'No, it's not that. It's just that you and Senor Greene look at people in a certain way. As if you're trying to look inside them. Like a spiritualist. Or perhaps like a policeman. You both have very searching eyes that seem to look straight through a person. It's really most intimidating.'

It was hard to imagine Dona Marina being intimidated by anything or anyone. She was always as relaxed as an iguana on a sun-warmed rock.

'Senor Greene, eh?' I wasn't in the least bit surprised that Dona Marina had used his name. The Casa Marina was not the kind of place where you felt obliged to use a false one. You needed a reference just to get through the front door. 'Perhaps he is a policeman. With feet as big as his I wouldn't be at all surprised.'

'He's a writer.'

'What kind of a writer?'

'Novels. Westerns, I think. He told me he writes under the name of Buck Dexter.'

'Never heard of him. Does he live in Cuba?'

'No, he lives in London. But he always visits us when he's in Havana.'

'A traveller, eh?'

'Yes. Apparently he's on his way to Haiti this time.' She smiled. 'You don't see the likeness, now?'

'No, not really,' I said firmly and was pleased when she seemed to change the subject.

'How was it with Omara today?'

I nodded. 'Good.'

'You like her, yes?'

'Very much.'

'She's from Santiago,' said Dona Marina as if this explained everything. 'All of my best girls come from Santiago. They're the most African-looking girls in Cuba. Men seem to like that.'

'I know I do.'

'I think it has something to do with the fact that unlike white women, black women have a pelvis that's almost as big as a man's. An anthropoid pelvis. And before you ask me how I know that it's because I used to be a nurse.'

I wasn't surprised to learn this. Dona Marina put a premium on sexual health and hygiene and the staff at her house on Malecon included two nurses who were trained to deal with everything from a dose of jelly to a massive heart-attack. I'd heard it said that you had a better chance of surviving cardiac arrest at Casa Marina than you did at the University of Havana Medical School.