by David Adkins
“What was that?” I asked.
Her stunning dark eyes seemed to be weighing me up. “I never told you the whole truth.” She sighed. “I had decided to tell you, but now I am sitting with you I am not so sure again.”
“Perhaps I can make it easy for you for I think I know the whole truth. I have spoken to Max Lucas but do please tell me anyway.”
She sighed. “What a disaster Max Lucas was. I should start by telling you how we work. We are given targets by HQ in Tel Aviv, but agents for the INH usually work alone unless absolutely needed, then we seek out local help. We are given the funds to hire such assistance and the unscrupulous rogues in the criminal fraternity are always a good place to search. Max Lucas was a petty criminal with large gambling debts and so he seemed ideal. I recruited him and set him up in the Russell Square apartment block where he was supposed to do a job for me.” She scowled. “I did not choose well for he proved incompetent.”
I nodded accepting her description of Max Lucas.
“I put a plan into operation that, with the help of Max, would result in the demise of the two targets. Max had told me that they were both in the building the night Nesterman was killed and that was his first mistake.”
“Deepdale was missing.”
She nodded. “The second and more serious mistake was him bungling things when the time came. I was to kill both Nesterman and Deepdale and he was to assist me in making that happen. It is for me to administer justice. As a result of his action Nesterman almost escaped. As he fled, Max killed him with a knife he happened to be carrying.”
“That is more or less the story Max told me.”
“You know then that I tried to get Max off and how I set about it. It is our policy that only those guilty of war crimes should die. I am afraid I used you to achieve my ends.”
“Yes I know that. Everybody uses me to achieve their ends,” I commented bitterly.
“I regret not telling you the truth and that I made you believe Max was innocent. If I had told you that he was guilty you would probably not have helped.”
“Poor fool that I am, I believed it already. Cassie Mitchell had made sure of that.”
Her eyebrows rose at my tone. “I thought you liked Cassie?”
“Not any more, Jenna.” I shrugged it off. “You say that you are the one to administer justice. How do you do that?” I remembered how Max had told me of the avenging angel standing over the kneeling Rupert Nesterman.
She sighed. “Where it is possible I like them to feel some of the fear that their thousands of victims felt. I like them to know that they are soon to die and to feel the terror of impending death. I want them to know they are on the way to hell. You may feel it sounds terrible, but that is true justice.” Her passion for the cause made her voice harsh.
“I can understand that, Jenna. Did Deepdale feel that terror?” I remembered the repugnance I felt for the arrogant former Nazi.
“Nesterman did. He was begging for his life and expressing remorse when Lucas stormed into the room. Deepdale was a cooler customer. He did not beg but I had the satisfaction of seeing terror in his eyes before I cut his throat.”
The ruthlessness of the beautiful woman sitting opposite me was unsettling. “He got what he deserved.”
“But you are repulsed by me and what I have told you,” she said.
“I am not repulsed by you,” I assured her. “I do find what you do a little harrowing. I am also glad you explained it to me for this was the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle.”
She took my hand. She smiled when I didn’t draw away.
I took her other hand. “So you are still dedicated to your work and a trip to America is on the agenda. Where are you going?”
“I fly to New York the day after tomorrow and then will travel to Atlantic City. I just wanted to see you first and explain things to you before I left.”
“I am glad you did. I thought when I walked out of the Mayfair Hotel that I would never see you again.”
She smiled. “I thought you might have joined me in the bed that night, but you were such a gentleman and stayed on the sofa.”
I laughed. “I thought that if I tried you might have dealt with me painfully.”
“I would not have hurt you, Steve. When we were in Tintree I wanted to demonstrate to you that we lived in different worlds.”
“It was a painful lesson and I am probably more a fool than a gentleman.”
“And there was always Cassie,” she said smiling, knowingly.
“I suppose there was… and the files I had looked through also dampened the mood.”
“Of course, for I am used to those distressing documents, but you are not.”
She released my hand and stood up. “I have told you what I wanted to tell you. It is time for me to go. Goodbye, Steve.” She lingered for a moment and seemed reluctant to leave.
I went to stand but she put her hand on my shoulder and kissed me on the forehead. “Look after yourself.”
“Goodbye Jenna,” I said and I watched as she left the cafe and I watched as she walked towards the exit of the station. Her slim, athletic body moved like poetry in motion. Her famous dark hair hung around her shapely shoulders. I felt empty. The adventure was over. When I returned home it was time to book my tickets to America and dream of the sun-drenched state of California and the new life that beckoned.
Chapter 18
Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th March
The next morning I booked my air tickets and packed. When I was finished, I felt the close reality of the new life that awaited me and it no longer seemed like a dream. I still felt empty but was also optimistic. I was a rich man and not too old to enjoy myself. Apparently a new craze of surfing now taking hold on Californian beaches so perhaps I would give it a try. My thoughts of glorious, white sand and azure, blue sea were shattered when the phone rang, making me jump and ruining the enticing images that had been forming in my head.
