‘But you remember me?’
‘I tell you my memory is patchy. Another cognac?’
‘I still have some, thanks.’ Maxwell was swilling his drink round in the bottom of the glass. He didn’t look at the other and his voice was casual as he said,’ Remember the fellow who was with you the night they arrested you at Polinago?’
‘Mantani?’
‘Yes. I always meant to ask you this if ever I met you again. Did he take you to Ragello’s trattoria or did you take him? When I interrogated him, he swore that he’d warned you Ragello was a Fascist and that you’d just laughed at him. Did he warn you?’
‘ He did not. I think it was I who told him it was dangerous. Miss Tucek — another drink?’
She nodded and he took her glass.
Maxwell was standing right beside me and quite softly he said, ‘You were right, Dick.’
‘How do you mean?’ I asked.
‘The man who owned the trattoria where they were picked up was called Basani, not Ragello,’ he answered.