Jack Higgins - The Bormann Testament (The Testament of Caspar Schultz)

“Take me to a quiet grave more likely,” Chavasse told him.

“Just as you please,” Steiner said coldly. “But make your decision quickly. I don’t have a great deal of time to spare.”

Chavasse glanced at von Kraul, and there was pity in the German’s eyes. Chavasse said desperately, “How do I know the girl is still alive?”

“You can judge for yourself.”

There was a murmur of conversation at the other end and then Anna’s voice sounded, clear and calm, but somehow far away. “Is that you, Paul?”

He found difficulty in speaking. “I’m sorry, Anna. I’ve made a fine mess of things.”

“Don’t listen to them,” she said calmly. “They mean to kill you.”

There was a commotion and the receiver was pulled from her hand. Chavasse heard the confused sounds of a struggle and Steiner’s cry of alarm. “Stop her, you idiot! She’s making for the window.”

There was a crash of breaking glass and then the sound of three shots, so close together that to anyone other than an expert, they might have sounded like one.

Chavasse got to his feet, a terrible coldness seeping through him. There was a slight click at the other end of the line and Steiner said calmly, “All bets are off, Chavasse. It appears we no longer have anything to discuss.”

Chavasse dropped the receiver into its cradle. He felt a hand on his shoulder and von Kraul said, “I think it would be better if you were to sit down, my friend.”

Chavasse brushed the hand away. “I’ll be all right,” he said. “Just give me a minute, that’s all.”

He went into the kitchen and searched the cupboards until he found a half-full bottle of Polish vodka on a lower shelf. He pulled the cork with his teeth and tilted back his head.

The liquor burned its way into his stomach and he coughed and leaned over the sink. After a moment, von Kraul appeared at his side. “Do you feel any better?”

Chavasse turned and looked at him with staring eyes. “She did it deliberately. She made him shoot her. That way, she solved my problem for me.”

“She must have been a very wonderful young woman,” Colonel von Kraul said.

In impotent fury, Chavasse smashed the bottle against the sink. “I only want one thing, to wrap my hands around Steiner’s throat. I don’t give a damn what happens to me as long as I can do that.”

Von Kraul gently moved away. “Then I suggest we leave. We have not got a great deal of time.”

Chavasse followed him without a word, and it was as if for the moment his mind had become frozen, so that the sights and sounds of the streets as they drove out toward Blankenese had no meaning for him.

He stared out of the windshield into the night and remembered that the last time he had driven out along this road, Anna had been by his side. As they entered Blankenese and passed the station, he looked down toward the direction of the Elbe, remembering the café on the Strandweg and the lights over the water and the feel of her in his arms, the plans they had made. It was all like something that had never really happened, a dream already half-forgotten and fast-fading, so that now when he tried to picture her clearly, he found it to be impossible.

Nagel’s house was a large, imposing mansion with grounds running down to the Elbe, and the road that ran past the main gates was lined with parked cars. Von Kraul took the car to the end of the road and turned into a small, dark cul-de-sac, where he braked to a halt and switched off the lights.

“The terrace of the ballroom is at the rear of the house and looks down toward the river,” he said. “There is a little gate in the hedge which is mainly for the use of tradespeople. It will be our best way in.”

He found the gate with no difficulty, and Chavasse followed him through and they crossed the wide lawn toward the great house. The place was ablaze with lights, and several windows were half-open so that Chavasse could hear the murmur of conversation and occasional snatches of careless laughter.

The terrace stood some six feet above the level of the ground, and a mass of rhododendron bushes ran along its entire length. Drapes were drawn across the French windows of the ballroom, but here and there a ray of light poked out into the cold night air.

They found the table and chair arranged at the north end of the terrace. They moved into the bushes until they were directly underneath it, and von Kraul said, “Simple, but extremely clever. Steiner can fire from here at virtually point-blank range and yet not be seen himself should anyone else appear on the terrace unexpectedly.”

Chavasse checked his watch without replying. It was a quarter to nine, and he squatted down beside von Kraul in the bushes and waited, feeling suddenly calm. A small wind brought the smell of the river with it through the darkness, and he could hear the sound of a ship’s engines clearly as it moved downriver.

He heard Steiner coming before von Kraul did, and rose to his feet, his hands coming out of his pockets. They stood together in the sheltering darkness of the bushes, and Steiner paused no more than a foot or two away from them.

A ray of light streamed through a gap in one of the drapes and continued down through the bushes and slanted into the ground. Steiner dropped on one knee and took out a gun, and quickly checked its action in the small pool of light. It was a Mauser with a silencer on the end of the barrel.

Chavasse said quietly, “Hello, you bastard,” and as the kneeling man glanced up in alarm, he kicked the Mauser out of his hand.

Steiner came to his feet slowly. “I knew you were trouble the first time I clapped eyes on you on the train. I should have put one between your eyes at Berndorf yesterday, but Nagel wanted to play games.” He laughed harshly. “But I fixed your girlfriend for you – one in the back and two in the belly.”

Chavasse kicked for the crotch, but Steiner caught the blow on his thigh and swung with his fist, catching Chavasse high on the right cheek, sending blood spurting from the gash that was already there.

Pain flooded through Chavasse and he lashed out viciously with the edge of his right hand, catching Steiner on the side of the neck. Steiner lurched into him and they fell to the ground, Chavasse underneath. He felt the big policeman’s hands wrap themselves around his throat, and he tensed his neck muscles and forced back the little finger of each hand.

Steiner grunted with pain and released his grip, and Chavasse pushed back the man’s head with the heel of his hand, twisting the neck until Steiner fell backward and rolled over onto his back, coming to a stop so that his face lay in a pool of light.

Chavasse moved forward, hands reaching for the throat, and then a hand appeared from the darkness holding the Mauser. The bulbous silencer on the end of the barrel was jammed against Steiner’s right ear and there was a slight, muffled cough. Steiner’s body jerked once, and then blood poured from his eyes and nostrils.

Chavasse got to his feet. Before he could speak, von Kraul whispered, “Someone is coming.”

They moved into the bushes and crouched down as one of the French windows was opened. It was carefully closed again and steps crossed the terrace.

“Are you there, Steiner?” Nagel whispered from the darkness, and he leaned over the balustrade.

Before Chavasse could move, von Kraul rose to his feet and shot Nagel between the eyes. He must have been killed instantly and fell across the balustrade, his body sliding headfirst into the bushes.

“We must move fast,” von Kraul said.

He took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the Mauser clean of his fingerprints, and then he knelt down and folded the fingers of Steiner’s right hand around the butt.