“That’s what it meant. Please understand, Mr. Pasic, I have no desire or intention to try to badger you. I merely want all the information you can give me about that message and the events behind it. Danilo will tell you I can be trusted with it.”
“Carla was his daughter,” Danilo said. “He has a certain right to know.”
“I knew a man who had a daughter.” Pasic was scornful. “So did you. She betrayed him to the police.”
“That’s another matter. I brought him here, Josip. I don’t think the time has come for you to question your trust in me.”
I was wishing I could have a good look at Pasic. He was just a blur, a big one, taller than me, with a tight, bitter voice. At first, sitting next to him, I had noticed that he smelled, and then had realized that it was me, after the sweat of the climb.
“All right,” he said, “this is what happened. Carla came to the house — that’s the house at the end of the road, where the car brought you. You saw the house?”
“Yes,” Wolfe said. “I was born there.”
“That’s right, you were, I have been told. We didn’t know she was coming, and it was a big surprise. She wanted to see Danilo, and I went and brought him. They talked a whole day. I don’t know what they said because it was not thought desirable for me to be present.”
“That’s foolish,” Danilo declared. “I told you what was said. Many things were said, but the main one was that Carla knew from Marko that we had reason to think there was a spy among us, and she wanted to know who. There are spies in the Spirit, of course, that is to be expected, but this one seemed to be close to our most secret affairs. Coming from a distance, Carla was right to exclude no one, not even you or me. She had to talk with someone, and she chose me. And as I told you, I didn’t satisfy her.”
“I know you didn’t. Neither did I, when she talked with me after you left. She trusted none of us, and she died for it.” Pasic moved his head, to Wolfe. “She decided to find the spy herself. Since you were born here, you know that it is only two kilometers from this spot to Albania, and that just across the border is an old Roman fort.”