The Roses Underneath (32 page)

“You understand, of course, that we will be taking quite a risk on your behalf. Ludwig, he seems to have a fondness for you. He wants to help you and your pretty little daughter. Me, I am not so sentimental. When I pay for something, I like to know exactly what I am getting. Especially when the price I could pay is as steep as it is these days.”

Anna wanted to punch him in his smug face. She reminded herself that she was not really asking him for money, that she was not at his mercy at all, that she had the upper hand. “I understand, Herr Schenk. I know we must help each other.”

The key turned in the lock and the door opened. Schneider held a tray of two steaming mismatched cups. “No milk,” he said and handed the tray to Schenk, who set it down on the bed and took a cup for himself.

“All right then, let’s have a look at what you’ve got for us. This has been in your family, you said?”

Anna straightened. “Yes, it’s a landscape of the area. I think it could be worth at least a little something. It certainly holds no sentimental value for me.” She bent down, pulled the painting from the bag and rested it on her knees so Schenk could look at it.

As Schenk’s eyes landed on the painting, his face sank, like a child disappointed by a much-anticipated birthday present.

“Is this a joke?” he asked. Schneider’s curious face appeared over Schenk’s shoulder.

Anna looked down at the canvas. “No, of course not. What do you mean?”

Schenk reached forward and pulled the painting from her hands. He and Schneider put their heads together as they examined it. “Frau Klein, you had better be honest with us. I will give you only one chance. Where did you get this painting?” Schenk said, without looking at her.

Anna swallowed and considered her options. Play dumb, she decided. She laughed. “Gentlemen, what do you mean? I’ve brought you a painting from my family’s collection. Now, please tell me what you think it is worth, under the circumstances.” She folded her hands across her stomach to keep them from shaking. “As I told Herr Schneider yesterday, I am only doing this so my husband can join me and I can keep my job at the Collecting Point. And I would certainly remember how you helped me. I would be in your debt.”

Schenk handed the painting to Schneider and took a sip from his cup before tapping a cigarette out of the pack he took from his pocket. He lit it and leaned forward. “Frau Klein, here’s what we are going to do. I know without a doubt that this is not your painting. In fact, I know who the rightful owner of this painting is. So no, we do not have a deal.”

Anna could feel every drop of her blood rush through her body as if a dam had been released. Schenk and Schneider knew far more than she had realized. Maybe Schneider really was a hapless opportunist, but Schenk was a miscreant of a much higher order. She thought she might vomit all over his shiny shoes but mustered a reply. “Herr Schenk, if you think I am doing this for the Americans, I assure you that’s not the case. This painting belongs to my family.”

Schenk smiled as he fingered the rim of his coffee cup. He took the last drink and set it down. “You and I both know that’s not true.”

Anna decided she no longer cared about the painting or Schneider or even the Americans. She tried to think of a way out of the room, out of this whole mess. They knew the
painting, that much was clear. But they also knew she could still be valuable to them.
Make yourself useful
, she thought.
Do something.

She straightened in her chair and looked Schenk in his pointy face. He was in his element, with the intimidation and the threats. It was a language he spoke fluently. She steadied her voice. “Look, Herr Schenk. I’ve already told you I need the money. What I can give you in return is my assistance in getting Herr Schneider the job he wants. But in order to do that, I need to keep my job. And for that, I need my husband to come here.”

Schenk shook his head and stubbed the cigarette into his coffee cup. “Spare me the nonsense, Frau Klein. There are only two ways that you got your hands on that painting. Either the
Amis
gave it to you to trap us, or you helped yourself to it. Either way, I know it’s not a painting from your family and that you are lying. But I am going to forget about that for the moment. In a way, I should thank you, because you’ve shown me your hand. You’ve made my life a little easier. The important thing now is that you don’t mess things up. You should know I have many friends.” His face expanded into a smile. “In fact, we may even have a few friends in common, who knows? Maybe we could all have a nice dinner party sometime.” He lit another cigarette. The smoke hung in the air between them like a dirty shroud. He blew it into her face. “You go to work tomorrow. Keep your mouth shut and we might be able to help you. But now we’ll decide how you help us first. So think about it carefully. In any case you should consider yourself already in my debt.” He stood. “Now, we are finished. Keep your eyes open. You’ll be seeing me soon.”

