The City of Shadows

by Michael Russell

  The voices felt stranger today than they had when he was a child; then they had been too commonplace to be remarkable. Then the Yiddish simply sounded like another kind of German. His own home was a place where English and German were spoken. His mother had been determined that he should have her language too; she called it hers, even though she had been born in Dublin like him, because words were something precious to her.

  In the crowded bakery he bought a bagel and the loaf of bread that he had often brought home for his German grandmother on those Sunday mornings. He would bring one back to Baltinglass for his mother today. The bagel was warm, as it always had been; he remembered that. At the counter, beside him, were two girls, aged around eight and ten, very neatly dressed, their hair in pigtails. He was surprised that Mr Moiselle spoke to them in German, not very good German it had to be said, though it may have been better Yiddish. As he handed a bag of golden, plaited loaves across the counter, he gave them a small, miniature version of the loaf. He had baked some for his grandchildren and there were two left. ‘Plaited like your hair!’

  Stefan walked out behind the two girls. At the kerb was a black car he hadn’t noticed before. A man and a woman sat in the front. The man got out and opened the back door. One of the girls held up the miniature loaf. ‘It’s a present from Mr Moiselle.’ She spoke in German. The girls clambered on to the back seat. As the man shut the rear door and turned to get back into the car he suddenly looked up at Stefan. And Stefan recognised him now, from the Shelbourne the previous night; it was Adolf Mahr. The director of the National Museum wasn’t sure, but he knew he recognised this man from somewhere. He nodded politely, clearly registering the bruises on Stefan’s face but too well-mannered to show it. ‘A beautiful morning,’ he said.

  ‘It’s not so bad,’ replied Stefan. Mahr smiled, amused by the Irish understatement that meant, yes, it really was a beautiful morning. As the car drove away, Stefan saw there were several other people watching it head up past St Patrick’s, apparently glad to see it go. He wasn’t the only one who thought a Jewish baker’s an odd place for the leader of the Nazi Party in Ireland to shop.

  He walked on, taking the hot bagel from its bag and eating it as he had eaten as a child. Crossing the street he looked back, waiting for a horse and cart to pass. A fair-haired man stopped quite abruptly to take out a packet of Senior Service. He hunched over his hands, lighting the cigarette. There was something strange. Maybe it was the abruptness; there couldn’t be that much urgency about a cigarette, even if you were gasping for one. And the man stood out somehow. Hanging about in Clanbrassil Street, among people whose most natural activity was hanging about in Clanbrassil Street, he looked like he should have been sitting in a pew in St Patrick’s Cathedral. And Stefan knew he had seen him before. The man drew on his cigarette and crossed the road, with a studied casualness that was in peculiar contrast to the abruptness of only seconds earlier. Stefan smiled. They were the actions of a man who was following someone, and wasn’t very good at it.

  ‘How’s the bagel?’

  He turned round. ‘Good.’ He hadn’t seen Hannah approaching.

  ‘So much better when I was a girl. Mr Moiselle was a baker, not a businessman then.’ She stopped, staring at his face. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I accidentally trod on someone’s toes.’

  ‘Does that mean you’re not going to tell me?’

  ‘Taking one consideration with another –’

  ‘I see, a policeman’s lot –’ She was still puzzled. ‘Has it got something to do with Susan’s disappearance? Is that why you won’t –’

  ‘Yesterday was a strange day. Someone needed to mark his territory.’

  She shrugged off the lack of communication with a smile. If he wasn’t going to tell her any more, she wouldn’t ask. But he saw it had been registered. It wouldn’t be forgotten. For now there were other things to do.

  ‘Shall we have a cup of tea?’

  ‘I can’t. I’ve got to catch the train. I’m going down to Baltinglass.’

  ‘Oh yes, of course, your son.’

  He nodded. He didn’t say any more, but he was glad she remembered.

  ‘I’ve got them here,’ she said, taking a small bundle of letters from her bag. She handed them to him and he put them in his pocket. She watched as if she didn’t want to let them go. He saw how precious they were to her.

