The wind held, and they slid past the fields at Diemen and then some low buildings that were Muiden. Then came flat grassy land cut through with narrow channels to drain the pastures, and a thin line of poplars on the horizon that marked the road.
‘There it is,’ Jo said. Kris’s barn stood at the far end of his grazing field with a faint light shining over the door. ‘He’s left a light for us.’
‘Tricky that,’ Adrian said. ‘I hope nobody else is around to see it.’ He signaled with his flashlight, three short one long, the Morse V for victory, and the light on the barn went out. Jumping from the boat to the marshy shore, Jo landed in water up to her ankles. She could feel how cold it was through her rubber boots. Adrian took her hands and pulled her up onto dry land. “Can you run? Let’s go.’
Across the field, they found Kris waiting for them. ‘Jo, good evening.’ He kissed her on both cheeks and went on, ‘Adrian is it?’ The men shook hands, and Kris said, ‘When you get to the road, turn left. Cooper’s house is about a kilometer along. You can’t miss it, there’s a fancy iron gate across his drive. If it’s closed, you can get around it through the hedge.’
‘Dogs?’
‘No, geese. They can make a hell of a noise, but they’re indoors at night.’
‘We’re hoping he has no guests.’
‘He doesn’t. I’ve been watching for him, and he drove past about half an hour ago on his own. It’ll be just him and his wife.’
‘They have no live-in servants?’
‘Who’d work for him, that Nazi! But my oldest son goes once a week to sell milk and eggs to the missus. Do you need to speak to Cal? No?’ He put his hand on Adrian’s shoulder. ‘One more thing, do you really need Jo with you?’ Adrian nodded. ‘All right, but take care of her. I’ll look out for you in an hour or so, in case you need help.’ In case you’ve been hurt, he meant.
‘Thanks,’ Adrian said, ‘Come on, Jo, we should get moving.’ He walked off quickly, and she followed. They reached the road, turned left and swerved off to walk on the weedy rough ground close to the trees. Adrian said, ‘I haven’t told you yet, but here’s what we’re going to do.’ He walked beside her silently for a minute, then said, ‘When Cooper joined the SS, they made him the mayor. He keeps the registry for the towns and farms around here. He’s got lists of Jews and of men who haven’t volunteered to work in Germany. We have to get those lists, and we have to shoot him, and his wife too if she sees us. Too bad about her, but if she sees us,’ he stopped, not wanting to say again what he would do.
‘Isn’t the house ever empty?’
‘Good question, but we don’t think so. His wife sticks pretty much to herself, maybe because so many people around here hate her husband. I heard they never go anywhere together.’ They walked for a few minutes side-by-side, trying to keep their balance and not bump into each other. ‘So,’ Adrian said, ‘we’re going to walk up to the house separately. Don’t worry, I’ll be where I can see you all the time. I want you to go straight up to the front door and ring the bell, or bang the knocker or whatever you have to do. I’ll be nearby but where they can’t see me. Is that clear?’
‘What should I say?’
‘Tell whoever opens the door that you’re walking to Muiden, and you don’t know how much farther it is, so could they say, and may you please have a glass of water. What happens next depends on who it is. If it’s Cooper, step aside as fast as you can so I can get a clear shot. And then run! If it’s her, go inside with her. I’ll get through the door before she closes it and stop her from shouting. And you get out the door and away, and let me do what I need to do.’
‘Get out?’ Jo asked. ‘Don’t you need me to help?’
‘No!’ He stopped walking and turned her toward him. ‘No, I don’t need you to help. Believe me, Jo, murder is something you never forget, no matter how deserved it is and how much you want to do it. If I have to shoot Cooper at the door, that’s bad enough, if I have to do it inside, it might get mean and messy. No, you're not going to see that. Forget it!’
They started walking again. Jo tried to think of something to say, something to make him change his mind. She didn’t want to see somebody killed, but she wanted to be with Adrian from beginning to end, whatever the end might be.
The house was a black square against a sky not quite as black. They crawled through the hedge, and she walked up to the door. She could see Adrian keeping pace with her just off the path to her left. There was a brass lion’s head handle in the middle of the door, she banged it hard twice and lay her ear on the door to listen.
