The Second Objective

  “Take me there.”

  “Okay. It’s this way.”

  Grannit called for a radioman to join them and they walked at a brisk clip, Bernie taking the lead. Grannit spoke into the radio most of the way, shouting orders to his men at the movie house.

  “What’s your name, Private?” the man snapped, as soon as he came off the radio.

  “Bernie Oster, sir.”

  “What unit are you with?”

  “Two hundred ninety-first Engineer Combat Battalion.”

  “Where you from?”

  “Brooklyn, sir.”

  “Which neighborhood?”

  “Park Slope.”

  “North or South?” asked Grannit.

  Bernie looked over at him, but couldn’t read the man’s expression. “North.”

  “Where’d you live?”

  “On Union Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenue. You know Brooklyn, sir?”

  “What’d your dad do?”

  “He worked for Pfizer,” said Bernie. “Research and development. He was a chemist.”

  “Was?”

  “He’s retired now. Turn right here.”

  Bernie led him to the front door of the woman’s apartment building. Grannit ordered the radioman to call in support and wait for it on the street. He forced the lock and Bernie led him up to the third floor.

  The door stood open a crack. Grannit drew his gun, gestured for silence, and listened. He silently eased the door forward.

  All the lights were off. Bernie couldn’t remember if he’d left them that way. Grannit pulled a flashlight from his belt. Bernie watched from the doorway as the beam edged around the apartment. Somehow, before even completing his sweep, the man knew the apartment was empty. He walked in and turned on the living room lamp.

  “Stay by the door,” said the man. “Don’t touch anything.”

  Bernie stepped inside. Grannit walked straight into the bedroom. Bernie watched him lift the blanket covering the girl’s body on the bed. He studied it for a moment, then replaced the blanket and examined the rest of the room. Bernie saw him pick up Von Leinsdorf’s old discarded GI uniform from the floor. He glanced briefly at the jacket, ripped something off the shoulder, then dropped it again. Out of nowhere, the dead woman’s damn cat rubbed against Bernie’s leg. He jumped half a foot and kicked at it.

  “Get away. Get away.”

  Grannit came back into the living room, opened the window, and looked down at the street.

  “Is she dead?” asked Bernie.

  Grannit marched straight to Bernie, grabbed him by the throat, stuck the barrel of his gun under his chin, and cocked the hammer.

  “Two hundred ninety-first Combat Engineers?” he said.

  “That’s right.”

  Grannit held up the patch he’d torn from the uniform in the other room so Bernie could see it. The same unit.

  “You didn’t tell me you were from the same unit,” said Grannit.

  “Guess I didn’t realize—”

  “You didn’t see him do anything to that girl from the street, the curtains were pulled. You were up here with him—”

  “No, only after he killed her,” said Bernie, his voice shaking. “He made me come up with him.”

  “What are you doing in Reims?”

  “We were delivering dispatches—”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me. Tell me what I want to know or I put your brains on the wall—”

  “Okay, okay—”

  “Your friend just killed my partner, you Nazi fuck!”

  Grannit shoved Bernie down into a chair and pointed the gun at him. Convinced he was about to die, Bernie put his hands up and closed his eyes.

  “You’re with the 150th Panzer Brigade,” said Grannit. “Your commanding officer’s Otto Skorzeny.”

  Bernie opened his eyes.

  Grannit took a step closer to him. “Your brigade was sent in to take three bridges over the Meuse. Your squad leader gave you a second objective in France. I’ve got three of your pals we just nailed in that theater ready to ID you. You want to deny any of that to me?”

  Bernie shook his head.

  “What’s your friend’s name?”

  “His name’s Von Leinsdorf. Erich Von Leinsdorf. He’s a lieutenant in the SS,” said Bernie.

  “You came across the line with him into Belgium, with two other men, near Elsenborn. You killed three soldiers at the border crossing.”

  “He did. And one of ours. He was wounded, Von Leinsdorf shot him.”

  “Where’d you put the bodies?” asked Grannit.

