Once Upon a Time

by Barbara Fradkin

  Six

  December 24th, 1940

  Britain has beaten back the enemy,

  Now Poland dances under Hitler’s boot.

  Snatches of song and laughter sift through the straw above our heads.

  Festive chicken and onions scent the air.

  But in our lair below the barn, in hunger, cold and darkness,

  we wait our turn.

  We share our warmth, snuggled together deep in the straw.

  A whimpered cry, fumbled buttons, the coo of a baby at the breast.

  I contemplate in wonder

  the bond of family, so deep and primal that I reach out to touch it.

  She cocks her head slyly, smiles and shifts her dress.

  A pox on the Nazi bastards, she says,

  And she welcomes me in.

  Sharon had already left for her evening shift at the psychiatric hospital by the time Sullivan dropped Green off at his house at five o’clock. The teenage babysitter was curled up on the couch talking on the phone while Tony, having recently mastered the art of walking, happily removed all Green’s CDs from their rack and strewed them over the floor.

  The girl unfolded herself guiltily. “I just fed him supper, and I was going to give him his bath at six.”

  Green rescued a Rolling Stones classic from Tony’s jaws and scooped the protesting baby into his arms for a hug. “That’s fine, I’ll do that. But could you come back for a couple more hours later?”

  The girl shrugged her indifference. “Your wife left your phone messages on the kitchen counter. She said to be sure you got them.”

  Curious, Green tucked Tony under one arm and went to check. No less than three messages from Superintendent Jules, with Sharon’s succinct editorial on the last. “He sounded pissed.” Jules’ first message was a little more congenial. “Who on earth is Howard Walker? He’s been calling all over the station for you.”

  Well, well, well, Green thought as he headed upstairs to the bath. He had to quell his curiosity while he played with Tony in the tub and read him his favourite story, Goodnight Moon. Tony would not allow a single step in the ritual to be skipped and, as he approached his first birthday, he was developing an impressive, if at times indecipherable vocabulary of single words to express his disapproval. Green had long ago learned that in the battle of wills, Tony always won. Your DNA, Sharon was fond of muttering, as if obstinacy and sheer bloody-mindedness could never have come from her end of the gene pool.

  It was seven o’clock by the time Green was able to grab his notebook and slip back out the door with one last glance at Jules’ unanswered phone messages. It’s not that I’m actually avoiding Jules, he told himself as he headed down to the station to sign out the tool box. It’s just that I need to know what has set Howard Walker off and deal with it before I can figure out what to tell Jules. Jules almost never called on the weekend unless he’d received some flak from higher up, which was happening more and more often in the new procedurized, bureaucratic amalgamated police force. Howard Walker must have stirred up the brass, either intentionally or by bumbling around asking the wrong people for help.

  Jules might also be angry because Sharon had told him about the trip to Renfrew. Normally Sharon knew better than to betray Green’s minor misdemeanours to the brass, even Jules, but she hadn’t been too pleased with this one herself. His choice of Renfrew over a day of family togetherness had prompted an entire night of the famous Levy silent treatment which hadn’t even broken when he’d tried to kiss her goodbye this morning.

  She might have told Jules where Green had gone, and Jules, being a detective long before becoming a brass, would have put Howard Walker, Eugene Walker and Renfrew together, looked up Eugene’s file, and known Green was off on one of his wild goose chases.

  The interesting question now was—where did Howard Walker fit into this goose chase?

  To his surprise, half a dozen cars were parked on the street outside the Reid house when Green arrived with the evidence bags casually concealed in a briefcase. As he mounted the steps, he heard the sound of muted voices from within. The funeral, he wondered with a sinking feeling? Eugene Walker had died on Wednesday, so a funeral on Saturday was entirely plausible. Green was about to withdraw out of respect for the family when a thought occurred to him. Whatever had brought Howard Walker down to the station on the afternoon of his father’s funeral must be damn important.

