He waited until they had placed the tub behind the bar, then ordered: "I'll have one of those, please."
"Are you all right, Cletus?" Humberto asked.
Just peachy-keen, Uncle Humberto. I have just watched my murdered father being buried, and have been standing here thinking that if I hadn't shown up down here, he would still be alive. And also thinking that heading the list of shitty things sins, if you like I have done in my life is impregnating an innocent nineteen-year-old. Fucking up not only her life, but that of a child, too.
"I'm fine. Thank you."
The barman handed Humberto his drink. He nodded his thanks, then raised the glass.
"To Jorge Guillermo," he said, "May he find your mother in heaven as beautiful as he remembered her."
Clete touched his glass.
"And the horses be fast, and the champagne properly chilled," Clete said.
Where the hell did that come from?
Humberto chuckled and took a sip.
"Yes," he said.
"I watched the Husares de Pueyrred?n move him from the Edificio Libertador last night," Clete said. "I think el Coronel would have been pleased with his funeral."
"He loved parades," Humberto said. "Particularly if he was leading it."
"He was too goddamned young to die," Clete said. "And like that!"
"Yes," Humberto said. "Cletus, that brings up a somewhat delicate matter."
"What's that?"
"The reception will start in about fifteen minutes. There are already people arriving."
Clete nodded and waited for him to go on.
"There will be a reception line . . ."
"Can I get out of that?"
". . . and among the guests expected are Ambassador von Lutzenberger and members of his staff from the German Embassy. I believe Major von Wachtstein will be among them."
Clete's eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing.
"We see a good deal of Ambassador von Lutzenberger and his staff socially," Humberto went on. "Your aunt Beatrice added many of them to our list after their many courtesies to us when Jorge Alejandro was brought home. She is especially fond of Major von Wachtstein. There are, of course, certain advantages to the situation."
"I'm not sure I'm up to standing in a reception line and smiling at the murdering sonsofbitches."
"I think everyone will understand that you are indisposed."
"Is that what I am, 'indisposed'?" Clete said, and then, softly, "Speaking of Germans, I saw Peter von Wachtstein last night."
"Was that wise? If you were seen . . ."
"We weren't," Clete said. "He's very concerned that my father had some records. . ."
"The records of certain financial transactions," Humberto said. "I'm very concerned myself."
"Plus a personal letter from Peter's father."
"I know about the letter, too."
"But you don't know where they are?"
"They're most likely in your father's safe at Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo," Humberto said. "God, I hope they are!"
"I don't know what safe you're talking about."
"It's in your father's study."
"I'd like to get in it as soon as possible. Who has the combination?"
"I was hoping you would have it."
"No. I didn't even know there was a safe until just now."
"Well, I know Claudia doesn't have the combination," Humberto said. "She asked me for it."
"Why does she want it?"
"I simply presumed there were personal thingsletters perhapsthat she didn't want anybody else to see. Wanted to get them out of the safe before you started going through it."
"So how do I get in it?"
"Right now, I don't know. Let me think about it. But for the moment, unless you want to see the Germans, you'd better get out of here."
"Where do I go?"
"The upstairs sitting," Humberto said. "I will instruct the servants who is to be taken there to pay their respects to you privately. The Mallins, for example. And there is an American officer . . ."
"An American officer? Do you have his name?"
"Teniente Pelosi," Humberto said. "I have his card." He handed it to Clete.
Anthony Joseph Pelosi
First Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers
Army of the United States
Assistant Military Attach?
Embassy of the United States of America
"I really want to see him," Clete said. "But I don't want to make it obvious. Wait until the place is full of people, and then send him upstairs."
"Certainly."
"Make sure he doesn't get away. He may think I don't want to see him."
"I understand," Humberto said.
"Right," Clete said. "Humberto, thank you. And when this is all over, I really need to talk to you."
"I was about to say almost exactly those words," Humberto said. "There are business matters that need immediate decisions. Perhaps we can find the time over the weekend. We will have to find the time over the weekend. Can I show you the way?"
"I know where it is, thank you."
Suboficial Mayor Enrico Rodriguez, in Husares de Pueyrred?n uniform, jumped to attention when Clete walked into the upstairs sitting, startling Clete enough that in a Pavlovian Marine officer's reflex, he barked, "As you were!"
"Mi Mayor?" Enrico asked, baffled.
"One, stand at ease, Enrico, and two, stop calling me 'Major.'"
"Por favor, mi Mayor," Enrico said. "My last service to mi Coronel."
"What?"
Enrico turned to the table beside him.
"Mi Mayor," he said, "I present to you the saber and decorations of the late el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade!"
He extended to Clete a saber, together with its accoutrements, and the pale-blue velvet medal-covered pillow that had lain on the casket.
Clete's throat tightened and his eyes watered. He came to attention.
"Muchas gracias, Suboficial Mayor," he said, and took them with as much military decorum as he could muster. When he looked at Enrico he saw tears running down his cheeks.
Clete turned, found a table, and laid the saber and the pillow on it, then turned to Enrico, who was standing at the Argentine equivalent of Parade Rest.
"I think that what my father would prefer now, Enrico, is that his friend and his son have a drink to him, rather than stand here weeping like women."
S?, mi Mayor, I think he would," Enrico said. He snapped to attention and then relaxed, as if he had been dismissed. He walked to a small bar that had been set up. "English whiskey, Se?or Clete, or norteamericano?"
"Just as long as it's wet," Clete said.
[THREE]
The official delegation of the Embassy of Germany to the funeral mass and interment of the late el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade had arrived at the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar in two automobiles, and it was presumed that the suggestion that mourners walk the half-dozen blocks down Avenida Alvear to the reception at the Duarte mansion did not apply to them.
Ambassador von Lutzenberger did not invite Standartenf?hrer Goltz to ride with him and Frau Ambassador in the Embassy Mercedes. On one hand, this surprised First Secretary Gradny-Sawz, for it would be the polite thing to do vis-a-vis a visiting dignitary of Goltz's stature, he thought. But on the other hand, it pleased him, for it allowed him to be with Goltz. Major Freiherr Hans-Peter von Wachtstein also rode with Gradny-Sawz and Goltz in the second, slightly smaller Embassy Mercedes.