Fall From Grace (4 page)

‘It is good to see you again, Sara,’ said Tim as they sat in her office. He meant it even though he knew that this could cause complications. But there was a certain comfort in seeing Sara again after all these years. The sudden nature of their parting all those years ago had left things rather untidy. Maybe they could be given a second chance at least at the friendship side of what they’d shared before, although he did want to know why she’d suddenly slipped out of his life. The fact that they’d slept together after being such close mates for all those years had been a mistake that they’d both acknowledged at the time.

‘No, of course you don’t,’ said Tim, ‘I didn’t mean it that way. Look, Sara, is this going to be a problem for us? You and I working together?’

‘It’s a bit early days to be thinking about potential problems, isn’t it?’ said Sara.

‘I was also thinking about the squad.’

‘I’m not saying that seeing you again isn’t a little unsettling,’ said Sara, ‘It’s certainly not what I need when I’m starting a new job. But that’s the situation and we’re going to have to get on with it.’

‘Isn’t that a little … cold?’

‘Look, Tim, we were friends for years and then one night we gave in to all those feelings we’d been trying to ignore. Then you told me the next morning it had all been a big mistake, that it was one of those things that two people who are close friends should never do’.

‘I thought we’d both agreed that it had been a mistake?’

‘Your recollection is different to mine,’ said Sara, ‘you just assumed that I agreed with you and I was too devastated by your attitude to argue with you. Then after you’d met Helen there didn’t seem much point in me hoping anymore.’

‘Hoping?’

‘That you’d have a change of heart,’ said Sara, ‘all of our mutual friends embraced Helen with open arms and I felt like they’d all stabbed me in the back. They just seemed to ignore the fact I’d had feelings for you all those years. Because of Helen I lost you and all my friends in one foul swoop.’

‘I was pregnant with your child,’ said Sara who despite the tremor she could hear in her voice was feeling remarkably good about finally getting things off her chest.

‘…What? If you’d known I was pregnant? You’d have dumped Helen and married me? No way would I have been second best just because I was carrying your child.’

‘No I shouldn’t,’ said Sara, ‘you were head over heels in love with Helen and I didn’t want to bring up a child on my own. But I can tell you this, there isn’t a day goes by without me thinking about my baby. I see little boys of the age he’d be now and sometimes it’s like a dagger through my heart. So don’t you dare lecture me, Tim. Don’t you dare lecture me.’

‘Oh I’m not going to lecture you,’ said Tim, unconvinced by Sara’s emotional entreaty, ‘I just want you to give me a reason not to hate you for denying me my right to be my son’s father.’

‘I can’t do that, Tim,’ said Sara who was struggling to hold her ground in the face of Tim’s obvious fury, ‘but perhaps this is an appropriate time to remind you that I’m your superior officer.’

‘So what is this Obama person doing as President?’ said Dieter as he and Eleanor enjoyed a drink before lunch. ‘Only working for the coloured people?’

‘A negro as President of the free world,’ said Eleanor with her face contorted as if she’d just been shocked by a bad smell, ‘it’s just too awful to even contemplate.’

‘But it’s real, liebling,’ said Dieter, ‘far too real for either of our likings.’

‘We need another Hitler to come and sort out these Muslims just like he so bravely tried to sort out the Jewish problem.’

‘But he paid such a heavy price for it,’ said Dieter, ‘so did my poor friends in the east of Germany who had to live under Soviet tyranny for all those long, painful years. The wrong side won the war, Eleanor. You know I’ve always believed that and I always will. We’re all now the victims of communist, liberal teachings. Hitler would never have allowed the Muslims to have their say on anything. They’d have been silenced good and proper.’

It so amused Eleanor when Dieter’s accent fell between the clipped German tones he could reveal in front of her and the relaxed Derbyshire drawl of his adopted life. He’d be a challenge for any impressionist.

‘What are you smiling at, my love?’ Dieter asked.

‘I’m smiling at you Dieter,’ said Eleanor, her hand wrapped in his. ‘You’ve brought the joy back into my heart and at our time of life that’s quite something.’

Dieter kissed her hand. ‘It most certainly is.’

‘I’ve had Bradley prepare your favourite meal,’ she told him excitedly. ‘Roast knuckle of pork with mashed potatoes.’

‘Ah that will take me back to my childhood in Munchen,’ said Dieter, wistfully. He hadn’t been back to Germany since his excursion to England at the beginning of World War Two. He had brothers, sisters, but he’d never attended any family funerals, christenings, or weddings. The deal he’d come to negotiate, brokered by Eleanor, had never been concluded and his family had all been told that he’d perished in an English gaol. He did sometimes wonder if any of his brothers or sisters were still alive. ‘I expect it’s changed somewhat since I was last there a lifetime ago.’

