Lewi's Legacy (19 page)

‘Not only can you have the time off, but you can have the pick of the demonstrators for your free use, what about that my boy?’ Louis shook his new ‘step-father’s’ hand and went back to his desk, looking forward to telling Esther the news when he got home.

18
The Heist

The concourse at Gare du Nord

The Saturday before Mikhail was due to arrive at the warehouse Victor and Leah had gained permission to try and drum up interest for the few remaining artefacts stored there. Levka came at the appointed time to take them, but they were under strict instructions to vacate the area by midday. Unbeknown to Victor, Leah had secretly contacted her father Louis to inform him of the whereabouts of the specific numbered items that were stored at the facility. She also let it be known that the four guards were no longer in evidence.  Her father was awaiting the arrival of their driver; he was on the street some way back, parked in the same direction. He was driving a rather beat-up Renault Savanna estate, as inconspicuous as possible.

He had not as much as even indicated to Leah what his plans were, so that under any questioning she could not be accused of any collusion, and as a consequence, neither could Victor. As they set off, he kept a safe distance from the leading vehicle, often allowing them to disappear from view. On one occasion he did draw up close behind but made a turn off into a side road making a detour parallel for a while, and then continuing to track the big black car a few kilometres further on their route. The leading car entered the trading estate and Louis noticed they seemed to be heading past the more occupied areas for the more ‘run down’ part so he held right back and parked for about fifteen minutes. He made concentric searches until he spotted the car in front of a large building with big blue sliding doors. He quickly drove away with a new mental map of the route.

Leah had told him also that Mikhail would be inspecting the items at the warehouse on the Sunday morning, so his plan was somehow forced on him by events. All the time had available, was the rest of Saturday, or never. He knew that he had to perform the repatriation alone and unaided. Another thing that Leah had told her father was that it could be possible that the building was not alarmed, as the owner of the artefacts was highly resistant to publicity. A pair of bolt croppers and a pair of industrial gloves were the only equipment he needed to break into the warehouse.

He decided to leave the Chinese vase and the large tapestry behind and the items were taken fitted easily in the back of the estate car. He covered them all with two large rugs that were already in the car. He reclosed the giant doors with some effort and wrapped the chain around the handles leaving the obvious tell tale sign of the broken lock on the driveway.

Unobserved, he unloaded all the items from the car. In a rented lockup then and dumped the Savanna in the suburbs. As he caught a bus full of late night revellers into the city centre, he was confident that he had been undetected so he walked into his small hotel for the rest of the night. The deed was done, and Louis could concentrate on finishing his task.

When Victor and Leah arrived at the storage facility on the outskirts of Paris they were both stunned to see the padlock on the concrete and the open chain dangling through the door handles. Victor instinctively rang Mikhail’s mobile number after they had inspected the damage inside. Levka took a picture of the broken lock and the chain, and then tried the office door which was still locked. They all deduced where the entry was made. They tentatively opened the door into the cavernous area and it was easy to see what the thief had left. They all waited for the volcano to erupt when the Ambassador arrived, and he didn’t let them down. It was clear though that Mikhail’s show of anger was somewhat measured, considering the vast amount that he had received from all their efforts.

On the surface he gave no outward sign of suspicion of either of his young ‘employees’. However Victor suspected that there would be investigations by unknown and unseen persons who would leave no stone unturned until the stolen items were returned. Both Victor and Leah were extremely careful not to make any comments, either to each other, or certainly not to Mikhail, about the past day’s events.

It was time to say their goodbyes to the flat, their employer, and everything else that was connected to the work they had completed. They only had one day to clear their personal effects. One of the original guards at the warehouse saw them out of the flat, insisting that Victor give up his mobile phone and sim card as well as his laptop. He was offered no compensation for anything he had to give up, but somehow he was glad. Basically it was ‘goodbye and don’t call me’ from Mikhail without actually saying it directly to them. Standing with their suitcases at the Gare du Nord, Victor and Leah looked uneasily at each other; somehow they knew this was not the end for either of them.

‘I think you know more than you make out about the heist at the warehouse Leah. Perhaps this is the time you come clean and tell me what you know.’ He looked at her as her hard shell began to crumble. It seemed like his eyes were boring into her heart. She just burst into tears and threw her arms around him.

‘I didn’t think that he would do that Victor, not at his age. How could he?’ She sobbed.

‘It’s your father, Louis, isn’t it?’ Victor held her away and looked sternly at her. He looked around the vast railway concourse. ‘Do you want to talk on the train to Calais or check in a hotel and go back home tomorrow?’ He asked.

‘This is a long story. I would feel better if we took a room tonight and I can tell you all I know.’ Leah answered with a sigh.

They booked into The Avalon hotel on Boulevard Magenta, a few steps from the station, after changing their tickets for the following day. They had booked a suite with its own sitting room, and with a glass of wine in their hands, she began her story from the time of her second birthday.

Her father took his daughter and wife, Esther, to Strasbourg to meet two of his newly discovered relations Ethan and Leah. Louis explained to his daughter the origins of her name to. Leah from the woman in Strasbourg, and May from a relation of his father who he loved, in South Derbyshire hence her name Leah-May. Even at the tender age of two she could clearly remember the house that Ethan lived in. Louis described it as a giant white birthday cake at the end of a jungle drive. It was after that visit to Strasbourg that her father spent more and more time there and less and less time at home in Southampton where she and her mother lived. At the age of ten he virtually spent all of his time abroad, lost his job at the garage and was reliant on his overseas relatives for support. To give them credit however, Ethan sent a generous monthly allowance to Esther for her and her daughter’s welfare. It seemed that her father had taken up the cause of repatriation of Jewish precious artefacts to the relatives of the survivors of the Holocaust. Louis had his base in Strasbourg, but spent most of his working day at the archives at the Amsterdam museum.

