The Roses Underneath (20 page)

“Everything all right here?” An MP loomed over both of them looking first at Anna and then Emil with practiced authority. He was so tall he blocked the sun from Anna’s view.

“Yes, thank you, officer.” Anna tried on an embarrassed laugh. We were just having a talk.” Emil stared at the ground. “And now we are leaving. Let’s go, Maus.” She set Amalia on her feet and made to leave.

“I think you’d better move along too,
Fritz
.” The MP jabbed Emil’s shoulder. Now Anna recognized the emotion on Emil’s face. Humiliation. By her and by the
Amis
. By the war and by his fate. She bit her lip.

Emil jerked away from the American and shot her a frozen look before walking away. Anna wanted to tell him things would get better, but she knew that they probably wouldn’t. That he would have to reconcile his war with this sprouting peace or he would surely sink. But she couldn’t tell him because she didn’t even know how to do it herself.

Amalia’s little hand into slid hers and they turned toward home. Anna willed her feet to walk.

“Why did you say those things, Mama?” Amalia’s voice was small and far away, as if she were talking to someone else.

“What things?”

“About mothers getting taken away from their children? Why did you say that? Is that true?”

Anna squatted down to look the girl in the face. “No little Maus, it’s not true anymore. The bad people are all gone now and we are safe. No one can take the mothers away.” She pulled her close. “Don’t be scared.”

Amalia looked sideways and chewed on her lip. “But they killed that boy’s mother. The one you found. I heard you tell Auntie. And your mother died too. And…” Tears rose in her eyes and one escaped down her cheek, as if warning of more to come.

Anna wrapped her arms around the little girl, wishing she could collapse her body into something small enough to keep her arms around forever. “Yes, that’s true. They did take them away. But all that is over now. And I am still here. Now come on, let’s go for a walk. Maybe we can get some tea for Auntie.”

At the Bonifazius Church, instead of turning left into the Adolfsallee, Anna turned to the right, toward the old city. They passed the glassy-eyed veterans sitting along the old wall of the square and walked into the weaving, narrow passages. Americans strolled down the middle of the street, in groups of two or four, laughing and smoking. Some smiled at Amalia, others made off-color comments at Anna. She looked straight ahead, gritting her teeth.

In the Friedrich Strasse, near the Neugasse, they went into a tiny apothecary. The shop was no bigger than a bedroom and its tall shelves were only partly stocked with jars of dried herbs and teas. A short round woman stood behind a table on which were displayed baskets of various leaves, blossoms and twigs. The place smelled of earth and was cool and damp inside, like a cave. Amalia sneezed.

“What will be it be today?” the woman behind the counter asked.

Anna asked for a tea for cough and lung infection. The woman nodded, but before she moved she said, “And how will you pay?”

“I have dollars,” Anna said, opening her purse. “I work with the Americans,” she added unnecessarily. The woman gave the knowing look that usually implied her money came from less than honorable work and then turned to the jars behind her. She made a mixture of sticks and dried flower buds on a piece of paper, which she folded into a flattened triangle. On it she wrote the instructions for brewing with suggestions for drinking the tea three times a day. “Each spoonful is good for three pots, just let it steep a bit longer each time. This should be enough for a week, and that will help. I grow these myself; they are very good.”

Anna nodded and handed over her money, which the woman tucked into the front of her blouse. “I thank you very kindly,” she said.

Anna smiled and turned to leave. Reaching for the door she saw someone she recognized walk past the window. It was Ludwig Schneider, carrying a large flat package wrapped in brown paper, walking in the direction of the Schwalbacher Strasse.

Anna took Amalia’s hand and waited for him to get a decent distance past the shop. Then she stepped outside. “Come on Maus, we need to go this way.”

Schneider walked at a good clip, and Anna pulled at Amalia’s arms to keep up with him. The girl was more interested in looking around at the mix of rubble and empty storefronts.

“Mama, slow down,” she whined. “I want to look. Why are we going so fast?”