“Steve Coulson here,” I said with some degree of hesitancy for I wanted no more dramas before I left.
“Steve, it is so good to hear your voice.”
“What do you want, Cassie?” The coolness in my voice belied the pounding of my heart.
“I need to see you.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I flew home from Nice yesterday. I know you live in George Lane but you never did tell me the house number. Tell me the number and I will come and see you today and explain things. I am so sorry I hurt you and I want to make it up to you.”
I considered her words carefully. I knew if she came to my home she might try to end up in my bed. If she desired to she would try to put me under her spell once again. I felt much stronger now but I wished to deny her such an opportunity. I had been a blind fool but I had now figured out Cassandra Mitchell. “It is probably best we don’t meet.”
“I am finished with Max. I know I have been stupid and treated you badly. Please let me come to you and I will show you just how sorry I am.”
Her words were like the call of the sirens but I knew I must hold firm. If I let her come here there was a danger I would become infatuated all over again. “No, Cassie, you cannot come here. I will be leaving the country tomorrow and so there is no point.”
“Then that is all the more reason for me to see you. I must speak with you before you go. Please Steve.”
I was weakening. “Where are you now?”
“I stayed last night with my friend Marsha who lives near the Gaiety Theatre.”
“I will meet you at the Lyons Tea House on the Strand, where we first met, in two hours,” I said.
“I’ll be there.”
“I will see you soon then.” I put down the phone wondering if I had made a mistake, but she could not so easily work her charms on me in the busy Tea House. I was curious to hear what she had to say, and though I knew meeting her was a possible act of self-destruction, I resolved to stay strong and was confident I could do so.
I strolled
to Ladywell Station and reflected that once again I was on my way to Central London. It seemed every time I travelled to London I told myself it would be the last time and then something else unforeseen would come up.
I knew I would have to stay strong and fight temptation. Cassie had been the epitome of beauty and desire for me. She had either left Max to find greener pastures or she was still obsessed with him and doing his bidding. I wondered if he too had returned to London. I hoped if he had that his reception in the city would prove difficult for him. As I neared Lyons I could see Cassie sitting at an empty table overlooking the busy street looking every bit the temptress. Even at this distance I could see the beauty with which I had become so intoxicated. I took a deep breath and entered the establishment and went over to her.
“I was saving the table, Steve,” she smiled, her deep blue seductive eyes as rich as the blue Mediterranean Sea.
“I will go and get two coffees,” I said coldly, trying not to let my soul get lost in her allure.
“That would be good,” she replied.
As I went to the counter I recalled the treatment I had received at her hands in that Mont-Carlo hotel and I felt stronger. I returned to the table with the two coffees on a tray and placed the tray on the table. I had got over the initial contact and now felt less susceptible to her charms. “What did you wish to speak with me about?” I asked.
“Steve, I have been a fool. I was crazy about Max but now I see him for what he is.”
“What is he?” I asked.
“He is a loser, a petty criminal, and a compulsive gambler. I thought I was in love with him, but I see now it was an infatuation. I realize now that it is you I love.”
I smiled at her audacity. “That is a sudden change of heart.”
“You are strong, reliable, and a good man. You helped me when I was in distress and I feel terrible about the way I took advantage of you. Will you forgive me?”
“How much did you know, Cassie? Did you know Max really did murder Rupert Nesterman?”
She gasped. “No I did not. I believed him to be innocent. Did he really kill him?”
I did not know whether to believe her or not. “I would not lie to you,” I replied.
She shuddered. “To think we helped a killer.” She accepted my words without dispute.
“What did he tell you then, Cassie?”
“He gave me £5,000 to look after. He said he had won it gambling but he did not trust himself with it. He said he had some business to conduct and after that we would go away together. The murder of that poor man must have been the business but I did not dream he had committed the murder. You must believe me.”
“I believe you,” I replied, but I was still not sure.
“He asked me to recruit help for he did not trust his lawyer. I found you but then I grew to care about you. I still loved Max but I was also growing to love you. It was all so difficult and confusing and Max was so persistent. I was a stupid girl and the appeal of Monte-Carlo with Max was so enticing. I am so sorry.”
“And then you found out that Max was not quite the clever and irresistible man you thought he was.”
“That is right. I found out he was unscrupulous and cruel as he was to you in the hotel room. I am ashamed that I supported him in this. I found out his gambling was an addiction and this made him untrustworthy. I found out that it was inevitable that whatever money came his way he would lose it.”
“So he lost all his £5,000 in Monte-Carlo?”
She nodded sadly. “The whole lot,” she replied.
“Did he return to England with you?”
“No, he is still in Monaco. He seems worried about returning home and I am not surprised after what you have told me. I do not want anything more to do with him.”
“Tomorrow I fly to America and our ways will part forever. You could go to the Gaiety Theatre and try to get your old job back on the chorus line. That is where you will be happy. I am sure with your assets that should not be difficult, but my advice is to stay away from Max Lucas.”
