On the thirteenth, Bernard Tate called a man he had known for forty years at the State Department, and the man made a call to Lisbon.
On the fourteenth day, at 4:15 in the afternoon, my phone rang from a Portuguese number.
A woman’s voice, in careful English.
“Mrs. Fenton? This is Inspector Sousa with the Judicial Police in Lisbon. I’m calling from the Langford Hotel. I have your son here. He is safe. He is sitting beside me. He would like to speak with you, and then I would like to tell you about a flight.”
PART 4
Spencer came back on the sixteenth day because he had no choice.
The Portuguese court, presented with Judge Harwood’s order and a request from the State Department, had declined to let him enroll a child in a school on a ninety-day tourist visa, and had suggested, with the politeness of people who have the power to do otherwise, that he and his son return to Virginia on the next available flight.
