“Just who the hell do you think you are?” I asked. “You think you can just pick up the phone and summon me here and ask me to just drop by the Paris morgue while some criminal cartel isn’t looking?”
He said nothing, his gaze never wavering. Sunlight filled the window beside him and turned his eyes the amber of tiger-eye.
“I don’t give a damn whether you’re Interpol or Scotland Yard or the queen of England,” I said. “You don’t get to put me or Dr. Stvan or Marino in jeopardy.”
“Marino won’t be going to the morgue.”
“I’ll let you tell him that.”
“If he accompanied you, that would raise suspicions, especially since he’s such a model of decorum;” Talley remarked. “Besides, I don’t think Dr. Stvan would like him very much.”
“And if there’s evidence, then what?”
He didn’t answer me, and I knew why.
“You’re asking me to tamper with the chain of evidence. You’re asking me to steal evidence, aren’t you? I don’t know what you call it here, but in the United States it’s called a felony.”
“Impairment or falsification of evidence, according to the new penal code. That’s what it’s called here. Three hundred thousand francs, three years in prison. Possibly you could get charged with a breach of respect due the dead, I suppose, if one really wants to push the matter, and that’s another hundred thousand francs, another year in prison.”
I shoved back my chair.
“I must say,” I coldly told him, “it’s not been often in my profession that a federal agent begs me to break the law.”
“I’m not asking. This is between you and Dr. Stvan.”
I got up. I didn’t listen..
“You may not have gone to law school, but I did;” I said. “Maybe you can recite a penal code, but I know what it means.”
He didn’t move. Blood was pounding in my neck and sunlight was so bright in my face I couldn’t see.
“I’ve been a servant to the law, to the principles of science and medicine, for half my life,” I went on. “The only thing you’ve done for half your life, Agent Talley, is make it through adolescence in that Ivy League world of yours: ‘
“Nothing bad’s going to happen to you,” Talley calmly replied as if he hadn’t listened to an insulting word I’d said.
“Tomorrow morning, Marino and I are flying home.”
“Please sit down.”
“So you know Diane Bray? Is this her grand finale? To get me thrown into a French prison?” I went on.
“Please sit,” he said.
Reluctantly, I did.
“If you do something Dr. Stvan asks and should get caught, we’ll intercede;’ he said. “Just as we did with what I was sure Marino would have packed in his suitcase.”
“I’m supposed to believe that?” I asked, incredulous. “French police with their machine guns snatch me in the airport and I say, .It’s all right. I’m on a secret mission for Interpol?”
“All we’re doing is getting you and Dr. Stvan together.”
“Bullshit. I know exactly what you’re doing. And if I get in trouble, you guys will be like every other agency in the goddamn world. You’ll say you don’t even know me.”
“I would never say that.”
He held my gaze, and the room was so hot I needed fresh sir.
“Kay, we would never say that. Senator lord would never say that. Please, trust me.”
“Well, I don’t”
“When would you like to return to Paris?”
I had to stop to think. He had me so befuddled and furious.
“You’re scheduled on the late afternoon train,” he reminded me. “But if you’d like to stay for the night, I know of a wonderful little hotel on the rue du Boeuf. It’s called La Tour Rose. You’d love it.”
“No, thank you,” I said.
He sighed, getting up from the table and collecting both our trays.
“Where’s Marino?” It occurred to me that.he had been gone for a long time.
“I was beginning to wonder that myself,” Talley said as we walked through the cafeteria. “I don’t think he likes me very much:’
“That’s the most brilliant deduction you’ve made all day,” I said.