‘You were going to tell me something. What was it?’ And then, as I remained silent, he said, ‘For God’s sake, Dick, tell me where you come into it. You come into it somewhere. That I’m certain.’
‘I can’t help you,’ I said.
He looked at me for a moment as though testing my mood. ‘All right,’ he said at length. ‘If you won’t talk, I can’t make you — not yet. But watch your step. I think you’re out of your depth. Perhaps you don’t know it. I hope for your sake—’ He ground his cigarette out on the carpet. ‘If you change your mind I’m staying at the Garibaldi.’ He turned quickly and went down the corridor. I went slowly back into the box and sat down again in the seat beside Zina. She didn’t move, but I knew she had seen me. ‘What did he want?’ she whispered.
‘Nothing,’ I said.
Her lips were compressed into a thin line and for a moment she looked almost haggard.
When the curtain came down on the first act and the lights went up I saw there were two empty seats in the centre of the stalls. ‘Your friends have left?’ Zina’s eyes were narrowed and watchful. I didn’t reply and she said, ‘Let us go and get a drink.’ When we were seated in the bar she said, ‘Are you shocked to learn that I work for the Germans?’
‘No,‘I said.
She looked down at her drink. ‘I was in cabaret then. My father had been injured in the bombing of Napoli. My mother was dying of tuberculosis. I had a brother prisoner of war in Kenya and two sisters, one ten, the other twelve. They gave me the choice of working for them or going to the campo di concentramento. If I had refused then my sisters would have become prostitutes in the bordellos off the Via Roma. I do not think I have much choice, Dick.’ She looked up at me and smiled. ‘But now everything is all right. The war is over and I am married to a conte. Only, you see, I do not like to be reminded of the past, by people who do not understand. This Maxwell, he was a British police officer?’
‘No. R.A.F. Intelligence.’
‘And what does he do now?’