Lying in Wait (9780061747168)

by Jance, Judith A.

  “Fingers and toes!” he exclaimed. “That’s the same thing that happened…” Too late, I silenced him with a reproving glare. He subsided meekly back into his chair.

  “You’re saying Lars Weber was in on it then?” Sue asked.

  Avram shrugged, “Maybe. Maybe not. The daughter—Erika—did very well in school. She grew up, became a member of the Communist party, and went to work for a branch of Stasi—the feared East German secret police. She dropped out of sight shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We’ve been looking for her for the past several months.”

  “Why?”

  “One of our affiliated organizations maintains a data base on the status of known Nazi war criminals—those who have already served their prison terms as well as those who have never been apprehended. When two of the missing Ukrainian guards from Sobibor turned up dead—murdered, or rather executed—under similar circumstances hundreds of miles apart, we started looking into it.”

  “Those guards were murdered?” Michael asked. “We checked on them. Kari and I were told they all died of natural causes.”

  “As far as we can tell,” Avram answered, “six of the guards are dead. Some of them did die of natural causes. Two of them did not. Neither did the sons of two of the others. You must understand that the term ‘natural causes’ becomes very flexible in some jurisdictions when inquiries are being made by someone from outside that jurisdiction.”

  “You said ‘similar circumstances,’” I prompted. “Can you be more specific?”

  “Burned,” he answered. “Almost beyond recognition, but not quite. In each case, the fingers and toes were removed but left with the body. As a warning, perhaps.”

  “To whom?”

  “To whoever had the gold. We believe Erika Weber Schmidt was serving notice to all concerned that she was coming looking for the gold her father had once been accused of stealing.”

  “Whether or not he did it,” Sue said. Avram nodded. “Do you think she was acting alone or in concert with someone else?”

  “That we haven’t been able to determine. Our assessment is that Erika Weber Schmidt is more than capable of doing it. She’s a trained killer. More to the point, she’s an unemployed trained killer, or at least she was.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “We now have reason to believe she has gone to work for one of the newer and more radical neo-Nazi splinter groups.”

  “What you’re giving us is a lot of ancient history,” I interjected. “I’d like to know what brought you here to Washington last week when you showed up at Kari and Michael’s apartment up in Bellingham.”

  Avram looked questioningly at Moise, who nodded. “A few days ago, while checking Erika Schmidt’s back trail, we stumbled over the names of Michael Morris and Kari Gebhardt. One of the survivors mentioned having been interviewed by someone named Gebhardt. Since Hans Gebhardt was one of the missing German soldiers from Sobibor, it struck us as more than just a coincidence. We came here as soon as it was possible to make suitable arrangements. I should imagine Erika located Gunter in much the same way.”

  “Mr. Gebhardt’s murder is our fault then, isn’t it?” Michael murmured, his face ashen. “Kari’s father died because our research called her attention to him.”

  “Don’t blame yourselves,” Moise Rosenthal said, speaking for the first time since Avram had begun his narrative. “Gunter Gebhardt died because the neo-Nazis are trying to build an entrance ramp to the information superhighway. It’s illegal for them to sell books denying the reality of the Holocaust, and the existence of the death camps. Instead, they’re setting up a complicated computer network they plan to use to spread their propaganda. To do that, they need money.”

  “We’ve been convinced for some time that Erika wasn’t acting entirely on her own. For one thing, most former Eastern bloc workers don’t have enough money to do the kind of traveling she does. They just don’t have the wherewithal to pay for tickets. There’s also the matter of navigating a complicated bureaucratic maze in order to secure the proper exit papers and visas.

  “I personally am convinced that Erika Schmidt is working for one of these neo-Nazi entities, although we’re not yet sure which one. They’re providing seed money and helping her cut through red tape. In exchange, once the missing gold is found, they’ll be reimbursed for their up-front expenses, then they’ll split the profits with Erika.”

