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Max, Heinrich’s best friend and also an SD agent, was telling another story to the group of officers gathered around him. Max’s wife Ursula, who by now was like a sister to me, was another reason for Max’s colleagues to be around the couple. She lost all the weight after having her first baby two years ago and was more than happy to go back to the social life she so dearly missed. Tonight Ursula looked absolutely stunning in her blue evening gown and was gladly accepting compliments from her husband’s co-workers.
I was laughing out loud at Max’s stories, making believe that I was drunk. In reality I hardly sipped any champagne from my glass during the evening. Heinrich had just slipped away from our circle unnoticed, and I stayed to make sure that no one would notice his disappearance. Also I needed to keep an eye on the Chief of the Gestapo, Gruppenführer Müller, and prevent him from going to his office for whatever reasons. I had no idea how I could possibly manage that, so I was very relieved that Herr Müller looked more than comfortable in his chair talking to one of his subordinates and didn’t seem inclined to leave it any time soon.
I glanced at the clock on the opposite wall and noticed the time. Heinrich said that he needed about five minutes inside Müller’s office and about another five to get in and out. The part of the plan that worried me the most was that he had to walk on a thin ledge at the fourth floor’s height, and I kept praying to God that the construction of the building was a strong one. If the window wasn’t open, like Gruppenführer Müller liked to leave it for the night for the fresh air, Heinrich would need another couple of minutes to open the lock from the outside with his service dagger. Plus two minutes to ascend and descend the stairs from the big reception hall where we all were right now to the fourth floor where the offices were. So after precisely fourteen minutes I should start worrying. Only one passed.
Ursula whispered in my ear that she was going to the ladies room and asked me if I wanted to go with her. I just smiled and shook my head, whispering back at her that all these officers would be bored to death if both of us leave. The argument that they needed their female audience made a lot of sense to my friend, and she left me without any suspicions. I couldn’t leave my post: I needed to watch Müller.
Two minutes passed. Heinrich probably just opened the door to his office. I was impatiently tapping my index finger on the glass I was holding. Picturing my husband getting out of the window and stepping on a thin ledge underneath, I started to think that Ingrid and Rudolf were right and the whole operation was a bad idea. But it was too late to do anything now. Someone said a joke and I laughed along with everyone, even though I didn’t even hear what they were laughing about. Müller was still sitting in his chair.
Ursula came back. Too nervous about Heinrich playing a circus acrobat on the top floor, I told her that I needed some fresh air and quickly glancing in Müller’s direction once again, I walked through several long hallways to the glass door leading to the backyard. SS guards standing next to it like statues didn’t seem to pay any attention to me; I already saw several officers walking out through this very door to enjoy their cigarette outside, so there wasn’t anything suspicious about me doing the same thing. The SS guards didn’t have to know that I didn’t smoke.
Already in the back yard I quickly closed the doors behind me and, making sure that I was alone, I took several steps so I could see the roof. No one was on it. I sipped a little more of my champagne and looked up again, trying not to lift my head too high. No one appeared, which meant that Heinrich was already in Müller’s office. I let out a little sigh of relief and quickly walked back inside to keep my surveillance on the Chief of the Gestapo. But before I could make my way back to the reception hall, an officer passing me by suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me to the wall, pressing his hands on both sides of my body, completely restraining me from any movement. In the dark hallway I couldn’t see his face, but there was something very familiar about him, something very threatening.
“What are you doing?” I asked him as loud as I could. Too bad the music inside was louder.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, Annalise.”
I recognized him now. I could never forget this voice, the voice of the man who almost raped and killed me after I refused his advances several years ago, the man who filed a report on me to the Gestapo, which almost costed me my freedom and maybe even my life; the man who, thanks to his girlfriend Gretchen, who used to dance in the same ballet company with me, found out that I was Jewish. Sturmbannführer Ulrich Reinhard.
“Let go of me. Now!”
I tried to push him off me, hoping that someone would pass by and notice us, but it was just him and me in the dark hallway. Last time it happened, he almost choked me to death. Needless to say, I was terrified.
“Why? Don’t you want to say hello to an old friend? Where are your manners?”
He grabbed my hand and pulled it behind my back, making me drop my champagne glass on the carpet. I tried to scream but he pressed my mouth shut with the other hand. I knew that he wouldn’t actually do anything to me at least during the party and that he was just trying to scare me, but I hated to admit that he succeeded.
“You little Jewish whore, do you know that I lost my office position because of you?” The hateful expression of his face was leaving me no doubts: he did want to hurt me, one way or another. “Do you know that I was transferred to the goddamn Waffen-SS thanks to you? Do you know how many Jews I had to round up and execute on the Eastern front to get my position back?”
I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to: he was still holding my mouth shut. Last time I got away by kicking him in the groin, but he was smarter now and was pressing me against the wall with his body. From the side we probably looked like two lovers hugging in the hallway. In reality Reinhard twisted my wrist even harder.