  Donald Reid opened the door in response to Green’s ring, and a welcome died on his lips at the sight of Green.

  “You! I told you about that fight so you could check it out, not go accusing Howard of murder!”

  “I did no such thing.”

  Disregarding the chilly air, Reid stepped out onto the porch in his shirtsleeves and shut the door behind him. To Green’s surprise, he was red-eyed. “Jeff Tillsbury called Howard and said you were snooping into his relationship with his father.”

  “Well, I do have some questions for Howard. And for your mother-in-law.”

  “For fuck’s sake, inspector! We’ve just buried my father-in-law. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

  “It could, but Howard himself seemed anxious to speak to me.”

  Reid grunted and reentered the house, leaving the door ajar for Green to follow. “Just go back into the kitchen. Be inconspicuous, at least.”

  In the living room Green passed a cluster of guests clutching tea cups and murmuring solace. He’d barely settled in the kitchen and slipped the briefcase out of sight at his feet before a youngish man appeared, dressed in a charcoal grey suit and black tie which Green noticed with surprise was cut on one side. Howard was small and fine-boned like his mother, but with dark curls and chocolate brown eyes magnified by thick glasses. He had a drink in his hand and a scowl on his face.

  “Why are you doing this?” he demanded.

  Green played ignorant. “Doing what?”

  “I checked with the pathologist. He told me my father died of natural causes. Why are you stirring all this up? You’re upsetting my mother, you’re upsetting my sister.”

  Ah, thought Green. The collegial courtesy of one doctor to another. So it was Dr. MacPhail who had talked too much, no doubt fuelled by half a dozen scotches, and MacPhail who had alerted Jules that Green was poking around in a non-case.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve upset anyone, Dr. Walker. I’m simply investigating possibilities. Standard investigative procedure, I assure you.”

  “But you’re saying he was murdered.”

  “Please sit down, Dr. Walker. Let’s just talk a bit.”

  Howard dropped into a chair, spilling some of his drink. The effort of being belligerent seemed to have drained him, and now his grief showed through. “We’ve just buried him. I haven’t seen him in five years, and he looked so unreal lying in that coffin. At peace. My father was never at peace!”

  “What do you mean?”

  It was a moment before he spoke. “All my life my father has wanted me to be something I’m not, and I’ve wanted him to be something he’s not. What a waste. What a damn waste! Our whole goddamn life’s been a lie! I didn’t kill him, Inspector, if that’s what you think. There have been times I wanted to, times I prayed he’d drop dead, but I don’t have the guts for it. I ran away instead.”

  “Not such a bad solution,” Green observed. “I wish some of the other people I’ve met in my job had done the same. Tell me about the fight you and he had five years ago.”

  “What does it matter? I didn’t kill him for it.”

  “Jeff Tillsbury told me it was because you married a Jewish girl.”

  “What a sin.” Howard’s face twisted briefly, as if an unwanted thought had passed through his mind. He focussed on his drink to restore order. “And worse, I converted to Judaism. Eternal damnation! What a goddamn hypocrite. I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m proud to call myself Jewish. It’s the first time I’ve been proud of who I am.”

  Green understood now the meaning of the cut in the tie. It was the sym
bolic rending of the garment by a Jewish mourner. But he was puzzled by Howard’s defiance and wondered if the man thought himself to be in enemy territory. “I’m proud to call myself Jewish too.”

  The other man’s demeanor changed instantly. The defiance vanished, and his eyes widened in astonishment. “You’re kidding! You don’t look Jewish.”

  “And actually you do. But the nose.” Green tapped his nose, which despite the spray of freckles was classically Semitic. “The nose says it all.”

  Howard reddened. “I’m sorry. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have shot my mouth off like that. I’m still sensitive about it. My wife Rachel says I need to develop a thicker skin. I get upset by the little slurs, the Holocaust, the way all through history Jews got the short end of the stick. It’s personal. I say ‘hey, that’s me you hate. Why? What did I ever do to you?’”

