A final thought came to him:
My father would understand my decision.
That brings me back to how do I tell him?
He will almost certainly be at the Duarte mansion for the reception after the funeral. I will somehow manage a minute alone with him.
[SIX]
1420 Avenue Alvear
Buenos Aires, Argentina
1605 19 December 1942
“I wondered what happened to you,” Señorita Alicia Carzino-Cormano said, walking up to Hauptmann Freiherr von Wachtstein and smiling at him over the rim of her teacup. “Is this pretty awful for you?”
Peter bowed and clicked his heels, but there was not time for him to reply before Señorita Isabela Carzino-Cormano walked up to them.
“Señorita,” he said.
Isabela gave him her hand to be kissed, and he kissed it.
“I was deeply moved when the decoration was given to Poor Jorge,” Isabela said.
Peter nodded.
“Isn’t that decoration the one your government gave our Poor Jorge?” she asked, touching Peter’s Knight’s Cross.
“Yes, it is,” Peter replied. “I wondered if either of you charming ladies have seen el Teniente Frade?”
“I don’t think he’s here,” Isabela said. “I think his father’s disgraceful behavior embarrassed him and he left.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Isabela!” Alicia protested.
“Of course,” Isabela said. “You are too much of a gentleman to have noticed him.”
“Noticed him doing what?”
“Weeping in the church, like a child. And, of course, quite drunk.”
“I understand he was quite close to el Capitán Duarte,” Peter said.
And holds himself responsible for the poor bastard’s death.
“If Cletus is not here, then he’s probably at the Guest House,” Alicia volunteered.
If I can get to a telephone, I can call him.
“Señorita, do you happen to know where I could find a telephone?”
“Finding the telephone is easy,” she said. “There are two lines here. But if you intend to make a call…”
She inclined her head. Peter saw a group of people near a telephone set in an alcove in the wall. A gentleman was speaking excitedly into it, and he was oblivious to the dirty looks of the others waiting for it.
“I was thinking of calling a friend,” Alicia said. “But it was no use, so I gave up.”