“I don’t know what I think,” Hugh replied. “I’ll be glad when the official reunification is over and we can go home.”
And forty five minutes earlier a few miles away Johann had stirred as Helen went to get out of bed and adjusted his eyes as she put on her bedside lamp. “The bathroom?” he asked.
“No. An email has just come in.”
“You must have good ears.”
“I put it near me in case.” Helen looked at the screen, lifted the laptop and got into bed beside Johann. “Shirley.”
He sat up and was totally wide awake as he moved close to her. “What does she say?”
They read quietly together. “Arrest Gros and Lars Schneider now. Schmidt got out of prison but will be back again. Put them all into solitary confinement.”
Helen looked at Johann. “Dress, darling, and I’ll read to you.” He got off the bed and went for clothes while she continued to read. “Do that first then arrest all the people on this list. There are hundreds. Don’t answer this email. It might put me in danger. Then go to the Reichstag and get the devices from the areas I’ve marked. You need bomb experts for that. Then search the whole of the Reichstag from top to bottom in case there is anything else. You need to arrest all the people at the same time so nobody gets any messages through to the rest. I hope you’ve got enough manpower for that. At the same time go to Ada and Rolf’s house and arrest them. You’ll need Daniel’s help with all this. Please tell him I’m okay and tell him I love him with all my heart.”
Johann reached for his shoes. “How does she know all this and where did she get all the names?” he asked.
“Probably because she’s found more on the website. Hurry, darling. There isn’t a minute to waste.”
“I’m worried about Shirley,” he said. “And why didn’t Daniel ring to say she wasn’t with him?”
“Ring him before you go.” She waited while he rang then put her arms round Johann as he moved in front of her. “Be careful.”
“I will.” He ran. Helen went back into the bedroom to change into outdoor clothes. She didn’t want to stay in the lodge on her own and she wanted to find out where Shirley was. She backed out of the garage, shut the doors and dialed a number while she drove.
In Helen and Johann’s house Joshua lay helplessly on the floor while Shirley held the chair over him. But not helplessly for long, she rather felt, because he didn’t do what he did without knowing how to defend himself. But she also knew self defence, she thought, and there was no way he was getting away. He went to move and she shot his foot. He gasped, lay back and his face was a deathly white.
He had been her husband, she thought. When she kneed him once he had looked the same and she felt guilty. She also had feelings to which she did not want to admit. Not love, she knew, because she loved Daniel, but some kind of tenderness. She rolled a sheet and wrapped it round him as she turned him slightly. Tying the ends firmly she knew she had him trapped.
“You really are something,” he said. “I feel sick.”
“Vomit then,” she replied, grabbing a pillow. She aimed his head over it as he went to vomit on the floor, covered the pillow with a blanket and took another sheet to tie his feet together. She took her mobile from her pocket.
“I’m at Helen and Johann’s house up in their bedroom,” she said. “Will you come, please?”
“I’ll be there in a couple of minutes. I’m not far away because I’ve been looking for you.”
She shut the phone and sat on the edge of the bed looking at Joshua. “You’re as beautiful as ever,” he said.
“Thank you. You’re as devious.”
“I’m as clever as Daniel any day. Congratulations on the twins. They should have been mine.”
“They’re not. What have you been doing since I last saw you?”
“Well, I havn’t been in cinders in a submarine or in a crematorium or grave. You’re not so good at burying husbands, are you? They just won’t die.”
“You’re not so clever at much,” said a voice from the door. “Put your gun down, Miss Manning, and kick it over towards me.”
Gros, Shirley thought, and she might have known Joshua wouldn’t be on his own. She did as she was told and Gros bent to untie the end of the sheets with one hand while aiming his gun at Shirley. Her mind went into overdrive.
She had to somehow get the gun away from him because her job wasn’t anywhere near finished yet. Even when these two were arrested it wouldn’t be finished. She put the gun on the floor, kicked it over to Gros and Joshua stood. He sat quickly.
“Lie on your stomach on the bed,” Shirley said. “And turn your head sideways. If you pass out and your face is buried in the mattress you could suffocate.”
“That would solve your problems,” he said.
“Just do it.” He turned, put his head sideways and heaved again. She frowned in concentration.
She didn’t like hurting people, not even people who did what he had been planning to do, and he was obviously in pain. She took a towel and wrapped it round his foot.
“You shouldn’t have tried to get up,” she said.
“Why don’t we just kill her?” Gros asked.
“No. We’re not doing that. In a minute we’ll take her somewhere where she can’t cause any trouble until everything is settled.”
Shirley turned on the bed to face Gros and lifted her foot to aim at him. He smiled. “I wouldn’t bother, Shirley. They don’t work. The dart may pierce me but it won’t do anything else.”
“He certainly underestimated you,” Joshua said as the dart went into Gros and Gros slid to the floor. “Me too?” as Shirley aimed her foot at him.
“You too, darling.”
“I loved it when you said dar….” Joshua’s voice tailed off and Shirley heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned her foot and Daniel burst into the room.
“There are handcuffs in the cupboard over there,” Shirley said. “Do their feet and their hands.” She stiffened at sounds below. “Who’s that? Did you bring someone with you?”
