Ruda leaned forward and pressed Tina's stomach. "How far gone are you?"
Tina backed away, her hands moving protectively over her belly. "Three and a half months."
"You're lucky... they don't like terminating after four months."
Tina gasped. "What did you say?"
Ruda smirked. "You heard me, now stop playing games and listen—"
"I don't want to listen to you — you are evil, you are sick. Get out — get out!!"
Ruda cocked her head to one side, kicked the bedroom door closed. "I am here to help you, you stupid little bitch. I can help you, I can give you names, good people you can trust, they'll take care of it."
"I want my baby! I want my baby."
Ruda shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, that's up to you... but I am going to make you an offer. Now listen to me. I am going to give you fifteen thousand dollars — dollars, Tina! You can leave Berlin, go back to wherever you came from, you can have the baby, abort it — whatever you want, but..."
"I don't want your money."
Ruda dug into her pockets. "It's the best offer you'll have, sweetheart — fifteen thousand dollars, in cash, but the deal is you leave before twelve. If you hang around, the money goes down every hour, so you got until twelve o'clock noon, Tina, think about it. I'll be in my trailer, okay?"
Ruda half opened the bedroom door, then hesitated, swinging the door backward and forward slightly.
"You know, I am doing you a big favor. I was married to an old man once, as old as Luis, decrepit, senile, pawing at me. You turn the offer down Tina, and I guarantee your life will be a misery. He's a failure, he's washed up, and you wouldn't last a season with any act he tried to get together. He's scared, Tina, he'll never go into the ring again — everything he's promised, all the lies, are just an old man's dreams."
Tina sat hugging her knees, rocking backward and forward. Big tears trickled down her cheeks. She cringed as Ruda stepped toward her, looked up, almost expecting to be slapped. Instead, Ruda gently brushed the girl's wet cheeks with her thumbs. "Take a good look around this hovel. Now, imagine a cradle, a little baby bawling and clutching at you, needing you, and your body all bloated, your face blotchy. You want to bring it up here? Get rid of it, walk away. It won't hurt."
Tina turned her face away. "I want my baby."
Ruda swallowed. Tina surprised her. "Then go home, Tina. Take the fifteen thousand and get out!" Ruda was almost out of the door.
"Make it twenty." Tina tried hard to meet Ruda's eyes, but they frightened her. She bowed her head, but quickly looked up again when she heard the big deep laugh.
"You're going to be okay, sweetheart. And you know something — I like you. It's a deal."
Ruda whistled as she threaded her way between the trailers. When she reached her own, she eased off her big boots, stacking them outside. She looked up; the rain clouds were lifting. She let herself in silently, and eased open drawers as she collected the money, counting it. She slipped it into an envelope. She heard Luis stirring.
"Hi, how you feeling?"
He needed a shave, his eyes were red-rimmed. She gave a quick look at the bottle — it was a quarter full — and she crossed to him, pulling up the blanket.
"Sleep it off, then I'll fix you something to eat, eh? Rehearsal went well, they are calming down, getting used to the plinths. You were right, you said they'd work out okay."
"That's good," he mumbled. "Do you want a chimp? Lazars got a chimp."
She cocked her head to one side, handed him the bottle. "Here, is this what you want?"
He moaned, said he didn't want a drink, but he took the bottle anyway. She walked out and left him, ran a shower for herself, and began to undress.
The bottle fell from his hand, he stared at the ceiling, one arm across his face. In his drink-befuddled mind, he kept on seeing the fear on Tina's face, her wretched submissiveness. But worse, he couldn't forget the way Ruda had looked at him, because she had looked at him in exactly the same way as when she had ridden on Mamon's back — daring him, mocking him. He tried to sit up, but the room began to spin, he couldn't get on his feet, couldn't stand. He sank back, then reached for the bottle. He held it by the neck, unable to focus.
He yelled: "Rudaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Ruda!"
Ruda held the bottle out for him. He eased himself up, and stared at her. "Thank you."
Ruda was soaping herself when she heard the light tap on the door. She smiled, peeked around the shower curtain, it was almost twelve! She wrapped herself in a towel, was about to call out when she heard the main trailer door opening.
Tina walked into the trailer. It was dark, the blind drawn, she stood in the doorway, unable to adjust to the darkness.
"Want a drink?"
He was stretched out on the bench seat, his fly undone, his shirt hanging out. Tina edged further into the room as he held out the bottle. "Have a drink?"
Tina took a step back, whispered his name, and then in a half sob repeated it. She had somehow not expected him to be there.
"Chimp, got a three-month-old chimp, called Boris... Boris!" He laughed, and continued to drink; he didn't even seem to realize she was in the room.
She jumped when she felt a light touch on her shoulder, and Ruda drew her close.
"Look at him, take a good look, Tina."
Tina squeezed past Ruda into the tiny corridor by the front door. "I did love him. I did."
Ruda pressed the envelope into her hand. "I know. I know you did, but you know as well as I do, it would never have worked out."
Tina fingered the thick envelope. "Because you would never have given us a chance. I'll take your money, Ruda, not for me but for my baby — Luis's baby."
The young girl's eyes stared at Ruda. This time she didn't look away. "We agreed twenty, don't make me count it. You said twenty."
Ruda smiled, touched Tina's cheek with her hand. "Don't push your luck, little girl. I have done only what I had to. It's called survival. You got off lightly, now get out of my sight before I kick you out."
Tina let herself out. Ruda shut the door fast, even faster than she had intended, because right outside the trailer she could see the wretched little inspector. She swore under her breath. Why had she been so foolish? She should have just smiled at him. She took a deep breath and waited. Was he coming to see her?
Torsen and his sergeant were looking at the pair of large boots outside the Grimaldi trailer. They had steel tips! Torsen gave Rieckert a few instructions, which he had to repeat, since Rieckert was distracted by the pretty girl who had just left the trailer. Then Torsen tapped on the trailer door.
Ruda inched open the door and smiled.
Torsen gave her a small bow. "Mrs. Grimaldi, could I please speak to you for one moment — oh! are those your husband's boots outside?"
Ruda hesitated, and then drew her gown tighter around herself. "Yes, why, do you want to borrow them?"
"No, no. May I come in?"
"I'm afraid he cannot see you right now, he's indisposed."
Torsen cocked his head to one side. "It is you I wished to speak to, Mrs. Grimaldi!"
Ruda shrugged her shoulders and stepped back from the doorway. She gestured to her husband, still sprawled out, and then suggested they go into her bedroom. She tossed the duvet over the unmade bed.
"What is it this time?"
Torsen remained in the doorway. "It is with reference to your husband."
"He won't be able to talk sensibly for hours, maybe days. He's drunk."
"No, it is about Mr. Kellerman. You see, when I questioned you, both here and at the city morgue, I asked about the dead man's left wrist. You said you had no knowledge of a tattoo, and you repeated that at the morgue. I have subsequently discovered that the dead man was a survivor of Auschwitz, and the tattoo was his camp identification number. So you must have known what the tattoo was when I asked you. Now I ask you, why? Why did you lie to me, Mrs. Grimaldi?"