“He was lucky.”
“Lucky,” Hess said. “There were six of them.”
“A Negro was helping him,” Rausch said. “He was skilled.”
“A Negro? They were together?” Hess said. This was getting interesting. “Who is he?”
“An American soldier. They were sitting next to each other at the bar. My men chased them down the street,” Rausch said. “They were about to pull them out the car when the police arrived.”
More excuses.
Hess got behind the wheel of the Mercedes and drove to the apartment.
Earlier that morning Rausch had stood tall and erect in front of his desk, military bearing still evident three decades after Germany had lost its army and Rausch his rank. He was a born soldier. Needed to be told what to do, and needed to be complimented after completing a job. They had been together since ’43, assigned to Einsatzgruppen B.
As big and strong as Rausch was, he had been bothered by killing Jews. Rausch would feel sick, couldn’t eat or sleep. Hess had joked about it. “What is your problem? My appetite has never been better. I sleep like a baby.”
They were in Poland in 1945 when the Russians were coming from the east and the Americans from the west and it was a foregone conclusion Germany had lost the war. Hess and Rausch walked away from their battalion one night, stole a military vehicle and drove to Lodz.
Hess had money, diamonds and gold he had taken from the Jews, acquiring a small fortune. He had purchased clothing and an automobile so they could make their way back to Germany. After the war Hess started a construction company to repair Germany’s war-torn cities, and had become rich. He had traveled extensively between Munich, Frankfurt and Dresden, often carrying large sums of money, and decided he needed a gun for protection.
Rausch had said, “Do you remember the first one?”
“Do you mean after the war?”
“Yes. I was trying to think of the year.”
“1947,” Hess said. “I was still following orders.”
“Come on. I watched you. You enjoyed it.”
“Is it wrong to enjoy your work?” Hess said.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with work or taking orders,” Rausch said. “The Reich was over. You did this on your own. For yourself. Maybe you couldn’t stop.”
It was true, of course, although he had never admitted it to anyone, surprised Rausch had been so observant. “We were rebuilding parts of Dresden, do you remember? The city had virtually been destroyed. We used to eat at a certain cafe, and I couldn’t help but notice Jews were returning to the city. There was one couple we saw regularly.”
“The Jewess you couldn’t take your eyes off of,” Rausch said.
“You do remember. One day she dined alone and left her gloves on the table. I picked them up and followed her home. She lived in a flat in an old building that had been hit by Allied bombs. Parts of it had been destroyed.”
“Were you thinking about killing her?”
“No, I was thinking about returning the gloves,” Hess said. “My good deed for the day.”
“Is this the truth?”
“Do you want me to tell you?”
Rausch sat back.
“Her flat was on the first floor.”
“Was she married?”
“I am getting to that.” Hess gave him a hard look. “I rang the bell and heard a dog barking. The woman, her name was Gail Kaplan, opened it a crack and I held up her gloves. She swung it open and a little dog, a dachshund, tried to get out. She said, ‘No‚ Karl.’ The dog barked, I squatted and pet it. ‘What a beautiful dog,’ I said. ‘I‚ too‚ have a dachshund.’”
“You never had a dachshund,” Rausch said. “Did you?”
Hess glanced at him, raised his eyebrows. “The dog snapped at me. ‘What is your dog’s name?’ the woman said. ‘Alfonso. We call him Fonzie.’”
“Now I understand,” Rausch said.
He was a little slow at times.
“‘Oh, how adorable,’ the woman said.
“I said to her, ‘Before I forget, here are your gloves.’
“‘I can’t thank you enough,’ Frau Kaplan said. She bent down and picked up the dog and held it against her chest.
“‘I wonder if I might trouble you for a glass of water,’ I said. She said, ‘Yes, of course, it’s the least I can do. You saw me at the cafe, yes? I know I have seen you before, reading your newspaper.’”
“And then you knew?” Rausch said.
“I thought it might happen. The urge was there. I had the Luger in the pocket of my sport jacket. The woman walked out of the room, carrying the dog. I looked around. There was a grand piano on the other side of the salon. I took off my overcoat and walked to the piano and started to play Mozart’s piano concerto number 27 in B flat major. The woman came back in smiling, carrying a glass of water, Karl the dachshund walking next to her like they were a couple. I stopped playing and said, ‘Forgive me. I see a piano I cannot resist.’
“‘Please continue,’ she said. ‘I insist. I love Mozart, so does my husband.’
“She handed me the glass of water. I took a drink and put it on a table next to the piano, and played for ten more minutes.
“The woman said, ‘Bravo.’
“I stood, picked up my overcoat, draped it over my arm and moved toward the couch. I could feel the weight of the Luger in my pocket. ‘Is your husband home?’ I said. ‘I was hoping to meet him.’
“‘No,’ she said, ‘he is at work. He is an architect.’
“‘Another time,’ I said. I picked up this small green pillow off the couch. She gave me a quizzical look. I drew the Luger and said, ‘Let’s go in the other room.’ Now the dachshund came toward me, barking. I glanced at the dog and back at the woman and she was gone. I went into the bedroom and there she was sitting on the bed with the phone in her hand.
“‘Please,’ she said. ‘I am pregnant.’
“I moved toward her and said, ‘It will be all right.’ I held the pillow in front of her face, trying to muffle the gunshot, and pulled the trigger. The pillow caught on fire and the dog went crazy.”
“What happened to the dog?” Rausch said.
“It was still barking when I walked out.”
“How many others have there been?”
15
9:15 in the morning, Harry got a phone call from a woman named Colette Rizik, saying she was a journalist.
“I am writing an article for a magazine called
“Who told you that?”
“I have a contact with the police.”
Harry agreed to meet her in the hotel restaurant in an hour. He took aspirin and iced his bruised rib. It felt better today. Showered, dressed and went down to the lobby. He was sitting at a table having coffee when a good- looking woman walked in. Every head in the room-men and women-turned and looked at her. Harry, assuming it
