Comfort to the Enemy (2010) Read Online Free PDF Page A

e yes. Shemane said, Come in, Carlos, and tell me what you'd like to drink.
    *
    Whatever you're having, Carl said, following her through the dim living room, the dining room and into the kitchen, Shemane asking him if he liked martinis. Carl said he did, but had never longed for one.
    Two stem glasses and a jar of olives waited on the kitchen table, a long table with a porcelain surface. It reminded him of his dad saying he had been circumsized on their porcelain kitchen table, and if he got any more famous the table might be worth something. Shemane brought a pitcher of martinis from the refrigerator and filled the glasses, saying, I love martinis. You know why?
    They make you drunk?
    They do, don't they? You get tipsy before you know it. How many olives?
    Two, Carl said, seeing what he could see where he jacket opened while she fished olives out of the jar.
    I like four, Shemane said, raised her eyes to his and then her glass in a move that held the jacket open a few seconds. Carl waited until they'd both had a drink and Shemane offered him a cigarette; he struck a kitchen match with his thumbnail and she touched his hand holding the match while she got a light. He said, I understand you're interested in German prisoners of war.
    Who told you?
    Tony Antonelli. He says you drive around looking for prisoners working.
    Once I saw a bunch of 'em marching out of a field to where the trucks are waiting, all of 'em singing away. I can't get over how much they look like Americans but are so different.
    You can't see Americans singing like that, can you? Serious about it?
    They're way behind the times, Germans. What I can't understand, why we're at war with them instead of helping them fight the Russians, the Bolshevik hordes. They're the bad guys.
    Is that what Jurgen says?
    She sipped her drink and used her fingers to get one of the olives. You talked to him?
    Not yet.
    What're you gonna do, put him on bread and water for a week? What do you want me for, cooking his dinner once in a while? I don't even know how to cook. He stays a few days -nobody has any idea he's in my house -and always gives himself up.
    The thing the Army doesn't like, Carl said, it makes them look dumb.
    They are, if they can't keep him inside.
    What's he talk about?
    The war.
    He believes they're winning?
    When we first met he did. Not anymore. He reads everything he can get his hands on, the paper, magazines... She smiled for the first time, a real smile. He read that book about you, 'The Hot Kid of the Marshals Service'? Tony gave me a copy. Jurgen read it one time when he was here and asked me about you.
    I said he knew more than I did. He's smart, he's educated... I went to high school two years and we argue about things. He gets what he knows from all he reads. I got mine listening to guys who know how to make money. Or, what I say sometimes, having lived as a child in a whorehouse and came out in one piece.
    Carl said, What do you hear from Teddy?
    She paused, You know Teddy or you know of Teddy?
    The day we met, Carl said, he had a guy hit me in the gut with a baseball bat. The next day he wanted to hire me. I know Teddy. What surprises me, he's been nice to you all this time.
    Shemane sort of shrugged. He can be a swee t g uy.
    He's like a father to you?
    You're kidding, right?
    When did Tony give you the book?
    When it came out--Tony was writing about white slavers abducting me. Teddy loved being called a white slaver. He's read the book, says it's pretty good, very factual about Kansas City when Pendergast owned the town. Teddy keeps asking me to come up for a visit, like I've never been to Kansas City. I tell him I'm busy.
    Doing what?
    Taking care of mom.
    You tell Teddy about Jurgen?
    There was a silence. She stared at him and said after a moment, Why would I?
    Brag about a guy, a German officer, escaping from a prison camp so he can be with you? Ris k g etting shot? What'd Teddy say, he'd like to meet him?
    I haven't told him, Shemane