‘You are worried about your hearing?’ Magda asked.
‘My boss thinks it might go against me. The newspapers are biased and I don’t have an alibi for some of the time. And I’m going to miss the next twenty years of my daughter’s life. Apart from that, everything’s perfect.’
She gave a quick laugh. ‘I’ll miss you, Roman, when they let you out.’
‘I may be here longer than you think.’
She lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. ‘I know where to find Grosschenk’s chauffeur.’
I stared at her for a full minute almost forgetting to breathe. The distant clank of a door closing and receding footsteps penetrated my brain and woke it up. The chauffeur could corroborate the time I’d been at Grosschenk’s house. That’s what I’d been trying to remember. Mars’ balls! Maybe I could get out of here. When had he left the house? Would he cooperate?
‘My contact says he left Grosschenk’s that evening and went into hiding in the Mitte.’ She glanced over at me and lowered her voice. ‘I’d get my own people to dig him out if it was me. The Kripo will bugger it up.’ As she reached over to take her coffee cup, a tiny piece of paper, a sugar lump wrapper with a scribble on it, fell out of her hand.
*
The next day, Galba came to prepare me for the hearing, the Zwischenverfahren scheduled for five days’ time. She explained the procedure and shoved a pile of papers at me to sign. Holding on to the last one, I stared at her, willing her to lift her eyes from the file in front of her. She grasped the sheet to take it back from me but I wouldn’t let go. She looked up at last.
‘Is there something you want to ask? Or have explained?’ She shot a glance at her watch.
I kept my eyes steadily on hers, trying to convey a sense of importance. I stretched my arm out and handed the sheet back slowly ensuring she had to take it on the side near my fingers which held Madga’s sugar lump wrapper concealed underneath.
‘I think you should investigate one last avenue with all the resources available to you. Consult Fabia. She’ll know exactly what to do.’ We spoke in Latin, and this was supposed to be a confidential client meeting but who knew who was listening in. I couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong. ‘Remember the ancients’ story about he who drives the chariot holds the key.’
She looked at me as if I was deranged, but she took the sheet and the sliver of paper without comment and slid both in her folder.
‘Galba,’ I said and touched the back of her hand with my fingers, ‘I’m relying on you to deal with this urgently.’
‘Of course, domina, I will prioritise it.’
Well, that was strange. Galba was never so polite. Had she grasped what I had been trying to convey? She had no training in clandestine matters and I had tried to be as obvious as possible without actually telling her what to do in plain language. She gathered her papers together, stuffed them into her briefcase, stood, nodded to me and left.
*
Back in the grandiose Moabit courtroom five days later, I stood outwardly impassive by Galba’s side as the charges were read out. Fabia and her detail had found no trace of Grosschenk’s chauffeur and our forensics expert’s best analysis had still left that twelve-hour gap. Galba rehearsed all our depositions, but could enter no new evidence.
‘And, so, learned judges,’ she concluded her pleading, ‘ it would be deeply unjust to convict an innocent woman of such a brutal slaying, and condemn her to be locked up in a foreign country, irrevocably disconnected from her young daughter’s life without cause and on such flimsy evidence.’ She tucked her hand under her skirt as she sat down, her face well schooled with a completely confident expression.
The prosecutor declared it all too coincidental and begged the court to be allowed to introduce a new material witness who had a unique view.
I tugged on Galba’s arm. ‘I thought they’d disclosed all their evidence,’ I whispered. ‘Who could it be?’
‘Not a clue. It’s most unusual. Don’t worry. I think they’re scraping the barrel. There can’t be anybody else significant left.’
‘You have something to say, Frau Rechtsanwältin?’ The chief judge cut through our conversation.
‘We are surprised at this late submission, Herr Vorsitzender, but will accede,’ she said in a clear voice, but I heard a slight tremor.
I was still trying to work out who this witness could be when two prison guards brought in my nemesis.
