“Well, it turns out they were looking for me. After the funeral I was recognized. By one of my mother’s servants. He told me that unless I gave him some ludicrously large sum of money, he would tell the authorities where to find me. I thought I’d stalled him. I went back to my hotel, intending to check out and go home immediately, only to find that the International Patrol was waiting there for me already. Since then I’ve been walking around Vienna. Staying in bars and cafés. For fear that I couldn’t go and stay in another hotel or pension. Last night I went to the Oriental and allowed myself to be picked up by a girl, and spent the night with her. Not that anything happened, mind. But I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.”

He shrugged, almost as if he agreed with me. “Where have you been living until now? I mean outside Vienna.”

“Garmisch-Partenkirchen,” I said. “It’s a quiet little place. No one pays me any attention there.”

“Can you go back there?”

“No,” I said. “Not now. The person who told me to get out of Vienna also knew where I’d been living. I doubt he’ll hesitate to inform the Allied authorities in Germany.”

“And this girl you stayed with last night,” he said. “Can she be trusted?”

“As long as I keep paying her, yes, I think so.”

“Does she know anything about you? Anything at all.”

“No. Nothing.”

“Keep it that way, please. And she doesn’t know that you’ve come here today?”

“No, of course not, Father,” I said. “No one does.”

“Can you stay with her for one more night?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact I’ve already arranged it.”

“Good,” he said. “Because I’m going to need at least twenty-four hours to make some arrangements to get you out of Vienna, to a safe house. Is that all your luggage?”

“It is now. The rest is in the hotel. I don’t dare go back for it.”