“Erase that smug expression from your face, Herr Obergruppenführer, it used to be Heydrich’s thing,” I told him later when he came up to the window I was standing by, waiting for my husband who was still talking to Reichsführer.
“You can say whatever you want, but now I know your little secret.” Dr. Kaltenbrunner almost purred the last word into my ear with his Austrian accent. “You would die for me.”
His hand that he put on my back, too low to consider it a decent move, was burning through my dress like red hot steel.
“So what?” I turned to him. “You covered me with your body, you would die for me too.”
I expected some indecent joke about how he would love to cover me with his body in a more intimate atmosphere, but Dr. Kaltenbrunner almost wasn’t drinking tonight, so he simply answered after a pause, “Yes, I would.” He brushed my cheek with his hand, and I quickly walked away before he would kiss me right there, in front of everybody, and I knew he was capable of something like that.
He still followed me around all evening, completely ignoring all norms of etiquette. He brought me an after-dinner drink and persuaded me to accept it saying that it was some special amaretto from Italy that nobody besides the Führer, Reichsführer and General Goering had. Pointing out that I was all by myself while Heinrich was talking to Himmler, he sat on the little sofa I was sitting on, and sat so close that he was touching my leg with his knee every time he needed to use an ashtray, which was on the little coffee table next to me.
“Stop doing that,” I finally told him after noticing more and more inquisitive looks from Reichsführer’s guests.
“Doing what?” he asked innocently, leaning over me again and this time openly pressing his body against mine, taking much longer to shake the ash off his cigarette than needed.
“This.” I moved away a little under his very amused gaze; he was clearly enjoying his game. “People are watching.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? Or maybe this is bothering you more?” He put his hand between us and slightly brushed my hip with his fingers through the thin material of my dress.
“Stop it this instant!” I whisper-yelled at the insolent Chief of the RSHA, hardly restraining myself from smacking his hand.
“I can’t. You saved my life and I want to express my gratitude to you. Would you do me an honor and follow me to the Reichsführer’s guest bedroom?”
“You are something else!” I jumped from my seat straightening my dress. “I start thinking that I shouldn’t have saved you at all!”
I heard Dr. Kaltenbrunner laughing out loud as I turned around and started walking away. He really was something else!
Later Heinrich would ask me why would I risk my life for him, and I wouldn’t know what to say. Because I wasn’t thinking at that moment probably? Because I just did it… Because he meant something to me, and I didn’t want him to die?
“Weren’t you scared?” Himmler’s secretary, who was also his mistress, whispered to me after she finally caught me alone.
“No.” I smiled at her. “Only after everything was already over.”
Later Heinrich and I were standing on the balcony in Reichsführer’s house, and pretending that we were kissing. In reality Heinrich just got back to Berlin, and I was filling him in about the latest events. I couldn’t do it in the car because of Hanz, and obviously not during the dinner, so as soon he was done discussing something with Himmler, I motioned to him to follow me so we could talk.
“Do you think they have something on us?” Heinrich whispered in my ear, hugging me by the waist.
“No, not yet,” I answered. “I don’t think they would be able to connect us to her. They don’t know about Josef.”
“They might want to interrogate Rebekah’s father. And under torture he’ll definitely tell them that we paid them a visit before Josef went missing the next day.”
“What do you suggest, kill Rebekah’s father?” I frowned at Heinrich.
He didn’t have time to reply because Reichsführer approached us with a glass of wine in his hand.
“What are you two whispering about like two conspirators?” he asked with a smile.
“Nothing. I haven’t seen my wife in two days, and was telling her what I’m going to do to her as soon as we get home.”
Heinrich didn’t even flinch making up the most indecent lie he could. The trick worked, Reichsführer believed it and laughed.
“Well, then maybe you two should go home.”
That night after he made love to me, Heinrich fell asleep with his hands wrapped tightly around me and even threw his leg over my legs. I tried to gently move away from his embrace, but he pulled me even closer.
“No, don’t go anywhere. You’re mine.”
“Of course I’m yours, silly. I just can’t breathe like that.”
“No. You’re mine,” he mumbled again through sleep without releasing me. “I won’t let him take you away.”
“He won’t take me away.”
“He wants to. I saw how he’s looking at you. But you’re mine.”
“Yes, I am.”
I stayed in his arms and didn’t try to release myself anymore for the rest of the night.
_______________
I made another trip to Zurich, but this time I made sure that my bodyguard was within five steps from me at all times. I still saw the American though, standing across the street from the bank. I got inside the car, and he, invisible to everyone else except me, tapped on his watch several times. Tic-tock, Mrs. Friedmann, tic-tock.
I had discussed with Rudolf all possible options of how to get the information the Americans so desperately wanted (our relationship with Ingrid wasn’t so good lately, and I preferred to deal with her ‘husband’), and we came to the conclusion that getting Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner drunk, and maybe even putting a small dose of sleeping pills into his drink so he definitely wouldn’t remember anything the next day, was the best option.