“No.” They listened as soft footsteps ran up the steps. Not a man, Shirley knew, and a few seconds later Helen walked into the room. Daniel rolled Joshua.
“Shirley?” His expression was tortured as he looked at the man.
“He must have done a you, darling, though I don’t know how. Is Johann rounding up the men, Helen?”
“Yes.” Helen looked down at Joshua. “Well, I never thought that was possible.”
“No. What happens now, Daniel? Won’t we need help?”
“Rounding up what men?” Daniel asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it just now. What about these two?”
“We’ll take them straight to the prison but I want both of you to come too. You can tell me in the car.”
Gros groaned and opened his eyes. He looked at all three in turn. “You really are quite something,” he said to Shirley. “Don’t you trust anyone?”
“I probably wouldn’t be alive if I did.” Shirley looked at Joshua as he stirred. “Joshua has been sick in a couple of places, Helen. I’ll clear it up before we go.”
“No. It doesn’t matter. We’ll just chuck whatever is necessary.”
“Give me a bin bag and I’ll put the things in it then. We can’t leave it here. How are you feeling now, Joshua?”
“Still a bit sick. Hello, Daniel.”
Daniel grunted and gave Gros a push. “Get up. Helen and Shirley, keep an eye on Joshua.”
They took them down to the car and Johann rang while Daniel was putting them in it. He would sit at the back, he told Shirley, while she drove. Helen’s phone rang and she moved away to answer it.
“We’ve got everyone except Gros,” Johann said. “All are going in separate cells in different facilities so they can’t speak to one another and we havn’t told any of them anything. We don’t know anything, anyway. Schneider we have put into solitary confinement but Gros wasn’t home.”
“We have
him,” Helen said. “We’re taking him and Joshua to prison now.”
“Joshua?”
“He’s alive. We can’t talk about this until we’re alone because it’s not good for Gros and Joshua to know we’ve arrested all those people. Where are you now?”
“At the prison.”
“I’m coming there with Shirley, Daniel, Gros and Joshua. We shouldn’t be long.”
“I’ll see you there then.”
Johann replaced the phone, his expression pensive. Joshua alive. He certainly hadn’t expected that and now he knew why Shirley had sent them to Ada and Rolf. She must have somehow found out. He walked through to where the governor of the prison sat at his desk in his office.
Plötzensee prison and it had been unable to hold the amount of people they arrested. The United States barracks had taken quite a few of the prisoners and soldiers were guarding them. Where they would go afterwards Johann did not know but they would probably be distributed between a few prisons throughout Germany. For tonight they would stay where they were and Johann needed to find out from Shirley why they had to be arrested.
He thought of it while he waited for Helen and the others to arrive. Shirley, twenty three years of age and everyone listened to what she said. It had to be something of a record, he felt, but really it wasn’t that unusual for young people to use their brains. Helen would call him chauvinistic. Shirley would too.
But what would happen now because her marriage to Daniel would be null and void now they realised Joshua was alive? And how could he be alive? The prison governor asked him a question and not long after Daniel, Shirley and Helen arrived with their prisoners.
The bomb experts had recovered a few devices, Johann told Shirley, and were searching the building for more. Everything was being hushed up because they did not want it to get to the media and cause panic. Now would Shirley tell them how she had found all this out and why did the people she named have to be arrested?
She told them in some detail, her gaze straying frequently to Daniel who sat saying nothing. He did not ask questions. He had not spoken to her at all since they left the Schloegel’s house. He did not look at her now. Because of Joshua, she rather suspected, and he was probably in a bit of shock. She had passed that stage after they left Ada and Rolf the day before because she knew when she looked in the men’s bathroom cabinet that Joshua was in the house. The kind of toiletries he used she could not mistake which was something about which she teased him when they were married. Female ones and he liked the smell, he told her. He was secure in his masculinity and did not have to use containers which were black.
The memory had brought a brief moment of tenderness which she could not understand, just as she did not understand it when she saw him at Helen and Johann’s house. He was a murderer. He had just been planning a coup. He had killed his first wife. In view of all that why should she have those feelings?
Maybe because they had not divorced or anything like that and he had let her live before he was shot and after he threatened to kill her. But Daniel was her main concern at this moment and she desperately wanted to take from him whatever he was feeling now. She turned towards Johann as he asked her a question and answered it automatically.
“Daniel and I need to go to the Reichstag,” he said to Helen. “I don’t really want you to go back to the house so I’ve booked you into a hotel. Is that alright?”
“Fine, darling, but I want to go home soon. Is the Reichstag a safe place to be?”
“Safer than before Shirley found out what she did.”
“We’d better go then,” Daniel said, standing. He bent to kiss Shirley on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
Before she could answer he left. Johann walked with Helen and Shirley down the passage.
“It’s a shock to us all,” he said.
“Yes,” Helen replied as Shirley did not say anything.
“One of our blokes will take you to the hotel.”
“Where are Ada and Rolf?” Shirley asked.
“At Intelligence headquarters. Do you think they’re involved?”
