‘When I found out that Adletsky chose you for his brain trust, I realized that I had overlooked something,’ said Amy.

‘Yes? I rose in your esteem? And yet we’ve known each other for a lifetime, almost.’

‘Old Adletsky must believe you can help me – that you want to do it.’

‘And that I’d be ideal company for an exhumation.’

‘I really can’t take that word. It came up again and again when I applied for the papers. Let’s say a reburial … I don’t suppose anybody knew Jay longer than you.’

‘Are you considering Madge’s proposition?’

‘Do you think the old guy figured Madge poured tea on me because she wanted us to be alone for a private moment?’

‘He’s very quick to make connections. Anyway, he intuits my feeling for you. He’s picked up quite a few subliminal hints …’

‘Please, Harry – louder. Most of your communication has got to be inward, so that even when you’re with somebody else you more than half talk to yourself.’

I think very fast, then I edit the thoughts just as quickly. But it’s hard for speech to keep up. It may be the thick lips that make articulation difficult.

‘To finish with Adletsky. I have a most basic lifelong feeling toward you, Amy. It’s something not possible to conceal from a skillful observer. In my feelings, I’ve always had an open direct line to you. It’s from my nature, not from my character. My character is compromised. But not even a compromised – okay, a mutilated character could change my nature.’

‘I don’t exactly follow that, but has old Mr Adletsky been able to pick up something so deeply buried?’

I said, ‘You must be aware that dealing with someone like Madge Heisinger, you have to prepare for all kinds of perversity. You can’t count on the business side of the relationship – the proposed relationship. You must consider the proposition separately.’

‘Separate it from what?’

‘Why, is she a businesswoman? Or is she a psychopath, a crazy, a sociopath, a criminal?’

‘I understand you one hundred percent,’ said Amy. ‘In your mind, just for the interest of it, what does this come to?’

‘I see the logic she’s following,’ I said.

‘I fail to see any.’

‘We have to see her idea as she sees it: because and because and because. Now, therefore … when you’re in jail, among women who describe their lives to one another, something like a motive may develop to get some good, to extract it from so much bad, and in our country something good is most usually a business idea – the imagination of a profitable enterprise. In other words, “How would it be if …?” “Or, here’s a million-dollar idea!” So your aberrations lead to a conclusion that recruits you to your country and returns you to your civilization.’

I can’t swear that Amy was following this. Over a long time, she had probably taught herself to write off sixty percent of what I said. As a friend of the family, I did often sound off at the Wustrins’ dinner table.