Caius Tellus looked well; his skin was a healthy pink colour and his eyes gleamed. He moved fluidly and strode into the court as if he owned it. He paused directly in front of the witness stand, turned as if he’d suddenly remembered something and looked at me. For an instant he smirked, then changed it into a fake sympathetic smile. Bastard. If Galba hadn’t gripped my arm so hard, I would have leapt over the table and floored him.
‘Please state your name and then describe your relationship to the accused,’ intoned the prosecutor.
‘I am Caius Tellus, Roma Novan citizen, of the senior branch of the Tella family. I have known the accused since we were children together. She chose the military while I helped my family and pursued cultural and charity work.’
I nearly choked at his half-truths. Gambling, partying and conning people were the words I would have used.
‘Our families have been allied through intermarriage and friendship for centuries but when I suggested a formal contract with her, she laughed in my face.’ He sighed and gave a sad smile. ‘I was so disappointed, I was distraught and started drinking. Unfortunately, I was vulnerable and became involved with some shady characters who led me to where I am now.’ He raised his cuffed hands, shook them ensuring the metal clinked and sighed heavily. Half fascinated myself, I swallowed hard to push back my disgust.
I heard some ‘ah’s from the public benches and sympathetic looks. Gods, he was doing it again. His rich, almost hypnotic, voice was drawing them in.
‘I deeply regret acting so foolishly at Grosschenk’s house and realise I should have helped the accused, however much she had hurt me in the past.’ He glanced over at me. ‘Naturally, it grieves me that she is in this perilous situation. I know there was extreme provocation, but I do feel she shouldn’t have killed Grosschenk in such a manner.’
‘Objection!’ Galba nearly screamed the word out as she shot to her feet.
‘Substantiated,’ the judge said. ‘Witness, you will confine yourself to the facts and not express opinions.’
Caius smiled meekly, but his words couldn’t be unsaid.
Galba walked over to where Caius was sitting. He leant back and looked her up and down slowly as if she were a piece of meat. A pink flush crept into her cheeks, but she stood her ground.
‘You’ve been convicted on solid evidence of silver smuggling, attempted murder and conspiracy to damage the economic interests of Prussia, so I see no reason to believe a word you say.’ She turned to the chief judge. ‘I would ask for it to be noted in the record that we reject this witness as unreliable.’ She shrugged. ‘More than that, he’s a complete liar.’
She ignored the prosecutor’s cry of ‘objection’ and walked back coolly to our table.
‘Macte!’ I whispered. ‘But he’ll target you now.’
‘So be it,’ she replied. The judge signalled that the court was finished with Caius and he was escorted out. As he came level with our table, he stopped and glared down at me, his eyes darkened to agates, and full of hate and anger. I held them with my own, focusing all the contempt I could muster to throw back at him. This time, despite the fear that wound itself around me as I stared back, I didn’t look away.
The two guards took his arms and hustled him out. I shuddered and pressed the palm of my hand to my breastbone. I took a deep breath. Tartarus receive and destroy him.
*
The prosecutor moved for a full formal trial. Cold crept through me, not only from the frightening encounter with Caius, but when I finally realised that within the hour, I was going to be committed to
a trial after which I’d be locked up until I was nearly fifty. I would never see Marina’s transformation into a young woman, her emancipation at sixteen. I would miss her grumpy adolescence, her first crush on a boy, her laugh and her soft arms. I blinked hard and looked down at the table, staring at the distorted marks where my tears were falling on Galba’s papers.
Galba and the prosecutor batted the familiar arguments back and forth. It sank into a distant buzz along with my spirits. To distract myself, I glanced around the courtroom. I caught Scholz glowering from public seating. A few chairs away sat some of the legation staff including the military commander.
Then I nearly stopped breathing.
I grasped the sides of my chair seat to stop myself swaying. A tall figure with black curly hair in the back row stared at me and nodded. I blinked and looked again. Nobody there.
‘Are you all right?’ Galba whispered as she sat down after her final speech. ‘You look as if you’ve seen the manes.’
