by Kate Parker
A pretty, dark-haired young woman sitting near Esther let loose a sob and looked around as she mouthed her apologies. She set her handbag on the floor with a thud and buried her face in a handkerchief. The young man next to her patted her back as he gave her a comforting smile.
“Leah,” the speaker said, “I know you come from Prague and must be worried for your family and friends, but now is the time we must be brave. We will find alternative ways to rescue as many as possible. To send them to Palestine.”
“Or here. Or the United States,” the man called Abram added in a sharp tone.
“Yes,” the speaker agreed with a sigh. I guessed he was a Zionist, and this was probably an ongoing disagreement he and Abram had concerning British-controlled Palestine.
“We’re going to need those young men to fight the Nazis when they attack Britain,” Abram said. “We must get as many out as possible before it’s too late.”
A stocky, middle-aged man with thinning hair and a broad face rose and spoke to the gathering. “We need to contact Elias’s organization. Find out if anyone can take over the reins. If not, then we might want to turn our attention to resettling as many of our Czechoslovakian brethren as we can while we can.”
“Elias gave us no way to contact his network, if there even is a network,” the speaker countered, still standing resolutely at the podium.
“Daniel,” Abram said, ignoring the speaker, “we might as well contact the head of the Jewish community in Prague and ask if any of them want to emigrate now. They’ll be able to leave in a better financial state today than they will be in a few months under Herr Hitler.”
“Abram,” a man across the room said, “the Germans may take the Sudetenland, but they’re not going to take the rest of Czechoslovakia. Why would they?”
“Because Hitler wants to take over the world and kill every one of us,” Abram answered in a loud voice.
“Before he does,” the stocky man called Daniel said, “let’s send word to the community in Prague and see if they want our help.”
Murmurs of agreement circled the room.
There was more discussion about Elias and his death, but nothing that would help me pinpoint the leak that led an assassin to him. As soon as the meeting broke up, Esther came over to me. “The least we can do is feed you dinner, since we’ve ruined your evening.”
“You didn’t ruin my evening, but I’d love to have dinner with you. Won’t James mind a guest being sprung on him at the last moment?”
“He had to go to York. Father and I have already been invited by Daniel Nauheim and his son and daughter-in-law. You’ll round out the table.”
“Esther, I can’t just show up at their door.” I’d never met any of these people. Why would they invite me to dinner?
“My father’s been singing your praises to Mr. Nauheim. He said to bring you along because he wants to meet you.”
“To size me up for whatever plot is being hatched, you mean.”
“Livvy.” Esther glared at me. “You did a great deal of traveling before you went to work for my father. And you solved your husband’s murder. It’s your experience that Mr. Nauheim is interested in. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
“All right.” I knew Esther wouldn’t be satisfied until I met these people. And found the traitor.
Esther tugged me forward to where Sir Henry was speaking to the stocky, broad-faced Daniel Nauheim. She made the introductions as the young woman who had sobbed and the man who’d comforted her joined us. Esther explained they were David and Leah Nauheim, Daniel’s son and daughter-in-law. We shook hands and then all of us headed out to the automobiles.
I caught a ride with Sir Henry and Esther. Sir Henry had no more than given his chauffeur directions when he said, “Nicely done, Livvy. They won’t be so quick to send you off on a fool’s errand if they know they have to convince me first.”
“Doesn’t anyone know the dead man’s colleagues?” I asked.
“He trusted no one. The people he brought out were aware there were others involved in their rescue, but they don’t know names or how to reach them.”
Wonderful. A whole group of people wanted me to find a man’s murderer, but no one knew the identity of the man’s friends or colleagues.
There was no way to know if any of his friends were in London. Worse, I was beginning to suspect one of the members of the committee, all of whom were in London, was the killer.
CHAPTER FIVE
“There seems to be some hope that you, with your knowledge of German and impeccable Aryan credentials, could look for Elias’s contacts in Germany,” Sir Henry said.
“The committee thought I’d run around Germany looking for this secret organization of Jewish communists? The Nazis would follow me and, if I found them, arrest everyone, including me. Do they think I have a death wish?” They were crazy if they thought that, and if they weren’t crazy, I was insulted to be held in such low regard.
Sir Henry shook his head. “I don’t think that was what they really had in mind, if and when they’d thought it through. What I’m curious to learn is if any of them could be a possible link to a Nazi assassin in London.”
“They all appeared to be normal, prosperous Londoners. Of course, I only saw them together tonight as a group.”
“That’s who they are as individuals, too,” Esther said. “Elias must have been followed. Either that, or someone in the couture house set him up.”
“The Duke of Marshburn has a reputation as a Nazi sympathizer,” I said and caught Sir Henry’s eye.
“I’ve heard there are parts of the government that believe he’ll need to be watched closely if we go to war with Germany,” Sir Henry replied.
“He’s not just the landlord of that building. I met him coming in as I was leaving this morning, and I didn’t see a rent book in his hand. He and Mimi Mareau are rumored to be quite close.”
Esther’s eyes widened and she leaned closer as I shared my bit of gossip.
