The Second Son: A Novel (37 page)

It was only on the third or fourth day that Hoffner realized they never asked any questions. The beatings were silent but no less vicious for it. There was nothing they hoped to learn from him, save perhaps for the time it took a man to sit and wait to be cracked across the face before begging to be killed. Hoffner decided to leave that choice in their hands. He respected the silence, everything beyond his own groans and the sound of his vomiting.

He thought of Mila—of course—and Georg, and little Mendy with his picture of the badge and the scrawl. These were obvious thoughts. Hoffner expected others to follow, the ones where a man sets his life in order before he knows he will die, but such things never came. Instead, it was brief images of Martha and Sascha, the water of Wannsee in the late summer, and the bludgeoned face of a man he had caught in the act of raping a woman nearly thirty years ago. There was nothing to them, no coherence. Hoffner wondered if perhaps this was the way a life settles itself, not with meaning or purpose but with memories recalled despite themselves. A beckoning to God might have brought some sense to it, but Hoffner knew there was nothing for him there.

Instead, he kept his mind on Mila. She had come at the end. She had been better than anything he had ever known. There had to be something in that. He pictured her back in Barcelona, and it was enough.

The bolt to his cell released, and the hinges creaked as the door opened. Hoffner sat patiently waiting for the order to stand. He had gotten up on his own two days ago and had received a fist to the groin. Better to wait.

The man barked, and Hoffner stood. Hoffner then stepped out into the hall and fell in behind the second guard.

Hoffner was now familiar with the curve of the wall, the number of paces between each cell, and the sounds of weeping and prayers behind each door. He thought, Shouldn’t the praying make it all right, not for the soul but for the soldiers passing by: the echo of a prayer, confirmation of a good Catholic waiting inside? Wasn’t that enough for a fascist to set a man free?

They came to the steps that led down to the large courtyard, where the wall awaited him. A light shone from a wire high above, and another was fixed to the wall. Hoffner placed it at somewhere between three and four in the morning. There had been rain and no moon, and the lights spread out in two wide ovals across the mud and tufts of wild grass. The air still smelled of rain and brought a welcome moistness to his lips.

The guards placed him by the wall and stepped to their positions across from him, rifles held at their chests. They waited. Minutes passed before a door in the distance opened and a man emerged. It was difficult to see him through the glare, but Hoffner knew it was Doval.

Doval stepped across to the main gate, opened it, and began to make his way back. He was in full uniform, his boots high to the knee. Hoffner hadn’t seen him this close since that first afternoon. Doval moved past the soldiers and up to Hoffner. He had been drinking.

“You’re dismissed,” Doval said to the two soldiers, as he stared at Hoffner.

The men turned at once and headed for the door. Doval waited for the sound of the latch before stepping closer.

“No one to stop you from going,” Doval said, his words loose. “Look around. No one.”

Hoffner stared ahead and said nothing.

Doval stepped back and pulled his pistol from his belt. He waved it toward the gate.

“Go,” he said. Hoffner continued to stare ahead, and Doval shouted, “Go!”

Hoffner began to walk, and thought, So this was how it was to be. A bullet to the head, quick and painless. Doval was too good a shot not to have the first find its mark. Hoffner kept his eyes on the gate. He felt his legs move. He tasted the rain on his lips, but he heard no sound. It was an odd sensation, the gate closer and closer, and all he wanted was to hear something—anything. Even his feet seemed to drag along the ground in perfect silence. His legs began to pitch, the anticipation of death like the ache of first love, but still he moved. It would come at the gate. This he knew. He needed only to make it to the gate.

He drew closer, and the square beyond widened in front of him. Hoffner saw a fountain off to the side. The back of his neck lifted, and the hairs rose as if they knew it was time. He thought to close his eyes, but why not take it all in?

Beyond him, out in the square, he saw a figure move from the shadows. Hoffner felt a moment’s hitch in his step. He heard the trickle of the fountain. The certainty of only moments ago slipped away, and Hoffner forced his mind to focus. The figure remained obscured, and still Hoffner drew closer.

