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they always wanted.” He looked down the arcade to the Istiklal Caddesi, busy with trams and old cars. “Be a hell of a thing, won’t it, to see all this go.” He looked again to the street. “You know when I first got here, they still had the women in veils.”
    Had Marina worn one, as a girl? But she was Armenian, so a Christian, something he hadn’t known before, another piece, like filling in an outline. What did she look like when she went out? He had never seen her in anything but her silk kimono, a swishing sound as she moved, smooth to the touch, like the soft flesh of her inner thigh. He looked up, aware again that Ed was talking.
    “You hear about Tommy? It’s all over the consulate. Back to Washington.”
    “Really?” Leon said, noncommittal.
    “I thought you two were thick as thieves.”
    Leon shook his head. “I helped him out with a deal once, that’s all.”
    “What kind of deal?” Ed said, suddenly curious.
    “Chromium. I knew some people in Ankara.”
    “Well, that always helps, doesn’t it?”
    “Always,” Leon said, looking more closely for something behind the words. But Ed’s face was the same, long and droopy, like Fred Allen’s, pouches now under the eyes.
    “Board of Economic Warfare. That’s where he’s going. Except there’s no more warfare,” Ed said.
    “So they change the name. It’s the government. You’re in the government.”
    “Not where he’s going.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Come on, you never thought Tommy might be doing something extra on the q.t.?”
    “Like what?”
    “Hush-hush stuff. You never suspected?”
    “Tommy? Who’d trust him with a secret? Just hand him a drink.”
    “You worked with him. Who knows, maybe you—”
    “Worked. I put him in touch with some people in Ankara. That’s it. What’s this all about?”
    “War’s over. What does it matter now? I’d just like to know. Was I right?”
    “Ask him. How the hell would I know?”
    “Of course, that’s what you’d have to say, isn’t it?”
    Leon looked at him, then forced a laugh. “I guess it is. If I didn’t have a foreign wife. German, for Christ’s sake. I’m the last person they’d ask.” The Anna cover, still useful. “And I’ll bet they didn’t ask Tommy, either. With his big mouth. What you’re talking about—I thought all that was over at OWI. And I hear they packed up. So maybe we’ll never know.”
    “OWI,” Ed said, nodding, not letting it go. “And the college. Remember early ’forty-two, all of a sudden Robert College gets a whole new group of teachers? You’d meet them at parties, they’d never talk about their classes.”
    Leon smiled. “Maybe they came for the view.” A hilltop looking down at Bebek and the Bosphorus. Cocktail parties on the terrace in the evening light. Not what the founding missionaries had had in mind. “Come on, Ed. You see those guys doing parachute drops? Four-eyes? With Tommy? I never saw him open a book. I’ll bet he doesn’t even know where the college is.”
    Ed smiled, a cat licking cream. “He’s giving a party there.”
    “A party?”
    “He didn’t ask you?”
    Leon shrugged. “I told you, we’re not that close. What kind of party?”
    “Just some drinks. Say good-bye to his friends there.” He looked over. “Those guys he doesn’t know.”
    “Well, Tommy. Any excuse. When’s this?”
    “Tonight. Why don’t you come? The more the merrier. That’s what he said to me. Wants to fill the place.”
    With witnesses. Distancing himself.
    “I can’t tonight.”
    “Hot date?”
    “I’m going to see my wife.”
    “Sorry,” Ed said, genuinely embarrassed. “Well, try to drop in late. You’re right there. She’s in Bebek, right?”
    Leon nodded. Near the college. But not as far up the coast road as the boat landing. Tommy making a diversion. If anyone followed him, they’d never go farther than Bebek, waiting for him to come down the hill. Hosting a party, not meeting boats.
    “I’ll see