by Liliana Hart
“You know it matters. It isn’t our call to be judge and jury. It never has been. It’s to find out the facts when a crime has been committed. How many deaths have we worked where the victim was a criminal in their own right? We still worked the cases and documented the facts. And then we let the system take over from there. It’s what we do. It’s what I believe in. I have to or everything I’ve done over the course of my career—good and bad—is for nothing.”
He was right. We fought for the dead. No matter who the dead was. I didn’t like it, but he was right. Taking shortcuts or passing judgment would compromise the work we did. And there were plenty of dead who didn’t have skeletons in their closets. You couldn’t compromise one without compromising the other. It was a slippery slope.
One of the things I loved about Jack the most was he never wavered from his moral code. I might not always agree with it, but he was who he was and did the job he did despite the scars it had left on his soul. The day he started compromising his principles was the day he’d leave the job.
“I know you’re right,” I told him. “And I’ll always stand beside you, no matter what’s decided. My worry is what happens when we find out who the killer is and they walk away without consequence. What does that do to you?”
“It is what it is at that point and we walk away. But at least we know the answers. And I’ve always believed if a person doesn’t get what they deserve in this life they’ll get it in the hereafter.”
It was something to think about. Situations like this one made me question why we do what we do. But then I remembered that the dead didn’t have a voice. We were their voice. It didn’t matter who the victim was. Someone had to speak for the dead.
Jack drove carefully down the coastal road. The elevation was higher and the houses were spread farther apart on this side of the island. The trees were denser. The bungalows were built right on the road and since cars weren’t the norm on the island, most people didn’t have driveways.
He parked as close to the front door as possible, and we got out and ran to the little covered porch. It was a white bungalow with yellow shutters and two rocking chairs on the front porch.
Jack rang the bell and we waited patiently to see if anyone answered. The door opened and a woman, stooped with age, stared at us out of rheumy brown eyes. Her hair was the color of steel wool and pulled back in a severe bun and she wore the black dress of someone in mourning.
“Can I help you?” she asked, her voice weak with age.
“Are you Maria Stein?” Jack asked.
“I am. You must be the Americans Joe told me about. Come in. My family will be back soon. They’ve barely given me a moment to myself since the news came that Leon was dead. The wake is tonight so they’ll be back in full force. Sometimes I can’t wait until I’m dead so I can just get a little peace and quiet.”
I pursed my lips as Maria stood back and let us pass.
“We’ll sit in the living room. It’s got a good view of the water.” We followed her into a little room at the back of the house. It was decorated in muted colors of yellow and green and a large picture window across the back gave an incredible view of the ocean. I was only a little concerned about a palm tree flying through the window and killing us all.
“Do you have children?” Maria asked.
“No,” Jack answered.
“Don’t have them. They’re a pain in the ass. And very expensive.”
I coughed to cover my laugh and decided I liked Maria Stein. She had guts. And attitude.
“You’re here about Leon. Have you found out anything? I watch the American television crime shows. Am I a suspect? They always suspect the husband or wife first.”
Jack’s face was very serious when he asked, “Where were you between three and five o’clock yesterday afternoon?”
She looked more thrilled to be asked than insulted. “I was here. I’m afraid I don’t have an alibi. My health isn’t what it used to be and trips into town are very exhausting. And I find I just don’t like people as much as I used to, so I try to stay away from them.”
“What about Leon? When was the last time you saw him?”
“Just after breakfast. Around seven-thirty or eight. He liked to go into town and play dominoes at the café until it was time for Mass. He liked going to the three o’clock because he said that’s when all the pretty girls went. Leon and I were married seventy years you know.”
I felt myself start to choke up at the thought of being married to someone that long and then suddenly being without them. I didn’t know how she was keeping it together as well as she was.
“I’ve outlived three of my children and a couple of my grandchildren as well, so I’ve been around the block a time or two. Do you know what made our marriage successful?”
She looked at both of us and I could tell Jack was just as captivated by her as I was.
“What?” I asked.
“Separation,” she said. “Leon left after breakfast every morning and didn’t come home until dinner each night. The longer we spent apart the less he got on my nerves. And believe me, when a man starts to get older they’ll get on your nerves a lot.” She looked at me as if she was telling me the world’s greatest secret.
“Joe said Leon came to the island back in 1945 and decided to stay after one look at you. He said you were married just weeks later.”
“It sounds more romantic than it was,” she said, shaking her head. “The war had just ended, and we even felt the aftermath here, secluded as we were. Then one day Leon shows up, rigid and German, and says he’s come for an extended vacation. His English wasn’t so good back then.
“To be fair, I looked older than I was back then. And I didn’t dissuade him when he started showing interest. I don’t know if Leon and I would’ve ended up together if my father hadn’t caught us in a very compromising position. I got the beating of a lifetime. My father was very religious. Staunch Catholic. So Leon and I were married within the week. And eight months later our first child was born.”