No ghost, but Miklós. It was him. No doubt. My heart sang with joy to see him even for a second. But he hadn’t stayed. Anger rushed up through me. Where in Hades had he gone? He could testify and save me. No, he’d pulled another bloody disappearing act. My stomach lurched and I put my hand over my mouth and swallowed hard. I would not disgrace myself by throwing up in front of these people. But if he did come forward, they’d seize him for smuggling. He’d run a huge risk coming here at all. His soul would shrivel enclosed in prison. Had he come to see me for a last time before I was locked away? I bit my lip and swallowed my bitterness.
I almost didn’t see the figure that was bending her head to Galba’s ear. Fabia. Where had she come from? She glanced across at me, then went into intense whispering again to Galba and shoved several sets of stapled sheets at her.
‘Are you sure?’ Galba asked, her eyebrows drawn together.
Fabia nodded, glanced at me and gave a half-bow. Then she left.
‘Is there something you wish to share with the court, Frau Rechtsanwältin?’ the chief judge asked. ‘It must be very important to keep us all in such suspense. In your own time, of course.’
Galba flushed, but she stood and drew herself up to her full height, a martial look in her eyes. ‘I apologise, Herr Vorsitzender,’ she said in the most unapologetic voice I had heard in a long time, ‘but it seems there is new vital evidence that will clear my client completely. A new witness has come forward. I must beg the court’s indulgence to present this.’
‘Another one. This hearing is turning into a circus. We will need to recess to consider your request,’ the chief judge began.
‘No!’ Galba almost shouted. ‘I mean, it will take very little time and if I may cite the exceptional presentation rules under paragraph six of the Criminal Proceedings Act, I have copies of this new evidence for you and the public prosecutor, and the witness is waiting outside to testify.’
Juno, not Miklós. No, he mustn’t. Unable to speak, I grasped the base of my throat with my hand but waved violently at Galba with my other. Keeping her eyes on the judge, she made a short, sharp sideways jab with her hand in my direction. What in Hades was that meant to mean? How dared she dismiss me like that?
‘Very well,’ the judge said, ‘as you conceded to the public prosecutor’s new witness, you have leave to present. But if it is not directly relevant, then it may well damage your client’s case as well as your own legal integrity. We will suspend proceedings for ten minutes while we read this new document.’
Before I could say anything further, Galba strode up to the judge, handed him a set of papers and merely dropped a similar set on the table in front of the prosecutor without looking at him.
‘What in Hades do you think you’re doing?’ I hissed at her as she sat down beside me.
She leant into me, almost growling. ‘You would be wise to sit still and hold your nerve.’
I was so taken aback by her directness, I couldn’t think of anything to say. She exuded calm and focus, her back was straight, neck stretched and head upright. She was readying herself for battle, with the confident air of a winner. I’d seen that many times before in training and live operations as the troops prepared themselves mentally. But she’d be sacrificing my love in the process.
‘Galba, if you put him on the stand, they’ll arrest him the minute he finishes speaking.’
‘Yes, and so they should.’
Gods, she was heartless. ‘You can’t. I won’t let you,’ I said. I grabbed her wrist and shook it.
‘Don’t be dramatic. He deserves everything he gets.’
‘Please, Galba, don’t do this.’ Then I remembered I was paying her bill. ‘I order you to stop. Now.’
‘Sorry, I have instructions from a higher authority.’
‘What do you mean?’
She flashed a look at me and shoved a piece of paper across the table. It was a personal executive order dated two days ago and signed ‘Justina Imperatrix’. I scanned it carefully, but there was no doubt. It ordered Galba to draw on every resource required and granted her complete freedom of action to bring to an acquittal even in contradiction of my wishes. Bloody Justina, interfering in my life again.
‘When did you get this?’
‘Fabia gave it to me ten minutes ago, along with the man’s statement.’
‘Galba—’
‘No, I’m not disobeying the imperatrix even if you want to. I don’t have the protection you do as a Mitela.’
