“Please don’t think that I’m not flattered by your offer,” I said. “But right now I have other things on my mind. You’ve thought of everything, it’s true. Except the one reason why I’m not going to work for you. You see, Colonel, I’m not well. I had heart palpitations on the boat. I thought I was having a heart attack. Anyway, I went to see Dr. Espejo, the one Peron recommended. And he says I don’t have a heart condition at all. The heart palpitations are the result of thyrotoxicosis. I have cancer of the thyroid, Colonel Montalban. That’s why I’m not going to work for you.”

COLONEL MONTALBAN TOOK OFF his glasses and began to clean their tinted lenses with the end of his woolen tie. He was trying not to smile so as not to hurt my feelings, but I could see that he really didn’t care if he did. As if he was trying only a little not to give the game away.

I guessed what this was.

“But you knew that already, didn’t you?”

The colonel shrugged and went on polishing.

“What kind of a country is this? No banking secrecy. And no medical ethics. I suppose Dr. Espejo is a friend of yours.”

“Actually, no. Quite the reverse. Espejo is what we call a resentido. It means he has a chip on his shoulder. Espejo is a man who dislikes Peron intensely.”

“I wondered why he seemed to be the only person I’ve met in this city who doesn’t have a picture of the president on his wall.” I shook my head. “I don’t get it. Peron recommended a doctor who hates him?”

“Earlier on, you mentioned the oyentes.”

I smiled. “You have a listening device planted in his surgery.”

“Several.”

“I guess that’s one way of making sure you get an honest diagnosis.”

“Did you perhaps think you didn’t?”

“It sure didn’t feel like Espejo was keeping anything back. The man’s got quite a left hook on him. It’s been a while since anyone caught me one on the chin like that.” I paused. “Don’t tell me he was pulling his punches.”

“Not at all,” said the colonel. “Espejo’s a good doctor. But there are better ones. If I were you, Herr Gunther, I should want to have someone treating me who’s more of an expert in these matters than Espejo. A specialist.”

“Sounds expensive. Too expensive for my thousand dollars.”

“All the more reason to work for me. We have a saying here in Argentina. We say, ‘I can’t trust you until I tell you a secret.’ So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to trust you with one of the biggest secrets in the country. Then you will have to help me and I will have to help you. It will be a sign of good faith between us.”

“What if I prefer not to know what you know?”

“I can’t tell you B if I don’t also tell you A. I will tell you B first, and then perhaps you will guess A. Dr. George Pack is one of the leading cancer specialists in the world. He is a consultant at Sloan-Kettering in New York. He treats patients like the Rockefellers and the Astors. But quite often he also comes here, to Buenos Aires.”

“To treat someone equally important, no doubt,” I said. “The general?”

The colonel shook his head.

“The general’s wife?”

He nodded. “But even she does not know.”

“Is that possible?”

“It is if the general wishes it. Evita thinks she has a woman’s problem. But it’s something else. I have already spoken to Dr. Pack. And as a favor to the general, he has agreed to treat you the next time he is in the country. At our expense, of course.” The colonel threw his hands up. “So you see, you have no choice, no excuse to refuse. There isn’t one objection you can make that hasn’t already been thought of.”

“All right,” I said. “I can tell when I’m beaten. But you seem to have a lot of faith in my abilities, Colonel. Still, how can I resist?”

“How, indeed? But is it so hard to accept my admiration for your forensic abilities? It would be the same for you and Ernst Gennat, would it not? Or that other great Berlin detective. Bernard Weiss. These were your mentors. Your own heroes.”

“For a while, yes, they were,” I said. “All the same, it does seem like you’ve been to a hell of a lot of trouble to have me investigate one murder and one missing girl.”

“It might seem that way to you, Herr Gunther. But to be brutal with you, it’s really no trouble at all. We have some old papers sent from Berlin. We give you a job. We pay you some money. We employ a doctor to treat your illness. These are easy things to fix when you’re a man in my position. What could be simpler?”

“When you put it like that,” I said.

“As it happens, though,” he added smoothly, “the missing girl is no ordinary girl. Fabienne von Bader is what we call a paquete. One of the elegant people. Her father, Kurt von Bader, is a close friend of the Perons, as well as a director of the Banco Germanico, here in B.A. Naturally, the police are sparing no effort in looking for her. You will be merely a part of that effort. Perhaps she is already dead. Perhaps, as you suggested, she has only run away from home. Although, frankly, she is a little young to have a boyfriend. She’s only fourteen years old. Grete Wohlauf, you should leave her to the regular police. But Fabienne is a different story. She should be your main focus. From what I hear, missing persons were once something of a specialty for you. After you left the Berlin police in 1933. When you were a private detective.”

“You seem to know everything about me, Colonel,” I said. “Too much for comfort.”

“Not too much. Just everything that is important. For the purpose of your inquiry, you should assume that our potential murderer is a German and confine yourself to the community of recent immigrants, and those who are of German-Argentine origin. You are looking for a psychopath, yes. But always you are looking for some clue as to the whereabouts of young Fabienne von Bader.”

“It won’t be easy asking questions of my old comrades.”

“Which is why you must choose your questions carefully. You must make your questions seem innocent.”

“You don’t know them,” I said. “There’s no such thing as an innocent question where they’re concerned.”

“The Red Cross is an admirable institution,” said the colonel. “But to go anywhere else outside of this country again-Germany, for example-you will need an Argentine passport. To get a passport, you will have to prove that you have been an Argentine resident of good conduct. Once you have proved this, a good-conduct pass will be issued. With a conduct pass, you can apply to a court of first instance for a passport. I thought it would be a good cover story for your inquiry if we said that you are carrying out background checks for the Security and Intelligence Directorate to see whether someone is a suitable candidate for this good-conduct pass. That way you can pry into the backgrounds of your old comrades with impunity. I daresay most of them will be only too willing to answer all your questions, Herr Gunther. No matter how impertinent. Such a role allows you complete license. After all, who among your old comrades doesn’t want a passport in a new name?”

“It might work,” I said.

“Of course it will work. A desk will be provided for you at the Casa Rosada. That’s where the SIDE is headquartered. A car will be yours to use. You will receive expenses. A salary. Full SIDE identification. And you will report directly to me. Anything at all. No matter how small. Dr. Pack will be here in a couple of weeks. You can see him then. For obvious reasons, however, I’d like you to start your inquiry immediately. A list of the names and addresses of your old comrades will be given to you at the Casa Rosada. Naturally, Fuldner and the DAIE have given us some idea of who these people were back in Germany. What they did and when. But of course, I should like to know a lot more about them. In order to assess what diplomatic and security risk they might pose for us in the future. You can update the files as you go. Clear?”