When it opened a crack, she took a step back. Somebody whispered, ‘Who is it?’ It was Mrs Cooper, her body behind the door as though she might need to shut it quickly, only her face visible in the moonlight.
Jo recited her story with a quivering voice. She hoped she sounded cold and tired, and she was relieved when the door opened just enough to let her in. As she stepped over the threshold, Adrian pushed past her and put his hand over the woman’s mouth. His weight forced her back a step, and she stumbled, throwing them both off-balance for a moment, and in that moment she screamed.
Adrian swore, lifted his pistol and slammed it just above her left ear. She fell heavily and, at the same moment, a door opened at the end of the hall and Cooper appeared. Adrian swung toward him and fired. One bullet went into the wall behind him, the second hit his leg so that he dropped awkwardly to his knees.
When the third bullet struck, a fountain of blood leaped from his neck, and Cooper fell on his back. Jo stood where Adrian had shoved her, her back against the wall. She saw him look down at Mrs Cooper, aim his pistol at her and then shake his head. ‘She’s out,’ he said calmly. ‘Jo, stay here and watch her. I’ve got to find those papers.’
‘He’ll see you!’
‘No, he won’t. He’s dead, and she won’t remember what we look like or anything that happened before I hit her. Shout if she wakes up,’ and he crossed the hall and disappeared.
After the noise of the pistol shots, the hall was so still that she could hear Mrs Cooper breathing. So that was all right. Jo wanted her to be alive. Maybe she hated what her husband was doing as much as they did. There was the dead man lying a few yards away, they would go, and she would wake up alone with his body. It was not something Jo wanted to think about, but she remembered that Adrian had said, ‘You won’t forget it, no matter how much you want to.’
When he reappeared, carrying a large wooden box, he bent over Cooper’s body and checked his pockets. On a bundle of keys, he found the one for the box, then threw the rest into a corner of the hall. A leather billfold, unexamined, went into his shirt pocket. When he stood up, his clothes were smeared with blood, and he brushed his hands over Cooper’s trousers to dry them.
‘One man down, hundreds saved. That’s a good night’s work. Oh, wait a minute!’ Through the open door to the parlor, he had seen a pair of brass candlesticks, and he opened the box and shoved them in with the papers. ‘They’ll weigh it down enough,’ he said, ‘and we ought to take a few things so that it looks like a robbery. Not much here that’s worth taking.’ He picked up a silver tray from a side table and some coffee spoons, dropped one as if the thief had been in a hurry, and stowed the rest in the box. ‘Look at this,’ he said, ‘a picture of our leader!’ When he knocked it onto the floor and stepped on it, the glass broke and tore Hitler’s face.
‘She’s wearing some rings,’ Jo said doubtfully, ‘will they do?’ She didn’t want to touch the woman herself, and she watched while he knelt down and took one off each hand. He started to slip off her wedding ring and then pushed it back on. ‘Good idea, Jo, that should do it. Let’s go.’
When they were back on the road, he asked, ‘Are you all right? You’re sure? I’m sorry, Jo, I didn’t want you to see that.’
‘I’m fine. I’m glad you didn’t kill her too.’
‘If I’d wanted to, I’d have hit her below her ear. A blow to the side of the head, that just knocks
you out, and she won’t remember anything. Not what we look like anyway.’
They walked so quickly that it was impossible to talk. She hoped he wouldn’t think she had been frightened, she hadn’t been. Maybe just for a moment, when Mrs Cooper looked out at her, holding the door half-closed so that only her face showed. It was like somebody wearing a carnival mask. It had confused her, and she’d had to start twice before she could tell her lie.
Stumbling along on the rough ground and trying not to bump into Adrian, she tried to remember exactly what had happened. A good night’s work, he said. She understood why he thought so, but it didn’t feel like it. He stopped suddenly, put the box down and said, ‘Jo.’
It was not a question, but ‘Yes,’ she answered. In the darkness under the trees, she couldn’t see his face, and his voice was expressionless. She waited, it was necessary to be still, to wait.