“See that man up there, the one carrying the big picture? I want to see where he goes.

Amalia’s eyes grew wide. “That’s Herr Schneider. What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know Maus,” Anna whispered. “Let’s just see where he goes. But we can’t let him see us, do you understand?”

“Why not?”

“Because we are playing detective. Will you help me?”

Amalia nodded and skipped to keep up with Anna’s pace. Schneider turned right into the Schwalbacherstrasse and Anna stopped at the corner. She stood on her toes to see over the bobbing heads making their way along the street, but Schneider had disappeared into the crowd. She picked Amalia up and set her on her hip. “Maus, can you see him?”

Amalia couldn’t see him either so Anna let herself be carried along with the flow of people. Every third building along the street was gone. In between the rubble people set up shops, even a café here and there, defiant of the destruction. The approaching
Truemmerbahn
—the small train cars that used the tram tracks to clear the rubble from the city— shook the ground, but no one took any notice. The cars passed, loaded to the brim with pieces of concrete, brick, shards of glass and all the other building dregs the bombs had left behind. The human remains had been dealt with long ago—all that was left were just the symbols of their lives. Bricks and mortar, doors and windows had suffered the same fate—shattered into fragments, broken and unrecognizable.

“Mama there he is!” Amalia shouted. “I see him.”

Anna cringed. “Shh! Not so loud.”

“Oh, sorry, Mama. He went into a house. That one right there.” She pointed to a plain residential building that was mostly intact. The door to the inner courtyard was patched together from wood remnants. As people jostled her, Anna looked up to see closed shutters. Some windows were broken or boarded over. One was open, its white curtain blowing out with the breeze. Anna sidestepped the cross traffic to get closer and read the nameplates on the
door frame. None of them read Schneider and none meant anything to her.

“Maus, listen. I want you to remember these three names, do you think you can do it?”

Amalia nodded and stood up straightened as if awaiting orders.

“All right listen, here we go: Fromm, Schenk and Knopf. Can you remember that?”

“Fromm, Schenk and Knopf. Yes, I can,” the girl shouted in a tiny soldier voice.

“Good girl. Now remember them until we get home and I can write them down.” Anna made a mental note of the other three names: Vogel, Buchholz, and Mueller.

The door opened and a tiny old woman stepped into the street. Anna moved Amalia out of the way. The woman smiled and closed the door behind her. “Can I help you child? Are you lost?”

Anna nodded. “Yes, well I think I am a bit lost.” She pulled Amalia closer to her leg and put a firm hand on her cheek. “I am looking for a friend of my mother’s. Her name is Vogel, Gerda Vogel. Does she live here?”

The old woman squinted at her with milky eyes. “Oh child, there’s no Vogel here anymore. The nameplate is old. There are only three families left now.”

“Fromm, Schenk, and Knopf!” Amalia shouted again.

The old woman smiled at her. “What does she say?”

“So the Vogels are not here?” Anna lowered her head. “I see.”

“I don’t know where they went. I can ask my neighbor, Herr Fromm, he might know. He’s lived here the longest and took an interest in the neighbors. I keep my door and mouth closed. I don’t think that Herr Schenk would know anything—he only arrived in the building a few months ago. By then the Vogels were long gone.”

“Mama?” Amalia tugged at her sleeve.

“Just a minute, Maus.” Anna stroked the girl’s head with a firm hand. She smiled at the old woman. “I see. You have been so helpful. Thank you, Frau…”

“Mueller. If you’d like, I can ask. And if you come back in a few days I can tell you what I find out.” She smiled at Amalia. “Such a precious child.”

“Yes, we will try. Thank you again.” Anna pulled Amalia’s hand and they walked back in the direction they had come from. A clock somewhere rang six o’clock. The streets were clearing after the workday. Anna crossed over at the intersection, then backtracked until they were directly across the street from the house Schneider had entered. The evening sun cast long shadows on this side of the street. She sat Amalia down on the ledge of a shop window. “Right. Now we wait.”

