Dread slid down my spine, as he levelled the gun at my chest. If a man is talking he forgets to pull the trigger. Scholz is a man who will always want you to know how clever he is before you die.
‘You didn’t come to Graufeld Camp by accident,’ I said calmly, ‘did you?’
‘Of course not.’ His eyes gleamed. ‘I do nothing by accident. I scoured the Displaced Persons camps of Germany for you, trudging from one shithole to another in my search for you.’ He gave me an odd smile. ‘I know you, Klara. We both were aware that Fleischer had the diamonds and I was certain you would not leave without them. If you and your pretty daughter were stuck in Graufeld, it meant you hadn’t located them yet. That’s why I didn’t touch you. There was no need for you to be frightened of me.’ He stepped closer. ‘Not till now.’
I nodded slowly. ‘It’s why I came here. To be near Hanover. I knew Axel Fleischer’s sister lived somewhere near.’
That laugh again, loose and full of self-congratulation. He was Sturmbannführer Scholz once more. ‘We are both cunning.’
‘So it would seem.’
‘Did you think I came because I was in love with you? Is that what your Frenchman told you?’
‘Admit it, Oskar. You were always a little in love with me.’ My throat was so tight I had to force the words out. ‘As I was with you.’ I saw him blink. Saw the thought swell inside his head. ‘We could share the diamonds, Oskar,’ I added softly. ‘We could go together.’
The wind took my words and whispered them again in his ear. The tip of the gun dipped.
I thought I had him.
‘Ah, Klara, I always admired your spirit. But I know you would sink a knife between my ribs the moment my back was turned.’
I’d lost him.
I edged closer. ‘How did you find me here in the forest?’
‘You led me a merry dance. What you don’t realise is that I’m working for the Soviets now. They have one of the Graufeld guards in their pay and he smuggled me into the back of the truck you left in. So I followed your crazy chase through the forest.’
‘You are helping the Soviets?’
‘That’s right. They imprisoned me before I could get out of Warsaw and offered me a deal. If I found them Fleischer’s secret stash of diamonds, I could walk free.’
‘You believed them?’
‘Don’t be a fool. Of course not. They’d shoot me the minute I handed them over. No, my sweet Klara, I am off to South America with these.’ He rattled the diamonds again. ‘That’s why they wanted to interrogate you. They didn’t give a fuck who you had or hadn’t killed, they just wanted the diamonds.’
My hand slid into my waistband where my knife hung hidden beneath my skirt. ‘There is no need to kill me, Oskar. You can go.’ My fingers touched the handle of the knife. ‘I will say nothing.’
‘Don’t move, Klara. Don’t touch the knife. You think I didn’t watch you open the box with it?’ He smiled at me sadly. ‘Auf Weidersehen, my friend. This is goodbye.’
Darkness came to engulf me as the gun pointed at my head. But I would not go silently from this world, not as long as Alicja and Davide were still in it waiting for me, loving me. The bullet would strike, but so would my knife.
I drew a final breath. But before I could move . . . Scholz screamed. A terrible bone-scraping animal sound. He collapsed face down on the ground in a paroxysm of jerking limbs.
A crossbow bolt was embedded in his back.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
ALICJA
Alicja threw down the crossbow and ran. She raced across the small clearing around the massive oak tree where her mother stood. Her gaze fixed on the man on the ground.
‘Mama,’ Alicja cried out.
Her mother lifted her head. A jerky disjointed movement. But the moment she saw her daughter coming, she flung her arms wide and Alicja flew into them. They closed around her and crushed her tight against her mother’s filthy clothes. She felt Mama’s cheek rub hard over her own and heard the whispered words, ‘Thank you, my love, thank you.’
‘Is he dead?’ She held her breath.
‘No, Alicja, he’s alive.’
Oskar Scholz uttered a groan and Mama walked over to him and knelt down. She touched the back of his jacket where Rafal’s bolt had struck and he yelped like a snared rabbit.
‘You’ll live,’ her mother said in a cold tone. ‘It is in your shoulder blade not your lungs. If you start walking right now, you’ll get to camp before you bleed to death.’
