The Serpent's Egg (18 page)

He forced the window open a fraction. “That’s all I can manage.”

#

They went for a walk before lunch.

“Your mother doesn’t like me.”

“Of course she likes you, Anna. Everybody does.”

Anna snorted.

“Pay no attention to her. She’s harmless. Really. And she’s delighted to have us stay with her.”

“Well, she doesn’t show it.”

Max laughed. “She does have her strange ways. Whatever you do, never cut your fingernails in the kitchen.”

#

Anna insisted on being allowed to use the stove to make a midday meal for Max. “We’re married now. It’s my job to make his meals.”

Frau Noack conceded the kitchen stove to her, reluctantly. She watched everything Anna did, offering unwanted suggestions every few minutes. After the meal, Anna and Max washed up. They replaced the crockery in the presses and on the shelves. Frau Noack allowed them to do all this and then she pounced. Anna had put everything in the wrong places and look at the untidy state of the kitchen!

Anna threw her dishcloth onto a chair and stomped out of the kitchen.

#

They went for another walk arm-in-arm around the town in the afternoon.

“I’m not sure I can live with your mother for two whole weeks, Max. She’s a witch.”

“She’s been living alone for so many years she’s not used to having another woman in the house. She’ll come around eventually.”

“I may strangle her first.”

“You may strangle me first. There’s something I have to tell you. I made up my mind to tell you weeks ago, but I thought I’d wait until we were married.”

Anna’s stomach did a somersault. She let go of his arm “What is it? Tell me.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

Her mind went into a spin. He was going to tell her something horrible. Was he going to admit there was another woman in his life? “Max—”

“Remember I told you that I joined the Red Orchestra to strike a blow against the Nazis?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not exactly why I joined. I joined because the Gestapo forced me to.”

Not another woman!

“How could they force you to? I don’t understand.”

“That day when I collected our Marriage Authorization from Herr Framzl, he said he would only complete the Authorization if I joined the Orchestra and spied on them for him.”

“But he completed the Authorization. How else could we have got married?”

Max shook his head. “He withheld his signature and the official stamp. I used a stamp from the office and I… I forged the signature on the Authorization.”

“You what? You forged a signature! What are you saying? Are you saying we’re not properly married?”

“No, we are married. The church wedding is valid…”

“But not the official one in the registry office?”

“That could be contested if the registrar ever finds out.” He held up his palms. “But I’m sure he won’t find out.”

Anna stared at him. What had she married? “Oh, Max, how could you? How could you spoil our wedding day? You’re a… a monster.”

“You had your heart set on a March wedding. What else could I do?”

“You could have discussed it with me first.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to be disappointed. I was trying to make everything right for you.”

“You’re an idiot, Max-Christian Noack. My mother warned me not to marry you. I should have listened to her.”

“I’m sorry.”

Anna took a deep breath. “Tell me the whole story from the beginning.”

When he’d finished, she took his arm again. “I suppose you had no choice. That Gestapo man is a bastard. We should complain to Libertas, get her to tell Frau Emmy Göring what he did.”

“We can’t do that, Anna. I’d have to admit that I was a Gestapo informer. They’d probably shoot me.”

“Oh, you’re right. So how do you really feel about Libertas and Harro and Frau Greta and the others in the Red Orchestra?”

“I’m with them all the way. They’re all friends, and I believe in what they’re doing. I would die before I’d betray any of them now.”

Frau Noack was waiting for them. “Who opened the window in the bedroom?”

“I did, Mama.”

“You know how I feel about open windows, Max-Christian.”

“I asked him to,” said Anna. “We needed to let in some fresh air.”

“You should have asked for my permission first.”

“Would you have allowed it?” said Max.

“Yes, if you’d explained your reasons.”

Anna snorted.

Chapter 51

April 1939

The Tuesday after Anna’s wedding, Vigo was in his church when a black car drew up outside. A tall man with a crew-cut wearing a full-length leather coat came into the church and flashed a Gestapo identity disc. “You are Father Vigo?”

“Yes.”

“You married a young couple last Saturday. Am I right?”

“Anna and Max-Christian Noack, yes.”

“Show me the Authorization form.”

Vigo went to the parish house and found the green form. He handed it over. 

The Gestapo man ran his eyes over the document. “Come with me.”

They drove him to Gestapo headquarters, took him to the basement and threw him into a cell.

Vigo was mystified. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they arrested him for subversive activities, for aiding and abetting enemies of the State, for distributing Communist literature, but how could they object to a wedding ceremony?

The place was cold and lacked a window. There was a persistent smell that he tried hard not to identify. Everything about the place spoke to Vigo of the hundreds of unfortunates that had passed his way. He blessed himself and prayed for the souls of those departed.

They let him stew in the cell for two hours. Then they took him to a room with ‘Department B Race and Ethnic Affairs’ painted on the glass. He was made to stand in front of a desk. Behind the desk sat a tall man in uniform wearing the death’s head insignia of the SS on his cap. On the wall behind him, a picture of the Führer and two swastika standards.

“This Authorization…” he held the green form at arm’s length between finger and thumb. “Where did you get it?”

“The bridegroom obtained it from this department.”

“It’s a forgery. Didn’t you check the signature?”  He waved the form at Vigo. The priest stepped forward and took it.

Vigo examined the signature. It consisted of a series of loops and reverse lines as illegible as any signature he’d ever seen. “I can’t read it. Was it not signed by one of your men?”

“It’s a forgery, and a crude one at that.”

“I assumed the registrar would have checked the Authorization before their civil marriage in the registry office.”

The Gestapo man removed his cap, wiped his forehead and put his cap back on. “That is not your concern. You are obliged to check with this office before performing religious marriage ceremonies.”