“So we have another possibility for the leak. Still, it doesn’t get us any further forward.” Sir Henry looked out the window and said, “Ah, here we are.”
“Here” was a lovely house a few miles outside of Richmond. Built before Victorian excess, the building had classical columns on either side of the door. The nine-over-nine pane windows were favored by the Georgians. For its age, it was well maintained, with gardens trimmed to perfection.
“What does Mr. Nauheim do for a living to afford a place like this?” I asked.
“You sound like a Bolshevik, Livvy,” Sir Henry said, helping Esther get out of the auto. Without turning around to see the glare on my face at that slur, he added, “He’s the head of the Scotland and East Anglia Bank.”
I needed to have some idea of what I was walking into. “Does his son work there, too?”
“Yes. He’s a manager in the commercial section.” As he escorted us up the short walkway, he added, “Daniel, the elder Mr. Nauheim, is rumored to be on the list for knighthood.”
Sir Henry, and apparently soon Mr. Nauheim, earned their knighthoods based on vast wealth and service to the nation. My father was a baronet, an inherited title that in his case came with status but didn’t come with money or property. My father was a Whitehall diplomat, a post that didn’t pay particularly well.
Certainly not well enough for me and my love of exquisite clothes and posh holidays when I’d first come out into society.
The butler showed us into a drawing room done in golds and yellows with some nice artwork on the walls. All three of the Nauheims rose when we walked in and greeted us warmly. The butler poured us glasses of good sherry before Daniel Nauheim asked me, “How long have you worked for Sir Henry?”
“Less than a year, but he’s known me since Esther and I were in school together.”
“I was already familiar with her fluency in German and French and how much she had traveled with her father,” Sir Henry said.
“And a certain amount of acting ability she employed to get us
both out of tight situations,” Esther added.
“I lost most of my hair thanks to the two of them and their antics when they were girls,” Sir Henry said.
By now I could feel my cheeks heating.
“Spirited. You sound like someone who can handle any emergency,” Mr. Nauheim said. By now I had picked up his faint accent. German.
A footman signaled him and Mr. Nauheim said, “Shall we go in to dinner?”
I found myself seated between Mr. Nauheim at the head of the table and Sir Henry, and directly across from Esther at a table lavishly set for six. I counted the forks and realized after the soup there would be a fish course, a meat course, and a salad course. A heavy dinner that would take a while to eat. We’d no doubt learn a lot about each other as we talked, but I’d be tired at work the next day. Thank goodness tomorrow was Friday.
The soup was gently cooked summer vegetables in chicken stock with a good seasoning. Mr. Nauheim had a good cook. There was silence at the table until Esther finished hers and said, “This soup was wonderful.”
“It’s an old family recipe,” Mr. Nauheim said.
“From Germany,” I said, rather than asked.
“You heard my accent,” he said. “I’ve worked so hard to get rid of it.”
“It’s not at all noticeable,” I assured him. “I’ve heard a lot of accents in my travels with my father and later my husband, and I developed a good ear for them.”
“Why did you travel with them?” he asked.
“Both worked at Whitehall in the Foreign Office. My father still does.”
“And your husband?”
“Died last year. That’s why I went to work for Sir Henry.”
“I am sorry. I lost my wife five years ago, and I still find it painful.”
“You have my condolences.” I didn’t want to explain that part of my pain was because my husband was murdered, while Scotland Yard assumed at the beginning that he had committed suicide. “Your son and daughter-in-law must be a comfort.”
“Leah is a relatively new addition to our family. And a very welcome one, too.” He nodded to the woman in the hostess’s seat at the far end of the small table, and she smiled in reply. “It was only David and me for far too long.”
I wondered when the woman would speak. I’d not heard her utter a word since we sat down at the table.
I gave my host a reply that would let him take the conversation any way he wanted. “My father lost my mother twenty years ago. I imagine trying to raise me was a struggle.”
“You are apparently a free spirit, Mrs. Denis.” At least he added a smile.
I was saved from replying as the servants took away our soup course and brought in the fish. It was well-seasoned cod, and silence descended in the room again.
This gave me time to consider what I’d heard at the meeting. When Mr. Nauheim set down his fork and adjusted his napkin, I asked him, “If this has become a matter of contacting the Jewish community in Prague and offering to sponsor them, you won’t need me for anything. They can take trains and ferries and use their own passports. So why am I here? Do you know more about Elias’s network than was shared at the meeting?”
He considered me for some time through dark brown eyes. “No. I don’t. You’re here for a different reason.”
The way he spoke, weighing each word, made me nervous. “What reason is that?”
“Sir Henry isn’t the only one who thinks there is a leak in our group. A leak led a Nazi assassin to the man calling himself Elias. A leak stopped his work in rescuing German Jews. We have to plug the leak, Mrs. Denis, as well as rescue our people. We’re running out of time.”
Mr. Nauheim was clear on what he wanted. I wished I was as clear at finding a way to uncover this leak. “Do you have any idea of who this person might be? I don’t know any of the people on your committee who knew or spoke to Elias. For starters, how well did you know him?”
