Philip Kerr - Field Gray

CUBA, 1954

T hat Englishman with Ernestina, she said, looking down at the luxuriously appointed public room. He reminds me of you, Seor Hausner.

Doa Marina knew me as well as anyone in Cuba, possibly better, since our acquaintance was founded on something stronger than mere friendship: Doa Marina owned the largest and best brothel in Havana.

The Englishman was tall and round-shouldered, with pale blue eyes and a lugubrious expression. He wore a blue linen short-sleeved shirt, gray cotton trousers, and well-polished black shoes. I had an idea Id seen him before, in the Floridita Bar or perhaps the lobby of the National Hotel, but I was hardly looking at him. I was paying more attention to the new and near-naked chica who was sitting on the Englishmans lap and helping herself to puffs from the cigarette in his mouth while he amused himself by weighing her enormous breasts in his hands, like someone judging the ripeness of two grapefruits.

In what way? I asked, and quickly glanced at myself in the big mirror that hung on the wall, wondering if there really was some point of similarity between us other than our appreciation of Ernestinas breasts and the huge dark nipples that adorned them like mountainous limpets.

The face that stared back at me was heavier than the Englishmans, with a little more hair on top but similarly fiftyish and cross-hatched with living. Perhaps Doa Marina thought it was more than just living that was dry-etched on our two facesthe chiaroscuro of conscience and complicity perhaps, as if neither of us had done what ought to have been done or, worse, as if each of us lived with some guilty secret.

You have the same eyes, said Doa Marina.

Oh, you mean theyre blue, I said, knowing that this probably wasnt what she meant at all.

No, its not that. Its just that you and Seor Greene look at people in a certain way. As if youre trying to look inside them. Like a spiritualist. Or perhaps like a policeman. You both have very searching eyes that seem to look straight through a person. Its really most intimidating.

It was hard to imagine Doa Marina being intimidated by anything or anyone. She was always as relaxed as an iguana on a sun-warmed rock.

Seor Greene, eh? I wasnt in the least bit surprised that Doa Marina had used his name. The Casa Marina was not the kind of place where you felt obliged to use a false one. You needed a reference just to get through the front door. Perhaps he is a policeman. With feet as big as his, I wouldnt be at all surprised.

Hes a writer.

What kind of a writer?

Novels. Westerns, I think. He told me he writes under the name of Buck Dexter.

Never heard of him. Does he live in Cuba?

No, he lives in London. But he always visits us when hes in Havana.

A traveler, eh?

Yes. Apparently hes on his way to Haiti this time. She smiled. You dont see the likeness now?

No, not really, I said firmly, and was pleased when she seemed to change the subject.

How was it with Omara today?

I nodded. Good.

You like her, yes?

Very much.

Shes from Santiago, said Doa Marina, as if this explained everything. All of my best girls come from Santiago. Theyre the most African-looking girls in Cuba. Men seem to like that.

I know I do.

I think it has something to do with the fact that unlike white women, black women have a pelvis thats almost as big as a mans. An anthropoid pelvis. And before you ask me how I know that, its because I used to be a nurse.

I wasnt surprised to learn this. Doa Marina put a premium on sexual health and hygiene and the staff at her house on Malecn included two nurses who were trained to deal with everything from a dose of jelly to a massive heart attack. Id heard it said that you had a better chance of surviving cardiac arrest at Casa Marina than you did at the University of Havana Medical School.

Santiagos a real melting pot, she continued. Jamaicans, Haitians, Dominicans, Bahamiansits Cubas most Caribbean city. And its most rebellious, of course. All of our revolutions start in Santiago. I think its because all of the people who live there are related in one way or another.

She twisted a cigarette into a little amber holder and lit it with a handsome silver Tallboy.

For example, did you know that Omara is related to the man who looks after your boat in Santiago?

I was beginning to see that there was some purpose behind Doa Marinas conversation, because it was not just Mr. Greene who was going to Haiti, it was me, too, only my trip was supposed to be a secret.