Numbered Account

"Yes, yes. I swear it." Lina nodded her head furiously. "The Makdisis found me in Jounieh. They spoke first with my mother. They offered her much money. One thousand dollars American. My mother took me aside and told me of their offer. "What do such men wish me to do?' I asked her. One of the Makdisis answered. He was a short, fat man with gray hair and very big eyes, eyes like oysters. 'Lina, we want you only to look. To watch. To learn.' 'What am I to learn?' I asked. 'Just watch,' he said. 'We will contact you.'

"They wanted nothing specific?"

"No. Just for me to watch you."

"And?"

Lina licked her lips and opened her eyes as wide as they might stretch. "Yes, I watched you. I know you begin work at seven in the morning and that often you remain in your office until I go to sleep. Sometimes, you do not recite the mid-morning prayers. I think it is because they bore you, not because you forget. On the rest day, you watch the TV. Soccer all day."

Mevlevi was surprised at the alacrity with which she revealed her crimes. The girl actually believed herself innocent.

She said, "Once, I swear only once, I looked through your desk when you were not at home. I am sorry. But I found nothing. Nothing at all. I do not understand so many numbers. What I saw meant nothing to me."

Mevlevi brought his hands together as if to pray. "An honest child," he exclaimed. "Thanks be to Allah. You spoke of numbers. Please go on."

"I do not understand so many numbers. What is there to see? You work, work, work. On the telephone all the day long."

Mevlevi smiled as if her confession pleased him. "Now, Lina, you must tell exactly what you reported to the Makdisis."

"Nothing, I swear." She cast her eyes to the floor. "Only a little. Sometimes on Sundays, when I visited my mother, he would call."

"Who?"

"Mr. Makdisi. He wanted to know what you do all day long. What time you get up, when you eat, if you go out. Nothing else. I swear."

"And this, of course, you told him," Mevlevi suggested as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

"Yes, of course. He paid my mother so much money. What harm could it do?"

"Of course, darling. I understand." He stroked Lina's soft tresses. "Tell me now, did he ask you about my money? About banks? About how I pay my partners?"

"No, no, he never asked that. Never."

Mevlevi frowned. He was certain that it was Albert Makdisi who had fed information about his transfers to the American DEA. Makdisi had long wanted to go direct to Mong. Eliminate the middleman. "Lina, I prefer it when you tell me the truth."

"Please, Al-Mevlevi, you must believe me. No questions about money. He only wants to know about where you spend the day. If you travel. Nothing about money."

Mevlevi pulled a silver Minox camera from his pocket. He passed the camera before Lina's eyes, then under her nose as if it were a fine cigar. "And so darling, what is this?"

"I don't know. A small camera? Maybe I have seen one in stores."

"No, cherie. You have never seen one like this in any store."

"It is not mine."

"Of course not," he cooed. "And this charming little device?" He presented for her inspection a casing of matte black metal, no larger than a deck of cards. From one end he pulled a blunt rubber antenna.

Lina stared at the metal object. "I do not know what this is," she said indignantly. "You tell me."

"Me tell you?" Mevlevi peered over his shoulder at Joseph. "She wants us to tell her?"

Joseph looked on impassively.

Mevlevi said, "I'll let you in on a secret. When Max Rothstein told me that Albert Makdisi had brought you to Little Maxim's, I went with Joseph to search your quarters. You see, my dear, Max's word simply wasn't good enough. Not to condemn you, it wasn't. I had to be sure for myself. We found this pretty device- it's a radio, actually- along with the camera in that clever hole you fashioned in the flooring under your bed." Mevlevi held the small transmitter beneath her eyes. "Tell me about your radio. So petite, so compact. Frankly, I'd have thought such a toy far beyond the Makdisis' clumsy grasp."

Lina grew agitated. She fumbled with her hands and ground her ankles together. "Stop it!" she screamed. "There is no hole in my room. That camera doesn't belong to me. Neither does the radio. I've never seen them before. I swear it."

"The truth, Lina." Mevlevi's voice assumed a velvety monotone. "Here we speak only the truth. Come now. You were doing so well just a few moments ago."

"I am no spy. I never listened to that radio. I own no camera."

Mevlevi drew nearer Lina. "What did you say?" His voice was filled with an urgency until now absent, his posture suddenly rigid.

"I never listened to the radio," moaned Lina. "If I want music, I go to the living room. Why would I need a transistor radio?"