He was at the gate. He was through it and into the square, and the figure was now in front of him. There was a glare on the face, a man, tall and narrow.

“Hallo, Inspector,” said the voice.

Hoffner stared. He saw the pale blue eyes of Anthony Wilson. Wilson was wearing short pants and climbing boots, and Hoffner felt his legs drop out from under him.

*   *   *

It was English whiskey.

They had patched his eye, and there was liniment on his knuckles and wrists. The right hand was wrapped, but it had been a quick job, the gauze already peeling up from his palm.

“Rough go of it, I imagine,” said Wilson.

Wilson was standing over Hoffner, holding the glass. The room was small, a bed and a desk and a few oil lamps keeping the shadows low. Hoffner was on the bed. He could feel the springs through the mattress. Wilson leaned in, and Hoffner took another sip.

He heard a rag being wrung out and looked beyond Wilson. Mila stood at a basin by the window. She stepped over and brought the rag to his head. She had a welt under her eye, and her lower lip was cracked. Hoffner reached up to touch it, and Wilson said, “An overeager guard yesterday. Just before we got here. I think the doctor is fine.”

Mila continued to press the rag against Hoffner’s head, and he ran his thumb along her cheek.

“Yes,” she said, “the doctor is fine.”

Hoffner kept his hand on her skin. She was warm and alive, and there was nothing that could have moved his fingers from her.

Wilson said, “Doval’s a nice piece of work.”

Hoffner continued to stare at her. She was concentrating on the cuts and bruises, and a large bump that had come courtesy of a pistol to the side of his head. He winced and she looked at him. She leaned in and kissed his mouth. It was only a moment, but it brought him upright, and Mila went back to the basin. Wilson had stepped over to the table, and Hoffner said, “What are you doing here, Wilson?”

Wilson poured another whiskey. “I don’t think they would have shot you.”

“What are you doing here?”

Wilson stepped over and handed Hoffner the glass. He retreated to the desk and poured one for himself. “I hear it was quite a performance in Zaragoza. Obviously you still have a few tricks left.”

Mila was back at his head with the rag, and Hoffner gently pushed her hand away. She tossed the rag onto the table and sat next to him. He took her hand and said, “Any chance I might find out why you’re here?”

Wilson took a sip. “Saving your life, I think.”

“I thought they weren’t going to shoot me.”

“Then saving the doctor’s.” Wilson took the bottle and pulled over a chair. He sat. “They found her yesterday morning, in a church of all places. Hell of a time convincing them to let her go. God it’s hot.” He drank.

Hoffner wanted to ask her, but not with Wilson in the room. He felt her thumb across his hand, and he drank.

Hoffner set the glass down. “I didn’t know the English and the fascists were on such good terms.”

“The Admiralty’s on good terms with everyone.” Wilson tossed back his glass. “We’re even quite chummy with the anarchists in Barcelona, although the Communists are proving a bit much. I imagine they always do.”

Wilson refilled the glasses, and Hoffner said, “And Captain Doval was happy to hand me over to you?”

The sweat on Wilson’s head had beaded at the brow. A single drop began to make its way down to the cheek. “Did he look happy?”

“No. He looked drunk.”

“Good. He might have shot you a few days ago. We had to get General Mola himself to put in a call to save you. God, I would have loved to have seen Doval’s face during that conversation.” Wilson drank again and smiled.

“And why would General Mola have cared one way or the other about me?”

“Because we told him to.”

“And the fascists are inclined to take orders from the English these days?”

“If they want us to keep quiet about what’s going on here, yes.”

Hoffner didn’t follow. “I thought you wanted to expose the Nazis.”

Wilson lapped at the last drops in his glass. “Then you thought wrong.”

Before Hoffner could answer, there was a knock at the door. Wilson put up his hand and turned to listen. The knock repeated. It came a third time, and Wilson stood. He moved to the door and opened it. Karl Vollman stepped into the room.