Even though the Nazis had plundered the Jewish treasures, they had efficiently and systematically numbered and referenced them individually. In most cases the lists they produced quoted the previous owner and often stated where their artefacts were stored. Some were found in salt mines in Germany, cleverly choosing the environment of the caves which stopped any deterioration and most of the artworks were in perfect condition. The museum held thousands of such lists and Louis had great satisfaction in matching art with owner, or family of owner, and this kept him going on his quest to find his great grandfathers artefacts.

On the first visit to Ethan, Esther felt compassion for Louis and his crusade and thought it quite noble of him. Soon it became an obsession with her husband, one that totally consumed him to the exclusion of his own family. Grandmamma Ethel had died when Leah-May was only nine, and at that point they were left totally on their own. Of course Esther was the sole beneficiary of her grandmother’s will except for a small trust which was set up for Leah when she was twenty one. She was in all things, a widow having to be father and mother to her little child with an absent father. Somehow her daughter thrived on adversity and she won a scholarship to a prestigious girl’s school in Winchester, where she flourished in her art studies. From Winchester she went to Southampton, reading Art History, and obtained a first class degree. She was soon snapped up at Bonham’s in London, and there she stayed until she met Victor.

The saddest part of her story concerned her mother Esther, living alone with little outside contact. Tragically, it didn’t take long for depression to set in, and this led to other syndromes such as agoraphobia. These and other mental pressures were brought on simply by loneliness and both Louis and Leah were not aware of her desperate cry for help.

Louis was deep in the catacombs of the reference area of the Amsterdam Museum, when a visitor was brought to him, his own daughter that he had not seen for three years. Leah was so angry with him, shouting abuse at the top of her voice, that they had to be physically ejected from the building. She made it clear that he was solely to blame for the death of her mother, who had committed suicide in their marital bed, in their marital bungalow by taking a huge overdose of barbiturates. It was her only release from her constant suffering.

As they made their way to the station to get to their relatives in Strasbourg, Leah truly hated this heartless man, but not as much as he hated himself. He remembered the warning from Magda that day at the circus that the greatest sin of all is selfishness, and that would haunt him for the rest of his days. He admitted to himself that his obsessive life, pursuing a pointless dream had at that point come crashing down on him. From Strasbourg, they sat on the train heading towards England; she refused to sit with him, even seeking a different carriage, so that she didn’t have to see him. A thought went though her mind that if she had possessed a gun, heaven knows what she would have done in that cavern of dust in Amsterdam.

There was a week of agonising tension, as he waited for the release of Esther’s body. The coroner was at last satisfied that there was no other cause of death than suicide caused by extreme loneliness. The funeral could then proceed. It was a very quiet affair, Harold and Mary attended and a few Jewish friends of her grandmother, but no one who knew Esther, or even knew of her. Mary, Harold’s wife, had prepared a buffet for those who wished to attend. Those that came knew of Louis’s past obsession, some admired him for it, but others just looked through him saying nothing, but he knew what they were saying in their hearts.

The funeral was painful but necessary and when Leah and her father returned to the bungalow they finally hugged each other, more in relief that anything else. There was no pressure from her work, as her boss had told her to take as much time as she needed and not to worry about work at all. She told he father that she would be making the journey to London the next day so she took an early night. Louis stayed up as long as he could; there was so much on his mind.

The following day, Leah came into the living room with her bag packed to say goodbye. He was sitting on the couch looking pretty rough, unshaven and unwashed. He asked her to look into the top drawer of the heavy dining room cabinet, and to look at the far back of it. She did as she was told and found, right at the back, underneath some folded linen a walnut case. She brought the case over to the couch and sat next to Louis and opened it. A delicate violin and bow was revealed and he told her that it was a Guarneri. Leah was shocked that the violin had been sitting in that drawer for all her life. In fact she imagined that her mother also had had no idea that it was there.

Louis told her the story that her ancestor Moshe Levi, the husband of Aunt Ruth, had treasured the instrument, having being given it as a wedding present by his brother Lewi. He doubted that either Moshe or Ruth were aware of the violin’s illustrious maker, and if they had been it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

From her studies Leah of course knew of the Guarneri family, one of three master violin makers in the 1700’s, the other families were Amati and Stradivarius. She then blew out a sigh of amazement at the instrument and rang her boss at Bonham’s. Firstly Leah said that she would be back in London that day, and then mentioned the beautiful violin she had found. Louis heard a scream on the other end of the line, and Leah smiled for the first time. Louis gave her the instruction to auction the instrument, so she rang her contact at DHL who were to call at the bungalow that day, carefully pack it, and deliver it to the London office.

Leah told her father that they would get a good valuation, and subject to Louis’s agreement on the reserve, it would be included in the next special auction catalogue. He was proud of how she reacted so professionally, and felt that perhaps it was time to move on in their lives. He promised her that he would never again lose contact with her and said that for the time being he would be living at the bungalow. He explained to her that there were many things that had to be sorted out in the short term. In the future he would be selling it and moving to the New Forest, out of the city. He explained that he needed space to find the direction in his life that had been so lacking in the past. Keeping in contact with his daughter was the top priority however.