pulled in. He stepped aboard, standing beside the doors until they closed, but no one else emerged through the platform gates.
The train pulled out and he sunk into the nearest seat. Should he be waiting for darkness? he wondered. Or would that be even riskier? He had no real idea, and felt shaken by how important such a decision could be.
Neukolln was the lines penultimate stop. Russell climbed up to the street, where the loudspeakers were broadcasting Hitlers long-awaited speech to the Reichstag. A small crowd had gathered around the one outside KaDeWe, faces overcast as the sky. The Fuhrers tone was calm and reasonable, which suggested he was just warming up.
Russell walked on, following a trail of street names familiar from the week before. It was a good thing he recognized these, because the area seemed utterly different by daylight, its workshops and factories bursting with noisy activity, its cobbled streets full of rumbling lorries. Most of the workplaces were broadcasting the speech to their employees, and Hitlers words seeped out through doors and over walls, a promise here, a threat there, a piece of self-congratulation sandwiched in between. Stopping for a moment on a bridge across the Neukollner- Schiffahrtkanal, Russell heard fragments of the speech tossed around on the breeze, like the puffs of windstrewn smoke belching from the myriad chimneys.
Schonlankerstrasse was empty, the block door wide open. He walked in and knocked on Theresa Jurissens door. There was no answer. He knocked again with the same result, and was wondering what to do when footsteps sounded on the stairs. It was her.
Her face registered alarm, and then anger. Without speaking, she opened her door and gestured him in. Marietta was sitting exactly where she had been on his last visit, still drawing, still oblivious. What do you want? Theresa asked, the moment the door was closed behind her.
Im sorry, he said. I know this is dangerous for you, but not coming might have been more dangerous. He told her about McKinleys death. Could the police connect you? he asked. Did you ever write to him?
No, she said. Never.
What about the document you told us about?
I sent it, but thats all. I gave no name or address.
Russell sighed in relief. When did you send it?
Last week. Thursday afternoon.
McKinley had received it. He must have. Russell explained why he had asked. They havent found it, he told her. He must have hidden it somewhere.
Theres nothing to connect me, she said. Except you, she added, the look of alarm back on her face.
They wont hear about you from me, Russell promised her, hoping he could live up to such an assurance.
Thank you, she said doubtfully, as if she wasnt that sure either. And their secret will stay secret, she added, as much to herself as to him.
Looks like it.
She nodded, her view of the world confirmed.
Ill be going, he said.
Let me make sure theres no one about, she cautioned him. A few moments later she returned. Its all clear.
Russell smiled goodbye at a closing door and began the long walk back to the center of Neukolln. The Fuhrer was well into his stride now, each torrent of words reinforced by the sound of his fist hammering at the lectern. By the time Russell reached KaDeWe the listening crowd had spilled into the street, all eyes raised to the crackling loudspeaker, as if Hitler would emerge genie-like from the mesh, a head spouting venom on a shimmering tail.
IT WAS DARK BY THE TIME he reached Effis flat. She was wearing a dress he hadn't seen before, deep red with a black lace collar. And she wanted to eat out, at a Chinese restaurant which had opened a few weeks earlier at the Halensee end of the Kudamm.
Ive been learning my lines, she announced as they walked downstairs. Would you hear me later?
It was a peace offering, Russell realized. Love to, he told her.
They walked through to the Kudamm and took a westbound tram. The wide pavements were crowded with home-going workers, the restaurants and cinemas gearing up for the evening as the shops closed down. Alighting at Lehninerplatz they found the Chinese restaurant already filling up. Goering eats here, Effi said, as if in explanation.
He eats everywhere, Russell said. And this is on me, he added.
Effi gave him a look.
Ive sold a lot of work lately, he explained.
They were shown to their table, which stood beneath a huge scroll of dragons. Russell picked up the menu, hoping it was in German, but needn't have bothered.
Let me order, Effi said.
Include beer, Russell insisted. He was still feeling tense, he realized. And maybe still a little in shock. Sitting there, half-listening as Effi questioned the waiter, he found himself imagining McKinleys deaththe moment of falling, of realization. Of terror. How was your weekend? he asked.
Miserable. You know I hate going to parties on my own. All the women I know were lining up to ask if youd left menone of them asked whether Id left youand all the men were trying to work out how available I was, without actually asking. Every conversation was fraught with significance. Every dance was a means to an end. I couldn't just
When for? Russell asked.
Oh, I dont know. Next week sometime. I think she said Monday. Why?
Just wondered. The arrival of their drinks gave Russell a few seconds to think. He couldn't say anything, he realized. And he probably didn't need to. Zarahs husband Jens was a Party official, and Russell couldn't believe the Nazis would start killing their own children. And if he did say anything to Effi, and she said something to Zarah, then he might end up in a Gestapo cellar trying to explain where hed gotten his information from.
You look worried, Effi said.
Ive heard a few rumors, thats all. Just journalist talk probably. The word is that the governments thinking of tightening up the Law on the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases. Sanctioning mercy killing when the parents agree.
She gave him an angry look. Theres nothing wrong with Lothar, she said. And even if there was, Zarah would never agree to. . . . I cant believe you think. . . .
I dont. But Jens is a Nazi, after all. He believes in all this purification of the race nonsense.
Effi snorted. Maybe he does. But if he tried to take Lothar away from Zarah shed never forgive him. And he knows it.
Okay.
And theres nothing wrong with Lothar, she insisted once more.
HE READ THE FUHRERS SPEECH next morning on his way home for a change of clothes. The editorials were calling it a major contribution to world peace, and the speech certainly seemed accommodating by Hitlers standards. There were friendly references to Poland and the non-aggression pact between the two countries. There was a marked absence of attacks on the Soviet Union. Only one passage chilled Russell to the bone, and that concerned the Jews, who were only likely to start a war in Hitlers frenzied imagination. If they did, the result would not be the Bolshevization of the earth and victory for the Jews but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. Russell wondered how the Wiesners felt reading that, even if Hitler was not speaking about physical