Vollman was dressed in peasant clothes, loose pants and a shirt smeared in oil and grit. He smelled of pine oil and manure. He had gotten some sun in the last week, making the white hair seem whiter still.

Wilson closed the door, and Vollman set a package on the desk. Vollman then turned to Hoffner.

“Hello, Inspector. Shithole attics and used-up men. Quite a life, isn’t it?”

*   *   *

Vollman, as it turned out, had been the first German to reach Teruel after Georg. That was over a week ago. He had met with Alfassi. He had seen Major Sanz. He had bypassed Tarancón and Toledo. Why, he said, was unimportant. What was clear was that he and Wilson were on very friendly terms.

Hoffner said, “Nice to see the English and Russian intelligence services working so closely with each other.”

“Soviet Intelligence,” Vollman corrected.

Hoffner’s hand was stiff from holding the glass. He felt it begin to slip, and Mila took it from him. She then took his hand.

Hoffner said, “It still doesn’t explain why General Mola would have been happy to keep an old German cop alive. Any chance you can answer that one, Vollman? Wilson here seems less than willing.”

Wilson’s bald knees had grown pinker in the heat. They stared up at Hoffner even as the man himself remained perfectly still. Finally Wilson said, “A great deal can change in twelve days.”

“A straight answer,” Hoffner said. “I think you owe me that.”

Wilson continued to stare. He glanced at Vollman before saying, “Georg was meant to get the information about the weapons and then come home. Where they were being shipped. How the Germans were planning it. He wasn’t meant to go after them.”

“You mean he wasn’t meant to stop them,” said Hoffner.

“No, he wasn’t.”

“And yet he decided to do that.”

“Nobility’s a dangerous thing in naïve hands.”

“So you’re keen to let the Nazis destroy Spain.”

“If that’s what they want, yes.”

Hoffner felt Mila’s grip tighten, and he said, “I’m not sure I like it that you’re on my side. Either of you.”

“Actually, you do,” said Wilson. “You just don’t understand why. Twelve days ago Georg was missing, Franco was losing precious time in Morocco, and the anarchists were on the verge of beating back the rebellion. The rest of us were agreeing not to get involved.”

“I’m aware of all that.”

“Good. Then you’ll know it wasn’t true. The Germans were looking to find a way to get their guns and tanks in. The Americans at Texaco were working out how they could supply oil for the fascists and make their money. The Russians were shipping over what they could to keep the Reds afloat. And the French were doing what they always do—slipping into their turtle shell and hoping no one noticed that they lie directly on the road between Berlin and Madrid.”

“So much for a straight answer,” said Hoffner. “You’ve left out your English, by the way.”

“Yes,” said Wilson, “I have. There has to be someone who steps back and sees what’s really happening.”

“And that is?”

Wilson blinked several times. The sweat had caught in his eyelashes. He wiped it away, and said, “Can’t you see it, Inspector? We’re simply not ready to call the Nazis’ bluff. We’re not all that eager to see if they’ll pull back. It’s not Franco and Mola we have to worry about. If they destroy Spain—unsavory a choice as that might be—so be it. We can debate ethics another time. But if we start exposing gun routes and secret companies and drop-off points, we humiliate our German friends and everyone starts posturing. Then it’s Europe that hangs in the balance.”

Hoffner was tasting the bile in his throat. “And it’s only in the last twelve days that you’ve realized you have this ethical dilemma?”

Wilson’s jaw momentarily tightened. “I wouldn’t play that card, Inspector. You’re the ones who elected these people three years ago. I think we’re well beyond questions of ethics. You want me to admit it, fine. Our fighter bombers aren’t up to par just yet. We haven’t the stomach to dive back into full-on war quite so soon. So it’s the practical dilemmas we worry about. Twelve days ago the word came down from the Admiralty to step back. Do nothing to embarrass our German friends. The Admiralty knew Georg was in. They knew he’d taken a camera, and they were very insistent that nothing on that film find the light of day. So they needed someone to bring him back.”