  Michael Morris fidgeted in his chair. “What am I going to tell Kari?” he said. “Here’s her father, an innocent man and…”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about the innocent part,” Moise cautioned. “For years Gunter Gebhardt has been involved in a joint venture with someone in Vladivostok. I believe he went into it solely in order to establish a cover that would allow him to smuggle his father’s gold out from behind the iron curtain.”

  Moise Rosenthal sat back in his chair. He looked at Sue and me and smiled as if to say it was our turn. Now that he had told us what they knew, I believe he expected us to return the favor. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in any mood for show-and-tell. Impeccable manners to the contrary, I still had a feeling Moise and Avram were playing us for fools. They had only told us as much as it suited them to tell. One important oversight was the fact that so far they hadn’t mentioned a word about the toy soldiers they had bought from Else Gebhardt.

  I stood up. “Excuse me for a moment, would you?”

  Moise nodded graciously. I made my way to the nearest pay phone and punched in the directory-assistance number for eastern Washington.

  “What city, please?” the operator asked.

  “Yakima,” I answered. “I’m looking for someone named Hurtado. First name Sergio.”

  Within moments I was speaking to Lorenzo Hurtado himself. I didn’t beat around the bush. “Tell me something, Lorenzo,” I said. “Was Gunter Gebhardt fishing or smuggling?”

  “I am not a smuggler,” Lorenzo answered. “I am an honest man. So is my cousin. We worked hard for Señor Gebhardt. We caught the fish. We cleaned them. We unloaded them onto the ships.”

  “What ships?”

  “The Russian ships. American ships can’t go into Russian ports.”

  “When you unloaded the fish, did you take anything on board?”

  “Only food and supplies. Just enough to get back home. Señor Gebhardt would ship some spare parts and tools over ahead of time, so if anything broke while we were out, we’d have replacements. He said things they made in Russia weren’t any good. He only wanted American.”

  “He didn’t load on anything else?”

  “Nothing else.”

  If Lorenzo was telling the truth, that pretty much blew the smuggling theory. Frustrated, I returned to the restaurant where the plates and dishes had given way to brandy snifters and cups and saucers.

  “Look,” I said impatiently. “Let’s not play games. I know where you two were this afternoon. I know what you did. When did you figure out that those soldiers in Gunter Gebhardt’s basement were made out of gold? Was it before or after you lied your way into Else Gebhardt’s house to buy them?”

  For a moment, there was dead silence around the table, then Moise said, “Those soldiers aren’t gold, Detective Beaumont. You can check them yourself. They’re made out of some other metal. Lead, maybe.”

  The soldiers weren’t gold? There went my latest pet theory, shot straight to hell!

  “Where is the damn gold then?” I demanded. “If Gunter didn’t use it to make the soldiers, what the hell did he do with it?”

  A tweak of amusement turned up the corners of Avram Steinman’s mouth, wrinkling the corners of his eyes and twisting his face into a wry grin. “That, Detective Beaumont,” he replied, “is what we were hoping you could tell us.”

  There was some stiff small talk after that. Moise and Avram were looking for information that neither Sue nor I was prepared to share.

  I skipped the brandy. While drinking my second cup of coffee, I caught Michael Morris checking his watch th
ree different times. Obviously, he had an important previous engagement. Our visit with Moise Rosenthal and Avram Steinman was making him late.

  I passed on the waiter’s offer of a third cup. I made one abortive attempt to pick up the tab, but Moise waved that aside, telling me it was handled on a direct-billing basis. Thank you, Simon Wiesenthal. Sue, Michael, and I made our joint exit a few minutes later. Because it was cold outside, we stood just inside the entrance while a pair of attendants brought around the cars.

  “Do you think those two guys are really on the level?” Sue asked.

  “Up to a point,” I answered, “but I wouldn’t trust them any farther than I can throw them.”

  “What about old man Gebhardt? Is he alive or dead?”

  “Good question,” I replied. “It’s a crap-shoot either way. If I were you, I wouldn’t bet any money one way or the other.”