“Did you ever meet Leon’s family?”
“He said he didn’t have any living family. It was just him.”
I’d read the file Carver had sent us on Friedrich Durst over breakfast that morning, and I hadn’t been able to finish eating. Durst had had a wife and two daughters he’d left behind when he’d fled Germany. He also had the reputation of culling out the prettiest girls, usually between thirteen and sixteen, while he commanded the concentration camps. His experiments and torture of those girls would be stuck in my mind forever. And it explained why a thirty-year-old Leon found fifteen-year-old Maria so desirable.
“When did you find out Leon was Friedrich Durst?”
The question came out of the blue and it took a moment for it to process. Maria went completely still and I realized I was holding my breath. And then I realized Jack was right. Maria knew exactly who her husband was.
Chapter Ten
“Well that went well,” I said a few minutes later.
We sat in the SUV with the engine running, and I was still in a state of shock. The rain had lessened and the wind had died down some, so Jack put the car in reverse and we went back down the coastal road at a faster speed than when we’d arrived.
“How’d you know?”
“Just a gut feeling,” he said. “She was trying too hard. And her hand was shaking.”
“She’s eighty-five. Of course her hand was shaking.”
“It was the way she talked about Leon.”
“What way? She didn’t say anything bad. I thought she was just teasing about the secret to a long marriage.”
“Every time she said his name you could see the hatred in her eyes. She made it a point of saying she didn’t know if she and Leon would’ve ended up together if her father hadn’t caught them. What do you want to bet Leon raped her like he raped all those other girls? And Maria’s father was staunch enough in his beliefs to force her to marry her rapist.”
“Jesus,”
I said, rubbing my hands over my eyes.
“Did you look at the side of the house?”
“No, I apparently missed every subtle clue while we were at Maria’s.”
“There was a little lean-to attached to the house. And inside were two bikes sitting side by side. What do you want to bet one of them is Leon’s?”
“You can’t possibly think Maria had the physical capability to kill her husband.”
“No, but I guarantee she knew about it ahead of time. And she knows who killed him.”
“A ten million dollar reward for a Nazi War Criminal. You think money fits the motive?” Because that’s what was stumping me. This was a simple island. And simple people. Money of that caliber wasn’t something they considered as necessary.
“I need to talk to Ben again. And then I think it’s time we had a meeting at the church.”
*
It had taken Jack a couple of tries to get hold of Carver. In Carver’s words, he still had a day job that consisted of something other than being Jack Lawson’s bitch. But once Jack got him on the phone things started falling into place.
It hadn’t been hard to get Joe to make an announcement to those who’d been at the church during Leon’s murder. Jack had asked for everyone to meet back at the church that evening before Leon’s wake. He knew how small communities worked. They’d all be too curious to find out what was going on to stay away.
The rain had been relentless all afternoon, and I was finding that I’d become tired of island life. I wouldn’t have minded packing our stuff and getting the hell out of dodge. Especially after Maria’s reaction to Jack’s question earlier in the day. And by the hostility on everyone’s faces as we gathered at the church, I was guessing Maria had complained loudly about the American couple upsetting her time of mourning.
“I’m not sure this is appropriate,” Joe said while everyone was taking their seats. Jack had run through everything with me after talking with Carver and my mind was still spinning about the killer. “Maybe it would be best to let this go. I’m sorry I interrupted your honeymoon. But I agree with Father Fernando. I think Leon’s death is the result of an assault committed by a tourist. We’ve had a lot of problems with drunks lately.”
“That’s perfectly fine,” Jack said. “I’m happy to hand the reins over to you. But I’d appreciate you giving me the floor for a few minutes. As sworn officers of the law, it’s our duty to uphold the law, no matter how much we agree or disagree with it. And the very core of our integrity would be compromised if we knew of a wrong committed and stood back and let it happen. Don’t you agree?”
Joe swallowed once and then nodded in agreement. “I didn’t know,” he said. “If I had I wouldn’t have asked her your help.”
“I came to that conclusion myself,” Jack said. And then he turned to the congregation. He stood at the front of the nave, facing the pews. I sat off to the side, wondering if we were going to have to make a quick getaway.
“I want to thank everyone for indulging me this evening. My wife and I have truly enjoyed the hospitality of your community. It’s a community that takes care of its own, works hard, and supports itself on the means it has. It’s very impressive what you’ve built and how you’ve thrived.
“You can all imagine my surprise when Joe asked my wife and I to help yesterday when one of your own was murdered.” Jack put an emphasis on the word and paused to let it soak in. “The teachings of the church are very clear about cardinal sins.”
There was some uncomfortable shifting in the pews and the tension skyrocketed.
“I did a little research into your community, and I discovered that the entire south side of the island is actually owned by Sunshine Inc., which is headquartered over on the mainland. I noticed it the other day when I was driving around that it’s the only undeveloped land on the island, and the beach is closed to tourists.
