My Brother's Secret (27 page)

Beneath the words, though, was the part I was most proud of. An edelweiss. Just like the ones I had seen on the walls.

Lisa took a deep breath and nudged me. ‘Come on, Karl Friedmann, we’d better get out of here.’

And that’s when we heard it.

A terrifying sound that froze my heart right in my chest.

A sound that snatched the breath from my lungs and made my body numb.

It was a simple sound that in daylight, at home, would not have made me think twice. But in darkness, after what we had just done, the sound of a door opening was the most awful sound there could be.

A rattle of the handle.

A click of the latch.

A squeak of hinges.

The heavy front door of the Gestapo headquarters swung open and a figure appeared, silhouetted in the dull glow of a light somewhere inside the building.

Right away, I knew who it was.

The shape of Kriminalinspektor Gerhard Wolff was unmistakeable.

THE WOLFF’S GRIN

‘
S
tay where you are.’

He saw us immediately. We were out in the open and the light from inside that dreadful building was enough to spill out and illuminate the short path.

‘Stay
exactly
where you are.’ Wolff’s voice was soft and menacing.

Lisa and I were fixed to the spot, as if our feet had grown roots and sent them deep into the earth. My muscles were locked tight. My blood ran cold. I felt as if a million insects were fighting for space inside my stomach.

The light dimmed and then disappeared as Wolff closed the door and came towards us.

‘Karl Friedmann.’ He looked down at me. ‘And Lisa
Herz.’ Wolff stood straight and stared at us. His face was without any expression at all as he looked from me to Lisa and back again. ‘Well?’ He raised his eyebrows.

We remained silent.

‘There must be a reason why I would find you outside Gestapo Headquarters at this time of night. Has something happened that requires my attention?’

‘Umm …’ I tried to think. There had to be something that would lure him away from this place without looking back. I couldn’t let him turn around because then he would see the words on the wall.

‘Well, come on. Out with it.’

‘We …’

‘Perhaps you need my help with something?’ He moved his head as if he were going to look back, and I knew he was going to see it. He was going to look back and see the words and—

‘A bomb.’ Lisa blurted it out so the words almost exploded from her. ‘There’s a bomb.’

Wolff looked at her with surprise. ‘A bomb? But there have been bombs going off all night. Do you think I haven’t heard them?’

‘Unexploded,’ Lisa said. ‘An
unexploded
bomb.’

‘Ah. I see.’ Wolff didn’t seem worried by Lisa’s news, and when he spoke, his expression was suspicious and his tone was disbelieving. ‘You came out in the middle of the night to …’ he raised his eyebrows at us again, ‘… to look at the damage? And you found an unexploded bomb. So, naturally, the first thing you thought was to come and tell me.’ There was a sense of unpleasantness to what he said,
as if every word tasted bad to him.

‘I—’

‘Please.’ Wolff interrupted. ‘Let me tell you what I think really happened. You see, I don’t think you came out in the night to look at bomb damage, at all.’

My stomach tightened.

‘As soon as I saw you from the window, I thought to myself,
Ah, the Friedmann boy has come to rescue his brother. Or, at least, to see him
. But now I’ve changed my mind.’

‘The bomb—’ Lisa started to say, but Wolff held out his hand, one finger extended.

His face darkened into an expression of pure evil, and his next words were laced with venom. ‘Let. Me. Finish. Don’t speak again, young lady.’

Lisa clamped her mouth shut.

‘Now.’ Wolff’s eyes slipped over to stare at me. ‘The reason I have changed my mind, Karl Friedmann, is that I see you are carrying something, and because I see you have white paint on your hands …
again …
and on your jacket …’ he touched my chest with one finger, pointing to the white splashes that stood out against the dark material.

I said nothing.

‘I hope I am wrong,’ Wolff went on. ‘I
sincerely
hope I am wrong.’ He shook his head. ‘I also hope that when I turn around I don’t see anything that will make me want to punish you. It would be a shame to fall out with you. You showed so much promise. The Führer believes the youth is our future; you
do
know that, don’t you?’

I swallowed hard.

‘But, I suppose there are always those who must be … brought into line. Take your brother, for example.’ Wolff stared at me for a few moments longer, then he stepped between Lisa and me, so he was standing behind us. When he turned around he put one hand on each of us.

Above us, the breeze whispered in the treetops. Behind us, Wolff’s breathing was heavy.

‘Interesting brushwork,’ he said at last.

The words on the wall were clearly visible.

Their message was clear, too.

HITLER IS KILLING

OUR FATHERS

‘I particularly like what you have done with the flower.’

Wolff pushed us both forward. ‘Now, why don’t we go inside and you can tell me all about it.’

IN THE WOLFF’S LAIR

W
e stepped into Gestapo Headquarters; the place that had haunted my sleep. The hallway was long and wide, but felt cramped like a coffin. With just a dim light at the far end, the wood-panelled walls closed around us as if they were going to crush us.

Wolff came in on our heels, the door banged shut and my heart thumped hard. It was beating so fast I was afraid it might burst.

