He thought he heard a sound from the bed. He carefully peeked out of the closet door, but Neusa was still asleep.
Lantz turned out the closet light and walked over to the bed. Muñez’s eyes were closed. Lantz tiptoed to the bureau and began looking through the drawers, hoping to find a photograph of Angel. That would be a help. No luck. He crept back into bed. Neusa was snoring loudly.
When Harry Lantz finally drifted off to sleep, his dreams were filled with visions of a white yacht crowded with beautiful naked girls with small, firm breasts.
In the morning when Harry Lantz awoke, Neusa was gone. For an instant, Lantz panicked. Had she already left to meet Angel? He heard noises in the kitchen. He hurried out of bed and slipped into his clothes. Neusa was at the stove.
“Buenos días,” Lantz said.
“Wan’ coffee?” Neusa mumbled. “I can’t fix no breakfast.
I got ‘n appointment.”
With Angel. Harry Lantz tried to hide his excitement. “That’s fine. I’m not hungry. Why don’t you go and keep your appointment and we’ll meet for dinner tonight.” He put his arms around her, fondling her pendulous breasts. “Where would you like to have dinner? Nothing but the best for my girl.” I should have been an actor, Lantz thought.
“I don’ care.”
“Do you know Chiquín on Avenida Cangallo?”
“No.”
“You’ll like it. Why don’t I pick you up here at eight o’clock? I have a lot of business to attend to today.” He had no business to attend to.
“Okay.”
It took all his willpower to lean over and kiss Neusa good-bye. Her lips were flabby and wet and disgusting. “Eight o’clock.”
Lantz walked out of the apartment and hailed a taxi. He hoped Neusa was watching from the window.
“Turn right at the next corner,” he instructed the driver.
When they had turned the corner, Harry Lantz said, “I’ll get out here.”
The driver looked at him in surprise. “You wish to ride only one block, señor?”
“Right. I have a bad leg. War wound.”
Harry Lantz paid him, then hurried back to a tobacconist shop across from Neusa’s apartment building. He lit a cigarette and waited.
Twenty minutes later, Neusa came out of the apartment building. Harry watched as she waddled down the street, and he followed her at a careful distance. There was no chance of his losing her. It was like following the Lusitania.
Neusa Muñez seemed to be in no hurry. She moved down the Avenida Belgrano, past the Spanish library, and plodded along the Avenida Cordoba. Lantz watched as she walked into Berenes, a leather shop on San Martin. He stood across the street and observed her chatting with a male clerk. Lantz wondered whether the shop could be a connection with Angel. He made a mental note of it.
Neusa came out a few minutes later carrying a small package. Her next stop was at a heladería on Corrientes, for an ice cream. She walked down San Martin, moving slowly. She seemed to be strolling aimlessly with no particular destination in mind.
What the hell happened to her appointment? Lantz wondered. Where is Angel? He did not believe Neusa’s statement that Angel was out of town. His instincts told him that Angel was somewhere nearby.
Lantz suddenly realized that Neusa Muñez was not in sight. She had turned a corner ahead and disappeared. He quickened his step. When Lantz rounded the corner, she was nowhere to be seen. There were small shops on both sides of the street, and Lantz moved carefully, his eyes searching everywhere, fearful that Neusa might see him before he saw her.
He finally spied her in a fiambrería, a delicatessen, buying groceries. Were they for her, or was she expecting someone at her apartment for lunch? Someone named Angel.
From a distance, Lantz watched Neusa enter a verdulería and buy fruit and vegetables. He trailed her back to her apartment building. As far as he could tell, there had been no suspicious contacts.
Harry Lantz watched Neusa’s building from across the street for the next four hours, moving around to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Finally he decided that Angel was not going to show up. Maybe I can get some more information out of her tonight, Lantz thought, without fucking her. The idea of having to make love to Neusa again sickened him.