Schenk grabbed Anna’s arm, yanking her to her feet. His other hand clamped onto the back of her neck, pushing her across the room and out into the hallway. He threw the painting after her and slammed the door. Anna stood in the dark corridor holding the empty shopping bag. The painting lay face down on the floor. Voices from the lobby drifted up inside the dim light of the stairwell. She walked to the railing and steadied herself with her free hand. Trying to not make a sound, she retched her lunch onto the worn carpet.

Anna pushed the heavy wooden door closed behind her. Even though it required no key to enter the courtyard of her building, she always felt a little safer inside her little fortress. Thoughts swirled in her head like water circling a drain. Taking the stairs slowly, she tried to make sense of what had happened. When she turned the corner of the second flight, Cooper was sitting on the top stair, smoking and grinning at her.

“I told Frau Wolf I would wait for you out here. That we had some business to discuss,” he said. “You okay?”

Anna flared. “Where the hell were you? How could you just let me go alone? You were supposed to be there.”

Cooper patted his hand on the step next to him, indicating for her to sit down. “You were being followed. They were onto you before you even got to the church.” He offered her his pack of cigarettes.

Anna pulled a cigarette from the pack and waited for him to light it for her. Her hand was shaking.”Who was?” she asked.

“Some guy Schneider put on your tail. When you turned onto the Bahnhofstrasse, Schneider was waiting in the Ludwigsplatz with some goon. He pointed at you and the guy started after you. I watched for a minute and decided to cut around on the Wilhelmstrasse to try to catch you before you went in and call it off, but Schneider got to you first. I figured if he saw me anywhere near there he’d know it was a set up, so I sat on the
bowling green across the street and waited. I saw you go in with Schneider. The goon hung around for a while. Schneider came out after a few minutes and they talked and the guy finally left.

“He was getting coffee,” Anna said. “Schneider. That’s what he said.”

“I figured they were satisfied that the coast was clear and decided to give you thirty minutes. So he didn’t bite, huh? What happened?”

“You let me go anyway? You knew they were following me and you let me go?”

“Hey, look, they were after me, not you. If I had shown up it would have really messed it up for good. Anyway, I grabbed a jeep from one of the guys at the Eagle Club to get back here before you, in case they were still following you.”

“Oh they’re following me, make no mistake. Apparently that’s been going on for a while.” She shook the bag at him. “Where did this painting come from?”

Cooper knitted his brow. “From the Collecting Point. I mean, from the stash we found at the villa, because it hadn’t been inventoried yet. No one would miss it for a few hours.”

Anna groaned. “They knew that painting. That’s why they refused to buy it. They knew it wasn’t mine.”

“What to you mean,
they
?”

“There was another man there—Konrad Schenk. He’s the one Schneider went to see the day I followed him. They work together. Schenk makes Schneider look like a cuddle toy. I thought about it as I walked back,” Anna said. “I snooped in Schneider’s file the other day and there was a report in there about the find at the villa and how we—you—hadn’t properly reported it. And I got questioned about both the villa and Schneider last night. So someone else knows about it already and somehow they’ve connected the two.
And
they know we found it.”

Cooper nodded slowly, processing the information. “Schneider only knows that we don’t realize it’s his stash, if it even is. Otherwise, why would you have brought him his own painting?”

“Maybe to find out if he’d confess it was his? Or to double cross you?”

“Maybe. That seems like a long shot. I knew there was a note in my file about me not securing the repository. But I didn’t know it was in Schneider’s file, too. Who else would know and make that connection?”