  “He ordered us to drag them into the woods. One of your men was still alive, a sergeant, so I tried to help him—”

  “How?”

  “I gave him morphine. Put sulfa and a pressure bandage on his wounds.”

  “You did that? Where’d you go from there?”

  “We spent the night near Butgenbach. The next day we scouted that bridge—”

  “Why were you at that hospital?”

  “The fourth man with us got shot. An American convoy came along and took us there.”

  “Where Von Leinsdorf killed Sergeant Mallory and your own man.”

  “I guess he did—”

  “You guess so? You were driving the fucking jeep!”

  “He didn’t tell me what he was going to do, and he didn’t tell me after. He never told me anything.”

  “Why’d you come to Reims?”

  “He said we were going to meet the other squads, at that movie theater. That’s all I know.”

  “Where’d you cross the border?” asked Grannit.

  “In the mountains this morning. A place called Pont-Colin. He killed the guards. I left a message in the booth to warn somebody, I was trying to stop him—”

  Grannit held out a pen and a small notebook.

  “Write down your name,” he said.

  “Which one?”

  “Your real name.”

  Bernie did as he was told. Grannit took the notebook back from him and compared it to a sheet of paper he took from his pocket. Then he held up the note he’d taken from Pont-Colin, the words “REIMS” and “MOVIE HOUSE” on it.

  “You wrote this,” said Grannit.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why did you come to France, what’s your target?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t lie to me, god damn it—”

  “I don’t know, I swear to God he never told me. If you know anything, you know more than I do. There’s a second objective, but he never told me what it was—”

  “Why?”

  “He didn’t trust me.”

  Grannit moved closer to him and held up the note again. “Why didn’t he trust you? Why the hell did you write this?”

  “Because I’m an American.”

  Grannit stared hard at him. They heard multiple vehicles driving up fast outside. Grannit moved to the window, put two fingers in his mouth and gave a sharp whistle, then waved down to the radioman on the street.

  Down to my last chance, thought Bernie.

  “I am from Brooklyn, I swear to you it’s true, I was born there, I grew up there. My parents are German; they immigrated to New York, then moved back here six years ago. We lived in Frankfurt till they drafted me into their fucking army. I’ve been fixing cars in Berlin, I’ve never been in combat, I never shot at anybody; I got pulled into this because I speak English. They didn’t tell us what it was about and they killed anybody who didn’t go along with it. We didn’t even know where we were going until it happened.”

  Grannit walked back toward him. “What neighborhood in Brooklyn?”

  “Park Slope North, like I told you. I was born in Brooklyn Hospital on DeKalb. I went to PS 109 on Snyder Avenue, just off Flatbush. Mrs. Quinn was my third grade teacher. I was supposed to start Erasmus Hall the year we moved away. My best friend was Jackie Waldstein from the south side; his dad worked for the Rheingold brewery in Bushwick. We played ball every day in P
rospect Park, on the diamonds by the boat house.”

  “What was your address?”

  “Three seventy-five Union Street. South side of the street, near Sixth. Big white house, two stories, a porch that ran all the way around the front. We’d sit out there summer nights listening to Jack Benny and Fibber McGee. My buddies and me went to the movies Saturday at Loews Palace near Grand Army Plaza. Matinees, all the serials, Red Ryder, Flash Gordon, kids’ stuff. Three times a week I’d take the trolley down Flatbush to Ebbets Field; cost a quarter on Wednesdays for the right-field bleachers. I carved my fucking name in one of ’em with a pen knife. If we didn’t have the dough, we’d watch the game through this gap under the metal gate in right center. I caught a foul ball from Cookie Lavagetto, he signed it for me after the game, my parents still have the damn ball; I can tell you everybody who ever played for ’em.”

  Grannit hesitated. “They could’ve taught you all this.”

  “They could’ve but they didn’t; I swear to God it’s true; I lived it.”

  Bernie heard footsteps entering the building through the open front door down below.

  “Where’s the best cheesecake in Brooklyn?”

  “Cheesecake? Junior’s, on DeKalb and Flatbush; me and Jackie used to go there after school.”