Vigo recalled an ancient rambling letter from the authorities along those lines, but he knew of no priest that double-checked the green forms. He spread his hands in a gesture of appeasement. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t think it was necessary. Every priest that I know takes the green form as an official sanction.”

The Gestapo man waved for Vigo to hand it back. Vigo did so, and it disappeared into a desk drawer.

Two men in leather coats came in. They took Father Vigo by the arms and took him back to his cell. Once inside the cell, they closed the door and beat him, taking it in turns. Most of the blows were to his body, but some were to his face. The beating was like a performance, carefully choreographed, designed to impart some brutal message. It took no more than 10 minutes.

The original interrogator reappeared. He waved the other two away. “Release him.”

Vigo fell to his knees. He was bleeding from the nose and eyes.

“Let that be a lesson to you. Be sure to follow correct procedures in future. Now get out of my sight.”

#

Vigo went directly to the hospital where a nurse bathed his facial wounds with a damp cloth. She told him that he would be left with some scarring. The Gestapo certainly knew how to make a lasting impression!

He took a tram to the office of the registrar in Schönstedtstrasss. The registrar confirmed that he had been summoned by Kurt Framzl of the Department of Race and Ethnic Affairs and similarly berated. He had made the same mistake, but when his staff checked the form against others on file they were able to satisfy themselves that the signature was indeed a forgery.

“A very unusual case,” said the registrar. “I understand that the couple was attempting to frustrate the Nuremburg Laws in respect of racial protection of the German bloodstock.”

Next, Vigo took a tram to Greta Kuckhoff’s apartment. She was shocked by his appearance. “You should see a doctor.”

“I’ve come from the hospital, Greta. I’ll be fine. The Gestapo beat me because I performed Anna and Max’s wedding ceremony. They said the couple’s Marriage Authorization was a forgery.”

“That makes no sense, Father. Max and Anna’s union was sanctioned at the highest level. This Gestapo officer must be playing games with you.”

“To what end?” 

“I can’t imagine. Perhaps he suspects something about your leaflet delivery route and wanted to give you a fright.”

Vigo shook his head and grimaced. “That makes no sense. I’ve spoken to the registrar and he confirms that the document really is a forgery.”

Chapter 52

April 1939

A week after the wedding, Libertas, whose hearing was on permanent alert, picked up the sound of an engine as it approached the gate. “It’s Harro.”

The maid opened the door and Harro fell into Libertas’s arms.

“Pay the taxi driver. I have no money. I promised him double fare if he drove me home.”

Libertas paid the driver before joining her husband in the study. The room had been tidied, the books all returned to their shelves. They embraced like labor camp survivors. He was dressed in the uniform he’d been wearing when he was arrested. His body odor was overwhelming.

“Tell me what happened. Did they beat you?”

“No beatings. They wouldn’t dare. They have no concrete evidence. I was interrogated endlessly. They allowed me very little sleep.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them nothing.”

Libertas ran a finger over his face, tracing some new lines around his mouth. “They searched the house while we were at the church, made a frightful mess. Poor Pauletta nearly had a heart attack. They found nothing. Do you know why they let you go?”

“I assume the Air Ministry demanded my release. Or perhaps they simply gave up when I refused to talk.”

“I asked Emmy to help. Hermann may have had words with Heinrich Himmler. I asked her to put a word in for Delma as well. Did you see Delma in there?”

“I saw no one but my interrogators. I heard nothing but questions. Tell me no one else was taken. Did Max and Anna complete their wedding?”

“Vigo completed the wedding ceremony. But you may have to go back to the church and sign the parish register. They’ve gone to Wittenberg on their honeymoon.”

Harro was starving. He’d had had very little to eat during his ordeal. Pauletta prepared a meal while Harro had a hot bath.

Libertas was shocked by his appearance once he’d scrubbed himself clean and put on fresh clothes. She smiled at him. “Good to see you back to your old self.”

Thin as a greyhound, he looked stooped and shorter than he had been, his hair showing unfamiliar streaks of gray around the temples.

While he ate Harro waved his knife about. “The Gestapo is obviously watching us. It could only be a matter of time before they find the Hectograph. We’ll have to move it.”

Libertas sat down at the table and touched his arm. “Moving it could be the worst idea. It could be just what they want us to do.”

“I know. It’s a bit of a conundrum.”

She topped up his coffee. “What does Delma know? What could she tell them?”

“She knows Gilbert in Brussels, and Vigo, and she’s met Max. She knows Arvid, of course. She has carried messages to the Soviet Embassy for him from time to time, so she knows his contact there by sight. She made a few leaflet deliveries in the early days, so I suppose she could compromise parts of the distribution network…”

“Can we trust her?”

“I think so. As long as Arvid, Vigo and Max are at liberty, we can assume she’s given them nothing. I’ll get the men to check the distribution network next week. Gilbert is out of reach in a foreign country, and Arvid’s Soviet attaché is untouchable.”

“I’m really worried about Delma’s health. The last time I saw her she looked like death’s younger sister.”

Harro nodded. “What did Emmy say when you asked her to help?”

“She said she’d try, but there’s a limit to Hermann’s influence. It would be easier to get her out if she worked for one of the ministries.”

Chapter 53

April 1939

Arvid Harnack was having breakfast when there was a knock on his apartment door. He opened it and found an envelope on the floor with his name on it. He checked the stairs and caught sight of a schoolboy disappearing below.

He tore open the envelope. It contained a single line note:

‘The Dom at noon, AK’

Arvid recognized the handwriting of his contact at the Soviet Embassy, the NKVD agent, Alexander Korotkov. The summons was more than unusual. Arvid hadn’t spoken to Korotkov since their first meeting, two years earlier.

Arvid went to work at the Economics Ministry, keeping his eyes and ears open for anything unusual that might explain Korotkov’s unprecedented summons. Nothing emerged.