Black Cross

A sudden heat suffused Rachel’s skin. “What?”

“One of Sturm’s dog handlers came for your boy! There was nothing I could do!”

Rachel grabbed the woman’s arm. “Hannah?”

“She’s safe.”

“Where is the boy now?” Frau Hagan asked.

“They took him to the kennels.”

Rachel started to run, but Frau Hagan grabbed her upper arm. “Walk,” she commanded. “Running will get you a bullet in the back.”

“I must go to him!”

“You must also be careful. Sturm has planned this well, I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Brandt is out of town, and Schorner left for Dornow this morning. Too much coincidence.”

“Schorner is away?” Rachel felt suddenly faint. “My God, what can I do?”

“I don’t know.” Frau Hagan set her jaw in a grim line. “But I will come with you.”

When Rachel rounded the corner of the SS barracks, she saw Jan standing with his back to the dog kennels. Sergeant Sturm was squatting in front of him, his broad face pressed close to the little boy’s. Jan was crying. An SS private stood to the side, his submachine gun pointed leisurely at the three-year-old.

Rachel screamed and raced toward her son, but Sturm stood up and caught her in a bear hug.

“Please!” Rachel shrieked, kicking wildly. “Let him go!”

“Moeder! Moeder!” Jan whimpered.

Frau Hagan scooped up the boy and started to run, but the SS private backed her against the barracks with his submachine gun. Sturm lifted Rachel off her feet, dropped her beside the kennels.

“Against the wall!” he ordered. “Face the wall!”

Rachel craned her neck to catch a glimpse of Jan. Frau Hagan was holding the boy tightly against her bosom.

Sturm slapped Rachel’s face. “Bend over and grab your ankles, whore!”

“I will! Please don’t hurt my son!”

“I’ll do whatever I like. Now, bend over! Let’s have those diamonds.”

“Jan! Shut your eyes!”

Frau Hagan covered the boy’s eyes as Rachel bent over.

The Kubelwagen carrying Major Wolfgang Schorner barreled through the front gate of Totenhausen without slowing and screeched to a stop in front of the administration building. Schorner had learned nothing about Technical Sergeant Gauss in Dornow, but a little extra effort had paid off. He’d decided to question the occupants of some of the outlying houses between Dornow and Totenhausen, and the fourth house he came to belonged to Sybille Kleist. Schorner had scarcely gotten Sergeant Gauss’s name out of his mouth when Frau Kleist broke down completely.

“Something’s happened to Willi!” she sobbed. “I knew it! I wanted to come forward, Sturmbannfuhrer, but . . . I swear to you, twice this morning I started to come to the camp to report, but I couldn’t.”

“Why not, madam?” Schorner had asked.

Frau Kleist attempted some semblance of haughty dignity. “I am a married woman, Sturmbannfuhrer. Willi — Sergeant Gauss — assists me with certain heavy work around the house. There is nothing improper, of course, but if my husband ever misconstrued—”

“My inquiries will be conducted with the utmost discretion,” Schorner said with forced patience.

“Sergeant Gauss was here last night. Just after he left, I thought I heard something. I know I did. I looked outside but saw nothing. God help me, Sturmbannfuhrer, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think the noise sounded like gunshots. Soft but very fast.”

At that point Schorner had read Sybille Kleist the riot act. Ten minutes later he ordered all search parties to concentrate in the area of the Kleist residence, then left for Totenhausen to summon Sergeant Sturm with his best dogs.

As he climbed out of the Kubelwagen, Schorner saw a wireless operator emerge from the HQ building. “Rottenfuhrer!” he shouted. “Where is Hauptscharfuhrer Sturm?”

“I’m not sure, Sturmbannfuhrer. I heard the dogs barking a moment ago. Perhaps he is exercising them.”

Schorner entered the alley between the dog kennels and the SS barracks just as Sergeant Sturm hiked up Rachel’s shift and bunched it around her waist. Marching stiffly up the alley, he saw Sturm pull down her underpants, brace his left hand in the small of her back and reach between her thighs with his right.

“Achtung, Hauptscharfuhrer!”

Sergeant Sturm snapped straight and gaped at the advancing major. Clean-shaven and dressed in his field gray Waffen-SS uniform, the eyepatch tied across his face like a wound badge, Schorner personified the nightmare of every SS noncom.

“ACHTUNG!”

Sturm squared his shoulders and thumbed the seams of his trousers. Rachel pulled up her underwear and ran to Frau Hagan.

“Exactly what is going on here?” Schorner asked.

Sturm regrouped rapidly. “I am conducting a search, Sturmbannfuhrer.”

“It looked to me like you were conducting a rape.”

“Sturmbannfuhrer, this woman is concealing contraband on her person.”

Schorner’s eyes flicked to Rachel. “What kind of contraband? Food? Explosives?”

“No, Sturmbannfuhrer. Diamonds. The very gems you instructed me to get rid of some nights ago.”

Schorner pursed his lips, surprised by this response. “I see. And how do you know she has these diamonds?”

“I have reliable information, Sturmbannfuhrer. A report from another prisoner.”

Rachel felt her stomach twist. What fellow prisoner would inform on her to the SS?

“And where is she hiding these gems?”

Sturm felt a surge of confidence; for once the facts were in his favor. “She hides them in her private parts, Sturmbannfuhrer, like all these shameless Jewish cows.”

Schorner was silent for a moment. “If that is the information you received, Hauptscharfuhrer, you should have informed me. I would have instructed a civilian nurse to search the prisoner. Your conduct was highly irregular, and quite unbecoming a German soldier.”

Sturm reddened. He would not be humiliated in front of a Jew. “I know my duty, Sturmbannfuhrer! If this prisoner is breaking the rules, I will search her wherever I find her.”

“Your duty, Hauptscharfuhrer?” said Schorner, raising his eyebrows. “While you were molesting women in alleyways, I was out doing your duty for you. Not only have I discovered that our missing sergeant was carrying on an illicit affair with the wife of a hero of the Kriegsmarine, but also that he was dallying in bed with this woman just last night. The woman reported hearing gunshots soon after he left. I hurried back here to enlist the help of you and your dogs to search the area. And what do I find? You, acting in an even more disgusting manner than Gauss!”

The news about Gauss surprised Sturm, but he did not intend to let Rachel escape. “Sturmbannfuhrer, I will personally take the dogs and search the area. But first we must relieve this prisoner of the contraband.”

Schorner glanced around the alley. The SS private was making a point of looking the other way. Sturm’s strategy of isolation had backfired on him. “I suggest, Hauptscharfuhrer,” Schorner said icily, “that you gather your dogs and stop wasting my time. This prisoner is known to me. I doubt seriously whether she possesses any diamonds, or that she would hide them in the disgusting manner you describe. Apparently your mind works in the same direction as Sergeant Gauss’s.”

Sturm knew he should have dropped it there. But he couldn’t. “How do you know what is or isn’t hidden between her legs?” he asked.