“I don’t follow.”
“Ernst said the studio wouldn’t go for me.”
“Ernst?”
“Lubitsch. The director.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Maybe I should just change my goddamned name and start over. Or become a director; clearly, it’s okay for someone behind the camera to be from Berlin. But not an actress….”
She let that thought drop as she stopped in front of the grand entrance to a high-rise apartment building.
The three-foot-square cast-bronze signage on the brick wall to the right of the door richly announced: ROYALTON TOWERS.
“Here we are,” she said simply.
Behind the pair of thick glass doors was a doorman—about thirty-five, every bit of six-four and two-twenty, wearing a dark blue uniform with gold piping—and he pushed open the left door with no apparent effort.
“Good evening, Miss Müller,” he said formally.
She answered with her husky laugh as she entered and passed him.
“Harold, don’t be silly,” she called over her shoulder. “It’s ‘Good morning.’”
The doorman smiled.
“Yes, madam. Of course it is. Good morning.”
Harold looked suspiciously at Fulmar.
“Good morning to you, sir,” he said stiffly.
Fulmar nodded and pressed past, catching up to Ingrid at the bank of elevators.
He looked around the expensively appointed lobby. There was polished marble almost everywhere, and, looming above, a grand chandelier that looked impossibly big and bright.
Whatever roles she’s getting, Eric thought, the money must be pretty good. This place didn’t come cheap.
The elevator on the far left was waiting with its doors open and Ingrid motioned that they should get on it.
“Shall we?” she said.
Inside, Eric saw her push the 10 button. It lit up, the doors closed, and the car began to ascend. They rode up in silence.
And, interestingly, her home is not in Yorkville…nor particularly near it.
Third Avenue may as well be the proverbial train tracks separating her town’s good and bad sides.
He glanced at her and smiled.
She smiled back.
So it would appear that my sweet Ingrid does not wish to live among her fellow Germans in Yorkville.
What does that tell me?
The elevator reached the tenth floor and the doors opened.