“Good thing that Obergruppenführer Heydrich appreciates people like me,” he said looking me straight in the eye; then another menacing smile crossed his face. “I’m back now, I’m an official Gestapo agent and you’ll be seeing a lot of me in the nearest future. Till I find the way to destroy you. And this time no one, even your husband, will be able to help you.”
My husband! I needed to go back to the reception hall to see if Müller was still there. Only I couldn’t. He was still holding me.
He leaned closer to me and said in a voice that sent shivers down my spine, “How does it feel to know that your worst nightmare is back, huh, Jew-girl?”
Then he laughed and finally released me from his grip, but as soon as I tried to make a run between him and the wall, he stretched his arm against the wall to prevent me from escaping. He obviously liked playing cat and mouse with me.
“Going so soon? One more question I wanted to ask, as an official now: what happened to your parents? Why did they have to leave the country so hastily?”
I froze where I stood, afraid to take another breath. How did he know?
Reinhard smiled even wider and more evil. “Did someone find their real birth certificates?”
A tall figure just entered the hallway, and I saw the red tip of the cigarette being lit in the dark. A tiny light of hope appeared in my heart; but there was no way it could be him. However, the closer he was getting to us, the more I was sure of it. I pushed away Reinhard’s hand and rushed towards my unexpected savior, Dr. Kaltenbrunner.
“Herr Gruppenführer!” I screamed as loud as I could.
He caught me by my shoulders, obviously surprised by my sudden appearance.
“Frau Friedmann? What happened?”
I clenched onto his uniform as if my life was depending on it and pointed to Reinhard’s direction.
“That man was threatening me!”
Even in the dark I could see the expression of his face change from pleasantly surprised to visibly menacing. He let go of my arms and slowly walked up to Ulrich Reinhard, who froze on his spot with his hands pressed against his body.
“Did you threaten her?”
A nod to my direction.
“Absolutely not, Herr Gruppenführer. We were just talking.”
“You almost broke my arm!” I screamed at him. I saw how ominously Reinhard’s eyes sparkled as he met my gaze.
“You dared to lay your dirty hands on this woman?” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner asked very quietly, with hardly masked fury.
“She’s exaggerating. I only…”
But Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner didn’t let him finish; he grabbed Reinhard by the lapels and with immense force threw him against the wall, after which Reinhard hit the floor. I yelped and covered my mouth with my hand. Reinhard tried to get up on his feet, but Dr. Kaltenbrunner gave him a hard kick under the ribs, which made the former lose his wind and start coughing, gasping for air.
“What’s wrong with you? Are you hurt?” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner leaned over Reinhard’s body. “Let me help you get up.”
With these words he grabbed Reinhard’s left arm and twisted it hard, forcing it behind Reinhard’s back. Reinhard screamed and bent backwards towards the hand, trying to somehow alleviate the pain.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt your arm? I think you’re exaggerating though. I haven’t broken it. Yet.”
“No, please!”
Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner pulled his hand even higher to an almost unnatural position. Reinhard’s face was distorted with pain.
“Herr Gruppenführer, please let me go, I’m sorry!” he cried out.
“Damn right you are, you piece of shit!” Dr. Kaltenbrunner finally let go of Reinhard and the latter pulled the hurt hand to his chest, still standing on his knees in front of Gruppenführer. “That was a warning. One more time I see you near her, I’ll break your fuckin’ neck! You got it?!”
“Yes, Herr Gruppenführer. Thank you, Herr Gruppenführer.”
“Get the hell out of my face and make sure I don’t see you for the rest of the night.”
“Jawohl, Herr Gruppenführer.”
Reinhard got up on his feet and walked a little unsteadily towards the exit. The gaze that he threw at me passing me by was withering. I was alone with Dr. Kaltenbrunner, who came up to me and gently lifted up my chin.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, Herr Gruppenführer. Thank you so much.”
“Who was that son of a bitch?”
“Remember the man who put all the incriminating information about me in the file that they gave you in the Gestapo jail when you were interrogating me? That was him.”
“Interrogating?” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner finally smiled. “I always thought that we were just talking, no?”
I was glad that he couldn’t see me blush in the dark.
“I’m sorry. Yes, we were just talking. And you were very kind to me over there. Thank you for that.”
“The pleasure was all mine, Frau Friedmann. And you know, you shouldn’t be walking around alone in the deserted parts of the building at night; see what can happen?”
“Yes, I know. I just wanted to get some fresh air outside.”
“What if I didn’t happen to pass by? Your husband is not doing a good job watching you. Where is he, by the way?”
My husband!!! Cold sweat broke on my forehead right away; between Reinhard and Dr. Kaltenbrunner I absolutely lost track of time. What if Müller went back to his office for some reason? What if Heinrich fell off the ledge coming back to his office?
“He’s supposed to be with his friends in the reception hall.”
“Let me take you to him then. I can finish this later.”
With those words he threw an unfinished cigarette to the tree pot standing on the floor and wrapped my hand around his arm. I still couldn’t believe that he was here and he just saved me, once again.
“What are you doing here, Herr Gruppenführer? I mean, in Berlin?”
