Chapter 51
London
Jonny returned to his flat upset and deflated by his time with Stuart Campbell. He stood in front of the board willing someone’s face to talk to him. `Come to me!’, he urged to himself silently.
Campbell’s eyes shone out of his enlarged photograph. He had had reason to feel very aggrieved at Solomon over the Porton Down affairs and as his mentor he had been saddened by Solomon’s inability to talk to him before taking matters into his own hand. Campbell had never said much about his feelings towards Solomon over this matter and Jonny knew his University tenure, life and work had been eventually devastated by the events of Solomon’s whistle blowing at Porton Down, but he had attended Solomon’s funeral. Jonny couldn’t help, at this stage, allowing Campbell to remain in the frame.
Next, he looked at Johann Bron. Bron had stalked Naomi and Schatzi around Munich and then confronted the whole family in Kent. Campbell had been very upset at the aftermath of the Munich affair. He’d said so on many occasions to Jonny. It seemed that Bron nursed a deep-seated emotional turmoil borne of incarceration for years in Russia, being ostracised by the war and the regime for his daughter’s pregnancy and then on his return finding that all his past had been eliminated in his absence. He had not accepted his loneliness and had sought to be advised of anything that might rekindle his past. That had come with the telephone call from Town Hall. Now, he stood in the forefront of Jonny’s board. He’d lied about Nadine and being at the Campbell’s house, but why?
Jonny sat at his desk and put his feet over the edge and closed his eyes. The light was fading outside as evening gave way to darker thoughts in Jonny’s mind. Cascading pictures from the board swung backwards and forwards, making no sense to him. He must have fallen asleep when he awoke looking in his mind at a Missing Persons Poster of a face that he couldn’t see properly but a name he knew.
He fumbled to find the light switch and grabbed Solomon’s papers. Leafing through the original manuscript to the markers he inserted, he found what he was looking for. He’d had overlooked something fundamental in his search for the story. Solomon’s emotions. Yes, they’d erupted occasionally from the pages of ‘Stealing the Staircase’ but they were not those feelings from far inside oneself. The ones that you have in the pit of your stomach that have no rational explanation. Now he determined to look closer.
Chapter 52
London
Here it is, he said to himself pulling out the page. What had Solomon said?
‘I have never had any interest in girls, but to my amazement I kept thinking about the sparkling brown eyes of the older girl who introduced me to the wonderful world under the microscope. Some days during those weeks we would talk together but that would be all because I was a Jew and she was not. I would think of Fraulein Roberta Bron and her long brown hair and sparking eyes an awful lot’
Jonny wanted to know if he had missed anything else in the manuscript, but Solomon had not added or subtracted words in the finished printable version. There were many hand-written loose-leaved pages of second thoughts, matters that Jonny may have wanted to add but didn’t. He slowly laid them out on the table in the middle of the room. They were all dated, and Jonny laid them out chronologically. Most were not relevant as they were dated after 1944. He wanted earlier notes.
The search was proving a long shot and nothing was leaping out at him until he noticed what at first he thought was writing on the reverse side of several pages but on further examination was the impression of pen marks. He held the sheets to the light and turned them slightly to reveal the faintest of shadows. It was clearly writing but impossible to read.
‘Is this the colour grey I’ve been looking for, Solomon’ he said aloud. He made copies of the pages and put them back into the manuscript folder. Jonny put the originals in a clear plastic folder and picked up the phone and rang Rod Taskner of Photo Blending Tech Limited. There was no answer. Then he realised the office would be closed at 11.30 pm.
‘Good morning, Rod. How goes it?’
‘All the better for seeing you this bright and sunny day.’
‘Got another job for you,’ said Jonny studying the large photograph that Rod had draped over his desk. ‘Interesting photo.’
‘Yes, one of our archaeological client companies. Taken from one of those satellites you can rent for a fee, a big fee. They’re looking for a lost city site in the Middle Sahara, actually. Cannot say any more, signed a comprehensive non-disclosure agreement with them.’