“I think their only crime is housing Joshua but no, I don’t think they’re involved,” Shirley said. “I don’t know if Anna knows about Joshua but I rather think not. It’s going to be a shock and then he can’t be with them, anyway, because of what he’s done.”
“No.” Johann bent to kiss Helen then turned and kissed Shirley. “Have a sleep, both of you. You must be exhausted.”
But Shirley could never sleep, she thought when they got to the hotel. She felt she could never sleep again and she had the burdens of the world on her shoulders. They walked into the hotel room and she sat on the bed and began to shiver. Helen sat beside her and put her arms round her.
“Darling, I’m sorry. I really am so sorry.”
“Thank you. I think I’m in delayed shock. Can we ring for hot milk and some food or something?”
“Sit back against the pillows first.” Helen wrapped a duvet round Shirley, rang down and went to warm some milk from the fridge in the microwave. “Drink that. It might help.”
“Thank you.” Shirley sipped slowly. “I said I wouldn’t leave him if he was alive. I told his parents that.”
“He’ll be in prison,” Helen said.
“I know but that doesn’t make any difference. He said I would never be loyal to him just before he died. He said I wasn’t either to him or Daniel. He’s right and I can’t hurt Anna and Hugh. They’ve been through so much.”
“Maybe they know he’s alive,” Helen said.
“I doubt it.” Shirley reached for her laptop and switched it on. Helen stretched beside her.
“Do you think there’s more?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Shall I look too?”
“Only if you want to. You must be tired.”
“I’m not sure I could sleep at the moment.” There was a knock on the door. “That must be the food.”
Shirley stood. “We can’t be too careful. I’ll hide over there and you pull the door with you behind it so you’re not vulnerable.”
But it was just the food and the two women settled on the bed again to eat it while they looked at their laptops. After a while Shirley set it beside her, her eyes closed as she lay thinking.
Joshua Laing. That was his real name, she knew, but what other names did he use in the past or even now? Somehow he had escaped detection since his alleged death so he had to have had a pseudonym in that time even though he must have been associated with Gros probably all the time, maybe even with other people. She slid down a bit more and Helen took the laptop to put beside her on the locker, her expression relieved. Sleep would only delay what lay ahead for a few hours but Shirley needed it badly. She closed her eyes and slept also.
Four hours later she woke, opened her eyes and turned to look at Shirley. Except that Shirley had gone and so had her laptop. Helen’s smile was rather twisted. Had she found something else into which to look? Did she just want to get away on her own? Helen went into the bathroom and the phone rang. It was Johann.
“Hello, liebling. Are you alright?”
“Shirley has gone. It’s only four hours since we slept. She was very upset last night about everything. How is Daniel? Is he with you?”
“We’re still at The Reichstag. He’s in the air ducts at the moment examining everything. We havn’t found anymore devices.”
“You must be tired. Are you going to come here when you’ve finished?”
“I’m not sure. You could stay there and I can come when I can.”
“I’ll see. Ring me in a couple of hours, will you? You’ll get very little sleep tonight so you need at least two or three hours.”
“I’ll come to the hotel in about an hour. What shall I tell Daniel?”
“Nothing at the moment.”
But Johann did not have to tell Daniel anything. Thirty minutes later they decided to leave the Reichstag for a while in order to sleep. Before
Johann could ask Daniel what he would do Daniel disappeared and Johann knew there was nothing he could say that would help, anyway. The couple had to sort things out themselves and all Johann wanted to do at this moment was sleep. He made his way to the hotel, got onto the bed fully dressed and put his arms round Helen to hold her tightly. Within seconds he was asleep.
Shirley a few miles away sat in her car looking at part of the river Mulde not far from where Lala and Emile lived. Eight thirty in the morning and too early to visit but she needed to see them. She would wait a while and maybe go in an hour. As she thought of it a car drew up beside hers.
She unlocked the door and wanted to cry as Lala sat next to her. But she must not do that, she thought, because it was ridiculous. Lala leaned sideways to kiss her on the cheek.
“Hello, liebling.”
“Hi.”
“I thought you might come.”
“How does news get around so quickly?” Shirley asked.
“Johann rang. Where is Daniel?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to see him and he probably doesn’t want to see me. I need information.”
“Then you’ve come to the right people. What do you want to know?”
“Everything you have on Joshua. Do you have much?”
“We have a lot on everyone. Shall we go and have some breakfast?”
“That would be nice. Are the children home today?”
“No. Emile has taken them to school. He’s coming home for a short time and then he’s going to the Reichstag. You have once again been instrumental in stopping something disastrous from happening and we are all very grateful.”
“I just contributed a few brain cells,” Shirley said. “The actual work is far more difficult. I’ll follow you to your house. I have a practice at The Philharmonie early afternoon.”
“We’re looking forward to the concert. It’s a good celebration.”
“The real celebration is Kurt Masur and the Leipzig orchestra tonight,” Shirley said.
“That too. Will you follow me?”
“Yes.” And it was nice to be with Lala and Emile, Shirley thought, though the one thing she really wanted to ask them she could not. They had breakfast, chatted and Emile fetched the information he had on Joshua.
The Berlin Vendetta: Book 3 in the series 'The Enigmatic Defection' Page 15