  ‘I’ll let you have them straight back. I’m sorry, I do have to go.’

  ‘Are you going to Kingsbridge?’

  ‘Yes.’ He glanced at his watch.

  ‘I’ll walk a little way with you.’

  She was the first to move, touching his arm tentatively as they walked on. It was barely for a second, but it was a gesture of intimacy nonetheless. She was brighter again now, chatting quietly about nothing in particular.

  ‘I’m going to see my aunt. She’s always complaining Ma and Pa never call in. They do, all the time, and she always comes home with them after shul, but she likes to tell us about our airs and graces now that we live across the canal. We moved from Lennox Street when I was sixteen, but she’s not a great one for new topics of conversation. When I get there she’ll complain about me coming too, because I didn’t tell her I was!’

  He smiled, enjoying her voice. They walked on in silence.

  ‘Do you know who Adolf Mahr is?’

  She looked surprised. It was a strange question. ‘Yes.’

  ‘As director of the National Museum or as Nazi Party leader?’

  ‘I don’t suppose the Nazi role’s common knowledge everywhere, but some of us have better reasons to know about these things than others. Irish Jews don’t find it reassuring that all the Germans the government employs have got their own little Nazi Party here. I don’t remember seeing a swastika in Dublin before I left. Yesterday there was one outside the Shelbourne.’

  ‘He was here just now. His car was outside the bakery. There were two girls buying bread. His daughters, presumably. It seemed a bit odd –’

  Hannah laughed.

  ‘Some things are so awful even the most devoted Nazi has to put aside his deepest prejudices. Irish bread. Even the master race can’t stomach it.’

  ‘Bread?’

  ‘He comes every Sunday. It’s the nearest he can find to a Vienna loaf in Dublin. But he can’t go inside the shop because it’s Jewish. So he sends his daughters. Everyone knows. Susan told me in one of her letters. It’s a standing joke. Mostly people laugh about it. I don’t know how funny it is –’

  He felt an uncomfortable sense of connection, not with Hannah, but with Adolf Mahr. It was what his grandmother used to say. ‘They can’t make bread. They don’t know how. For God’s sake, once a week let’s have good bread!’ They walked on without speaking. Her mood had changed.

  ‘Was that just an idle question?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘About Adolf Mahr.’

  He was right; she didn’t miss much.

  ‘The German community had a Christmas party last night, at the Shelbourne. It’s why the Nazi flag was flying. He was there with Keller.’

  ‘That’s nice for Doctor Keller. He’s got a lot of friends.’

  ‘It does seem like it.’

  ‘Is that why you were beaten up?’

  He shrugged. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but he couldn’t deny it.

  ‘I suppose it proves you’re not one of his friends too.’ She stopped. ‘I’m going this way. Have a good day with your son. It’s going to rain though!’ As she turned, smiling, she touched his arm again. He watched her walk away, sensing that she hadn’t wanted to go. Or maybe that was what he wanted to believe, because he didn’t want her to go. It was a long time since he had felt like this, and he wasn’t at all sure how good his judgement was.

  When Stefan Gillespie turned away from the ticket window at Kingsbridge Station, he saw the tall, fair-haired man again, sitting on a bench, reading the Irish Independent; the man who had stopped so abruptly for a cigarette in
Clanbrassil Street; the man he was now convinced was following him. And as the man turned a page and leant back – just as he had turned a page and leant back into a leather armchair, in the entrance to the Shelbourne Hotel the night before, Stefan remembered that was where he had first seen him. There were still fifteen minutes to go before the train left for Baltinglass. He walked across the station concourse, back towards the street. He stood close to the entrance, looking at a rack of newspapers and magazines. Outside, a taxi drew up. A man and a woman got out. As the man paid the driver, Stefan walked briskly out of the station. He opened the taxi door and got in.

  ‘Straight across the river, over the bridge. As quick as you can.’

  The driver pulled away with a sour glance in the mirror.

  ‘And where am I going then?’