‘Perhaps, I should get you to sign one, Rod,’ said Jonny smiling at the thought.
‘No need, mate. Most of our stuff here is very hush, hush. No-one here can talk about anything outside these walls, on pain of instant dismissal. Well, what have we this morning?’
Jonny handed Rod the plastic folder containing the sheets of paper.
‘There are the impressions of some writing on these and I need to see what it is. Maybe nothing but, can you help?’
Rod carefully removed the papers holding by the corners. Holding one of them at an angle to the bright desk lamp.
‘Yes, see what you mean, Jonny. Leave them with me. Shouldn’t be long. I’ll courier them around when their done. You in all day tomorrow?’
Chapter 53
London
Jonny opened the envelope and looked at the writing. There were some gaps but essentially it was complete.
‘I became infatuated with her. It was a feeling that I’d never experienced before. I was young and thought about her every waking moment, even when we were close together looking into the microscopes. I felt like touching her soft skin and stroking her hair. I didn’t for fear of rejection and foolishness. We spent our breaks from the lab, talking about our thoughts and aspirations. She did most of the talking. I felt I had known her for all my short life. It felt so natural to be with her, by her side. I would walk her home. At least part of the way. She was worried that her parents would start asking questions and she wanted us to be private. I’d watch her walk away towards her part of town until she was a speck in the distance and then gone until tomorrow.
‘With a skip in my step, I would glide home not noticing anything around me, just lost in my own reverie. The nights would be long without her. Sleep would eventually come as I lay with my arms hugging myself imagining that I was wrapped in tenderness. One day, without apparent warning, although I know I am a little awkward, she turned to me and kissed my cheek tenderly. I responded by taking her hand in mine and looked straight into her eyes. She kissed me on the lips. It was a sensation that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. My first lovers kiss.
‘From that time onwards, my awkwardness as a lover seemed to dissipate. I felt that I could have some sort of control of my destiny. I invited her out for a day at the weekend before she and her family would be gone for their summer vacation. She gave some excuse to her parents and we met and took the train to Ammersee Lake. It took us fifty minutes by train that dropped us off in the town of Herrsching from where we walked together hand in hand to the lake, relaxed and swinging our arms together. It was too hot to walk to the Kloster Andechs monastery although we started along a well-marked path, but gave up to unpack the picnic we’d bought in Herrsching. We lay down on the warm grass watching the leaves on the trees above sway silently to and fro, listening to the shallow waves of the lake fall on the shingle shoreline. It felt as if I was transported into another world.
‘I lay back, eyes closed, a shadow passed over my face. Roberta was watching me from a few inches away, her sweet breath tickling my face. She then kissed me on the lips and I wrapped my arms around her pulling her on top of me. We were both transported onto another plain as I wriggled out of my clothes and she did the same. She let me explore her body, I kissed each part delicately and she responded as if the most natural thing was for me to make love to her and for her to accept me.
‘I didn’t know at the time this was to be the last time we would ever have together. I tried t
o see her, but she left her job at the University and there was no sign of her anywhere I looked. I was distraught as weeks melted into months and gradually, I began to recover as University beckoned and a new stage of my life would begin.’
Jonny sat for a while. Was this his missing link in the chain?
Chapter 54
London
There was no doubt that Roberta gave birth to Schatzi and according to Solomon’s chronology, it was likely that the dates they were at Ammersee lake coincided with the normal pregnancy unless she had a sexual liaison during the summer vacation under the watchful eyes of her parents. Jonny dismissed that as very unlikely. There were no records to substantiate that Schatzi was Solomon’s child. Roberta’s parents were never told who the father was.
Jonny knew that there were too many similarities between the two, Schatzi and Solomon. He got up and wandered over to the board and took down the two photographs which confirmed the physical similarities. The mental one’s were the clincher, apart from Schatzi’s Asperger’s.
