“You saved his life. I didn’t really appreciate it at the time. Or thank you properly. What you did was very courageous.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I didn’t come to see you about Dinah. Oh, perhaps I just wanted to hear you reassure me that she couldn’t have done it, but I’d have known. A mother knows that kind of thing. She couldn’t have hid that from me.”

“So what did you come to see me about?”

“It’s Fredo. He’s been arrested by the SIM—the secret police—and accused of helping the former minister of education in the Prío government, Aureliano Sánchez Arango, to enter the country illegally.”

“And did he?”

“No, of course not. When he was arrested, however, he was with someone who is in the AAA. That’s the Association of Friends of Aureliano. It’s one of the leading opposition groups in Cuba. But Fredo’s loyalty is to Castro and the rebels on the Isle of Pines.”

“Well, I’m sure when he explains that, they’ll be happy to send him home.”

Noreen didn’t share the joke. “This isn’t funny,” she said. “They could still torture him in the hope that he’ll tell them where Aureliano is hiding. That would be doubly unfortunate, because of course he doesn’t know anything.”

“I agree. But I really don’t see what I can do.”

“You saved his life once, Bernie. Maybe you can do it again.”

“So López can have you instead of me?”

“Is that what you want, Bernie?”

“What do you think?” I shrugged. “Why not? Under the circumstances that’s not so very strange. Or have you forgotten?”

“Bernie, it was twenty years ago. I’m not the same woman I used to be. Surely you can see that.”

“Life will do that to you sometimes.”

“Can you do anything for him?”

“What makes you think that’s even a possibility?”

“Because you know Captain Sánchez. People say that you and he are friends.”

“What people?” I shook my head, exasperated. “Look, even if he was my friend—and I am not at all sure about that—Sánchez is militia. And you said yourself that López has been arrested by the SIM. That means it’s nothing to do with the militia.”

“The man who arrested Fredo was at the funeral of Max Reles,” said Noreen. “Lieutenant Quevedo. Perhaps, if you asked him, Captain Sánchez would speak to Lieutenant Quevedo. He could intercede.”

“And say what?”

“I don’t know. But you might think of something.”

“Noreen, it’s a hopeless case.”

“Aren’t they the ones you used to be good at?”

I shook my head and turned away.

“You remember that letter I wrote to you, when I left Berlin?”

“Not really. It was a very long time ago, like you said.”