  Stefan looked through the back window. The fair-haired man had just emerged from the station, looking up and down, his eyes fixed on the departing taxi. There could be no doubt at all; the man was following him.

  ‘If you’re in a hurry, you’ll want to tell me where you’re going, sir.’

  ‘Just turn round at the other end and drop me back at the station.’

  ‘What the fuck is this? There’s a bloody minimum fare –’

  Inside Kingsbridge, the fair-haired man was at the ticket office window, talking to the clerk who had sold Stefan his ticket. He was unaware that the man he had been watching was now watching him. He walked to a platform where a train was disgorging passengers. He looked for a moment, then moved to a hoarding and ran his finger down the printed timetable. Stefan was right behind him now. The man turned. As he did, Stefan grabbed his shoulders and slammed him up against the hoarding, very hard.

  ‘Baltinglass, that’s where I’m going. Why do you want to know?’

  The response wasn’t what he expected. The fair-haired man grinned.

  ‘You’re back.’

  ‘And you’re not very good at this.’

  ‘I didn’t think I was doing badly. It’s a shame about your nose.’

  ‘It’s Jimmy and Seán I owe that to, but any friend of theirs –’

  ‘Friend would be overstating it. You’re going to miss your train.’

  Stefan took his hands from the man’s shoulders. He looked over to the platform, where a few passengers were now boarding. Smiling amiably, the man brushed the shoulders and lapels of his coat. He held out his hand.

  ‘John Cavendish.’

  ‘You’re not Special Branch.’ Stefan ignored the proffered hand.

  ‘Oh, I’d say you’re a better detective than that, Sergeant.’

  The Tullow train pulled out of Kingsbridge. It wasn’t a corridor carriage and they had the compartment to themselves. No one would hear; that mattered to Cavendish. He had made Stefan wait on the platform till the last minute.

  ‘I’m a bit like you, Sergeant.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘I’m not supposed to be doing this.’

  ‘What is it I’m not supposed to be doing?’

  ‘I don’t know what Sergeant Lynch would make of you meeting Miss Rosen today. I assume you’ve been warned off Keller.’ He tapped his nose. ‘Well, you didn’t have that when you left the Shelbourne last night.’

  ‘Are you going to tell me who you are?’

  ‘I’m actually Lieutenant John Cavendish.’ He reached into his pocket and took out a leather card case. He pulled out a neatly printed card.

  Stefan looked down at it. He shook his head, stifling his laughter.

  ‘I’m sorry, am I missing a joke?’ frowned the lieutenant.

  ‘You’re with G2?’

  ‘More or less.’

  ‘And you give out cards saying Military Intelligence?’

  ‘Well, someone had them printed up,’ he grinned amiably.

  ‘And more or less means –’

  ‘Not leaving undone those things that ought to be done simply because our political masters have instructed us to leave them undone.’

  ‘This could go on for some time, couldn’t it? And I’d say I’ll still have no idea what you’re talking about. So why are you following me?’

  ‘I did think you were working with Lynch.’

  ‘Does it look like I am?’

  ‘No. I don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t know why you arrested Hugo Keller, only to have Special Branch pull him out of a cell in Pearse Street and take him home. I don’t know who Hannah Rosen is or what she’s got to do with Keller. I don’t know why you met her today when you’ve been told, in a variety of ways I imagine, to lay off Herr Keller now. But I’d hazard a guess that Lynch is looking for something he thought you had.’

  ‘And is that what you’re after too, Lieutenant?’

  Cavendish looked at him, saying nothing. He had been thrown into this conversation abruptly and unexpectedly. Whatever about the nonchalant smiles, he had blown what was meant to be a simple surveillance.

  ‘It’s not my business, Lieutenant. I don’t want to get between you and Special Branch. You’ll have important work to do, following one another round Dublin. I just arrested an abortionist when nobody wanted me to.’

  ‘What happened to the evidence you took out of Merrion Square?’

  ‘Lynch has got it.’ Stefan smiled. ‘Except for what’s missing.’

  ‘And what is missing?’