‘Straight ahead.’ Wolff was like a devil lurking behind us and I tried not to imagine that hideous grin. ‘Go on.’

Our boots clicked on the black tiles and echoed in that dark space as we made our way deeper into the heart of
my nightmare. A strong smell of disinfectant swirled about us, thick and suffocating, but underneath it I could smell something else.

Dirt and sweat and fear.

Terrible things had happened here; things I couldn’t even imagine.

My heart pounded and blood swooshed in my ears. I felt weak, and a lump rose in my throat as if I were going to be sick. I wanted to cry. I wanted to run. I wanted to turn around and beg for my life. But I told myself to be strong.

Like Stefan.

‘Stop there,’ Wolff ordered, and for a moment, there was no sound, as if we might be the only people in the building.

He paused behind us, breathing heavily, then came forward and opened the first door on the left. ‘Inside.’

I could tell right away that his was his place – his
lair
– because it reeked of tobacco and his aftershave.

‘Stand there.’ Wolff pointed to the centre of the room, and we did as instructed while he took a seat behind the desk.

He said nothing as he settled into his chair and pulled open a drawer to take out a packet of cigarettes, which he placed on the desktop. They were the same brand he had taken from Oma and Opa’s kitchen cupboard. He adjusted the packet so it was exactly straight, the bottom end parallel with the edge of the desk, then placed a gold lighter beside it. He spent a few moments lining them up so they were perfect.

The only other things on the desk were an empty glass ashtray, a small Nazi flag on a stand in one corner, a pen, which was in line with the packet of cigarettes and the lighter, and a brown file with the name ‘Stefan Friedmann’ written on it.

When everything was in place, he opened a drawer to his left and took out two more brown files. He set them on the desk in front of him, then put two forms on top of them and closed the drawer.

The lid of his pen clicked when he removed it, and the nib scratched on the white forms as he wrote.

We waited in silence, shaking with fear, and when he had finished, he turned the papers around and held out the pen.

‘Sign here.’ He pointed with his finger at the bottom of the form. ‘Now.’

I stepped forward and took the pen. My hand shook as I signed.

‘Good. Now you.’ He held the pen out to Lisa, and she did as she was told.

When it was done, Wolff wrote our names on the folders, one for each of us, and slipped the forms inside. He put the folders on top of Stefan’s, then sat back.

‘My job is not always an easy one.’ He steepled his fingers and leaned his elbows on the desk. ‘I don’t have anywhere near enough officers for all the work that is building up. There are just so many people to investigate. I have a room here
filled
with files like these.’ He tapped the folders and his gaze flicked from Lisa’s face to mine, and when he looked at me, I couldn’t help averting my eyes. I
lowered them and stared at the threadbare red carpet.

‘Would you like to be me?’ he sighed. ‘Trying to keep order?’

I didn’t reply.

‘I’m asking you a question, Karl Friedmann.’

I looked up and shook my head.

‘I thought not.’

There wasn’t much furniture in the room; just the desk and the seat he was sitting in. There was a bookcase along the wall to my left, but it was empty. The wall to my right was panelled with dark wood and, exactly in the centre of it, hung a portrait of the Führer looking serious.

‘You have both just signed a D-11. It is an “Order for Protective Custody”.’

Lisa took a sharp breath and I wanted to reach out and hold her hand.

‘That means you are mine. You belong to me until I sign a release form. So now I have to decide what to do with you.’ Wolff snatched up the packet of cigarettes and took one out. He used the gold lighter, flicking it once to ignite a small flame, then leaned back and blew smoke into the air. It streamed across his desk and settled around us like poisonous cloud.

‘At least I’m closer to finding all the Edelweiss Pirates in my town.’ He pointed at me. ‘Your brother gave me a few names after a bit of persuasion. He didn’t mention yours though.’

‘The leaflet was mine,’ I said. My throat was dry and my legs were trembling, but I didn’t want to be afraid any more. I wanted to be angry, and the way he was
talking made it easier than I thought.

‘I know it was yours.’ Wolff looked pleased with himself. ‘But it was your brother I wanted. Now you’ve decided to follow in his footsteps, though, I have the problem of what I am going to do with you.’

‘Let us go home,’ Lisa said. ‘We won’t do it again.’

‘Oh, you’re right about that.’ Wolff nodded. ‘You most certainly won’t do it again.’ He leaned back in his seat. The room was beginning to fill with grey smoke. It floated about, catching in the light from the chandelier, mingling with the sickly smell of Wolff’s aftershave.

‘We’re sorry,’ Lisa said. ‘
Very
sorry.’

‘And
you
?’ Wolff looked at me. ‘Are you sorry?’

I wanted to say it, to make him sign a release form and let us go, to get Lisa away from here, but something told me that he wouldn’t just let us go. And I wasn’t sorry. I was glad I had done it.

‘I thought not.’ Wolff took a deep breath and stared at me. ‘Open the bag.’ He pointed with the cigarette. ‘I want to see what you have in there.’