‘Yes, yes?’ he repeated. Lifting his arms slowly, he grasped her shoulders and pulled her against him. When he kissed her, all she felt was how hard his mouth was, and how much his hands were hurting her. ‘Don’t’, she thought, ‘don’t,’ telling herself not to pull away. Then he stepped back, still holding her shoulders, and asked, ‘You don’t understand, do you? I always forget you’re just a kid.’ Picking up the box, he walked on and she followed.
All the way to the barn and beyond, down the field to the river, she watched her feet, not daring to look at him. She would have liked to tell him it was all right and she understood, but he walked ahead swiftly, the box balanced on one shoulder, not looking back to see whether she could keep up.
Jan was waiting for them, and he helped her into the boat and put a blanket around her shoulders. When they were well away from Kris’s farm, Adrian swung the box over the side of the boat, and they watched it sink into the black water. ‘Jan,’ he said, ‘she was terrific! Not a twinge or a tear, and it was not pretty. Oh, yeah, I’d better get out of these clothes.’ He washed his hands in the river, pulled a shirt and trousers out of the knapsack he’d left in the boat, stripped off his bloody clothes and threw them overboard.
‘Jo, listen, if you want to talk about it?’ She shook her head. ‘Well, I just want to say I’m sorry it was so messy. Actually, it was pretty simple. He didn’t have any idea he was a marked man, and we took him by surprise. I had to make it look like a robbery that went wrong, because otherwise the Germans would take hostages. They’d murder fifty men, even a hundred, for one of theirs. I’m not sorry I killed him, but murder is never right even when it’s necessary. You can’t do it and have a clear conscience.’ She was shivering, and he put his arm around her to tuck the blanket closer. ‘It’s on my conscience, Jo, not yours. Remember that.’
He was telling her not to feel guilty, and there was not a word about his kiss. He couldn’t say anything about it with Jan listening, but she wondered if he even remembered doing it. Why had he said she wouldn’t understand? Maybe he was right, maybe she didn’t, but it was her first kiss and it was Adrian.
‘Where shall I drop you off?’ Jan called out. ‘There are police all around the station at night. How about over there, the Eastern Docks?’
Hoisting himself up onto the dock, Adrian suddenly turned and looked down. ‘Jan, wait! I dropped the gun, damn it! Can you see it? I couldn’t have thrown it overboard by mistake, it must be here!’
He pulled Jo down to kneel beside him while Jan, shaking his head, ran his hands over the floor of the boat. ‘It’s there, it’s there,’ he muttered, just as Jan exclaimed, ‘There you go!’, thrust his hand down into the space of a coiled rope and pulled the gun up. ‘Do you want me to get rid of it?’
‘Christ, no,’ Adrian said, ‘It’s the only one I’ve got!’ Thrusting it into the neck of his jacket, he took Jo’s arm, pulled her up and started walking, so fast she had to run to keep up. Away from the river and in the shelter of the row of dark warehouses along the shore, he stopped suddenly and said, ‘I’m going too fast for you, sorry!
She leaned against the wall, and he came and stood next to her. She could hear his breathing, as fast as hers. Her legs trembled and her throat hurt, but she said, ‘I’m all right now.’ It was an hour’s walk to Elsie’s house and, by the time they reached it, she needed his arm around her to keep her going.
‘I’ll have to come in,’ he said. ‘I can’t get home without being seen.’ In the hall, she took his coat and hung it over hers. When she turned to him, he was wrapping the gun in a handkerchief. ‘I need to hide it,’ he said. ‘Can you?’
‘Yes, give it to me,’ and she pushed it down into the pocket of her winter coat. ‘I don’t wear this now, nobody will touch it.’ Taking his hand, she led him up the stairs to the little room where she sometimes slept. ‘Sleep here. I’ll go upstairs, there’s another bed.’
Without speaking, he lay down and turned his face to the wall, and she covered him and went out.
Just as she opened the door to the attic, Elsie came out of her bedroom, took a long look at Jo, shook her head and went back to bed. In the attic, she lay down still dressed. She could hear her parents snoring, and their bed creaked once when one of them turned over. She pulled the covers over her shivering body and took several long deep breaths. It was over, they were home safe. The person who died deserved it. Mrs Cooper wouldn’t be surprised that somebody wanted to kill her husband, she knew what he was doing. Did she like being married to a Dutchman who wanted the Germans to win?