“And then I started digging a little more and discovered early last year Sunshine, Inc. decided it was time to develop that area of land and the plans were drawn for three high rise resorts right there on the beach. When the hotels were filled to capacity it would double the size of the island instantly. And all of a sudden the community you know and love is no longer yours. You’re working harder and longer hours, and the view is obstructed by ugly buildings and too many people.
“And then last summer Father Fernando went to the mainland on the community’s behalf and asked if the land could be purchased to prevent the building of the high rise. And Sunshine, being respectful of the church and Father Fernando, agreed and offered to sell the property for just over eight million dollars. The problem was no one on this island had eight million dollars. And even combining your resources you fell several million short.”
“We don’t need a history lesson, young man,” Father Fernando called out from the lectern where he’d been standing quietly. “We all know the outcome of my meeting with Sunshine. You’re wasting our time here when we should be mourning the man in the casket behind you.”
“Where could you possibly come up with that amount of money?” Jack asked, ignoring Father Fernando and keeping eye contact with the crowd. “And then I started doing deeper background checks and discovered Maria Stein had spent several weeks on the mainland last year.”
He paused to look at Maria who was seated on the front pew. Her children and grandchildren surrounded her, and though her back was stiff as a board there was a smile of satisfaction on her face. I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“At first I thought it was because she’d suffered from pneumonia and she was being treated. But come to find out she’d found papers from a bank she didn’t recognize and a key. And the law here gives you the right as his wife to have access to Leon’s personal accounts and storage units even if your name isn’t on them.”
“Get to the good stuff, boy,” she called out. “I’m ready to wake my husband.”
“You’ve waited a long time for him to die, huh?” Jack asked. “You should’ve conspired to have him killed much sooner.”
Her children gasped in outrage, but her gaze stayed steady on Jack’s.
“What did you find in the storage unit your husband had rented?” he asked her.
“Paintings, letters, photographs,” she said. “Horror. Cruelty. Brutality.”
“But you already knew who he was. Had known since the moment he’d forced you the first time.”
Her lips pursed together and tears filled her eyes. She nodded her head and didn’t waver. “He delighted in telling me. And when my girls came of age I sent them to boarding school until they were too old for him to have any interest in. He deserved to die.” She said the last words on a whisper.
Jack nodded and I could see the compassion and respect in his gaze for this woman. A woman who’d shown years of patience and had sacrificed her own life and happiness for something better for her children and the place she loved. All because she’d had the misfortune of being married to a monster.
There were sniffles in the audience and I saw more than one person dab their eyes at her words. These were the people who loved her. Loved her enough to sin against the church that was their foundation and ask forgiveness later.
“How did you find out about the reward money?”
“He never told me his real name,” she said. “I knew what he did and where he was and the acts he committed. But never his name. And when I walked inside that locked storage room it was like a shrine to the man he was. He had newspaper clippings and flyers and letters written by government officials trying to find him. His reward was higher than all the others because he killed the most.” She shook her head and looked away. “Do you know how it sickens me that I shared a home and a bed with that monster for more than seventy years?”
“You did what you had to do to survive,” Jack said. “No one blames you for that. It was a clever plan. And I would’ve never figured it out if anything else had made sense. But everything was too perfect. Everyone’s alibi’s and stories
were the same. And I kept thinking that one of your priests might be dirty. It was the only thing that made sense. That he might forsake everything and lie, or commit the crime himself. But not all three would condemn their souls to hell.
“So there was only one other alternative. You all devised a plan to get rid of Leon. You did it for Maria, so she would be vindicated after all these years and know peace in her last years. And you did it for your entire community. Because the reward money from killing and turning in Friedrich Durst would keep your island yours and the way it’s always been. You protected your priests from compromising their vows.
“I couldn’t believe how many people came to Mass on a Saturday afternoon. And then I started checking the attendance of prior Saturdays. Service was well attended, but never that well attended. And then I remembered pieces of conversation about confession. Everyone was irritated in their statements that Leon took so long in his confession, because the lines were long that day. Because you all knew Leon was going to die and needed to confess the knowledge.”
Jack looked at Father Fernando, and the old man had taken a seat by Maria. He took her hand and patted it gently.
“And your priests were bound by the rules of confession. Your secret was safe with them. And when they found Leon’s body they could say truthfully that they didn’t see anyone in the courtyard or know who killed him. Because the killer didn’t go to confession that day. Isn’t that right, Doctor Hizumi?”
I’d only seen a picture of Lee Hizumi, but he looked very much like his son, Will. He sat a couple rows back from Maria next to a pretty woman I assumed was Joe’s sister.
“Who would know better how to kill?” Jack asked. “Than the man’s own doctor. You knew he’d had open-heart surgery. And you knew the best way to deliver the blow. Maria had taken the officer’s dagger from the storage unit, so it was symbolic to use it.