Excellent work Fräulein Reinhold, just like you planned. Only a few floors too high!
It had started to rain, but Alex longed for nothing more than to stand outside in the middle of it. She stared through the window and said a quick prayer.
Dear Lord, if you should be out there somewhere listening, please get me out of here, I don’t care how, just get me out, and I’ll pay any price, even if it means going to church.
She closed her eyes and listened to the drumming of the rain. Something about the sound made her hesitate and open the window. It was making an unspeakable noise, as if someone were striking a hammer against an anvil again and again. Alex poked her head outside and thought she must be dreaming. At that moment, she believed she had her prayer to thank for it. A fire escape! Iron steps led down floor by floor to the yard.
She packed her torch, shouldered her bag, stepped onto the grating and looked down. A fleet of lorries and delivery trucks was parked in perfect formation, otherwise the courtyard was empty – not a blue uniform in sight. The cops had overlooked the fire escape.
Alex gripped the damp, cold handrail and descended the wobbly steel staircase step by step, keeping the windows and yard in view. The wind blew rain in her face and the steel structure swayed and squealed under her feet, but she inched ever closer to the ground. She was dripping wet, with her bandage soaked through and her bag growing heavier by the minute until, at last, she reached the bottom.
If only she could tell Benny about the fire exit, but hopefully his luck would be in too. Using the delivery trucks as cover, she made her way to the entrance onto Passauer Strasse. The great iron gate was locked, but she’d been expecting that. She took out her picklock and, though she was shivering slightly and needed a little longer than usual, soon had it cracked.
The gate squeaked as she opened it just enough to slip through. And then she was outside. Free at last!
Never had she enjoyed listening to traffic quite so much. She sucked in the air greedily, as if only now could she breathe again after surfacing from a long dive. The rain had stopped. There wasn’t much happening on Passauer Strasse, just a few hurried pedestrians snapping shut their umbrellas, and two or three cars splashing through puddles. No one paid her any attention. She tilted her head back and looked at the department store front, the crowning feature of which was the giant neon sign here on Passauer Strasse. Lit up at night like this, the store had a festive, almost Christmassy feel. She thought of Benny and, in the same moment, saw him clambering on the balcony’s steel railings. What on earth was he doing there? He didn’t seem to have moved very far from his previous hiding place, where she had caught sight of him moments before.
He stood on the balcony ledge, outside the railings. Alex caught her breath. The ledge could only be a foot wide. Surely he wasn’t thinking of climbing down, not with the heavy bag on his shoulders. But that’s what it looked like. Quick as a flash Benny crouched, facing inwards as he gripped the ledge with both hands, gradually lowering his body until he hung, legs dangling, a dark shadow against the narrow, illuminated windows. His feet were too far from the next ledge; he’d never make it down. A gasp of horror made her turn. Behind her stood a thin man with metal-rimmed spectacles and bowler hat, craning his neck.
A police officer appeared in silhouette above the railings, the star on his shako flashing briefly in the light. Benny was hanging from the balcony to hide, not to escape. The building’s front was his final resort, but the cop must have seen him. He was leaning over the railings as if he knew someone was there.
Alex ought to have fled, but couldn’t, and stood on Passauer Strasse as if rooted to the spot.
‘The cops are there already,’ Alex heard the man in metal-rimmed spectacles say. ‘Why on earth would you jump from KaDeWe?’
Alex couldn’t see exactly what was happening, only that the officer was now next to Benny, having also climbed over the railing. Did he mean to help him up? It seemed not. He tilted his head forwards as if speaking. Benny seemed to be saying something too, though Alex couldn’t make out what.
Benny gave a cry, making her start. Was his strength deserting him? Surely not! Give yourself up, she thought. Climb back up and turn yourself in.
The cop’s head was still tilted forwards and, for a brief moment, Alex made out his face in the glow of the sign. He was grimacing furiously. What on earth was going on? Had Benny shot his mouth off again? For a second time she heard him cry, more drawn out now, and desperate. He sounded like the boy he was, rather than the man he wanted to be.
She was holding her head at such an angle that her neck hurt, but, still, she couldn’t look away. Why had he let go with his right hand? How was he supposed to hold on, with just one hand plus the heavy bag on his shoulders? She stared and stared and couldn’t believe what she saw. Until at last she understood.
No scream, no cry. He fell silently through the night.
There was a thud like a sack of potatoes falling from a truck and, at the same time, a mighty crack. Then everything was quiet.
She snapped out of her trance to see Benny not ten metres away, painfully contorted and motionless on the ground. She rushed to his side. Hardly any blood, strangely. Benny’s eyes were closed. There was someone wheezing behind her. The man with the metal-rimmed spectacles was staring goggle-eyed.
‘Call an ambulance!’ she hissed, but the man shrugged his shoulders helplessly and made himself scarce.
Alex leaned towards Benny and heard him rasping. He was still alive!
She kneeled on the pavement, laid his head on her knees and stroked his hair. He opened his eyes; his breathing became quicker and quicker.
‘Alex,’ he said.
‘Try not to talk. There’s an ambulance on its way.’
‘I’m sorry, Alex, I messed up.’
‘No!’
‘I couldn’t… I couldn’t hold on any longer. He was standing on my fingers.’ There was a wheezing sound as Benny tried to catch his breath. He was finding it hard to speak.
‘Don’t talk so much, Benny, don’t talk so much.’
‘Get out of here… or they’ll catch you. These are bad people…’
She looked skywards to where the cop was staring down. He said something to his colleague and gestured towards her, towards Alex and Benny on Passauer Strasse below. The other cop began speaking animatedly, seeming to curse his partner. That wouldn’t do any good now.
Benny took another breath and, again, there was a wheezing in his lungs. Dark blood suddenly streamed from his mouth.
‘Benny!’ she cried. ‘Hold on. Hold on!’
He tried to smile. ‘Promise you’ll go dancing with me sometime.’
‘I promise.’
The interval between his breaths became shorter and shorter. Alex wiped at the blood with her sleeve. Benny gazed at her wistfully the whole time, as if preparing to say goodbye. He closed his eyes.
‘Don’t give up, do you hear me, don’t give up! The ambulance will be here soon.’ Benny’s wheezing became more and more frenetic until suddenly it stopped, as if someone had switched off a machine. ‘No,’ Alex screamed. ‘No! You can’t just die! I won’t let you!’
She let his head sink slowly onto the pavement and looked around. A few rubberneckers had made their way over from Tauentzienstrasse. The man with the metal-rimmed spectacles hadn’t reappeared, nor was there any sign of an ambulance, but a group of uniformed officers emerged from a discreet side door of KaDeWe.