[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed

by Mary D. Brooks

  “None of us will,” Eva replied quietly. They fell silent and sat back on the sofa to watch the sunrise. Eva turned to Wilbur.

  “Tell me about the investigation.”

  “I don’t want to upset you.”

  “You won’t upset me. I’ve been working with Dr. Hannah. It’s difficult, but we are getting there.”

  “Is this Dr. Hannah a good doctor? She’s not judging you for being with Zoe?”

  Eva looped her arm around Wilbur’s bicep and leaned against him. “I love you.”

  Wilbur smiled. “I don’t want this doctor to hurt you.”

  “She doesn’t. She doesn’t want to change who I am or how I feel about Zoe. She helps me. Zoe used to come with me until I asked her not to six months ago.”

  “Why?”

  Eva looked out over the back yard and sighed. “I don’t want our babies to hear all those horrible things. They are coming into this crazy world, and to have them know before they are born what evil is and what it can do, I just don’t want them to know.”

  “What about Zoe?”

  “I don’t talk to Zoe about this now. I will tell her after the babies are born, but not now.”

  “That’s a very difficult decision—not to include the person who understands and loves you the most. Is it not?”

  Eva nodded. “Yes, more than I realized, but it’s something I have to deal with for the moment. Zoe has been there for me since the beginning, but I just don’t want our babies to know. Not yet.”

  Wilbur nodded and took out his cigarette pack from his pocket and removed two cigarettes. He lit one and gave it to Eva before lighting his. “As long as you talk about it, Evy. Not talking about it is not good.”

  “Have you been talking to someone?”

  Wilbur nodded. “Yes, I needed to after what I’ve been seeing and reading. You have suffered greatly, and the more I know, the more it sickens me. It also makes me angry that I didn’t do anything to stop the torture.”

  Eva put her arm around him and kissed him on the cheek. “I know that you would have if you could have, Uncle Wilbur. It’s why they didn’t tell you.”

  “What they did is unforgiveable. Our family name doesn’t matter. We have three war criminals in our family. Having a lesbian niece is not on par with two of my brothers and my mother committing crimes against humanity.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I’m proud of who you are. Proud of the woman you are and proud you are my niece,” Wilbur replied as he glanced at Eva. “I don’t understand how you are attracted to a woman, to Zoe, but there are a lot of things I don’t understand. It’s alright. Yes, the Church is against your choice, but I don’t care.”

  “I don’t know why either. I’ve never known why I’m attracted to women. Do you know why you’re attracted to Aunty Marlene?”

  “No, I never thought about it.”

  “I have thought about it.”

  “You’ve thought about why I’m attracted to Aunty Marlene?” Wilbur quipped, earning himself a shake of the head from Eva.

  “I’ve thought about why I am the way I am, and I used to think I was defective, but there was nothing I could do about it. I’m not defective.”

  “You are not or ever were defective. My brothers were the defective ones, my mother was.” Wilbur cupped his hand behind his ear. “Ah, I think I heard your grandmother screaming in hell.”

  “Uncle Wilbur!”

  “I know that’s terrible. Maybe she’s not screaming.” Wilbur shrugged and took off his glasses. He held the wire frames in his hand and looked out into the ocean. “I don’t know why you are the way you are, but you are my niece.”

  “I am.”

  “It’s the truth. You are a Muller and you will always be a Muller,” Wilbur said as he put his arm around Eva. “You are a Lambros now, but to me you will always be my niece.”

  “Thank you.” Eva put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

  “So that Saint Theresa is a real saint?”

  “Yes,” Eva replied.

  “When Marlene told me, I thought she had misunderstood. A saint healed what your family did to you. I really wish, for a moment, my holier-than-thou mother were here to hear that. You know what she would have asked?”

  “How much money do saints make?”

  Wilbur shook his head. “Is Saint Theresa a Catholic?”

  “That’s terrible.”

