Answered Prayers

"This is Mrs. McCloud's son," Aces explained, showing me the picture in the frame: a chubby-cheeked solemn child muffled in mufflers and a fur coat and fur hat and holding a snowball. And then I noticed that placed around the room, there were really dozens of pictures of this same boy at varying ages.

"Lovely. How old is he now?"

"Five. Well, he'll be five in April." She resumed brushing her hair, but harshly, destructively. "It was a nightmare. I was never allowed once to see him alone. Dear Uncle Frederick and beloved Uncle Otto. The two old maids. They were always there. Watching. Counting the kisses and ready to show me the door the moment my hour was up." She threw the brush across the room, which made Mutt bark. "My own baby."

The Black Duchess cleared her throat; it sounded like a crow gargling. She said: "Kidnap him."

Kate McCloud laughed and collapsed against a heap of Porthault pillows. "Odd, though. You're the second person who's said that to me within the past week." She lit a cigarette. "It isn't quite true that I never went out in St. Moritz. I did. Twice. Once to di

Mme. Apfeldorf said: "Was Dolores there?"

"Where?"

"At the Shah's party."

"There were so many people, I can't remember. Why?"

"Nothing. Just rumors. Who gave it?"

Kate McCloud shrugged. "One of the Greeks. The Livanos, I think. And after di

"Sounds as though he hasn't changed much since we were at school together in Gstaad. Le Rosey."

"And I had Niarchos sitting next to me, which was no help. He had enough Cognac in him to pickle a rhinoceros. He started at me, very belligerently, and said: 'Look me in the eye.' Well, I couldn't-his eyes were unfocused. 'Look me in the eye and tell me what makes you happiest in the world?' I told him sleep. He said: 'Sleep. That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. You'll have thousands of years to sleep. Now I'll tell you what makes me happiest. To hunt. To kill. Prowl through the jungles and kill a tiger, an elephant, a lion. Then I am a peaceful man. Happy. What do you say to that?' And I said: "That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. To kill and destroy, that seems to me a very pathetic thing to call happiness.'"

The Black Duchess inclined her head, agreeing: "Yes, the Greeks are dark-minded. The rich Greeks. They bear the same resemblance to humans as coyotes do to dogs. Coyotes look like dogs; but of course they aren't dogs—"

Aces intervened to comment: "But, Kate, you like to hunt. How do you account for that?"

"I like to play at hunting. I like the walking and the wilderness. The only thing I ever shot was a Kodiak bear, and that was in self-defense."

"You shot a man," Aces reminded her.

"Only in the legs. And he deserved it. He killed a white leopard." Cori

Aces said: "The Virginia Hill?"

"Well, I didn't realize she was all that famous until Mingo told me. I'd never heard of her."

"Nor I," said Mme. Apfeldorf. "Who is she? An actress?"

"A gangster's moll," Aces informed her. "The Most Wanted woman. The F. B. I. have pictures of her posted in every post office in America. I read an article about her, it was called 'The Mado

"Mon Dieu, " said Mme. Apfeldorf, making a sign of the cross. "She must be a very frightened woman."

"Not frightened. Despairing, even suicidal perhaps; but she wears a jovial mask very convincingly. She kept putting her arm around me, squeezing me and saying: 'It sure is good to talk to somebody from down home. Hell, you can take the whole of Europe and cram it up your shithole. See my hand?' She showed me her hand; it was wrapped in plaster and gauze, and she said: 'I caught my husband in bed with one of these ladeda bimbos, and I broke her jaw. I would've broken his, too. If he hadn't jumped out the window. I guess you know all about my troubles stateside; but sometimes I feel I'd be better off to go home and get it over with. I can't be more in a jail there than I am here.'»

Aces said: "But what was she really like? Is she beautiful?"

Kate considered. "Never beautiful, but pretty, cute, like a cute little carhop. She has a nice face, but two chins to go with it. And I can't imagine what her tits weigh—at least a couple of kilos."

"Please, Kate," complained the Black Duchess. "You know how I dislike those words. Tits."

"Oh, yes. I always forget. You were educated by Brazilian nuns. Anyway, what I started to say was, suddenly this woman pressed her lips against my ear and whispered: 'Why don't you kidnap him?' I simply looked at her; I had no idea what she was talking about. She said: 'You know all about me but I know quite a lot about you. How you married that Kraut bastard and how he kicked you out and kept the kid. Listen, I'm a mother, too. I have a boy. And I know how you feel. With his money, and these European laws, the only way you're going to get that kid back is by kidnapping him."'

Mutt whined; Aces jingled some coins in his pocket; Mme. Apfeldorf said: "I think she's quite correct. And it could be done."

"Yes, it could," said Aces. "A damned dangerous business. But it could be done."

"How?" Kate McCloud shouted, pounding her fists into the pillows. "You know that house. It's a fortress. I could never get him out of there. Not with old-maid uncles always watching. And the servants."

Aces said: "Still, that part of it might be accomplished. With exemplary pla

"And then what? Once the alarm was sounded, I'd never get within ten miles of the Swiss frontier."

"But suppose," croaked Mme. Apfeldorf, "suppose you didn't try to cross the frontier. By car, I mean. Suppose you had a private Grumman jet waiting for you in the valley. All aboard, and off we go."

"To where?"

"To America!"

Aces was excited: "Yes! Yes! Once you were in the States, Herr Jaeger would be helpless. You could file for divorce, and there's no judge in America who wouldn't give you custody of Heinie."

"Daydreams. Pipedreams. Mr. Jones," she said, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long. The massage table is in the closet over there."

"Pipedreams. Perhaps. But I'd think about it," said the Black Duchess, rising. "let's have lunch next week."

Aces kissed Kate McCloud on the cheek. "I'll call you later, darling. Take good care of my girl, P. B. And when you're finished, look me up in the bar."

While I was setting up the massage table, Mutt jumped on the bed and squatted to peepee. I started to grab her. "No harm. Many worse things have happened in this bed. She's so ugly she's adorable. I love her black face with those big white circles around her eyes. Like a Panda. How old is he?"

"Three, maybe four months. Mr. Nelson gave her to me."