  My 928 is always popular when it comes to the young men who work valet-parking concessions. Naturally, the Guard-red Porsche appeared in the hotel driveway long before Sue Danielson’s battle-weary Ford Escort. It’s possible the parking personnel at the Sorrento might have frowned on handling such lowbrow transportation, but Sue’s considerable display of well-turned calf and thigh kept the car jockeys from making snide comments about her car. They did, however, feel free to comment on her looks.

  Sue was fully capable of handling herself. She simply ignored their admiring but verging-on-rude leers. Rather than challenge them on it, she merely got in the car and drove away, stiffing the car jockeys out of their expected tip. When Michael Morris and I drove away, one attendant was busy griping to the other about how come she did that. I could have told him, but there are some things in life guys need to be smart enough to figure out for themselves.

  Once Michael and I started down Madison, I caught him stealing yet another surreptitious glance at his watch.

  “What have you got,” I asked, “a hot date?”

  He shook his head. “I’m worried about Kari,” he said.

  “What about her?”

  “My mother didn’t invite Kari to dinner tonight. She said that under the circumstances, with Mr. Gebhardt dead, she was sure Kari wouldn’t want to accept a dinner invitation. The truth is, Mom doesn’t like Kari at all. That was just an excuse not to have her over. But I told Kari I’d come over to her place right after dinner. Now I’m worried about showing up so late.”

  “Ten-thirty isn’t all that late,” I reassured him. “As soon as I get you back to your car, you can be at Kari’s house in a matter of minutes. There’s hardly any traffic this time of night.”

  Michael’s car, a bright blue Geo Storm, was parked on Cherry just east of Third. He was in such a hurry to get where he was going that he leaped out of the Porsche while it was still rolling. He took off without so much as a wave or a thank-you. It’s a wonder he didn’t break his leg.

  Such is love, I thought, watching him scramble into the car, start it, and peel out of the parking place. Love, youth, and raging hormones.

  As the pair of bright red taillights sped up Third Avenue, I hoped he’d pay attention to his driving.

  It would be too bad if some hard-nosed traffic cop pulled the poor kid over and gave him a ticket, I thought, not because Michael was screwed up on booze or drugs, but because he was an inattentive, lovesick swain.

  23

  The first few sprinkles of rain dotted the windshield as I headed for Belltown Terrace. Unlike Michael Morris, I could afford to drive at a far more leisurely pace. As I made my way through the broad, flat streets of the Denny Regrade, I was thinking about the few housekeeping chores—washing sheets, remaking the guest-room bed, putting out clean towels—that I needed to handle in advance of Ralph Ames’ scheduled arrival the next afternoon.

  In fact, I was just putting the load of soiled sheets in my apartment-sized stacked washer/dryer when the phone rang. It was 10:45.

  “Detective Beaumont?”

  I thought I recognized the voice, although it wasn’t entirely steady. “Michael?” I asked. “Is that you? Is something wrong?”

  “I’m not sure, but maybe,” he answered. “Nobody’s here.”

  “At Kari’s house? Maybe they went out,” I suggested with reasoned calm calculated to neutralize the rising panic in his voice. “To a friend’s house for the evening, or maybe to visit a relative.”

  “Kari said she’d be home all night long,” Michael countered. “She said for me to come over whenever I finished up with dinner. But there aren’t any lights on anywhere in the house. I tried all the doors, both front and back. Nobody answered.” That didn’t sound good, even to me. My stomach gave a sharp lurch. “Where are you calling me from?”

  “From the house across the street,” Michael answered. “Talking to the lady here is what got me so upset.”

  There was only one house directly across the street from Else Gebhardt’s. I happened to know that one belonged to June and John Miller. “What did the lady say?” I asked.

  “That her dog was barking like crazy earlier this afternoon. She said there was a big truck parked in the driveway at Kari’s house, and that it was backed up all the way to the garage door. She said there were people with dollies carrying stuff out of the house and loading it into the truck.”

  “Put June Miller on the phone,” I said.