  “Where’d your mother shop?”

  “There was a greengrocer on the corner, corner of Polhemus and Garfield; she went over there almost every day—”

  “What was it called?”

  “Solly’s, Solly’s Produce. There was a Laundromat next door, a radio repair shop, then a coffee shop run by two brothers, they were Greek, a long name, lots of vowels in it. My dad used to get that sticky pastry they’d make on his way to work, what do they call it, baklava?”

  “There was a candy store across the street.”

  “I know it, I know it, Foppiano’s, this nice old Italian guy, had a big mustache, wore an old worn-out gray sweater every day, kept everything in glass jars behind the counter. Root beer sticks, Houten’s chocolates, Black Crows, those little licorice deals? That’s where I bought comic books—and it wasn’t right across from Solly’s, it was diagonal.”

  “Tell me something that happened on that street. Something you’d only know if you were living there.”

  Bernie thought frantically. “When I was a little kid—I don’t know, maybe six or seven?—there was a robbery at an Esso station. A girl got shot, I think she was a teenager. I remember it real clear; police were all over the place. I saw them put her in the ambulance, taking her away. Shook me up bad. There was blood on the sidewalk for a couple days.”

  Grannit looked as if he’d been slapped, and Bernie knew he remembered it, too. He could hear footsteps on the landing below. The other men would reach the apartment in less than a minute.

  “You’re from the neighborhood,” said Bernie. “You are, aren’t you? You’re from Park Slope.”

  Grannit said nothing, but his look confirmed it.

  “Jesus Christ, you know I’m telling the truth, what else do you need to hear?”

  “I don’t know what else.”

  “Please. I know you don’t have to believe me, but I want to help you.”

  He waited. Grannit just stared at him.

  “I’m sorry he killed your partner; I’m sorry he killed anybody, but he’s not finished yet, and whatever’s coming is going to be worse. Mister, I got reasons to want him dead every bit as bad as you. I’ve known this guy since he joined the brigade; I know a lot about him, I know how he thinks. If there’s anybody in this whole fucking war who can help you stop him, it’s me.”

  Grannit lowered the gun just as three MPs came through the door. He turned to them.

  “Miller was here, before he went to the theater,” he told them, then pointed to the bedroom. “He killed the woman who lived here, body’s in there. Call the police.”

  “You really want to get the gendarmes involved?” an MP asked skeptically.

  “You stay here and handle it. It was a Kraut killed her, make that clear to ’em, the same guy we’re looking for. He’s an SS lieutenant, Erich Von Leinsdorf. He’s dressed like a GI; he’s one of Skorzeny’s men—get that out on the radio. Make sure these cops know it wasn’t an American did this. And get that old uniform out of there.”

  The MP looked at Bernie again. “We got those three guys downstairs. Like you asked. The ones from the theater.”

  “Any of ’em talk?”

  “Only a little. Two of ’em hardly speakie the English. That sergeant you took out was their squad leader.”

  “His name was William Sharper,” said Bernie. “He was an American deserter.”

  The lead MP looked at Bernie, even more puzzled, then back at Grannit. “You still want us to bring those Krauts upstairs?”

  “No,” said Grannit. “Hand ’em off to Counter Intelligence.”

  “So who’s this then?” asked the MP, looking at Bernie again.

  “He’s a witness. He saw the hitter up close.”

  “Where you going, Lieutenant?”

  “I’m going after him,” said Grannit, grabbing Bernie’s arm. “And this one’s coming with me.”

  28

  Reims

  DECEMBER 20, MIDNIGHT

  They left the apartment and climbed into an extra jeep Grannit’s men had left downstairs. Grannit took the wheel. Bernie directed him to the ware house where they’d stashed the French ambulance and told him how they’d made their way into the city. The bodies of the two drivers were still inside, but their weapons and the jerricans holding all their equipment were gone.

  “He must’ve come back here,” said Bernie. “After he knocked me out, before he went to the movie house.”