“We’re going away for inspection of some ammunition factory in Poland next week.” I was rubbing my chin, thinking how to achieve two things: make my boss talk, but at the same time secure myself from his usual drunken harassment, which would most likely follow. “We’ll be staying by some Polish businessman’s house, and I’ll try to do it over there.”
“You understood how the pills work, right?” Rudolf put the little bottle on the table next to me. “Put three, maybe four in his drink… Yes, I think better put four, that giant will definitely need more than a normal person. And start asking him questions only when he starts falling asleep, got it? You’ll have about three to five minutes before it’ll knock him out.”
I sighed and put the bottle in my pocket. I prayed that it would work.
Chapter 16
Poland, October 1943
It turned out that it was easier said than done. Dr. Kaltenbrunner was drinking, but he was drinking with my husband in absence of his usual Austrian drinking buddies like Otto Skorzeny, and for two days already I didn’t get a chance to get close to the Chief of the RSHA.
It was long past midnight and Heinrich was still with Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner. I knew very well about the mutual animosity the two had for each other, from Dr. Kaltenbrunner’s side because Heinrich was married to the woman he wanted for himself, and from Heinrich’s side because his superior was constantly sending hundreds of people to death, people who Heinrich tried to save. But somehow they still managed to have some sort of decent relationship, and even occasionally shared a bottle of brandy and a game of cards.
I had my own theory why they could tolerate each other for several hours so well: Dr. Kaltenbrunner loved rubbing his subordinate’s nose into the fact that he was his boss and making jokes about how he’s working on two very important documents – his divorce papers and the order of Heinrich’s transfer to the Eastern front. Obergruppenführer knew how much the fact that I was friendly with him was bothering my husband and wouldn’t miss a chance to make dirty insi
nuations.
Heinrich in his turn loved taking revenge by making his boss lose good money in cards, and sometimes even by getting some information when Dr. Kaltenbrunner would get really drunk. I didn’t like them staying up all night, because Heinrich would come back to our room drunk and most of the time angry. But we were staying under the same roof, and they both silently agreed that they better spend the evening picking on each other than spend time in company of our intolerably dull host and his wife.
I got up from the bed and was pouring myself some water when my husband finally came back. He walked in unsteadily and right away filled the room with the smell of cigarettes and cognac. I knew that he sometimes smoked with Dr. Kaltenbrunner, even though he never confessed. I looked at his uniform, all in disorder, and sighed.
“Do you want some water too? You look like you might use some. Or better go shower, you stink of smoke through and through.”
“It’s not my fault that your boss is a chain smoker.”
“He’s your boss as well. Here.”
I handed Heinrich a glass of water. He just looked at it and put it back on the table.
“I’m not that drunk.”
“Right.”
“I’m just upset.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t drink with people who upset you.”
“You know I’m not doing it because I like him.”
“Obviously.”
“I’m trying to help people.”
“I know.” I took his uniform jacket off him and put it on the chair. “Sit down, I’ll take your boots off.”
Heinrich obediently complied and extended his legs to me.
“You’re such a good wife, Annalise. I love you.”
“I love you too, darling. But I don’t like you drunk.”
“I know. I’m sorry. He makes me drink. He knows that you don’t like it and does it on purpose.”
“No, he doesn’t. You’re being paranoid.”
“Am I?”
I put away his boots under the table and started unbuttoning his shirt.
“I’m not being paranoid, sweetheart. Do you know what he told me tonight?”
“I’m not sure I want to know. You only say nasty things to each other.”
“We were playing cards. He was already pretty drunk, and had lost a lot of money to me. But he didn’t want to stop playing and asked if he can pay me later or if he can do me a favor or something. Right away I knew it was my chance. Remember that order for the transfer of three hundred Jews to Auschwitz?”
I remembered. Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner was supposed to sign it and send to the Kommandant of Auschwitz as soon as the latter would ‘clear the space’ for them. Which meant to send three hundred current Auschwitz inmates, who wouldn’t pass the camp doctor’s inspection, to gas and replace them with ‘fresh’ working force as they called it. Heinrich kept offering Dr. Kaltenbrunner to send them to the working factories in Germany instead, where both the conditions and the food portions were much better, but the more insistent he was getting, the more Obergruppenführer refused to listen to him.
“Yes.”
“So I told him, why don’t we play on people? You know, if I lose I’ll pay you money, and if you lose you’ll send the Jews to Germany instead of Auschwitz.”
“What did he say?”
“And that’s, my darling, where the most interesting part begins.” Heinrich leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “He laughed and said, that’s too easy. He said that this way he loses working force and I lose nothing, just money. He said, ‘Let’s make it interesting. If I lose, you get your Jews and do whatever you want to them. But if I win, I get your wife. Just for a night.’”
“What?”
“Are you still saying I’m paranoid?”
I couldn’t believe that Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner actually offered my husband such a bet. He never made a secret of the fact that he wanted me as his mistress, but play cards on me?
