I noticed it weighed almost nothing.

“Likewise, Señor Serrano,” I replied with a blink. “My apologies again for the interruption. Good evening, gentlemen,” I added, sweeping my gaze over the rest of the group. Each one had a swastika on his lapel.

“Good evening,” the Germans repeated in chorus.

I resumed my path, making my walk as graceful as I possibly could. When I sensed they could no longer see me, I took a glass of wine from a waiter’s tray, downed it in one gulp, and tossed it empty into the rosebushes.

I cursed Marcus Logan for having set me onto that idiotic adventure, and I cursed myself for having accepted. I’d got much closer to Serrano Suñer than any of the other guests—his face had been practically touching mine, our fingers had brushed against each other’s, I’d heard his voice in my ear with a closeness almost bordering on intimacy. I’d shown myself to him as a frivolous, scatterbrained woman, glad to be the object of the attention of this distinguished personage for a few moments, while the truth was that I hadn’t been the least bit interested in meeting him. And it had all been for nothing; just to discover that the group had been looking at a handful of photographs in which I wasn’t able to make out a single person I recognized.

I dragged my irritation all the way across the garden till I reached the door to the main building of the High Commission. I needed to find a bathroom—use the lavatory, wash my hands, get away from it all for a few minutes and calm myself down before meeting up with Marcus Logan again. I followed the directions that someone gave me: I went down an entrance hall decorated with metopes and portraits of officers in uniform, turned right and went along a broad corridor. Third door on the left, they’d told me. Before I reached it, some voices alerted me to what was going on at my destination; just a few seconds later I saw it with my own eyes. The floor was soaked, water seemed to be gushing from somewhere inside, probably from a burst tank. Two ladies were angrily complaining about the damage it was doing to their shoes, and three soldiers were dragging themselves across the floor on their knees, working away with rags and towels, trying to stem the flow of the water, which was already beginning to invade the tiled corridor. I remained still, watching the scene as reinforcements arrived with arms full of rags—it looked like they’d even brought some bedsheets. The lady guests moved away, complaining and grumbling, then someone offered to escort me to the other bathroom.