‘Help me to get there, Klara,’
‘The only place I would help you to, you murdering bastard, is hell.’
Alicja saw her pick up the gun that lay among the golden leaves, rise from her knees and move away from him. The thin rain was spreading the scarlet patch on his jacket.
‘I warned you,’ Alicja shouted at the wounded figure. ‘I told you I would defend her.’ Tears stung her eyes but she didn’t know why.
‘Bitch cub,’ the German growled into the earth.
She turned away. She couldn’t bear to look at him. Her shoulder still felt the kick from releasing the crossbow bolt and her right arm wouldn’t keep still. Instead she focused her mind on the metal box that lay on the ground near him.
‘What’s in the box, Mama?’
‘Nothing.’
The man grunted. ‘Liar. Tell her the truth, Klara. Show her what’s in the box.’ He tried to reach out a hand to it, but the pain was too much. ‘Show her what this has all been about.’
Alicja darted forward, snatched up the box and retreated.
‘Open it,’ her mother said.
Alicja lifted the lid. It was like looking at the inside of a rainbow. Reds and purples and dazzling indigo that came and went like the colours of the sea.
‘Diamonds,’ she breathed. ‘So many.’ She stirred them with her finger and felt their sharp edges nip her skin. ‘We can buy identity papers and ration cards and travel tickets and—’
‘Close the box.’
But Alicja couldn’t. She scooped a dozen of the gems out and rolled them across her palm, laughing with excitement. ‘Look, Mama, look how they sing in the light like—’
‘Put them back.’ Sharp. Stinging.
‘But we can go to England now like you wanted. What is it, Mama?’
‘There is blood on them.’
‘No, they are bright and clean, look.’
‘No. No, Alicja. They are thick with blood. Jews’ blood.’
‘Why?’
‘Because they were stolen from Warsaw’s Jews.’
Alicja felt a thud of horror in her heart.
‘Listen to me, Alicja. I didn’t think enough about that till now. I was wrong. I intended to share them with the sister of the man who stole them and with his friend still in his Berlin apartment, but now—’
‘You fool!’ It came as a roar from the wounded man on the ground.
Mama turned her back on him.
‘If we kept some for ourselves, Mama, would that be wrong?’
Her mother’s face softened, her hand stroked her daughter’s wet hair. ‘Yes, it would. But don’t look upset. The diamonds have to go back to—’
Mama paused, her blue eyes widened and a smile spread across her muddy face. A figure had emerged from among the trees.
‘Hanna!’
Alicja accepted the kiss from Hanna. But this was a different Hanna. A stiff and prickly Hanna who couldn’t keep her eyes off the man on the ground or the blood on his back.
Mama didn’t seem to see it. ‘How did you find us, Hanna? I’ve been worried about you.’
‘I was watching the camp, Klara. I saw you leave in the truck but I couldn’t follow on foot.’ Her eyes travelled to the box in Alicja’s hands and lingered there. ‘When I saw Alicja leave, I followed her. She was too quick for me at times but,’ she gave Alicja a smile, ‘quick enough to wing this Nazi bastard, I see.’
‘I found the map of the forest trails in Mama’s pocket and copied it out
. That’s how I knew where she was going and how to get there.’ Alicja pointed towards the oak. ‘Oskar Scholz was here threatening to shoot her.’
The German had eased on to his side and was eyeing Hanna the way you eye a snake. Alicja was starting to regret missing his lungs with the crossbow, but Mama walked over to him and took hold of one of his arms. He tried to pull it free but was too weak.
‘Help me, Hanna,’ Mama said.
Together the two women yanked him up on to his feet. Neither was gentle. His screech of pain startled a rook from its treetop perch.
‘Shall I pull the bolt out, Mama?’ Alicja wanted to return it to Rafal, but the thought of tugging it from the bone scared her.
Hanna didn’t hesitate. She ripped it out of him.
‘Bitch!’ he growled with teeth bared.
Alicja saw the sweat on his brow. His lips were grey. She had a sudden fear that these three people were going to kill each other.