Jonny was certain that Solomon did not know that Roberta had given birth to a child after their brief liaison and that he was Schatzi’s father. There was no reference directly in ‘Stealing the Staircase’ save for this one hidden sheaf of papers. One’s that Solomon had discarded as they expressed his first brush with love. He thought they were too personal to appear in his story. Jonny’s mind slid back to Solomon’s reference to being a Jew and Roberta being an Aryan. That said a lot about why he maybe thought that her parents had forbidden any contact after that summer. It made sense to him, particularly as her father was a Captain in the Wehrmacht.
Had Stuart Campbell any of this knowledge? He’d had never even alluded to it whenever they spoke together. It would have inconceivable that there could be any meaningful relationship between Solomon and Campbell if either had any knowledge of the situation and yet there was a deep relationship between them from the time they met in 1945 to his death. Only interrupted by Porton Down and what Jonny suspected, Campbell was very upset about Solomon’s behaviour, irrespective of the fact that he’d probably understood that Solomon would have been sickened by human experiment after his experiences in Auschwitz.
Johann Bron certainly did not know or if he did, he was very good at concealing it. This revelation would add motive to some of those on Jonny’s board if it were true. Jonny decided now he had to end the speculation with some hard irrefutable facts. He picked up his diary of contacts and spoke into the telephone handset. He needed proof of his theory.
Chapter 55
London
‘I need some help in a case I’m dealing with, Alaister?’
‘Jonny, long time. How are you my friend and what’s this about?’
Jonny explained that he wanted to see if two people were related. Paternity issue.
‘What do you need from me?’
Jonny knew that even though we are all unique, most of our DNA is actually identical to other people’s DNA.
‘Body tissue or fluid. Must be uncontaminated because otherwise we cannot get to the specific regions which vary highly between people, ‘polymorphisms’, is the word,’ said Alaister laughing at the other end of the phone.
‘Polymor…what?’
‘phisms. You and I inherit a unique combination of polymorphisms from our parents. DNA polymorphisms can be analysed to give a DNA profile.’
‘Right, I see. So, you can tell from two profiles, with one parent’s profile missing whether the two are related with a high level of accuracy?’
‘Hey, Jonny. All I can say to you is ‘short tandem repeats’.’
‘What are short tandem repeats, Alaister?’
‘I’ll tell you next time we meet. Now you get the samples and I’ll do the work. OK?’
Jonny put down the phone and looked at the list he’d written in his note pad of possible DNA sources. He repeated them to himself as he logically dismissed them one by one as he had two dead men to deal with, Solomon and Schatzi. White blood cells, semen, body tissue, body fluids, saliva, perspiration and hair roots.
Both Solomon Isaacs and Schatzi Campbell had been cremated. It looked like a dead-end, then he remembered that both had been the subject of post mortem examination to determine the cause of death. Who did he know who could help? Again, he consulted his ‘little black book’ of contacts. Flicking through the pages nothing immediately came to the fore, until he got to the word ’Undertakers’ Maybe they could be his source. He picked up the telephone.
‘Rachel, my right-hand lady, how are you?’
‘Jonny, what’s going on everybody’s asking what the hell you’re up to. I keep fobbing them off.’
‘Hope it won’t be too long now, but I need your help again. You remember a year or so ago, we managed to get some info from those Undertakers in Chester. I need to find some DNA of two bodies that cremated recently. All I can say is ‘Paternity’. If I give you the names of the deceased, can you find the names of the official Undertakers?’
‘Yep, shouldn’t be too difficult,’ replied Rachel as she wrote down the names and last known addresses of the deceased. She raised her eyebrows at the name of Isaacs.
‘Is that the guy shot in a London hotel recently, Jonny?’
‘The very same, Rachel. I’ll tell you soon but be discreet. OK.’
‘I’ll do what I can. Be in touch. Discreet. Don’t even mention the word, Jonny.’
Jonny wasn’t convinced he was going to be lucky. He rang Alaister again.
‘Sorry to bother you again but tell be about embalming. Does it destroy DNA?’