“What for, Mama?”

“For Herr Schneider to come out.”

“But what if he doesn’t? I am so hungry.”

“I know, Maus. Me too. But he’ll come out soon enough. We just have to be a bit patient.”

Amalia kicked her heels against the wall and hunkered down into a long sulk. “Fromm, Schenk, and Knopf,” she said under her breath.

“Vogel, Buchholz and Mueller,” Anna added and put an arm around her daughter’s shoulder.

“
And?” Cooper leaned in closer.

“And, nothing. He came out with a painting and walked to his house—at the address he gave on his card. Then we stopped following.” Anna shrugged. “Amalia was hungry.”

“Damn. And we don’t know anything about who lives in the apartments where Schneider went?”

Anna pulled a piece of paper from her pants pocket. “Vogel, Heinrich, Mueller, Fromm, Schenk and Knopf. Frau Buchholz is the old woman I talked to. She said only Fromm and Schenk still live there.”

“Are you telling me this is the only apartment house in Germany that’s got rooms to spare?” Cooper scrunched his eyes.

“Maybe it’s more damaged inside than it appears. There is heavy damage on the street.”

Cooper looked skeptical.

“Anyway, I am going to check those names and addresses with the claims list and the list of collectors, to see if anything matches. I don’t think Schneider came out with the same painting he went in with, but there’s no way to prove that except that the second package looked smaller than the first. He must have left the first package there and exchanged it for something else. Which is illegal, right, under your paragraph?”

“Paragraph 51. Right. No cultural property may change hands, not even among relatives. But a flat package does not cultural property make. It could have been something else.”

“Oh please, what else would it
have been? And what will you do about it?”

Cooper placed his palms on the desk and straightened in his chair. “Someone needs to go have a look at that apartment and find out who lives there and how they know Schneider. But that’s going to have to wait until after next week. There are no off-site surveys allowed until the Frankfurt shipment is all taken care of. This afternoon I need you to pick up some supplies. Miller will drive you.” He handed her a pass and some paperwork. “Don’t forget the film for the camera. Oh, and our stash at the villa? It’s finally here. I got a truck out there yesterday. But we can’t inventory it until things settle. We just don’t have enough manpower. I can’t even find anyone to get film developed so we can start sorting through the photos we took of those paintings.”

Anna nodded. “I’ll get the newest claim forms and at least type those.” She stood. “Uh, we are going to see Oskar tomorrow, Amalia and I. Would you maybe like to come too? I was thinking we’d go up to the Neroberg, if I can borrow a bicycle for him. The weather has been nice, the fresh air will do us good.”

Cooper tilted his head and squinted, and, for a moment, Anna wondered if she had spoken in German and he hadn’t understood. He shook his head. “Can’t do it, not this weekend. Plus, you know the fraternization rules. Sounds like fun, though. Oh, remember you’re going to bring the duchess by next week to see the treasures. How is she?”

“She’s doing well.” If Anna were being totally honest, she’d have to admit the arrangement with the Schillings made her uneasy. Instead she changed the subject. “That reminds me. I need to find out when the schools are going to be ready to open. Do you know anything about that? I think she really needs to be in a proper school.”

“Nope. But I hope it’s soon. Having all these little urchins running around makes me nervous. There are these little monkeys that dig through the trash at the canteen, stealing the table scraps.
Little tiny ones, littler than your girl. Some of the guys chase them away. I can’t stand it. Like it’s better to throw the food out than to let German kids have it? Not right. It just makes me sick.” He leaned back in his chair and cradled his neck in his hands. Something wistful washed over his face and he turned toward the open window. “You know what, on second thought, maybe I will join you this weekend. I miss the duchess. You are right, the fresh air and the view will do me good.”

Anna smiled. “What about the fraternization laws?”

“Ah hell, who cares. I am the last man in Germany obeying that order. Besides, you’re a happily married woman, am I right? And I’m just a harmless old bachelor.” He flipped the cover of his ledger closed and stood up.