‘Don’t fool yourself, Galba. The Twelve Families are even more vulnerable to sanction than the ordinary citizen.’ I rubbed the gold-bordered document between my finger and thumb. ‘I’ll do as I’m told, but I’m never going to forgive her for this.’
Although I would have shouted and screamed at him if he’d been within reach, Miklós was the only man I’d ever truly loved. Then it fell on me as if the Fates were strangling me with the thread of life itself; if I pleaded guilty, I would never see Marina grow up. Oh, gods, this was horrific. Caius had put me in this hellhole where I had to choose between my love and my child. There was no question it would be Marina, but I would destroy Miklós as a result.
I lifted my eyes up to hers, pleading for her to find a way through this. ‘Please, Galba.’ To say she looked puzzled was an understatement. She opened her mouth, but the chief judge interrupted by calling for the new witness to be brought in to testify. I dreaded seeing Miklós trapped and under escort. My heart thudded. I bowed my head and covered my face with my hands.
But the walk wasn’t right. The footsteps sounded lumpen, not light, and slower than I expected. I opened my eyes and raised my head from behind my hands to see Grosschenk’s chauffeur.
‘What in Hades is he doing here?’ I hissed at Galba. ‘I thought you couldn’t find him.’
‘This isn’t who you were expecting?’ Galba whispered, glancing at the new witness being sworn in.
‘No, I thought… never mind.’ I waved my hand at her. ‘Go and do your job.’ I gulped, cleared my throat and tried very hard not to sob with relief.
XX
I listened to the chauffeur’s precise tones, I heard his words, but it was as if I was watching it on a television in the corner of the room.
The man recounted how Caius Tellus had forced Grosschenk out of the back of the house, through the back gate and out through the trees to the forest hut, jabbing his pistol at the stumbling Grosschenk’s head every other step to hurry him along. The chauffeur’s tight, self-contained voice wavered when he told the court how he’d cowered outside listening to Grosschenk’s screams.
‘I’ve heard terror in people’s voices before.’ He shrugged. ‘Herr Grosschenk sometimes had to persuade people to see his point of view, but this,’ he glanced at the judge, ‘this was like cries from hell.’
‘Why didn’t you intervene?’ the judge asked.
The chauffeur snorted. ‘And get myself killed? That Roman was a vicious bastard. I followed them from behind the trees at the side of the path. Ju
st before we got to the hut, I thought Tellus heard me. He made Herr Grosschenk stop while he looked round. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to run or stay when I heard that first God-awful scream. Something ran across my foot and I cried out. Only a bloody rabbit or rat, I s’pose, but I nearly shat myself. Then the second scream. Then nothing until I smelt burning and saw smoke coming out of the chimney.
‘After a few minutes, I crept up and peered through the window and saw the flames. Then Tellus turned and saw me. I shot into the trees and ran like hell for the main road.’ He gripped the edge of the witness box and looked down. ‘When I was sure he hadn’t come after me, I made my way to the railway. It took hours. My legs were shaking by the time I reached the station. I took the first train of the day, just after four a.m. As I rode back into Berlin, I tried to block out the screams, but I couldn’t. I haven’t slept for weeks. I knew that Roman bastard would come after me, so I holed up with a friend in the Mitte.’
He looked up at the judge. ‘I heard Tellus was convicted for smuggling and abduction, but that sort doesn’t stay down. Then that gypsy found me.’ He glanced at me. ‘The same one who stopped the car when Herr Grosschenk was bringing her to the house.’
Miklós.
‘And where is this gypsy now?’ the judge asked.
I held my breath.
‘Dunno. He brought me to a house and handed me over to some Roma Novans. Cops or military. Some of her lot.’ He jerked his head again in my direction.
‘Objection,’ the public prosecutor leapt up. ‘This witness is making his statement under duress. The court must rule it out of order.’
‘A fair point, Herr Staatsanwalt,’ the judge said. He turned his gaze back to the chauffeur. ‘You have taken an oath to tell the truth. You will be protected by the court if you choose to retract. Has anybody forced you to make this statement?’
AURELIA (Roma Nova Book 4) Page 16