“Hardly at all. Abram Mandel, the one who is so sure Hitler will take all of Czechoslovakia, is the head of our committee. He was contacted by Elias when he brought in the first group a few weeks ago. At Elias’s request, Mandel arranged to provide assurances of support for the first group to the British government. Elias went back almost immediately and brought out his second group, at which time he contacted Mandel again.”
He stopped talking as the servants removed the fish course and brought in a beef course. We all remained quiet as we ate, but I chafed under the social restriction. I wanted to learn as much as possible before the hour grew too late. I had to get up early.
Perhaps Mr. Nauheim needed to rise early also, because after he had finished a bit more than half his food, he set down his fork and said, “After Mandel provided guarantees for this second group, Elias asked for funds to pay the forger and the fishermen. Mandel insisted he stay and talk to our committee before he’d provide any money.”
“How many people did he speak to?”
“There are sixteen all told in our group, but only ten heard him speak. I found him to be a forceful and appealing speaker. Charismatic. Very clear on his mission. Any points of disagreement to his plan were quickly refuted with a persuasive counterargument.”
“What you might call a natural leader. He was also a good-looking man. Leah couldn’t take her eyes off of him,” David Nauheim added.
His wife rolled her eyes.
“So you were three of the ten who heard him speak,” I said.
“No,” David said, “the three of us count as one. One family.”
“So instead of ten people hearing him speak at this meeting, there were really—?” The hunt just became larger.
“At least thirty,” Mr. Nauheim answered.
Something inside of me sank. “Did Elias have any quarrels with anyone?”
“No,” Mr. Nauheim told me. “We made arrangements for him to stay at a discreet hotel since he was worried about coming to the attention of the Nazis, even in as safe a city as London. Everyone seemed pleased to contribute to help with his bills and subscribed to a fund to pay for bribes and forgeries to be set up in a Swedish bank.”
“Why a Swedish bank?”
“They are as neutral as they can be in the current situation. And a Swedish bank wouldn’t draw as much attention, or suspicion, as a British bank would.”
“So you considered Elias to be the genuine article?” Sir Henry said. “A real opposition leader.”
“Yes. He was well known for speaking out against the Nazis. The Nazis caught him early in their reign, and he was beaten and jailed. Once he was released, or escaped, no one is sure which, he went underground. He encouraged people to resist the government, and when that was no longer possible, to leave. His last act of defiance was to help Jews escape to the west by traveling east, through Poland and on to Sweden.”
“But you have no idea how to get in touch with his organization in Germany?”
“None at all. It must be a small organization. He might have been doing all of this on his own. I’ve heard he was daring.”
I studied Mr. Nauheim for a moment. “Daring people don’t often get themselves killed in a London basement.”
“That’s why there must be a leak.”
Pressing him, I asked, “Who?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t like pointing fingers at my friends. It seems so out of character for any of them.”
“Perhaps one of them let something slip to someone who’s behind the attack,” I suggested.
“Then that would mean one of them has unsavory friends.” He put up a hand. “No. I can’t believe it.”
Listening to him say none of them could be behind the attack wasn’t getting us any further. “Why don’t you just tell me about the ten and maybe something will come to light?”
“Sir Henry and Mrs. Powell you know.”
I nodded. Sir Henry was involved because Esther had been so keen to get her mother’s family out of German-held territory. I’d known them forever. There was no way
they could be the leak.
“The three of us.”
Could he have invited us to throw suspicion away from him? “Tell me a little about yourselves.”
“I was born in Germany and went to school there. At the turn of the century, I came to England and went to work for the Scotland and East Anglia Bank. At the time, it was run by some cousins of mine. I married and we had David.” He shrugged.
I turned to David. “How did you meet your wife?”
“I met up with some old friends in Prague while I was there on bank business and they introduced us.” He gave his wife a smile.
“Have you been married long?”
“Not long, only a year,” Leah said in a quiet voice with a thick accent. “I was studying economics at the university. We became engaged before I graduated. As soon as I finished, I came here and we married.”
She appeared to be close to my age, and Esther and I had finished university five years before. Perhaps she began university late for some reason or took courses for an advanced degree.
“I went to university at Oxford,” David said, “and immediately afterward, Father had me join the bank to learn something practical.”
From the smiles between father and son, I decided this was a long-standing joke. I looked around the table at the others. “Have any of you mentioned Elias being here, or anything about his work, to anyone?”
Sir Henry and Mr. Nauheim confirmed that they had discussed Elias’s work and requests with others in the committee. The younger generation shook their heads.
“And you don’t think any of your servants could be behind this?”
They all denied any possibility that their employees could be involved in a murder. Mr. Nauheim said, “They’ve been with me a long time. We can speak freely in front of them.”
At that moment, Mr. Nauheim’s staff removed the last course and brought fresh plates with fruit, crackers, and honey.
When they left, I said, “Tell me about the others.”
“The chairman tonight was there with his wife. He was chair simply because the meeting was in their home. They own a chain of department stores. Both of them were born and educated in Britain.”