“I intend to stay away from him but I do not have to go back to the Gaiety and beg for my old job back. There is something else I could do.”
“What is that?”
“I could go to America with you.” Her eyes were imploring and her suggestion would once have been so difficult to resist.
I summoned my strength. “That is not possible after all that has passed.”
“But it is Steve. I know you still love me and I love you.” She reached out and held my hand. “We could start a new life together and I would make you so happy.”
“It is not possible.”
A tear trickled down her lovely cheek. “But it is possible. Don’t you see?”
“But we need money to start a new life together and a lot of it. Without money… the hardship would destroy our happiness.”
“But I thought you had money.”
“So Max told you I possessed £55,000 to get my new life off to a good start,” I smiled but of course I had known all along that Max had told her.
She shrugged. “Yes, he mentioned it, but that’s not why I am here. I’m here because I want to be with you.”
“I wish I could believe you, but I can’t.”
“But I am here now. Isn’t that enough?”
I shook my head.
She squeezed my hand and made one last effort. “Everything I have said is true. Imagine how happy we could be.” She was trying hard and using her abundant charms. It was a good job that we were sitting in a busy Lyons Tea House or I might have not been so strong.
I placed an envelope on the table.
“What is that?”
“I did love you. I was infatuated with you… and you enslaved me. I would have done anything for you, but you humiliated me in that room in the Metropole Hotel. This,” I tapped the envelope pensively, “this is a parting gift because I still care about you.”
She released my hand and picked up the envelope.
“Before you open it you must promise me one thing.”
“What?” she asked.
“You will not give one penny to Max Lucas. I want you to promise for your own good.”
She opened the envelope and her eyes bulged at the cheque for £5,000 payable to Cassandra Mitchell. “I promise,” she said. It seemed the cheque had encouraged her to give up and she had conveniently forgotten about accompanying me to the United States of America.
“I mean it. If Lucas knows you have that money, he will try and get it from you and gamble it away.”
“I know that,” she said placing the cheque in her bag. “Like you, I learn from my mistakes.”
She stood up. “There seems little more to say except thank you.”
“So it seems,” I responded.
“I would have made you very happy.”
“But I never could have trusted you.”
She looked down at that, then seemed to gather herself. “Goodbye, Steve.”
I took a deep breath, knowing the finality of this moment. “Goodbye Cassie.” I watched as the beautiful blond woman with the stunning blue eyes and immaculate figure left. I knew that I would never see her again. It was fitting that the last place I would see her was the place we had first met just six weeks previously. My life had totally changed in that short time and all because of her.
*
The next morning I set off early for Heathrow. After checking my baggage, I had an unremarkable airport breakfast before sitting down to listen for the announcement that would inform me that boarding had started for my flight. After a short wait I heard the announcement that the flight was now boarding and I made my way to gate, where I found boarding had started.
I walked across the tarmac to the waiting aircraft and climbed aboard. I was ready to leave England and begin my new life. I trundled down the aisle to find my allocated seat. The aircraft was almost empty as I was one of the first to board. I sat down and made myself comfortable for I knew that a flight of
this duration could possibly prove tedious. I looked around me at my fellow passengers and waited with bated breath. I waited for ten minutes before a voice broke my surveillance.
“Excuse me, is that seat taken?”
I looked up, and a wide smile bloomed across my face as I saw the familiar woman. “I was saving it for you.”
She sat down and called the stewardess over. “By some amazing coincidence I find that a good friend is on this flight. This is my boarding pass so would you please see if the person who has booked this seat would mind changing with me.”
“Certainly madam,” she said examining the pass.
I looked at her and smiled again. “I reasoned that as this is the only flight to New York today you must be on it.”
“But I thought we had agreed we live in different worlds and our ways must part.”
“Did we really agree that, Jenna? If we did I have had a change of mind.”
“What about the blond girl?”
“What blond girl?” I replied.
She chuckled, but quickly grew somber. “Steve, I like you. In fact, I more than just like you, which is why I wanted to see you before I left, but my one purpose in life has been my work and it is often demanding and gory work. I thought that it repulsed you.”
“It is difficult to come to terms with it at times, but you have already avenged many unfortunate victims.” I looked her straight in the eyes with a challenge. “Do you need to avenge more?”
“There are always lost souls crying out for justice.”
“But do you have to administer it personally?” I asked earnestly.
The stewardess was leaning over us. “Excuse me madam, but the gentleman who had this seat has agreed to swap with you.”
“Thank you,” said Jenna.
Once the stewardess left I continued. “I do not even know your real name. Is it Maria or Jenna or something else? May I see your passport?”
She handed me her passport and I flipped open the cover to see Jenna Kaplan.
“Jenna is my real name. You have given me a glimpse of another world. I know it is a world where I could be happy.” She stared out the window. “I also know that I cannot go on killing Nazis forever. Perhaps one day one will kill me.”