Adrian had said murder wasn’t right even when it was necessary, but he’d done it because that’s what they had to do. He would do anything, risk anything, because he was brave and proud and loyal. She rubbed a finger gently across her lips. That had been her first kiss. She had wanted it to be Adrian and it was. She was far too tired to think about what else he might want from her, tomorrow would do, and she turned over and went to sleep.
18 Hannah, August 1943
She had worked hard all week, on night duty twice, and in stolen moments tried to learn the Latin names for a hundred bones and muscles. In desperation, Hannah had taken her anatomy book with her to Conrad’s.
‘What’s that, my darling? A book? Put it away and get dressed, we are going out for dinner.’
‘I thought we’d stay home this weekend, you did promise.’
‘I never make promises, and you always imagine I do. Off with you.’
‘Where are we going? What do you want me to wear?’
‘It’s just dinner, nothing formal. Wear the suit and, for heaven’s sake, wash your hair. You look like you’ve been cleaning a chicken run.’
She had in a way. Mrs Moll had put her to work all morning organizing the pantry, scrubbing the shelves, dumping any of last year’s preserved fruit and vegetables that looked unsafe to eat, and washing the jars and their lids with bleach water. Even after a hot bath, her hands still smelled a little.
Conrad sat next to her on his bed and rubbed her hair with a towel until it dried. ‘Now listen, Hannah, we’re going to Schmidt’s house.’ He felt her stiffen and said, ‘I don’t like him anymore than you do, sweetheart, but he’s my boss. I want you to have a good time, whether you want to or not.’
‘Yes, but,’
‘But? No buts.’
‘I just never know what to say to people.’
‘That’s what they love about you, that you don’t say anything. Don’t worry, they don’t think you’re stupid, more likely that you’re a woman who admires and respects men. And you are, aren’t you?’
After all their months together, she hoped he trusted her, loved her and wanted to be close to her. He took her to restaurants and concerts, bought her beautiful clothes, had even given her a ring that said forever on it. And he had protected her from Schmidt, from being arrested and put on a train back to Germany. But sometimes, unexpectedly, he would ask a casual question that really meant, ‘What are you not telling me?’
She gave him little bits of unimportant information, hoping he would think her Dutch friends were close-
mouthed, or weren’t doing anything illegal anyway. He had laughed about Pam’s babies and Adrian’s radios, if that’s what they were, and he hadn’t pressed her for more. But now there really was something she didn’t want to tell him, and instinctively she moved away from him.
Pulling her back by a strand of her hair, he put an arm around her. ‘My treasure, mein schatz, if you have something to tell me, just say it. Trust me to be kind to you and to your friends. I know how much you like Adrian, yes, and I know how distressed you would be,’ he hesitated, then said, ‘if anything happened to him. But he is what our American friends call a small potato.’ When she looked puzzled, he laughed. ‘You should listen to the radio more!’
The car came for them just before seven, and the same officers and their women friends made room for them. The woman with the rings looked at Hannah’s Irish tweed suit with raised eyebrows. Hannah knew that was a compliment, and she relaxed against Conrad’s arm and decided she might have a good time after all.
Schmidt had commandeered one of the 17th century mansions on the Keizersgracht, its furniture, paintings, even the gardener, the cook and two maids. They were given a small glass of sherry in the chilly hall and, while each of the officers shook hands with the guest from Berlin, an SS officer even higher in rank than Schmidt, Hannah stood behind Conrad, relieved that none of the women guests were being introduced. They were there for decoration and an admiring ear for stories of bravery and military success.
There were only eight people around the long table in the red and green dining room. Schmidt sat at one end, the guest from Berlin at the other. Hannah sat across from Conrad with an enormous brass chandelier above them, its dozens of candles all slightly crooked and plainly never lit. She counted four forks, two spoons and four knives either side of her plate and congratulated herself on not having had lunch. Where had all the food come from? It didn’t seem possible that the occupied countries still had anything to give to their conqueror, and Conrad had told her what the bombing was doing to Germany’s factories and farms.
The Time Between Page 21