  “Who’s that?” Michael asked.

  “June. The lady who lives there.”

  Michael turned away from the phone. I heard him asking a question, then he came back on the line. “You aren’t even here. How did you know her name?” he asked.

  “Never mind. Just put her on the phone.”

  June Miller came on the line a moment later. “This is Detective Beaumont,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure. I was downstairs with Brett when Barney started barking his head off. I heard him outside. I tried to get him to shut up or come inside, but he wouldn’t stop, and he wouldn’t come in either. Barney’s terribly nearsighted. I think he saw this big thing sitting there and couldn’t figure out what it was. He was so agitated, I was afraid he’d go out of the yard even with his collar working. Finally, I went out to get him. That’s when I saw them loading the truck. That’s what all the fuss was about—loading a truck.”

  “What kind of truck?”

  “One of those big rental ones. It starts with an R.”

  “Ryder? Rollins?”

  “Rollins. That’s it.”

  “You said someone was loading a truck. Who? And could you tell what they were loading?”

  “Not really. I only saw two men, although there might have been more.”

  “What did they look like?”

  “One was older. And then there was a younger one—a middle-aged man, balding, but with reddish hair. And whatever it was they were loading, it must have been heavy. They were using a dolly. You know, the kind of thing appliance-delivery guys use when they’re unloading washers and dryers and refrigerators.”

  Balding, with reddish hair. That sounded all too familiar.

  “Shit!” I started to say, but then I cut it off and turned it into a discreet cough.

  “Excuse me?” June Miller said. “Did you say something?”

  If I had spoken them aloud, the string of epithets roaring around in my head would have burned June Miller’s ears. Whatever was happening, my friend Alan Torvoldsen—good old Champagne Al—was in on it up to his eyeballs. God damn it! And I never saw it coming, not at all.

  I knew good and well it was too damn early for Else Gebhardt’s moving sale, so there could be only one thing that was being spirited out of Else Gebhardt’s house. It had to be the gold—all those missing gold teeth from Sobibor.

  “I didn’t say a thing,” I said, coughing again for good measure. “Could you tell exactly what they were loading?”

  “Not really, and I didn’t want to stare,” June Miller said.

  “What time did all this happen?”

  When I came
home and started doing the laundry and household chores, I had slipped out of my clothes and into a heavy-duty terry-cloth robe. Now, though, holding the phone to my ear with one shoulder, I started trying to dress again—clumsily pulling on a pair of Dockers and slipping into my shoes.

  “It wasn’t dark yet, but it was getting close when Barney started kicking up the fuss,” June answered. “That must have been around four or so. And I think I heard the truck engine start up again right around the time I was putting dinner on the table. That would have been a little before seven.”

  Damn. That meant they had almost a four-hour head start on us. They could be almost anywhere in that length of time. They could be almost through Portland if they had headed South down I-5 or two thirds of the way to Spokane on I-90, or across the international border into Canada, or well on their way to Neah Bay.

  “Okay, June,” I said, trying to keep a handle on the anger and frustration in my voice. “Thanks a lot. Put Michael back on the phone for a minute, would you?”

  A shaky Michael Morris came back on the line. “What do you think?”

  He didn’t want to hear what I was thinking. “Listen,” I said urgently, “and do exactly as I say. As soon as I get off the line with you, I’m going to dial nine-one-one and send a squad car over there. You stay right where you are until one of the officers comes to get you. Under no circumstances are you to go anywhere near Kari’s house until I give you the go-ahead. Is that clear?”

  “Yes,” Michael answered.

  “You didn’t touch anything while you were over there, did you?”

  “Only the doorknobs. To see if they were locked.” He paused. “What do you think they’ll find?” he asked softly.

  By now I feared the worst, but there was no point in telling Michael Morris that. He was scared enough already. On the other hand, I felt morally obliged to give him some advance warning.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  But by now Michael had some idea what we were up against. “It could be real bad, couldn’t it?” he said hollowly.