  “The thick skin will come,” Green replied. “And a sense of perspective as well. Tribalism is as old as mankind. Once you stop expecting perfection, it hurts a lot less.”

  “So you’ve given up on people?”

  “Not at all. But ten years in homicide has narrowed my focus a bit. People seem to have enough trouble loving each other one on one.”

  Howard was frowning at him intently. He opened his mouth as if to add something, then seemed to check himself. He straightened his shoulders as if preparing for a confrontation.

  “Why do you think my father was murdered?”

  Green shrugged. “I’m not sure he was yet. But why are you all reluctant to let me even look into it?”

  “How would you feel in my shoes?” Howard replied. “Your father dies and some stranger starts poking into your private lives?”

  “But if I had nothing to hide—”

  “Everyone has something to hide! Just not murder.”

  “Okay,” Green proceeded carefully, sensing emotions precariously close to the surface. “Then as part of the routine inquiry, could you tell me where you were between eleven and one-thirty p.m. on November 21st, the day your father died?”

  To Green’s surprise, Howard relaxed and reached into his pocket without hesitation. “At a medical conference in Toronto. I thought you’d probably ask me that, so I brought you the brochure and my registration receipt. You’ll see it’s dated Nov. 5. The conference runs all week, and I’d still be there if my father hadn’t died.”

  Green turned the receipt over in his hands. In itself it was not much proof, but Howard’s attendance at the conference could be checked. He recorded the address for future verification.

  “How did you learn of your father’s death?”

  “My wife reached me at my hotel on Thursday night.”

  “That’s a whole day and a half later!”

  “She left messages at the convention on Thursday morning apparently, but they never reached me. There were over a thousand physicians milling around the seminars.”

  “What about Wednesday night at the hotel? Why didn’t she call you there?”

  “Mom couldn’t reach Rachel till Thursday morning at work. She had stayed over at a friend’s house Wednesday night.”

  It seemed an innocent explanation, yet there was a strange, evasive look in Howard’s eyes. Green took a wild guess.

  “Male or female?”

  Howard frowned. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “I’ve been a detective a long time. I’ve seen a lot of less than perfect marriages.”

  Howard leaned his head back with a laugh that sounded oddly relieved. “Way off base, Inspector. It was all prearranged—a rare time for two friends to get together. Rachel and Maxine had theatre tickets and late dinner reservations.”

  The evasive look had meant something, Green was sure, but he sensed a direct demand for the truth would get him nowhere, so he jotted the question in his notebook for future use and leaned back with a soothing smile.

  “Sorry, Howard, I had to ask. Getting back to your father, I’d like to know a bit more about his background. Where is he from, and how did he and your mother meet?”

  But rather than being soothed, Howard tensed. “Why?”

  “Well, she’s British and he’s…what?”

  “They met in Surrey, just after the war,” he replied curtly.

  “During the war my mother worked as a nurse, although she never had much formal training, and she was working in a convalescent hospital in the country. My father was a patient there. She nursed him, and I guess they fell in love. When he was better, they came to Canada to start a new life. Neither of them had much left of their old ones.”

  “What do you know of your father’s background?”

  Howard rose and refilled his glass with club soda, perhaps to occupy his hands. “Nothing. He had been evacuated to England from somewhere in Germany to receive medical care, but he arrived in England with no memory of who he was or where he came from.”

  “What language did he speak?”

  “No language at all.” It was Ruth who spoke, suddenly appearing in the archway to the kitchen as if she had been listening on the other side. She was wearing a soft blue print dress with a silver brooch at the collar, and her curly grey hair was sculpted neatly around her head. Her well-bred smile barely masked her annoyance.

  “Why do you want to know, Inspector?”

  Green rose and extended his hand. “I apologize for intruding at this time, Mrs. Walker. Had I known, I would have waited, but I received a message that Howard was anxious to speak with me.”

