Voices of the dead

“Open it, will you.” She glanced at Hess. “Thank you very much. We won’t keep you.”

He drew the Luger from under his jacket. “I can’t leave just yet. I must ask you some questions.”

The phone rang. The woman looked over at it on the table next to the couch.

“What is this about?” Lukiski said.

“The witness,” Hess said. “Is there somewhere we can go and talk?”

He brought a desk chair in from the bedroom, sitting with his legs crossed, Luger resting in his lap. He was looking at their backs, the two of them kneeling in front of him on the white tile floor, facing the tub. She was even more attractive without clothes, flawless white skin, and red nipples. Leon was short-limbed, covered with hair and looked to Hess like photographs he had seen of early man.

“Why are you doing this?” Her tiny voice echoed off the tile.

He was tying up loose ends. She turned her head, trying to look at him. They all did. In the face of death they did whatever they had to do to survive. “Turn your head back. Look straight.” It had always been more difficult to kill someone who was looking at you. It became too personal if you were making eye contact. It threw off your concentration. “Do you know who I am?”

“Hess,” Irena Pronicheva said, voice accusatory. “I thought you looked familiar when I saw you come up the stairs but the uniform fooled me.”

“Where is the woman, the survivor?” He knew she lived in Palm Beach, Florida, but not her address. He had gone through some of the confiscated files from the ZOB. He had listened to the illuminating conversation between Lisa Martz and Frau Cantor, the American Jewess explaining how they were going to prosecute that Nazi murderer and bring him to justice.

He was surprised to learn that five Jews had dug their way out of the mass grave. It did not speak well of their skill as marksmen. But there had been extenuating circumstances. Half of his men were drunk on schnapps. He should have waited until the job was finished before passing out the bottles, but the mass killings had disturbed a number of them, some became physically ill.

They had caught and shot three survivors the next morning, during the Jew hunt. He remembered finding the little kikes, thinking they had escaped and then realizing they were going to die. Seeing that had been one of his more pleasurable memories of Dachau.

And now, if he could believe what Rausch had told him about Harry Levin, there was only one witness left, and of course the journalist.

“Tell me about Frau Cantor. How did she survive?”

“A farmer took her in.”

A traitor, Hess was thinking.

“She lived within a few kilometers of Dachau until the war ended.”

Unbelievable. He had probably visited the farm, talked to the farmer. “Do you, by chance, know his name?”

“I do not.”

“Would you tell me if you did?”

“No.”

They were both moving, trying to ease the pressure on their knees. “I know you are uncomfortable. It will not be much longer.”

“What do you have against us? The war ended twenty-seven years ago. We were not even born.”

It was more complicated than that. But he wasn’t going to try to explain it. He raised the Luger, aimed at the back of Leon Lukiski’s head and felt a rush of adrenalin.

It was still pumping ten minutes later. He could feel his heart bouncing in his chest. Nothing like this pure high, this surge of power, fingers shaking as he wiped the blood off Leon’s eyeglasses and slid them in his shirt pocket. He found a bottle of schnapps in a cabinet in the kitchen, poured a glass and drank it, trying to calm down.

26

Harry called the valet and asked to have his car brought up and driven to a gaststatte down the street. He wasn’t taking any chances. There was a sizable tip in it for someone. He and Cordell took the elevator down, walked out through the stockroom and down an alley. They came out on Konigsplatz a block from the hotel. He scanned the street, didn’t see any Blackshirts hanging around. They walked down to the beer garden and met the valet in the parking lot. Harry gave him twenty-five Deutschmarks and they got in the car.

“Harry, that was some slick shit. You like a spy or something?”

“Looking out for you,” Harry said.

“Since when?” Cordell flashed a smile. “No offense, Harry, but I’ve got to get away from you.”

“I don’t blame you,” Harry said.

“Always tell it like it is, don’t you?” Cordell grinned. “Don’t get me wrong, you cool, but you bad luck.”

“I can’t disagree with you,” Harry said.

He drove to Odeonsplatz, parked and waited. It was 5:50 p.m. “I told Colette to meet us here.”

At 6:15 Cordell said, “I don’t think she got the message.”

“She may not be back yet,” Harry said. “I’m going to try her again.” He could see a familiar yellow phone booth across the plaza. He opened the door and got out of the car.

Harry dialed Colette’s number, got her answering machine again and hung up. He called the hotel, asked if he had any messages. Nothing. Went back to the car and got in.

“What’s up?”

“Colette still isn’t there.”

“Try her later.”