  Grannit wanted to know what was in the cans, and Bernie told him about what he’d seen in three of them: supplies, ammunition, German uniforms. There was one can that he’d never looked into that Von Leinsdorf had always protected. Grannit took a radio call from his detail, updates from the theater. Hearing one side of it, Bernie gathered that Von Leinsdorf had avoided capture. Grannit gave the address of the ware house to his men, with orders to check it out, then ended the call.

  Grannit lifted a box from the back of the jeep and handed it to Bernie. It held an MP’s blouse, belt, and armband, puttees for his boots, a white-lettered helmet and nightstick.

  “Put those on,” he said. “As far as anybody’s concerned, you’re an MP, working with me on special assignment. Use your real name, don’t talk to anybody, don’t answer any questions unless you ask me first.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Don’t leave my sight. If you run, if you touch a weapon, if you make one wrong move, I won’t wait for a firing squad, I’ll kill you where you stand.”

  “I understand.”

  Grannit waited while Bernie changed.

  “What’s your name, sir?” he asked.

  “Lieutenant Grannit. That’s all you fucking need to know.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  When Bernie had finished dressing, Grannit waved him toward the driver’s seat. “They taught you how to handle a jeep. Drive back to the movie house.”

  When Erich Von Leinsdorf and Eddie Bennings walked out the back of the theater, the German turned left and led him down an alley. He had scouted the area earlier before going inside. After dumping his MP equipment in an alley that led deeper into the city, where he knew it would be found, they ran three blocks to the west, jumped a fence, and squeezed through a narrow gap between buildings.

  “Where we going, Boss?” asked Bennings.

  “Don’t talk, Eddie. We’re not out of this yet.”

  They emerged from the buildings onto the banks of the Aisne Canal, barely visible through the fog twenty feet below. They heard police whistles blowing, shouts, and men running through the fog behind them. Von Leinsdorf directed Bennings to a rope fixed to an iron ring hanging down a steep concrete wharf. Eddie glanced over the edge and saw that a small flatboat had been tied o
ff on a narrow ledge at the bottom of the rope. Von Leinsdorf followed Bennings down, untied the boat, and they each took an oar. While Grannit’s military detail dropped roadblocks into place on all the side streets feeding into the square, they were in the boat, rowing silently south on the still water.

  They stayed close to the shoreline, working their oars without a splash. Unable to see the top of the bank through the fog, they twice heard voices and car engines from above near the edge of the canal. Each time they shipped their oars and drifted until the voices and cars faded away.

  They rowed downstream for half a mile, and Von Leinsdorf steered them to the left bank. Another small dock at the base of a quay appeared out of the mist, and he angled toward it, jumped out first, and tied off the boat. A small flight of stairs led up to the top of the bank.

  They emerged onto a quiet street under a bridge that spanned the canal and the adjacent river. A single civilian car, a nondescript black Renault, was parked across the street. Von Leinsdorf took out keys and unlocked the trunk. Eddie Bennings had calmed down during the boat ride, impressed by the man’s moves under pressure. He’d known a few guys with this kind of cool back home in Jersey—made men, guys he’d always looked up to—but never anybody in the army.

  “I gotta say, Dick, whatever it is they want you for,” said Bennings, “you got me beat by a mile.”

  “I didn’t have a chance to tell you. Turns out we’re in the same line.”

  “Black market? Can’t say I’m surprised.”

  “I had to take out those MPs. They get their hands on me, it’s like this...” He slashed his hand across his throat, then lifted a suitcase out of the trunk. “Don’t know about you, I’m not that interested in firing squads.”

  “Brother, I’m picking up your frequency.”

  “Maybe they were looking for both of us back there. Doesn’t matter now.”

  “Except you saw it coming, set up the boat, left this car here thinking about a way out.”

  “Helps to cover the bases, Eddie. We gotta lose the uniforms. Here, help yourself.”

  Von Leinsdorf opened a suitcase packed with everyday outfits. Both men picked some out and changed clothes by the side of the car. Eddie noticed a couple of jerricans sitting in the backseat.