  “As am I.” She sat with great dignity and her eyes held his. “Because if you think he was murdered, I want to know why. You’re asking about ancient history, most of which we know nothing about—”

  “Why is that?”

  “He didn’t lie, if that’s what you’re implying.” She paused as if waiting for his explanation, but when he offered none, she seemed to reach a decision. She turned to her son, who was still propped against the sink, drink in hand. “Howard, this may take a few minutes, and I don’t like to leave Margaret to cope with our guests alone. She’s worn out.”

  Howard’s grip tightened on his glass, and he opened his mouth to protest, but Ruth’s steadfast look never wavered. In the end, he set the drink down on the counter, nodded and strode out without a word. Ruth turned back to Green and clasped her hands in her lap as if to brace herself.

  “There are things my children don’t understand, and right at the moment, with everyone’s nerves frayed, it is not the time to add to their burdens. Whatever his background, Eugene was clearly a casualty of the war and remained one until his death. When he arrived in Surrey, he was severely depressed. It happened to people, both soldiers and civilians, who had been traumatized so severely, and for so long that they no longer responded to the outside world. They didn’t talk, they didn’t move, they just seemed to pull into themselves.”

  “Your son said he was picked up somewhere in Germany?”

  She nodded. “A Red Cross relief unit found him hiding in the mountains near Dresden, in the eastern part of Germany. He was beaten, starving and sick with typhus. He was taken to a hospital in Belgium where he stayed about three months. By that time he was physically on the mend but still would not speak. That’s when they decided to move him to our convalescent hospital. There was a great deal of confusion after the war, Inspector. You have to understand it didn’t end neatly, and everyone went back home.”

  Green did not interrupt her to tell her that he was very aware of the chaos after the war, of the hundreds of thousands of homeless refugees wandering the devastated continent. Of concentration camp survivors with no place to go, of families who’d been torn apart by the war and who were hunting for one another across Europe, of German army deserters shedding their uniforms and Nazis fleeing for their lives. Of lies and lost papers and frantic bids for asylum. Green’s parents rarely talked about it, but they had been there.

  “Eugene was just one of thousands of refugees without papers,” she said. “And he wouldn’t t
alk or tell the Belgian doctors where he came from.”

  He kept his voice casual, as if he were just probing to understand. “Did he have any personal effects? Clothing? Anything to give them a clue where he was from?”

  She wavered. “Well…when they picked him up, he was wearing a German regular army uniform. But it was very bloody, and the Red Cross thought it was likely stolen from a corpse. He had no…” She paused, twisting her wedding ring convulsively. “No soldier’s tags around his neck. In fact, nothing but a small plain gold cross. That…that was all we had from his past.”

  Green waited in silence. He wanted her to present whatever cover story she had fabricated, and he would spring the black box with its identity papers once she was committed to her lie. It was an old cross-examination trick he’d learned watching the local lawyers in court.

  She shook her head at the memory. “It took him a long time to speak, even to react when spoken to. But after a while he started coming out into the sunshine to watch the others at play, and eventually he’d join in a game of cards. When he finally spoke, it was in English, with an accent. He never spoke Polish. To this day he only spoke Polish if he absolutely had to. For instance, if an immigrant came into the hardware store who spoke no English.”

  Green frowned. “Polish? If he was found in Germany wearing a German uniform, why did you even think he was Polish?”

  She smoothed her skirt and rubbed the joints of her fingers. Her face reflected pain, but something else as well. She’s wondering what I know, he thought. She’s a woman used to the necessity of lying, but not comfortable with it.

  “He understood Polish at the hospital. Polish is not that common a language. Few foreigners speak it. He understood German as well, but that’s not uncommon for educated Poles. And he was clearly educated. He could read and write and do mathematics, even book-keeping. So he was probably from the city. But he didn’t understand French or Dutch or Czech or anything else we tried on him. There was just something ‘unGerman’ about him. He just didn’t seem like a German to me, perhaps because I didn’t want him to be.”