“I know. I’m not so pretty anymore. Only, that ought to make it easier for you to believe me. You’ve seen that girl. She was every sailor’s hard-on. I was grateful. What’s the expression you have in English? ‘You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’? And if it comes to that, then neither should you, Captain. You’ve got nothing on me and plenty on her. You know she shot the petty officer. It’s obvious. And it only starts to get complicated when you try to tie me in to some kind of rebel conspiracy. Me? I was looking forward to a nice vacation with lots of sex. I had plenty of money with me, because I was planning to buy myself a bigger boat, and there’s no law against that. Like I already told you, I have a good job. At the National Hotel. I have a nice apartment on the Malecón, in Havana. I drive a newish Chevy. Now, why would I give all that up for Karl Marx and Fidel Castro? You tell me that Melba, or María, or whatever her name is, that she’s a communist. I didn’t know that. Maybe I should have asked her, only I prefer talking dirty when I’m in bed, not politics. She wants to go around shooting cops and American sailors, then I say she should go to jail.”

“Not very gallant of you,” said Captain Mackay.

“Gallant? What does it mean—‘gallant’?”

“Chivalrous.” The captain shrugged. “Gentlemanly.”

“Ah, cortés. Caballeroso. Yes, I see.” I shrugged back at him. “And how would that sound, I wonder. She was only trying to protect me? Give her a break, Captain, she’s just a kid? The girl had a tough childhood? All right. If it makes any difference, you know, I really think the girl was scared. Like I already said, you know what will happen when you hand her over to the local law. If she’s lucky, they’ll let her keep her clothes on when they parade her around the police cells. And maybe they’ll beat her with an ox-dick whip only every other day. But I doubt it.”

“You don’t sound too upset about it,” said the cop with dandruff.

“I’ll certainly pray for her. Maybe I’ll even pay for a lawyer. Experience informs me that paying is more useful than praying. The Lord and I don’t get on the way we used to.”

The captain sneered.