She inhaled deeply. “Do you remember that Nazi from the kiosk?”
“I do.”
“I mentioned my neighbor…” The burden of her guilt stacked upon her like boulders, crushing the breath from her lungs. “How he asked me for a copy of Time magazine that I happened to have and how enthusiastically he’d received it. The next day, the PVDE came to his apartment where they beat him and abducted him in the middle of the night.” She looked away, too ashamed to see James’s reaction to her harmful mistake. “It was so stupid, I know, but I… I am so awkward sometimes and there was this gap of silence in the conversation… It just popped out.”
“Taking a copy of Time magazine from you is not illegal in Portugal,” James replied in so gentle a tone, she glanced up at him.
His face was earnest, his eyes lacking the censure she so justly deserved. “In fact, there are several people who help the Allies obtain certain periodicals as trade for Life and Time. The PVDE was there for some other reason.”
“Yes, I know that,” Ava said. “About the people who receive those magazines in exchange for helping us, I mean. But what if my mentioning him put the focus on my neighbor and that revealed whatever it was that caused his arrest?”
“Then you are not at fault. His actions were his own.”
If only it were so easy to brush aside an inflamed sense of guilt.
“Don’t you think the timing is strange?” she pressed. “I mention it to the Nazi and the next night, my neighbor gets arrested?”
Two men strode toward them, heads lowered beneath their fedoras, their identities obscured. James gently put his hand to Ava’s lower back and guided her forward, away from the strangers. “Come, we shouldn’t linger in the street.”
Ava allowed herself to be nudged onward, but she would not drop the topic so easily. “I want to find out what happened to him.”
James’s brows shot up. “From the PVDE?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, here we are.” He stopped in front of a blue-and-gold kiosk and ordered two capilé. The watery red drinks were served on ice with a neat lemon curl resting atop the liquid.
Ava accepted her cup with a nod of thanks and took a sip. The drink was light and refreshing with a delicate grassy note, a hint of orange blossom, and the slightest whisper of citrus.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” James asked. “It’s made from maidenhair leaves.”
“The fern?” Ava thoughtfully regarded her capilé. The glass had begun to sweat, leaving a frosting of condensation over the smooth surface.
He nodded and drank some of his, the ice cubes lightly clicking against one another as he did so. “Isn’t that fascinating?”
“It is.” Ava narrowed her eyes slightly. “Are you trying to distract me from what I was saying about my neighbor?”
“Absolutely.” He lowered his glass. “Anything involving the PVDE is terribly dangerous. They would not take kindly to you inquiring after their business.”
She gathered as much based on their brutal treatment of her neighbor when they arrested him. A shiver rippled down her spine.
“I feel responsible,” she said miserably.
“You are not.”
“And I wouldn’t be asking about the police, only the man who disappeared.”
“I can ask after the man for you, but even I won’t goad the PVDE beast.” He drained the last of the drink as though the matter were resolved.
“What?” She shook her head with a frown. “No, I refuse to let you take the risk for me. I merely wanted to know where to start.”