Stardust(69)

“What did you think when you were eighteen?” Ostermann said gently, putting a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Do you remember? I was for the Kaiser. A young man’s ideas. Things change. Maybe he changed, too. A flirtation and then you want to put it behind you.”

“Especially now,” Dieter said. “The way things are. Even at the school. Checking on everybody. So strict. What do they think we write on the blackboards?” He nodded toward Ostermann. “Maybe you can help me persuade The Conscience of Germany to keep his conscience to himself a little. It’s not a good time to show these opinions.”

“When was the good time, ’thirty-three?”

Dieter gave Ben a see-what-I-mean? look, then turned to the water. “Look, it’s setting. At the end, so fast.”

“Do you know why?” Liesl said, coming up to them, slipping her arm through Dieter’s.

“Of course,” he said, affectionate. “When the horizon line—”

She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m teasing. Of course you know everything. When are you going to show us the stars? I thought you were going to take us up the mountain.”

“You’re serious, you’re interested to go?” he said, including Ben. “Whenever you like. You have to stay overnight, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” she said, turning to Ben, her eyes meeting his in code again. “I’ll pack something warm.” Smiling now, handing him a room key. He smiled back, then toward the sunset before anyone could notice, feeling the color in his face.

“You know, I don’t think it can be true,” Ostermann said quietly to Ben, reassuring again. “The ones I knew—they talked about it. They liked to tell you. For them it was—the truth. It explained everything. Children. Daniel wasn’t like that. More—elastic. Anyway, does it matter so much now, what he thought?”


“YOU’VE GOT a hell of a nerve. How would I know?”

Howard Stein pushed back from his desk, as if he’d been touched by a cattle prod.

“I thought you were in the Party. That’s what I heard.”

“What are you, working for that fuck Tenney? Or did the studio send you? Lasner doesn’t like the pickets? He wants to nail us this way?”

“It’s a simple question.”

“Get a subpoena, you might get an answer. That’s how it works now.” He looked across the desk. “You have any idea what you’re getting into with this?”

“I just want to know about Danny. Somebody told me he was. So, was he? It’s not a crime, last time I heard.”

“Yeah, and it’s a free country.”

“He was a friend of yours.”

“That doesn’t make him anything.” He looked up. “It doesn’t make me anything, either.” He kept looking at Ben, hesitating, then stood up, taking his hat off the stand, his manner deliberately lighter. “But I’ll buy you a cup of coffee, you want some stories for your scrapbook.” He jerked his head toward the door, more than a suggestion. “He could be a funny guy.”

Before Ben could say anything more, they were heading down the stairs and into the glare of the street. Stein’s office was over a car showroom on Wilshire, not far from the Tar Pits, and the closest diner was empty at this hour, still waiting for school groups.

“You think I’m crazy, maybe you’re right, but I think they got the office wired. You talk about stuff like this, the board starts lighting up. Don’t bother,” he said, catching Ben’s look. “I know. Paranoid. I even know how to spell it. But I’m still walking around. It never hurt anybody, be a little careful. You, either.” He nodded to the waitress to bring the coffee pot. “First of all, I’m not in the Party. I left the Party. That’s for you, all right? Not the water cooler. Just something you heard around.”

“So was he?”

“You want him to be? Everybody else is running away from this and you want to hand him a card?”

“I just want to know.”

Stein waited until the waitress had poured their cups.

“The god’s truth? No. Not that I ever heard of. Or saw. Not one meeting. I’d swear to it. At least him I won’t have to. He’s dead. It’s the others they’ll want to get. Fuck ’em. It’s a funny thing about age—the memory goes. Not a goddam thing you can do about it.”

“Even under oath?”

“What, with Tenney? Up in Sacramento? What’s he going to do, put me away? I’ve been there, I’m not afraid of it.”

“You were in prison?”