“I’m supposed to exchange some people with Gruppenführer Müller. He wants my Austrian Jews for his Auschwitz, I need his prisoners of war for my Mauthausen. We’re expanding granite quarries according to the Führer’s wish. He wants to lay the streets of Berlin with it, so Paris would be nothing compared to the capital of the Reich.” He chuckled. “The funniest thing is that it’s Austrian granite, but Vienna won’t get any part of it. And that’s actually the main reason why I’m here. I want to have a serious conversation with Reichsführer Himmler and let him know how much I’m displeased with the current situation, to say the least.”
Prisoners of war for Mauthausen. I was praying to God that they weren’t the same prisoners of war that Heinrich was currently trying to falsify the papers regarding their new destination. If this comes out, we’ll be in big trouble. As we walked inside the reception hall, I took a quick look at the clock. Only ten minutes had passed. I looked around; Heinrich was nowhere to be seen. The good thing was that Gruppenführer Müller was still enjoying his drink in his chair.
“Your husband is not here. I told you he’s not doing a good job looking after you.”
I couldn’t understand if Dr. Kaltenbrunner was joking or if he was serious. I smiled at him.
“He probably noticed that I was gone and is looking for me somewhere outside. Why don’t you keep me company instead?”
First, I didn’t want him to go talk to Müller because they could have decided to go up to Müller’s office. Second, I wanted to find out more about those prisoners of war he was talking about.
“On one condition.” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner grinned at me.
“What condition?”
“You’ll have to dance with me. I think you owe me after all those times I got you out of trouble.”
I smiled but followed him to the middle of the room where we joined the rest of the dancing couples. He took my hand in his and put another one on my back, while I rested mine on his shoulder. For the first time we were so close to each other, and I suddenly forgot what I was supposed to ask him about. I thought that it was just adrenaline still messing with my head. Meanwhile Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner leaned even closer to me and whispered in my ear, “I have some good news I wanted to share with you.”
“What is it?” I whispered back, suddenly noticing that my heart was beating way faster than it should.
“Our friends landed in Czechoslovakia several days ago. Marek took them in, and they’re already working out the last details of the plan.”
He was looking at me with his dark brown eyes, smiling and waiting for my reaction. I didn’t know what to say.
“Thank you,” I finally whispered, fighting the urge to hug him tightly.
“You’re welcome, my beautiful friend.” He pulled me a little bit closer, his hand slightly caressing my back through the silk of my dress. “You know that I’m always more than happy to kill for you.”
I shook my head at that last joke of his and desperately tried to remember what I needed to find out from him. Instead for some reason I remembered how we got drunk in Paris and I touched his face, tracing the outlines of the dueling scars on his left cheek. I suddenly wanted to do it again. I wanted to touch his face. I wanted him to lean to me again and kiss me.
Oh God, why on Earth am I thinking this? I’m not even drunk! My husband is risking his life right now and I’m fantasizing about another man kissing me? What is wrong with me?! He helped me out, that’s it. It’s just a common victim’s psychology, we gravitate towards our saviors, simple as that. Just a regular scientific fact. I am not attracted to him in real life. It’s just adrenaline.
I blinked several times trying to get rid of his hypnotizing gaze and smiled as innocently as I could.
“So, prisoners of war, huh? How many of them do you need for your granite quarries?”
“The more the better. One can never have too many workers.”
“Right.” He was still holding me too close, and it was breaking my concentration. “But… Some of them are not good for work, right?”
“What do you mean?” His brow slightly furrowed.
“I mean that… I heard
about the special directive from Obergruppenführer Heydrich. About the Soviet commanding officers. About… the ‘special treatment.’”
“Oh that.” He finally smiled again. “Yes. Them I don’t need. A major waste of time. I hope that Müller doesn’t include them on the lists, but knowing what a scheming bastard he is, and that he most likely wouldn’t want to deal with them himself, I can expect anything.”
All the euphemisms in the world couldn’t cover the ugly truth: Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner didn’t want them just because it was a waste of time for the Kommandant of Mauthausen – to transport them to the camp, to gas them upon arrival and then kill the whole day for the cremation. That’s how they saw those people. ‘A major waste of time.’ I sighed. Good thing I was married to Heinrich.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was time for my husband to come back already. I looked back at Dr. Kaltenbrunner. He was still smiling at me, confidently leading me in a slow dance. I thought that it was amazing how comfortable I was feeling in his arms. What if I told him that I was a Jew though? He would have probably sent me to the same Mauthausen and personally wrote ‘for special treatment’ on my papers.
“Why are you so interested in my inmates?”
“No reason. Just curious.”
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
“That’s why I’m asking you about it and not somebody else.”
Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner suddenly stopped, put both hands on my waist and whispered in my ear, “Your husband is back, little kitty. Try not to get yourself in any more trouble, will you?”
He then brushed his cheek on mine, kissed me on the corner of my mouth, gave me yet another grin and left me absolutely smitten in the middle of the dancefloor. I followed him with my gaze and saw how he exchanged handshakes with Gruppenführer Müller. Only then I turned around and slowly walked towards the group of the already familiar officers, which Heinrich joined again absolutely unnoticed.
The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress Page 4