‘Not necessarily. For individuals that recently passed away, within a week or so, taking samples collected by swabs from inside the cheek can still produce sufficient DNA. The embalming process will destroy DNA over time, Jonny, however, even after a body is recently embalmed, there is still a window where buccal, sorry cheek, swabs still work or alternatively, removing a patch of skin.’
‘Thanks, Alaister. I’ll be in touch.’
‘Hey, wait a minute, Jonny. If what you tell me is true I’d say that you’d be unlikely to have uncontaminated swabs but we’ll see. If I might suggest, maybe there’s a chance of a sample of teeth, fingernails, hair. See what you can do, the more the better. Anyway, who’s paying me?’
‘The Journal, of course. Going to tell me about ‘Short tandem repeats’, Alaister?’
‘Sit down and put your brain into gear, my friend. To obtain a profile, we examine STRs at ten, or more, genetic locations, these are usually on different chromosomes. Let me give you a simple example of non-coding DNA that contain repeats, TAGATAGA TAGATAGATAGATA is an STR where the nucleotide sequence GATA is repeated six times. If these occur in two samples from different people, then it goes towards a match. We are usually looking at ten plus locations. Got it?’
‘Not really. I’m beginning the regret the question. I better wait until you have the samples then, perhaps, it will make more sense to me. See you Alaister and thanks.’
Jonny sat waiting for Rachel to call. She didn’t disappoint. Jonny listened carefully writing furiously on his pad.
Chapter 56
London
‘A flat in Pimlico, central London. Thanks Reinhart,’ said Bron.
Debating with himself, he finally decided to go straight to London and make his decision about how to contact her thereafter.
As he exited Terminal 3 at Heathrow London airport, a smattering of recent snow lay trodden into the pavement that led to the taxi rank. Hang the cost, he wasn’t in the mood to travel by train. The taxi pulled up outside the entrance to the Strand Palace hotel in central London and Bron slowly walked up the entrance steps and entered the revolving door. He was travelling light and shook his head when a porter arrived by his side to assist with his bag. Registration took a minute or two before he made his way across to the bank of lifts.
He opened the bedroom door and sat by the window before opening the fridge to help himself to a generou
s glass of scotch. He opened his case and took out a map of London looking at the circle he’d put indicating Nadine’s address. A short taxi ride away. Tomorrow, he’d arrive quite early to make sure she was in.
He dressed in his newly pressed medium grey suit with blue tie and white shirt. woollen scarf wrapped loosely around his shoulders and heavy navy blue overcoat, Bron stepped into the back seat of the London taxicab.
‘They don’t have any lifts here these old houses, which floor do you have to get to.’ Bron studied the address.
‘That will be top floor, mate,’ said the cabbie as Bron paid the fare.
He stood on the pavement and studied the building. It was going to be quite an effort. The entrance was guarded by a porter in maroon livery.
‘May I help, sir?’
‘I’m visiting Nadine Isaacs. It’s a surprise. We have seen each other since 1943.’
‘Gracious, that is a long time. Have you come far?’
‘Not really, arrived from Munich yesterday.’
‘Well, sorry to say you’ve just missed her. She went for her morning walk about ten minutes ago. Usually takes half an hour.’
‘Where does she walk to?’
‘Usually, in fact always, she turns left out of the front and then arrives back from the right. Not sure where she goes in the middle,’ he laughed. ‘There’s a nice sheltered seat in the park, there on the right, unless you want to wait here in the warm?’ he said pointing through the front door. Usually, a coffee van parked there till after lunch time. ‘Sorry, we don’t stretch to refreshments here,’ he laughed again.
Bron lowered himself onto the bench seat and cradled the warm coffee in his hands. He had a view of the building and the pavements and paths that led in all directions. He felt nervous for the first time since he heard from Campbell that Nadine was alive. What were his first words going to be? Would he recognise her? Would she recognise him? All these uncertainties crossed his mind as he sipped the hot liquid. The air was cold but bright and each hot breath was caught in the light breeze and wafted away. Pigeons gather nearby hoping for some food but eventually flew off to some more probable gift zone.
Prisoner 441 Page 19