  ‘Give me a clue. I might have seen it, who knows?’

  ‘What the hell does that mean?’

  ‘It means it would take a lot more than a punch in the face from Jimmy Lynch’s bulldog to make me give up something worth having. So what’s your offer? You don’t look like the shite-kicking sort, Cavendish.’

  The soldier didn’t reply. He was trying to get the measure of Stefan. He wasn’t sure about him. Was he joking? Was he really hiding something?

  ‘Look, I haven’t got it, Lieutenant. I don’t even know what it is.’

  ‘So what are you doing then?’ persisted Cavendish.

  ‘My job.’

  ‘And where does Keller come into your job now?’

  There seemed no reason not to tell the truth. It wasn’t a secret.

  ‘I’m looking for a woman who disappeared earlier this year. The last thing she did was go to Merrion Square for an abortion. That makes Hugo Keller the last person who saw her, the last I know about anyway. That’s what I’m doing. So what about you? Why don’t you tell me what you and Special Branch are looking for? Did Keller keep a list of his customers?’

  ‘That would be some of it,’ replied the lieutenant.

  ‘I guess there’d have to be more to interest Special Branch?’

  Cavendish’s silence gave him his answer. Then the officer smiled.

  ‘So what do you know about Hugo Keller, Sergeant?’

  ‘As a posh backstreet abortionist, he’s got some unusual friends. And he seems to generate a surprising amount of activity in unexpected places. What with Special Branch dancing round him, not to mention the director of the National Museum, who happens to be the leader of the Nazi party the Germans have set up here, and now Military Intelligence, I can’t decide whether he’s a national treasure or a threat to national security. Which is it?’

  The lieutenant didn’t answer. ‘So, who is this missing woman?’

  ‘I doubt she’s going to be of any interest to G2 or to Special Branch. She’s just a woman no one’s seen for a long time. I’d be surprised if she’s alive. I don’t know how, or why, but that’s what I think. That’s what I was talking to Hannah Rosen about. It’s what I intend to talk to Herr Doktor Keller about, whether it goes down well with Military Intelligence, or Special Branch, or the German embassy, or my inspector or anybody else.’

  ‘Well, if determination was all there was to it, Sergeant –’

  ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘Adolf Mahr drove Keller to Dún Laoghaire last night and put him on the mail boat. He’ll be in London by now, I’d say on his way to Germany.’

  Lieutenan
t Cavendish got out at Naas, where the train took the branch line that led along the River Slaney and the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains to Baltinglass. And as the train set off again Stefan Gillespie took out the letters Hannah Rosen had given him. Immediately he found himself in a world that was complex, intense and unfamiliar. Naturally enough, the letters between two old and close friends were full of epigrammatic references to people and events he could know nothing about, both in the lives they had shared in Dublin and in the lives they now led in Ireland and Palestine. As a detective he had tried to piece together the jigsaw of a stranger’s life before, but this had an intimacy that at once absorbed him and made him uncomfortable. Susan Field almost certainly wrote as she spoke. Her words tumbled over each other and took tangential, unlooked for directions, sometimes finding their way back, circuitously, to what she had started speaking about, sometimes leaving the original thought behind, never to return. Several times she made him laugh out loud – once when she described sitting in the gallery of the Adelaide Road synagogue on a Saturday morning, mesmerised by a man who had fallen asleep below, wondering how long it would be before the growing intensity of his snores would be loud enough to compete with the cantor’s recitation of a psalm; another time, when she kept patting the packet of cigarettes in her coat pocket to reassure herself that soon, very soon, she would be outside the synagogue drawing in the invigorating smoke that was all the more desirable because it was forbidden on the Sabbath. It reminded her, she wrote, of the time she and Hannah, just seventeen, tore along the South Circular Road after shul to light a cigarette in a doorway, only to meet the pious and disapproving faces of Mrs Wigoder and Mrs Noyk. He could feel the vitality of Susan Field in her breathless words; it brought him closer to the loss that consumed Hannah. It wasn’t hard. His own loss wasn’t buried very deep.