Anna sat down on the stairs next to Cooper. She tossed a furtive glance at the door to the apartment, but it stayed closed. She lowered her voice. “Could it be the director? Who gets to say what goes into the files?”

Cooper shrugged. “I can see Farmer putting a note in my file, but why would he put something in Schneider’s file? That just makes no sense. It must have come from somewhere else.”

“Maybe whoever it is thinks you are in league with Schneider? Or someone is trying to make it look like you are?” She tugged at a loose thread at the hem of her pants. “And then there’s Oskar, too. We still don’t know what he was doing out there at the villa in the first place. This can’t all be a coincidence—the orphanage, the art, Oskar. There must be a connection somewhere.”

Cooper rubbed his forehead. “Okay, wait. Back up. Tell me exactly what happened at the meeting.”

Anna recounted the story. Her adrenaline was still pumping and she tried to remember every detail now that it was over. Cooper listened and regarded her with raised eyebrows.

“We still don’t know why the art was in the villa or whether it’s legitimately Schneider’s. And Oskar, well, we don’t know what the hell his story is. And now we have this goon Schenk, who sounds like the brains behind the operation. And someone is following you and me both, it seems. I daresay you, Anna Klein, are getting the hang of this. But I don’t like that they threatened you.”

“It’s all right,” Anna said, surprising herself. “I don’t think they closed the door on my helping them completely. They still think there’s a chance that I can be useful. They are too greedy to let the opportunity go. If no one comes after them, they’ll think I kept my mouth shut and maybe we can buy a little time.” She took hold of the railing and pulled herself to her feet. “I need to get inside now.” As she took her key from her pocket, Cooper reached for her hand.

“I guess I should apologize for getting you into this. I am sorry everything’s gone to hell.” His voice was quiet, eyes soft, but he didn’t look at her. “I just don’t have the patience for the wheels of military justice to turn our way. Time is not on our side, you know? It’s just how I do things. Sometimes I get into trouble, but you have to believe that I would not let anything happen to you.”

Anna felt a charge surge up her arm. She held onto his hand for half an instant before pulling away. “Don’t apologize. I am all right. I do want to help,” she said. “I think I like this job,” she added, and then felt herself blush.

He smiled and started down the steps but stopped. “Have you heard any news? From your husband?”

Anna shook her head.

Cooper rubbed his chin with the palm of his hand. “I am sure he’s very worried. I hope you hear from him soon.”

Anna raised her palm to wave good-bye. “Don’t let anyone see you leave. Be careful.”

Anna climbed the marble stairs to Cooper’s office as she put her identification papers back into her bag. She scolded herself for forgetting Cooper’s landscape painting at home. She wanted the thing out of her house. The building was quiet. Most everyone was already outside waiting for the next convoy of trucks, and she wanted to put her things away before lining up to help unload crates. She tried to put the worries about Amalia out of her mind. She was perfectly safe and Frieda would not let anything happen to Amalia. A small voice tried to remind Anna that she did not really know this to be true. She only believed it because she wanted to, like a child who believes in St. Nicholas because it makes her happy. She gritted her teeth and paused on the stairs to catch her breath and set the worry down. She could pick it up again later. For now, she had work to do.

“Goddammit, I won’t let this bullshit stand,” a voice bellowed from above. “Who the hell is calling the shots around here anyway? Last time I checked it wasn’t you.”

Anna froze and instinctively pressed her lips together. She held her breath.

“I’ll tell you what, let’s do it my way for a while and see how that goes. Maybe that way we won’t be losing paintings and side arms and God knows what else. We’ll get some actual experts in here instead of you Keystone Kops. Jesus Christ. Do you have any idea who’s breathing down my neck? The goddamn State Department. They’re not even sure what the hell the point of this whole operation is. I’ve got one of them coming here next week to take a look at where all their money is going. And you’re not helping the case one damn bit. Christ.”