I wondered if that was just bravado, or if he was already reconciled. I knew one thing, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be in his shoes at that moment.
“You’ll die, Connor, in due time.” Kohler’s voice was savage now, the gloves were coming off. “But first you’ll tell us what safe house you’ve got the Jew in now, and who the other members of your nip cell are. If you talk fast, we might even keep you alive a while longer, whatever you saw in my eyes.”
Far from being intimidate, Connor just burst out laughing at this. I had to give the man credit, he had guts.
“Do you really think I’m a Japanese agent, Mr. Kohler?” he asked after a moment, gesturing at the debris around him. “Does this really look like the lair of an international spy-master?”
Kohler seemed as baffled by his attitude as I was.
“Look, Connor, you’re just making it hard on yourself. You’re going to talk, and it’s up to you whether it’s hard or easy. We’ve got all the time in the world to get it out of you.” That wasn’t exactly true but I suppose it was good psychology. Not that it seemed to impress the old man.
“You have very little time, Mr. Kohler. All of us have very little time.”
Ed jumped to his feet.
“All right, we’ve played enough games for now. Where is the Jew?”
“He’s gone,” Connor replied calmly. “And he won’t be back. I’m only talking to you now because I know nothing I say can help you. You may find him, but not through me. All the time he was here, the days I could have betrayed him, I carried a small vial of poison with me wherever I went, just in case. Suicide is a mortal sin in my faith, but I’m sure the blessed mercy of Christ would have encompassed and forgiven me.”
Kohler nodded.
“A Christie.” He glanced at me with a trace of self-satisfaction. “I told you and Pete this afternoon, Bill, check out the Christies. And I was right.”
“I’m not a ‘Christie’ as you put it, Mr. Kohler. I am a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, ordained in 1946, one year before what you people call Liberation. I’ve surrendered my self-respect and my humanity over the years, but never my faith.”
“A priest. A whisky priest to boot.” Kohler looked contemptuously around the filthy bottle-littered loft. “You’re a credit to your calling, Father.”
Ed was trying to get him angry, trigger a hot and potentially revealing response, I knew the technique well. So, apparently, did Connor.
“You needn’t try to provoke me, Mr. Kohler.” He was as unruffled as ever, his voice calm and contemplative. “I couldn’t hate you as a man because of my principles, and I don’t even despise you as a symbol. You, your Gestapo, your whole omnipotent Reich have become a juggernaut spinning out of control, hurtling on your way to destruction, just like a cancer that burns itself out when it kills off its host. You’ve scourged all the dignity and gentleness and compassion from this world and now your cancer has nothing left to feed on but itself. I pity you, Mr. Kohler, I pity what you’ve become, all of you.” He looked down at the bottle in his hand. “And what I’ve become, of course.”
Kohler walked over to the mattress and stood directly over the old man.
“Where… is… the… Jew?”
“I don’t know.”
He cracked him across the face with the palm of his hand, twice, and the old man rocked with the blows. But when he looked up his voice was firm.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I honestly don’t know. I can see your dilemma, of course, because if I did know I would never tell you.”
Ed walked away and motioned me to join him by the doorway.
“He could be telling the truth,” he said in a low voice. “He might just be a Christie fanatic who stumbled on the Jew and harbored him.”
I had my doubts.
“He’s awful cool, Ed. I’d lay odds he’s a pro.”
Kohler frowned.
“I tend to doubt it. He spilled too fast, he’s not behaving like a trained agent confronting interrogation. He’s more like a martyr itching to face the lions. He’s ready to die, I think he almost welcomes it. I’d give you ten to one he doesn’t know where the Jew is.”
I guess I’d built my hopes too high, because I could feel that sick feeling in my gut at Ed’s words. Shit, this thing was becoming a game of musical chairs, we were going around in a perpetual mind-numbing circle.
“Where do we go from here, then? He’s the only lead we’ve got, and the Jew has obviously confided in him. Isn’t there anything he can tell us?”
“That’s what we’ve got to find out. I’m going down to the car, I’ll get the field interrogation kit and we’ll go to work on him. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong, maybe he is with the nips. Just don’t count on too much. And while I’m gone try to soften him up, I’ll play the heavy.”
I nodded, then put the gun in my belt and walked over toward the old man, still keeping a safe distance between us in case he became another instant karate expert.
“Look, Connor,” I said in a friendly tone, “I’m just a city cop, I don’t know what’s behind all of this and I don’t care. But that Kohler, he’s a mean bastard, I’ve seen him take people apart and it’s not a pretty sight. Why not spare yourself a lot of grief and level with me, then I can take you into custody and keep you away from the Gestapo. Just tell me where the Jew is, make it easy for yourself.”
Instead of taking the bait the old man just veered off into another tangent.
“Do you know why I carried that vial of poison with me all the time the Jew was here, Lieutenant?” His voice was soft, and he didn’t wait for an answer. “Because in 1949 I broke under torture and betrayed my entire resistance cell to the SS. That was in Philadelphia, ‘The Cradle of Liberty’ I think they used to call it. Seven people, two laymen, three priests, a seminarian and a nun. They were all executed. The commandant had a sense of humor, he made me watch the execution. They didn’t blindfold any of them and they all saw me there, in his Mercedes staff car, sitting next to him. And I was too afraid to even cry out, to beg them to forgive me, to try and join them. I sat there doing nothing, and all their eyes were on me, right up to the end. I’ll never forget those eyes, Lieutenant.” He took another long swig from the bottle and then looked up with a strange, crooked smile. “So you see, there’s really nothing that terrifies me in the Gestapo’s bag of tricks, nothing at all, not after twenty-five years of living with that day. Your ingenious instruments can only give me relief, Lieutenant.”
Kohler entered, carrying a black attaché case. He looked at me expectantly, but I shook my head. “He’s freudy, Ed.” I didn’t bother to lower my voice this time. “Either that or one hell of a good actor.”
Kohler pulled over a battered table and set up the attaché case. He tossed me some nylon rope and I tied the old man’s hands and legs together, removing the sandals first so his feet were bare. Kohler strolled over with a thin leather pouch in one hand and looked down at Connor.
“In a few minutes we’re going to hurt you badly. It’s not something I enjoy doing, and I’d prefer not to do it at all. So I’m going to ask you a few final questions, and if you answer them truthfully none of this will be necessary.”
“I’ve been telling you the truth, Mr. Kohler. I think you know that.”
Ed did, or at least he was more or less sure, but a reasonable certainty isn’t enough in this kind of business. Unfortunately for Connor.
“Where did the Jew go when he left here?”
“I’ve told you, I don’t know. He didn’t tell me he was leaving, he just went out one afternoon and never came back.”
“Did he leave anything here?”