  “Yes, it is, but true. Now I want to hear this long story, but not now. Now we have other things to discuss.”

  “I got your letter with your updates on the investigations.”

  “Yes, the more they dig around the grounds, the more gruesome it becomes. I’m horrified, Evy, just horrified.”

  “You gave them all the records?”

  “All of them, including the ones from the main hospital. I want to co-operate with the investigators fully. I don’t want to hide anything. I want every single bastard caught and shot,” Wilbur replied vehemently. “I’m ready to take the shotgun and shoot them myself if necessary.”

  “Zoe wants to join you.”

  “I don’t doubt it. I have been keeping some of the information from you, and Marlene tells me I shouldn’t do that.”

  “Marlene is right.”

  “Hm…well, then.” Wilbur reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and removed an envelope. “This is for you.”

  “What is it?” Eva took it and noted the handwritten address.

  “Before I tell you who it’s from, I have to know what you have decided.”

  Eva leaned back against the sofa and took a drag of her cigarette. “I want to raze it to the ground. I want to obliterate every single brick and I want us to build a memorial garden. When I was outside, I spent some time in the gardens that surrounded the hospital. I want a memorial garden.”

  “That’s the…place.”

  “It’s alright to name it.”

  “I don’t want to name it. I just want it gone.” Eva exhaled slowly and found her heart beating a little faster. “I want to believe it’s only bricks and mortar but…”

  “You can’t. I have read letters that were sent to me from people who survived. Some beg me to tear it down, but others beg me to keep it. That letter you have in your hand is from a woman. Her name is Elspeth Kruger.”

  “Was she a patient?”

  “No. Her sister, Christine, was. She was a lesbian and she was part of…” Wilbur stopped and for a long moment looked down at the floor. He cleared his throat. “She was tortured, but she was released when was ‘cured.’”

  “Is she still alive?”

  Wilbur turned to Eva and shook his head. “No. Christine took her own life. It was too much to bear. That letter is to you.”

  “Have you read it?”

  “Yes. I wouldn’t give you anything about this hellhole without reading it first. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t read anything myself, but I’m the head of this family and it’s my job.”

  “It’s not your job. You shouldn’t shoulder the responsibility for what they did.”

  Wilbur put his arm around Eva and brought her close to him. “I won’t let you to deal with this. It is some cruel and unspeakable act for Mother to have left you that godforsaken hellhole.”

  “She didn’t. I inherited it from Grandfather and he didn’t know what it was going to become.”

  “That’s true. My father built that place for researchers to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Your great grandmother suffered from that horrible disease. I’m really glad he is not here to see what his sons did to that dream,” Wilbur said in disgust. “My mother was the devil incarnate. She knew what was going on. She knew about the torture, knew about everything that went on that place…” He stopped when Eva took a deep shuddering breath.

  “She knew? She actually knew what was going on? She boasted about it to me, but I thought she was just being mean.”

  “No, she wasn’t just being mean. She knew. She
condoned it. Beatriz was a despicable, controlling woman who didn’t want anything or anyone to be what she didn’t want them to be.”

  “I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “There are things that are too horrible to think about, and your grandmother being a war criminal and being responsible for your pain is not something you want to think about.”

  “No. I want to think she wasn’t that evil, but the more you uncover, the more I realize that she was truly an evil woman.”

  “There’s something else you don’t know about. You were never admitted under your name to the ...facility...I don’t know what to call it.”

  “What do you mean I wasn’t admitted? I was there.”

  “I know you were, sweetheart. You were admitted to the main hospital as Eva Muller, and that was for your back. You were later transferred to the research facility. The documents I found were for the main hospital, and they list you as Eva Theresa Muller. At first I could not find any documents under your name from the facility.”

  “The War Crimes investigators who interviewed me at Aunt Irene’s house said that I was listed as being on staff.”

  “That was wrong. Your grandmother misled them. You were at the facility, but they had you under a different name.”

  “So who was I?”