‘Tell them, Hanna,’ Scholz said in a hoarse whisper, ‘why you’re really here. Tell them that you work as a spy for the Soviets too. No more her friend than I am.’
Mama swayed, but uttered no sound. Waiting for her friend to deny it. The wind chased amber leaves around their feet but neither moved. Alicja went to stand next to her mother and took her hand.
‘Is it true?’ Mama whispered.
‘God damn your putrid soul to hell, Scholz. Yes, Klara, it’s true. Don’t look at me like that. The fucking Russkies have thrown my elderly parents in prison and put me in the camp with you to find out about the diamonds.’
She glanced at the box. Alicja clutched it tighter.
‘They ordered you to become my friend?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you weren’t really interrogated in Berlin?’
‘No. They were pleased with me and gave me vodka.’
‘Your bloodied nose?’
‘I did it myself when I went in search of you.’
Mama’s hand shot over her mouth. ‘It was you, wasn’t it? You put the snake in my bed.’
‘Yes, but not to hurt you, never to hurt you. I had to spur you into action. To make you so frightened of Scholz, you would go hunting for the diamonds.’ Hanna shook tears from her eyes. ‘I love you and your daughter, Klara. You are my dear friend, but I am frightened for my parents, so—’
The wounded German laughed, a sibilant sound that made Alicja’s skin crawl.
‘You blind bitch,’ he said, breathing hard. ‘They will be dead by now. Don’t you know that? And when the Soviets come for me, demanding the diamonds, you can bet your hide that I’ll be telling them that you, Hanna Pamulska, let them,’ he jabbed a finger in the direction of the box in Alicja’s hand, ‘get away.’ He was listing dramatically to one side, unable to stay upright. ‘You hear that, you bitch?’
It was Mama who reacted. She removed the box from Alicja’s embrace, brisk and firm. She would take no dissent. Alicja could see her mother’s eyes had grown a shell over them. Hard and clear as glass.
‘Alicja, run and fetch your crossbow.’
‘But why do I need it?’
‘Fetch it, Alicja. Be quick.’
Alicja took off so fast her heels were skidding in the mud. Why did Mama want the crossbow? Which one of them was she going to shoot?
She reached the big spruce tree where she had abandoned the bow, and was bending to pluck it up from the sack when she heard a gunshot. Her whole body lifted off the ground with shock. She spun round and heard a great wail of sound come out of her own mouth.
The two women were standing shoulder to shoulder. Their backs to her. Blocking her sight of what lay sprawled on the ground. But Alicja could see enough to know.
It was Oskar Scholz.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
We buried him in a shallow scrape. He deserved no better. You may not think so, but it’s true. Hanna and I hauled his carcass deep into a tangled fortress of bushes and brambles.
With branches we dug out an indentation in the mud big enough, rolled Scholz’s body into it, and offered no words of peace or forgiveness over it. In death he seemed to shrink. The strength and cruelty sucked out of him. As I gazed down on to the rain-soaked empty shell, stained with mud and streaked with wet leaves, I found it hard to remember why I had feared him so much.
Now I feared for my daughter. I kept her busy, running back and forth collecting a funeral pile of branches and leaves, but when it was done, when the body was covered and out of sight, I took her in my arms.
Her young arms clung around my neck. I felt her heart beating fast against mine. I held her in my arms, crooning softly to her, until she was ready to look me in the eye.
‘Will he come back?’ she whispered.
‘Never. I promise.’
‘I’m glad he’s dead.’
‘So am I.’
We would talk of this later. But for now, it was enough.
It didn’t matter which of us had shot him. He was gone. In my heart I wasn’t ready to believe it yet, but my mind told me it was true. Hanna wanted the diamonds, to share them between the two of us. She trickled them through her fingers, balanced them on her fingertips and held them up to my daughter’s earlobes.
‘Come on, Klara. Let’s live a little. We can buy all our dreams. Isn’t that what you want for Alicja?’
Alicja’s huge blue eyes regarded me hopefully.
‘Yes, of course it is,’ I replied. ‘But not with these.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘We’re going back to the camp. I am sure Colonel Whitmore will make a deal when he sees what I have to offer.’
