Secrets and Shadows (15 page)

He took out the first box. It was square and wooden, and Barry quickly opened the top.

‘Gosh!’ said Grace.

Barry swallowed hard. Then he reached into the box and took out a lethal looking pistol and a shoulder holster. The gun smelt lightly of oil and was spotlessly clean, suggesting to Barry a weapon that was well maintained.

‘This is getting scary,’ said Grace.

‘Yeah,’ agreed Barry, ‘but if we move fast the police can set a trap. They can lie in wait at Grandma’s – he’s sure to see Mum home before coming here. And once he’s dropped Mum off they could arrest him while he’s unarmed.’

‘Good plan,’ said Grace, ‘But are you sure–’

‘Shush!’ said Barry cutting her off.

‘What?’

‘I thought I heard a noise.’

They both stood silently for a moment, listening intently. Then Barry’s stomach contracted in terror as he heard the front door opening and closing, followed by the sound of footsteps coming down the hall.

Paralysed by fear, Grace stood unmoving for a moment. The footsteps grew nearer, then Grace sprang forward and ran towards the window. The only door in the room led out into the hallway, so the one means of escape lay in climbing out the window into the garden.

Her hands were trembling, but Grace managed to undo the catch and pull open the window sash. She heard the footsteps stopping outside in the hall. Fighting back a sense of panic, she began to clamber up onto the window ledge. Before she could exit from the window, however, the door to the room burst open
and she heard Mr Pawlek’s voice. He cried out what sounded like a swear word in a foreign language.

Grace forced herself not to look back, but instead swung up on the window ledge, pulling back the net curtains so she could jump down the short drop into the garden.

She sensed Mr Pawlek racing across the room, and she desperately clambered to swing her legs around. Terrified at being caught, she jumped just as he reached her.

It was only a few feet down into the garden, but she never landed. Instead she felt herself being yanked backwards. Mr Pawlek had caught the shoulders of her dress and he roughly pulled her back in over the window ledge and into the room, slamming the window shut after him.

‘Grace!’ he said, startled on discovering her identity. ‘What the hell are you doing?!’

Grace’s mind raced frantically as she tried to come up with an explanation. She noticed that there was no sign of Barry. But the curtains were drawn on the alcove.
He had to be hiding there
. ‘I was…’

‘You were what?’ demanded Pawlek when she faltered. ‘You were what?!’ he repeated, grabbing Grace by the arm and pulling her closer.

‘You’re hurting me!’ she cried.

But Pawlek’s eyes were cold and angry, and he maintained his grip for a moment, then shook her arm hard before letting go.

‘You’ve no idea what pain is,’ he said roughly. ‘But you will if
you don’t tell me what you were doing.’

Grace had never seen him like this, and the change in his manner was really chilling.

Fearing for her life, she found her imagination kicking in, and she tried to make herself sound convincing as she answered. ‘I…I broke in to steal money. My ma is poor, and you…you seemed well-off, so I thought you might have spare cash.’

Pawlek’s eyes burned into hers as he drew closer. ‘Lying little bitch!’ he said, then he slapped Grace across the face.

She staggered backwards. The blow hadn’t been full force, but she hadn’t been expecting it and it hurt her. But with the pain came anger, and she forced herself not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She saw the radio set with its Morse code key on the table and she realised that Pawlek must have seen it too – and there was no mistaking the significance of a secret radio in wartime.

‘Don’t lie to me,’ said Pawlek, his tone low and threatening. ‘I know you didn’t break in to steal money.’

‘If you know, why are you asking me?’ said Grace.

‘Answer the question! Why did you come here?’

Grace stared at him defiantly. Pawlek approached her and raised his hand threateningly. ‘I’ll only ask once more. Why did you come here?’

‘We wanted the proof!’ she said. ‘That you’re a spy! That you’re a Nazi!’

Pawlek gave no reaction to the accusation. Instead he looked at
her searchingly and said,
‘We?’

‘Myself and Barry,’ answered Grace, improvising. ‘But he got away. He’ll be telling the police right how. And you’re going to be locked up – if they don’t hang you!’

‘Really?’

‘Yes, really!’

‘Just one problem. There are two ways out of this room. The door I came in, and the window. And you’d only just opened the window, hadn’t you?’

Grace tried to think up a convincing reply, but Pawlek spoke again.

‘So unless Barry can walk through walls, he’s still here. Let’s see what’s behind the curtain, shall we?’

Barry stood stock still in the alcove. He knew that he was going to be discovered as soon as Pawlek pulled back the curtain. His heart felt like it would explode in his chest, and he could feel his knees trembling. He breathed in deeply to try to calm himself, but he still started when Pawlek suddenly pulled aside the curtain. Pawlek was surprised, too. The drill teacher might have been expecting Barry to be hiding in the alcove; he hadn’t been expecting him to have a pistol. And it was pointing directly at him.