  “I went looking through Mother’s letters and documents to see if I could find anything. Going through so many names, it was impossible. Your date of birth was changed, so that didn’t help me. I hoped Mother’s letters would tell me. I found a letter from the Archdiocese and it made reference to Mother visiting Bishop Achen to discuss the sensitive matters...”

  “She went to a Bishop?”

  “Of course she did. She was Beatriz Muller, and a local priest wasn’t good enough for her. It gets worse. The letter referenced their discussion and said they had found a solution to her problem. They had discussed the matter with her local parish priest, a Father...”

  “Let me guess...Father Johan Faber?”

  “No. Father Sebastian Beike. Do you know him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, they discussed with him the best way to handle this delicate matter, since it would be more prudent to have the parish priest play a role.”

  “What a convoluted cover up, all because she was ashamed of having a lesbian granddaughter. She wasn’t ashamed her sons were murderers,” Eva replied bitterly.

  “That’s my mother. It seems the parish priest set up a fake family to have their daughter sent to be cured.”

  “How despicable was this woman? Never mind, don’t answer that.

  “I searched through other documents and I found the name you were listed under.”

  “What name did she use?”

  “Eva Becker.”

  Eva shook her head in disbelief. “They used Marlene’s surname to cover up their crimes. Have you given this information to the investigators?”

  “Yes, all of it. I have a friend who is part of the investigation team. He is keeping me informed of the progress.”

  “Tommy won’t be arrested, will he?”

  “No. He was never part of the facility, just of the main hospital, and they believe that those who worked there knew nothing about the facility. They were not aware of the treatments and the real reason behind them. The investigators believe that the staff at the main hospital never crossed over into the facility.”

  “This is going to take some time, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. We can’t touch anything until they have finished.”

  Eva took a drag of her cigarette and gazed out into the horizon for a long moment. “We will build a memorial.”

  “It is your decision, and I will respect it.”

  “I’m going to be there when it it’s unveiled,” Eva said quietly and watched Wilbur’s slack jawed response. “I need to walk out of that hell myself.”

  Wilbur put his arm around Eva and drew her to him. “Oh, my darling girl, you are courage personified.”

  CHAPTER 54

  November 6, 1951

  Zoe let out a frustrated sigh as the morning wore on. Her mood was one of utter boredom and a restless need to do something productive, but all she felt was just bloated and very achy. She tried to paint, but abandoned it when her concentration wandered. She tried to read, but found she couldn’t get past the first page. Whatever she attempted to do was useless. She felt useless. She regretted forcing Eva to leave the house with Wilbur, and assuring her she was going to be fine; it was just the Braxton Hicks contractions. Eva wasn’t feeling all that well either. They made quite a pair. Eva and Wilbur had a meeting with their new accountant. It was a meeting Eva did not want to attend, but as CEO of Lambros Steel, she had to. She had called a few times from the accountant’s office, and Zoe was certain she was not paying attention to anything the man was talking about. They talked about mundane things: Eva’s ride into town, her mismatched shoes, and how Debbie had rescued her by having a spare set at the office before they left. That revelation made Zoe laugh.

  Zoe sat on the bed, not knowing what to do with herself. She was feeling some twinges, but that was normal according to Eva’s ubiquitous baby book. Zoe thought she had destroyed the book, but it seemed to be un-killable. Eva had bought another copy. Zoe had consulted the book and she didn’t think she was going into labor. It was too soon for that to happen.

  The letter Wilbur had given Eva was sitting on Eva’s bedside table unopened. Eva did not want to read it, and she didn’t want Zoe to read it either. Not yet. They had time, and Eva wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it. Zoe picked it up and held it. After a moment, she opened the drawer in Eva’s bedside table and placed it inside.

  Zoe glanced around the bedroom and noted the unmade bed. She shrugged, and without a second glance, she left and wandered down the corridor and into the kitchen. Isabella was cooking. She turned around and smiled at Zoe. Marlene was also there.