‘Just like everywhere else,’ said Eleanor,‘have you heard from your children?’

‘They’ve both called, yes,’ said Dieter, feeling more than just a twinge of guilt at what he’d done to his family. ‘So has my youngest grandson Nicholas. He’s eleven and we’re especially close. I miss them all terribly. Dearest Eleanor, even though they won’t see me, I can’t stay away from them for very long. I have to try and explain to them. I can’t just leave it like this.’

It hurt Eleanor to hear Dieter speak those words. She could never claim to have had any kind of maternal instinct when it came to her daughter Clarissa but that didn’t mean that she’d been happy with the way things had turned out. But Dieter was different. He adored his family and they’d clearly felt the same before all this business had blown up. That meant that he was way ahead of her.

‘Of course not my darling Eleanor,’ said Dieter who kissed her hand again. ‘You know that. But to try and extradite me after all this time?’

‘Eleanor, I haven’t missed one Sunday celebrating the Mass in the seventy years I’ve been in England,’ said Dieter. ‘But what am I going to do whilst I’m here?’

‘There’s a local priest I know who needs funds for a new church roof,’ said Eleanor. ‘He’ll help bring you closer to God whilst you’re here.’

‘Are you sure, Eleanor? Nowadays the rules are very different from when Father Heaney used to come here every Sunday during the war.’

‘My darling Dieter,’ said Eleanor, ‘whether it’s nineteen forty-one or twenty eleven, money still talks louder than any human voice.’

The last thing Sara had wanted was to start a new job in the kind of atmosphere that now existed between her and Tim. She hoped that it would pass and that Tim, being a grown man and a highly professional police officer, would have the emotional resilience to come to terms with what she’d been carrying around for the last five years. She knew she’d hurt him very badly and she couldn’t help that now but in the meantime there were other members of the squad who she had to get to know and build relationships with and detective sergeant Joe Alexander was one of them.

When they got to Gatley Hall, Sara wound down her window and spoke to the security guard who was at his post in the small cabin outside the front gates.

‘I’m Detective Chief Inspector Hoyland and this is Detective Sergeant Alexander, Greater Manchester Police serious crime squad,’ said Sara as they both held up their warrant cards for the CCTV camera perched just above them. ‘We’re here to see Dieter Naumann. Could you let us in, please?’

There was a gap of almost a minute before the gates were opened and they were able to proceed.

‘Take your time, mate,’ said Sara before driving them through and beginning the mile-long drive down the tree-lined road that led to the 200 room grand house itself.

‘I’ll bet you never thought that your first case would be the requested extradition of an alleged Nazi war criminal, ma’am?’ said Joe who initially was quite impressed with the new DCI. She was one of the few high ranking female officers who didn’t behave as if she had strapped a dick to herself every morning before coming to work. Neither was she an ice Queen. She seemed human. She had warmth and a sense of humour. Joe had taken to her instantly.

‘I must admit, Joe, I didn’t,’ said Sara. ‘But as far as I’m concerned, however old these people are, they should be brought to justice even if they have to be helped into the dock on a zimmer frame.’

‘How long have been in the squad, Joe?’ asked Sara who had a good feeling about Joe. He seemed genuine and without an agenda of some kind. That was refreshing in officers at his level.

‘About eighteen months,’ said Joe, ‘Sara.’

‘You didn’t go for promotion?’

‘I don’t think I’m ready yet, Sara’ said Joe, ‘I like to know my current job inside out before I go for another one. Perhaps I shouldn’t admit it but I’m not fiercely ambitious.’

Joe thought that Sara seemed like an intelligent person who didn’t make crass judgements about people. But still he felt self-conscious about what she might be thinking about him personally. He existed on a diet of beer and curry. It was one of the reasons why his GP had told him that unless he lost some weight he was in danger of becoming a diabetic. His ideal weight for his height was 75 kilos and he was clocking in at 105 kilos. It pissed him off somewhat. He didn’t think he looked that big and besides, he saw many others, including colleagues in the police force, who were bigger than him and had larger overhanging stomachs. That really did piss him off. Were they all being told by their doctor that unless they went on a diet and started a regular routine of exercise then they might end up prematurely dead? So what if he could no longer fasten the trousers of a suit he’d bought two years ago for his cousin’s wedding. Did it make him a bad person? The answer was that he wasn’t a bad person, far from it, but he was considered to be overweight so that meant he didn’t have much luck with the ladies. It made him wonder about the whole issue of equality. If women didn’t want to be judged anymore by the way they looked then surely they should pay men the same respect?