"Finally!" von Deitzberg snapped.
He had spent the last fifteen minutes--he had estimated that it should take Inge no longer than thirty minutes from the time Forster had left the casino to get there from her home; wherever it was, it wasn't far--considering the very real possibility that she wasn't going to come at all. That as soon as she got her orders from Forster and he left, she had departed for parts unknown with whatever confidential special fund cash von Tresmarck had left behind when he went to Paraguay--if he actually had gone to Paraguay. And considering his options if that indeed proved to be the case.
He was obviously going to have to find the both of them, recover as much--if anything--as he could of the money they had stolen, and then eliminate the both of them.
And he had no idea how to do either. And no one to help him to do it.
That had caused him to first think that Anton von Gradny-Sawz would be absolutely useless in tracking them down, and then that the money he had promised Der Grosse Weinerwurst to buy them refuge wasn't going to be available.
And he had of course thought of Inge.
Put those thoughts from your mind.
What you have to do now is think about staying alive.
He walked quickly to the door and pulled it open.
"Guten abend," Inge von Tresmarck said.
She was wearing a skirt and a simple white cotton blouse through which he could see her brassiere.
She's better-looking than I remembered.
He took a step backward and coldly motioned her into the room. Then he pointed to a small couch.
She walked to it, sat down, crossed her legs, and looked at him.
"What is your husband doing in Paraguay?" he demanded.
"I didn't have any idea you were here, or were even coming," she said.
"Answer the question, Frau von Tresmarck."
She didn't immediately reply.
She's making up her mind what to say.
He walked to her and slapped her face.
"Answer my question!"
She put her hand on her cheek and looked at him with terror in her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I have no choice but to put my life in your hands," she said softly and more than a little dramatically.
She rehearsed that line! Gottverdammt Hure thinks she can play me the way she played those fools in the Hotel Am Zoo!
He slapped her again, this time in genuine anger.
"Your life has been in my hands since I sent you over here," he said. "What is he doing in Paraguay?"
"May I try to explain?" she said. "Please."
He glowered at her, then nodded.
"Make it quick," he said coldly.
"Herr Brigadefuhrer," she said, looking up at him, "I know about the confidential special fund."
What the hell does she mean by that? Of course she knows about that.
But, my God, she's not supposed to know anything about it! I made it very clear to that degenerate husband of hers that he was to tell her nothing about it; that if I ever learned she knew anything about it, he wouldn't live long enough to be transported to Sachsenhausen.
"You know about what?" he asked icily.
"The confidential special fund."
"Your husband told you something about--what did you say?--a 'confi dential fund'?"
"He didn't tell me. I found out."
"You found out what?"
Why is she looking at my stomach?
My God, I have an erection! That's what she's looking at!
"Everything," she said. "I knew he was doing more than his work for Operation Phoenix, and I wanted to know what."
"And?"
"And I found out. Everything."
He didn't reply immediately.
"That happens to me, too," she said softly.
"What?"
"When you slap me, it excites me, too."
She raised her hand and ran the tips of her fingers along his penis.
"Tell me," she said in an excited whisper.
"Tell you what?"
"Order me," Inge said huskily. "Order me to take it in my mouth."
When he had recovered his breath, von Deitzberg turned his head and looked at Inge. Her blouse was open and her brassiere had been pushed off her breasts. Her skirt had been raised over her hips.
God alone knows what happened to her underpants!
And then he remembered tearing them off.
He looked down and saw that his underpants and his trousers were around his ankles. He was still wearing his shoes.
He felt an urge to giggle.
"I have an idea," he said. "Why don't we take our clothes off the next time?"
She chuckled and smiled at him, and raised her hand to touch his cheek.
"Fine with me," she said.
"I heard Werner talking with Ramon--"
"Ramon being his lover?" von Deitzberg interrupted.
She nodded.
They were still in the bed. But the bedcovers had been taken off and von Deitzberg was naked under the sheet. Inge was sitting on the bed with her back propped against the headboard.
When Inge had gone to the bathroom, he had stripped, then hung his trousers and shirt neatly over a chair. Inge was wearing the terry-cloth robe she had found in the bathroom. It hung loosely on her and he could see her breasts.
"Who is this man?" von Deitzberg asked.
"A Uruguayan, of course. He's thirty-something. Not bad-looking. Doesn't look like a poufter."
"A what?"
"That's what they call queers here. It's English, I think. They use a lot of English words here."
"What does he do?"
"He owns a restaurant. Actually, several restaurants and a poufter bar."
" 'A poufter bar'?" he parroted, and chuckled.
"A poufter bar," she repeated, smiling. "That's where Werner met him."
"Would you say that Werner has told his poufter friend about the confidential special fund?"
She smiled and nodded.
"I'm sure he has."
Then both poufters have to be eliminated.
"How did you get to eavesdrop on their conversation?"
"Conversations, plural. A lot of them. I had to protect myself; Werner would throw me to the wolves and take pleasure watching them eat me."
"And how did you do this?"
"The first time, it was by accident. I'd told Werner I was going to Punta del Este--"
"Where?"
"It's a beachside resort about a hundred kilometers from here. I go there sometimes to lie on the beach."
And possibly to find someone who can give you what you're not getting from your poufter?
"Go on."
"And I had trouble with my car and couldn't go. I had to put the car in the garage. I was in my bedroom when I saw Werner drive up with Ramon. I suspected they came here when they thought I was gone."
"Not to Ramon's house? Apartment?"
"Ramon is married," she said.
"A married poufter?"
"He and Werner have that in common," Inge said. "Anyway, I was curious. I hid in my closet. Werner didn't see my car, but he looked into my bedroom. . . ."
"You have separate bedrooms?"
She nodded. "And when I wasn't there, they went to his. I could hear everything that went on in his bedroom. That was interesting. Werner is the woman. I thought it would be the other way. And when Ramon went home to his loving wife, I walked over here to the Casino and took a room. He didn't suspect a thing.
"Sometimes they didn't even--you know, do it. But they talked about what they should do with Werner's money--the money the Jews gave him; the confidential fund--and I found that fascinating. And then I started looking in his safe. I knew where he kept the combination; he could never remember it. All the details and property deeds--and of course the money waiting to be invested--were in there."
"So what are the poufters doing in Paraguay?"
"Werner is worried about you. He thinks you have concluded he knows too much and are going to order him back to Germany and send him to Sachsenhausen."
"I couldn't risk him running off at the mouth, either on his way to Sachsenhausen or once he was in there," von Deitzberg said.
"I thought about that too," she said matter-of-factly. "And I thought about you, that you should know, but how was I going to get in touch with you?"
"That raises several questions in my mind," von Deitzberg said. "What did you think I should know?"
"That Werner, especially after he decided the war is lost . . . Is the war lost, my darling?"
What does she think, that after we have rolled around like two dachshunden in heat, that we are now lovers, that she can call me "my darling"?
"Things do not look good," von Deitzberg said.
She nodded thoughtfully, then said: "Where was I? Oh, yes. Werner decided that even if you didn't order him back to Germany, the war was lost and he had to protect himself. That he had decided to take all the cash and go to Paraguay. With Ramon, of course."