  “Feeling a little restless?” Isabella asked in German, making Zoe smile. Her Italian was words she had picked up from Eva, but not enough to have a conversation with their new housekeeper.

  “Yes. I don’t want to do anything.” Zoe let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m feeling a bit achy.”

  “Yes, you would feel that leading up the last few weeks.” Marlene put her arm around Zoe, who leaned into her. “I remember when I was pregnant with Leila. I just wanted it to end and vowed to only have one child, and then I repeated the dose with Wilhelm.”

  “Was it hard for you?”

  “It wasn’t bad with Leila. I didn’t have a lot of morning sickness with her, but her brother gave me a double dose of it.”

  Zoe smiled. “I escaped the bulk of it. Evy was the one who suffered, the poor thing, first with morning sickness and then the bucket. She found it funny, and she would throw up and laugh.” All three women laughed. Zoe sat down in the nearest chair.

  “Are we going to meet this Saint Theresa?”

  Zoe turned to Marlene and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s a miracle from God that Eva was saved from that terrible accident,” Isabella said while she stirred the pot.

  “Yes, and now we are going to have two babies!”

  Marlene gazed at Zoe with a knowing smile. “Eva’s dream when she was a little girl was to have a lot of children. She was an only child, so the idea of having siblings appealed to her. You saw them in her room—dolls everywhere.”

  “She has talked about how she wanted a dozen babies. I’m sure she still wants them, even with all the throwing up, heartburn, and back pain she’s had to go through.”

  “You grew up with three brothers, so you experienced having siblings.”

  “I liked having three brothers. They looked out for me and I was permanently attached to Theo. Poor man, now that I think about it.”

  “I’m quite sure your brother doesn’t think that.” Marlene playfully tapped Zoe on the nose. “He loves you so much.”

  “He is a very special man and I�
�m really glad he married Eva.”

  “That does sound wrong.” Marlene chuckled.

  “I know,” Zoe replied with a beaming smile. “So what is labor like?”

  “Hm.” Marlene pursed her lips in thought. “It’s the worst pain you will ever experience, but you’ll be happy that it’s happening.”

  Zoe grinned. “Really?”

  “Really. It’s unlike anything you have experienced before.”

  “Painful?”

  “Very painful. You soon forget the pain when you are holding those precious babies in your arms. I used to think that it was just something young mothers were told and it wasn’t real, but it is.”

  “How can you forget that?” Zoe asked and then grimaced. She put her hand in the small of her back. “Oh, the twins are really making this rough today.”

  Marlene got up and gently massaged Zoe’s lower back. “It’s only going to get worse the closer you get to giving birth.”

  The doorbell rang and Zoe attempted to get up, but Isabella shook her head. Zoe sat back down and grimaced. Stella and Tessa went into the kitchen and greeted everyone, but Zoe wasn’t paying any attention. She felt a sharp pain in her back and took a shuddering breath.

  “Hello.” Tessa dropped to her haunches in front of Zoe. “How are you feeling? Does your back hurt?”

  “My stomach hurts, and the pain just goes to my lower back,” Zoe replied.

  “Hm, that’s uncomfortable. Do you have your bag ready?”

  “Yes, but I’m not due for another three weeks…” Zoe stopped when she caught sight of Tessa’s smile. “Is this why you’re here with Aunty Stella?”

  “I had a feeling you may need us today.”

  “Oh,” Zoe said. She looked down.

  “What’s the matter?” Tessa followed Zoe’s gaze, “Oh, dear. Well, I think it’s time to take you to the hospital, young lady.” She patted Zoe on the hand.

  Zoe just stared at her and then down at the spreading stain on her skirt.

  “Your waters just broke, honey.” Stella put her arm around Zoe’s shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.

  “What? I’m early! They’re not ready yet. Evy’s not here!”

  Tessa helped Zoe up from the chair. “I’ve called Debbie and she will tell Eva.”