Barry held the weapon he had taken from the wooden box, using both hands to aim it at Pawlek’s chest.

‘Put your hands on your head!’ ordered Barry, making sure to keep out of lunging distance of the teacher.

Pawlek just stared at him.

‘Do it! Now!’ said Barry, tightening his fingers on the trigger.

‘Put the gun down, you snooping brat, and maybe I won’t give you a thrashing!’

‘Shut your mouth, you Nazi pig!’ snapped Barry angrily. ‘And get your hands on your head!’ He saw a flash of anger in Pawlek’s eyes, then to his surprise the drill teacher gave a cold smile.

‘
Get your hands on your head
? You’ve watched too many silly films. Spoiled by that stupid mother of yours.’

Barry felt a stab of anxiety. ‘If you’ve hurt my mother I’ll blow your brains out!’ he said.

‘Your mother hurt herself. Sprained her ankle on the kerb and had to go home. Worse luck for you.’

‘Worse luck for you, you mean. I have the gun – don’t think I won’t use it.’

‘You won’t be able.’

Barry controlled his anger and took careful aim so as to hit Pawlek in the heart.

‘Won’t I? I’ve seen what your planes did to Liverpool. My friend’s sister was blown to smithereens. She was only sixteen. So if you think I won’t shoot, just try your luck.’

‘Bravely spoken. But you don’t know much about guns, do you?’ said Pawlek, and something in his confident tone made Barry fearful.

‘First of all, that gun’s not loaded. And even if it was, you never took off the safety catch.’

Barry felt a stab of panic and he looked down to locate the safety catch. In the instant that he took his eye off the drill teacher, Pawlek sprang at him. Barry flicked the catch and pulled the trigger, hoping that Pawlek was bluffing about the weapon being unloaded. In that instant the teacher landed on him, the other man’s momentum knocking Barry painfully back against the door of the press. Worse than the pain was the realisation that the trigger had clicked on an empty chamber.

Pawlek grabbed the wrist of his gun hand in a numbing grip, then snatched the weapon from Barry’s fingers with his other hand. Barry tried to struggle, but he reeled backwards again when Pawlek smacked him hard in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Barry began to rise shakily to this feet, his face stinging from the blow.

‘Are you OK?’ said Grace, her own voice wavering with fear, as she stooped to help him up.

‘Yes,’ he answered, determined to show no weakness in front of his enemy. He saw that Pawlek had taken the other box from the press and was loading the pistol with bullets stored in the box.

‘Now,’ said Pawlek, as he finished loading the weapon and pointed it at Barry and Grace. ‘Now you’ve given me a problem. So we have to dispose of two people who were too nosey. But you should have thought of that before you interfered, shouldn’t you?’

Grace struggled against her bonds, but it was useless. Pawlek had improvised effectively, quickly tying herself and Barry to kitchen chairs with heavy twine from a drawer, then gagging them with tea towels tied tightly around their mouths and knotted at the back.

She had never seen him angry before, but she and Barry had caused him a major problem. His carefully maintained cover as a Polish national was blown now, and he would either have to go into hiding or flee the country.

Unless…she didn’t want to think about it, but there
was
one other possibility. If he were to kill herself and Barry, then maybe he could continue as a spy. It was a horrifying thought that really scared her. But Grace tried to reassure herself that Pawlek couldn’t be sure they hadn’t shared their suspicions about him with anyone else. He would be taking a huge risk to try and carry on, especially as the police would undoubtedly question him as part of the massive enquiry that would take place if two children from his sports club went missing.

Besides, if he wanted to kill them they would surely be dead by now. Instead of which he had tied them up, told them that he would be back shortly, and warned them not to try anything. But then again if he really did mean to kill them, wouldn’t he want to do it someplace remote, rather than in his own kitchen?

Grace felt a stab of panic at the thought, but forced it down.
Be logical.
What would you do if you were in his shoes?
Have a back-up plan and use it.
Every spy ran the risk of being exposed and having to flee. That meant he would have someplace where he could hide while waiting to be rescued. Maybe a little cottage near some remote stretch of coastline where a submarine could secretly pick him up. But he
would
have someplace lined up.

Grace considered how he might get there. Mr Pawlek didn’t have a car at his house, so maybe he was gone now to collect one that he had hidden. Or more likely, to steal one. Either way, it would make sense for him to buy time and cover his trail by taking her and Barry with him. And once he had safely organised his getaway there was no gain for him in killing or injuring two children. Or was she kidding herself? The world was at war and millions of people were being killed. Maybe to Pawlek two more lives would mean nothing. The thought terrified her, and she tried to force it from her mind as she sat tied to the chair, waiting for their captor to return.