‘Well, fuck that,’ Hanna snorted. ‘I’m not going back. Ever. Now I’m out, I’ll take my chances.’
I lifted the lid of the box that Alicja still clung to like a life raft. I lifted out around a dozen or so of the flashing gems and tipped them on to Hanna’s palm. Instantly she closed her fingers over them.
‘Go and kick that future of yours into shape,’ I urged, giving my friend the kind of hug you give when you know it is the last. ‘Go buy yourself that laundry.’
As Hanna crushed me to her bosom she whispered, ‘I’m sorry, Klara.’
I stroked her wet cheek. ‘I know.’
She rumpled Alicja’s hair, called out, ‘Take damn good care of those sparklers,’ then turned and walked away.
Both of us felt the huge hole she left in the forest. Together, hand in hand, Alicja and I headed towards the track that led to Graufeld.
‘I know one thing, Mama.’ She was jiggling the diamonds as she walked, listening to their voices.
‘What’s that?’
‘Davide will be happy that you are coming back.’
I smiled.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
I’ll say this for Colonel Whitmore. When I was marched into his office with Alicja at my side, both of us looking like something his men had dragged out of the gutter, he didn’t turn and run. He didn’t invite us to sit down on his nice clean seats, but he did seem genuinely pleased to have us back under his wing.
I removed the box from my daughter’s arms and placed it on his desk. I raised the lid to reveal the diamonds and watched the colonel’s jaw drop. His eyes popped out on stalks. The sight of all their glittering beauty made him gasp, as they sent rainbows dancing across his ceiling. Everything else in the room looked drab. But we both knew it wasn’t their glitter that counted. Nor their rainbows. Nor their inner fire and beauty. That’s not what made jaws hit the floor. It was their hard value in gold coin that made these beguiling nuggets of carbon so lethal.
‘Where on earth did they come from?’ Whitmore demanded.
He picked up one in his hand. Just one. From hundreds. Such restraint. I still could not look at them. Even that solitary diamond was like a clot of blood on his palm.
I told him a carefully trimmed down version of the truth. That they had belonged to a Nazi officer in Warsaw who had acquired them from the hundreds of thousands
of Jews he had transported off to Treblinka and Auschwitz. That I had learned of their existence and hiding place in the Deister hills. That Alicja and I had gone to search for it. That was all.
That was enough.
Colonel Whitmore studied me long and hard. He was an intelligent man. Nobody’s fool. He knew I had just picked out the barest of bones to give him, but he had the sense not to ask for more.
‘Sir, I wish the diamonds to be donated to a charity for the rehoming of the Polish Jews who are still alive.’
‘Yes, that sounds like a just cause for them. I congratulate you, Mrs Janowska.’
I felt my cheeks colour fiercely. I did not want his congratulations. He weighed the jewels, locked them away in his safe and presented me with a receipt.
Now came the delicate part.
‘Colonel, about the Soviets.’
His expression sharpened.
‘When the Soviets interrogated me in Berlin, they weren’t interested in me, only in the diamonds. But now that the diamonds are safely in your possession, there is little point in sending me back to Berlin. Is there, sir?’
As I said. He was an intelligent man.
But he held on to his answer. Made me wait. After a full minute of considering his options, like the skilled military man he was, he nodded.
‘No point at all.’
He smiled at me and shook my dirty hand. Shook Alicja’s hand too.
‘Thank you, Mrs Janowska. The least I can do in return is to put in a request for your case to be expedited in the search for missing relatives.’
‘Thank you, Colonel.’
Alicja’s gaze remained firmly on the safe.
‘You look like shit, my love.’
I laughed and twined my muddy arms around Davide’s neck. ‘Wash me.’
The washroom showers, as always, had a never-ending queue, so Davide sat me down on a stool, still in my filthy clothes, in the laundry’s drying yard. The rain had eased and thin wisps of autumn sunlight drifted around my feet. There were no sheets today. Just us, alone. Except for a bold squirrel with a cheek full of nuts burying them for the winter when times grew harsh.
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