“What did you tell him?”
“What do you think I told him? I told him no of course. I would never play cards on my wife. He just laughed again and said that it was a joke. But I know it wasn’t.”
I shook my head and helped Heinrich take his shirt off. And then I started wondering.
“Heinrich, listen. Of course it’s absolutely disgusting, but think about it. You’re the best card player in the whole SD. He always loses to you. And it’s three hundred people we’re talking about. Three hundred.”
He frowned at me.
“I don’t like where you’re going with this.”
“Just think, Heinrich. Three hundred lives. One game. Get him really drunk and they’re yours. You can save three hundred people.”
He shook his head, frowning even more.
“No. There’s no way I’m playing on you. What if he wins? I can’t risk that!”
“But he never wins!” I kneeled in front of my husband and took his hands in mine. “Heinrich, it’s perfect! You could never possibly help so many people at once so easily. And there’s no way that you can lose. Go tell him you’ll play.”
“No!”
“Heinrich, please! Think about those people!”
“I don’t know those people. But I know you. You’re my wife and I love you!”
“They are somebody’s wives too, Heinrich. Somebody’s mothers, sisters and daughters. And somebody loves them very much as well. But they are all going to die now because you didn’t want to take a chance.”
I let go of his hands and got up.
“I’m going to sleep, Heinrich. Good night.”
He didn’t say anything. Ten minutes later he got into bed where I was laying facing the wall, but didn’t dare to touch me.
_______________
I turned another page of the book I was reading. Another drunken night for my husband. I couldn’t wait to leave this God forsaken country already. I turned off all the lights except for the lamp on the nightstand, but sleep still wouldn’t come. I finally heard the steps behind the door and put away the book, hoping that this time Heinrich didn’t get too drunk. But it wasn’t Heinrich who opened the door. It was Obergruppenführer Kaltenbrunner. He was very drunk.
“What are you doing here?” I already knew that drunken Dr. Kaltenbrunner was always bad news and there was no way to know what to expect from him. Under his stare I quickly snatched a robe from the side of the bed and put it on top of my night slip.
“I came to tell you that your husband is an awful man.”
“Really? And why is that?”
I got out from under the blanket and off the bed. I preferred to be on my feet just in case. As if reading my mind, Obergruppenführer grinned at me and closed the door behind himself. I started to get nervous.
“I’ll explain it to you in a minute.” He walked towards the little cupboard where our host kept alcohol, picked a bottle of brandy and poured himself a healthy glass. “Would you like some?”
“No, thank you, Herr Obergruppenführer. I don’t drink brandy. And considering your condition, I don’t think you should either.”
He laughed very loud and drank half of the glass in one shot.
“Where is my husband?”
“He went out.”
Dr. Kaltenbrunner leaned on the cupboard and was looking at me with the expression of a wolf watching a deer. I didn’t like that at all. It was a hunter’s look.
“Out? Isn’t it a little late to go out?”
“He said he wanted to take a ride outside the city. I think he got upset.”
“About what?”
He grinned at me.
“He lost a game to me. Maybe for the fourth time in his life. But this time he lost big.”
Oh no, he didn’t! It’s impossible! I felt blood leaving all my extremities and concentrating in my rapidly beating heart.
“How much did he lose?”
Obergruppenführer slowly finished his drink without taking his dark eyes off me, and put the em
pty glass on the table with a loud bang.
“You. He lost you.”
I was quickly going through my options. Last time when he cornered me in the bathroom of his office, I surprised him with my slap and managed to get out. But this time I was more than sure, he was ready for something like this. He wouldn’t be looking at me like that if he wasn’t.
“I beg your pardon, Herr Obergruppenführer?”
I was hoping that the strategy of using an ice cold tone would work and was looking him right in the eye with my arms crossed over my chest.
“You see, like I told you, your husband is an awful man. And a terrible husband. He was so obsessed with those stupid, unworthy Jews that he agreed to bet you against them in a card game. The Jews! Against you. I wasn’t even serious when I offered him that! But now I can’t be happier that he agreed,” he finished with a predator’s smile.
“How nice of you two to play cards on me. Is that how high ranking officers of the Reich entertain themselves now? Playing on people?”
“Worse, Frau Friedmann. On their wives!” Obergruppenführer laughed again and moved towards me, blocking the only means of my escape. With the wall on my left and the bed on my right, I involuntarily stepped back when he slowly walked up to me. “How can someone play on his wife? I hate mine but I still wouldn’t play on her, just out of respect.”
He made another step towards me. I stepped back and hit the nightstand with my foot. That was it. I was completely trapped.
“And what do I have to do with all this, Herr Obergruppenführer? What do you suggest I do, pay my husband’s debt just because you two made some stupid bet?!”
“No, of course not.” He made the last step towards me and was now standing just inches away. “That would be an absolutely terrible thing to ask.”
The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress Page 24