Willem Hermans - The Darkroom of Damocles

‘Were you there, Malknecht?’

‘No, not me. All I did was type up the reports of the interrogations, I wasn’t particularly interested in Osewoudt. I didn’t hear about the so-called rescue until later. It was talked about, because of course we didn’t normally go in for that sort of thing with prisoners. It was like this: Wülfing was sure Osewoudt had met Roorda, but Ebernuss was not so sure. Then Ebernuss said: why don’t we let Osewoudt escape so we can see where he goes? There’s no risk, because we’ll get him back quite easily thanks to the 500 guilders reward. We may be able to catch some others while we’re at it. I clearly remember Osewoudt being part of an extremely complicated plot.’

‘Then why didn’t they simply discharge him?’

‘That would have looked suspicious to Osewoudt’s friends, obviously. They would have cut him off immediately. So they had to think of something else. In the end they decided to stage a rescue operation. It was carried out by two Dutch provocateurs working for Ebernuss — Massing and Kolkgoot — and there were also two Germans, policemen in civvies.’

Osewoudt leaped up from his chair.

‘Where’s Roorda? Where’s Roorda? It was Dorbeck Roorda met, not me! It was true that I didn’t recognise Roorda. It was the honest truth! I had never seen him before. But Roorda recognised me. Because it was Dorbeck Roorda had spoken to, it was Dorbeck!’

Malknecht looked straight ahead, saying nothing.

‘Right then,’ said Selderhorst. ‘Tell him where Roorda is.’

‘Roorda was shot when he tried to escape.’

‘He’s lying.’

‘Don’t you believe that Roorda is dead?’

‘Yes, I can believe that he’s dead. But not the rest, not what he said about how I got out of that hospital!’

‘There is no doubt about that,’ said Malknecht. ‘But there is more. Wülfing believed Osewoudt had information, presumably because Ebernuss had given him that idea. Ebernuss and Osewoudt became very pally later on. So it’s likely that Osewoudt was in on it. Massing and Kolkgoot drove him from the hospital to Leiden, where he asked them to drop him in a suburb. Obviously they kept him in their sights, and Osewoudt went straight to Labare’s house. That was how we knew where to strike. Next morning we not only had Osewoudt back, we also had his Jewish girlfriend, the Zettenbaum girl, as well as Labare, Suyling, and a teenage boy called Robert Meier, who was a half-Jew.’

Osewoudt was now shaking on his chair. He could hear the soles of his shoes tapping the floor. He clamped his right hand on his left, but was unable to stop his limbs from trembling.

‘Surely you don’t believe,’ he moaned, ‘that I could have shopped my girlfriend just to do Ebernuss a favour?’

‘Well, Malknecht?’

‘I can’t say. I don’t know what promises Ebernuss might have made to him. They were very close in the end. Maybe Ebernuss said: if you do this for me, then I’ll make sure you get through. And he did, as you see.’ Malknecht pointed to Osewoudt. ‘By the spring of 1945 Ebernuss had had it up to here with the war. He’d lost all hope. He said as much on various occasions. One day he was gone, on 5 April, that was. Deserted. Took Osewoudt with him, too.’

‘Is that true, Osewoudt?’

‘Partly true. Ebernuss asked me to put him in touch with Dorbeck.’

‘So Ebernuss was aware of Dorbeck’s existence?’

‘He had found out. He was bound to find out! I’d already been in prison for months! Dorbeck was not in prison. In the course of his enquiries, Ebernuss must have come across descriptions of someone who looked like me. Maybe Roorda started having doubts, too, later on. Maybe Ebernuss realised that the picture they circulated with my name attached was not a picture of me. Because when I was arrested my hair was dyed black, and the man in the photograph had dark hair, but after I’d been in prison for a bit it obviously became clear that I was actually fair-haired.’

‘What happened to Ebernuss?’

‘He’s dead. I poisoned him. I poisoned him myself! He took me to Amsterdam in his car, to a house at Lijnbaansgracht, which he knew certain people were using as a meeting place. He did say something about deserting, but I didn’t take him seriously. We were allowed in, because I knew the tenant — Moorlag. Ebernuss sat down, drinks of genever were passed round. I went to the kitchen and found Dorbeck there. He gave me the poison in a Rizla packet, and told me to put it in Ebernuss’ drink. So I did. Afterwards Dorbeck took Ebernuss’ car and drove me to a house in Bernard Kochstraat. That’s when he gave me the nurse’s outfit. He took my own clothes away as he was afraid I’d refuse to wear the disguise, and he feared for my safety. He said he’d come back later to take me through the lines to the liberated zone, but he never turned up. That was the last time I saw him. He just sent a note saying my girlfriend was in labour at the Emma Clinic.’

‘Not that old story again,’ said Selderhorst.

‘If Marianne were still alive, she could confirm all this.’

‘She is still alive.’

‘Where is she, then? Why don’t you track her down?’

‘She’s gone to Palestine. She’s in a kibbutz.’

‘In a what?’

‘In a kibbutz! Don’t you know what a kibbutz is? Do you or don’t you? A kibbutz is a farm surrounded by trenches and barbed wire, and around that a horde of Arabs armed to the teeth. How do you expect us to get her out of her kibbutz and answer questions?’

‘What about Moorlag? Where’s Moorlag?’

‘Moorlag’s body was found back in May, in Spiegelstraat. Shot through the heart. D’you know, Osewoudt, I’m not so sure you’re telling the truth about poisoning Ebernuss!’

‘What did you say? Is Moorlag dead? But then that means everyone who ever knew Dorbeck is dead!’

‘Precisely! They’re all dead, and you’re the only one who’s still alive.’

‘How dare you make insinuations like that! One day you’ll be ashamed you ever detained me. Someone like Dorbeck, who did so much, who went all over throughout the war, here and in England, who met hundreds of people — someone like that can’t just vanish without trace. That’s not what I’m worried about. But to suggest I connived in my own so-called rescue from that hospital is ridiculous. If I had, why would I have tried to escape that night when they surrounded the house and arrested Labare? I fled down the street half naked. They fired at me with machine guns. I jumped into the canal and swam to the other side. I ran to a house and rang the bell, but it was too late — the Germans had followed my wet footprints.’

‘Perhaps you were doing it all just for show, and that’s why you weren’t hit. They were obviously firing over your head!’

‘For show? Go and ask the people whose bell I rang, they’ll tell you what sort of state I was in! Why don’t you go and ask them?’

‘Good idea. What street did they live in? What was the number of the house?’

‘I didn’t notice the name of the street. I wasn’t familiar with that part of Leiden. It was a street with a bend, like a crescent. I’d be able to find the house easily enough if I were back in the neighbourhood. It was a house with a porch.’

The next morning at about eleven he was taken from his cell and shoved into a waiting car.

He had to sit in the back, next to Spuybroek. Osewoudt was not handcuffed; he had been given a clean shirt and even a tie. Only Spuybroek was in uniform. Selderhorst was at the wheel, in his shabby grey suit. If it hadn’t been for the escort of two helmeted and armed outriders, they might have been going for a jaunt.

Even the sun was shining when they arrived in Leiden three hours later.