LIAM ENTERED THE FOYER and saw Catherine’s coat hanging on the hook. He checked his watch. Three-thirty. He walked into the living room and saw Catherine lying on the couch.
“Are you all right? I thought you were working all day? Do we need to rush you to the hospital?”
“Will you stop doing that every time I have a headache or runny nose? I’ve had a rough day.”
“Lena?”
She nodded. “You have no idea.”
“Did you get the whole story?”
“I got enough.”
“But you stopped?”
“Had to. And don’t think it’s just because I’m pregnant, although I’m sure that has something to do with it. Liam, they threw them out of the window of a moving train. The twins. Lena and Karolina threw them off of a moving fucking train. They flung their babies out the window.”
Liam sat down hard. “Oh, Jesus. How terrible. I feel so badly for them all.” He shook his head, slid over and put his arms around a weeping Catherine.
“Liam, they thought they were saving the babies’ lives. They knew that the Nazis would kill the babies as soon as the train got to the camp. Dead on arrival. They did the only thing they could think of. Who would have that strength? Not me.”
“Me neither. I couldn’t throw my child out of a train. A helpless baby? I would go mad.”
“I have an inkling that one or more of them did.”
“What does this do to our assignment? How are we supposed to find out about two persons who died as babies seventy years ago?”
“Obviously, Lena thinks they survived. Either way, she wants closure. Can’t we do that for her? She bore the responsibility for the fate of one of those babies. She took Rachel and threw her into a field. She loved that child. Hell, Liam, the way she tells the story, it’s like the babies were hers as well. She calls them our babies.”
“I’m starting to think Arthur might be correct. Maybe Lena has talked herself into a scenario, deluded herself into thinking that the babies had a chance at survival and that belief consumes her. Is that delusional behavior? Is it irrational? Jesus, Cat, I don’t know.”
“Don’t, Liam. She’s not delusional. She’s a hero. Every inch of her story rings true. I can’t find a flaw. Could there be embellishments after so many years? Confusion of dates? Times? The way particular details actually played out? There could be, but I don’t think there are. She’s got every detail and one follows the other. Bizarre? Yes. But we’re talking about the Holocaust. What’s more unbelievable than that?”
“More unbelievable? Two rational people who thought it was a good idea to throw two babies out of a window of a moving train and expect them to survive.”
“It was done to save their lives. It was the only chance they had. They would have been killed a few hours later. Everyone knew that. She pinned an address on both babies and threw them into a field from a slow-moving train. They had a chance at life. Slim, but a chance. They had no chance if they took them to the concentration camp.”
“That’s what Karolina did with her dog, Madeleine. Abandoned him in a field.”
Catherine nodded. “Rather than turn him over to the Nazis to be killed. You’re right. Lena told me that Karolina went into a dazed state and mumbled ‘Madeleine’ before she abandoned her babies. Now you’re getting it.”
“I don’t know if I’m getting it. She didn’t abandon them, she threw them out of a window of a moving train.”
“Will you stop saying that?”
“No, follow me here. Karolina throws the babies out of a train window in 1943 somewhere in rural Poland. For whatever reason, Lena feels compelled to find them, but she waits seventy years before hiring me. Do I have that right?”
“No. Lena threw one of the babies herself. She bears the guilt. And she promised Karolina she’d come back and find them and tell them that they were loved and not abandoned. She swore to God.”
“Where was the train when they threw the babies?”
Catherine shook her head. “She doesn’t know. Somewhere between Chrzanów and Gross-Rosen, which is now Rogoznica, Poland. A few hundred miles.”
Liam threw his hands up. “A few hundred miles? And why now? Lena survived. She could have looked for them in 1945 at the end of the war. And anytime thereafter. And what happened to Karolina?”
“I don’t know yet what happened to Karolina, but my guess is that she didn’t make it. As to why she’s so compelled to find them now—that’s the jackpot question. There’s a reason, Liam. That’s the undisclosed secret I’m always talking about.”
Liam shook his head. “Without some kind of proof of her story, you’re going to have a hell of a time defeating Arthur. Maybe she’s not delusional, but I certainly think Lena evidences signs of an obsessive behavior disorder. Didn’t the doctor tell you that it could be a psychological disorder if it consumes one’s life?”
Catherine nodded. “Yes.”
“What are you going to do tomorrow morning before Judge Peterson?” Liam asked.
“I’m going to stand my ground. He has no right to force me to reveal client confidences.”
“Lena wouldn’t waive them?”
“I wouldn’t ask her. She’s on the up-and-up, Liam. I know it.”
Liam closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know how she expects me to find those kids. Even if her story’s all true. Without proof, it’s an unwinnable defense. This case could wind up as a disaster for Lena. And what makes it all the worse is that you’re preparing to go to jail.”
“I know you’re upset, but don’t give up. Please. See if you can find out anything about a woman named Muriel Bernstein. She was a student nurse in Kraków in 1939 and was on the transport to Gross-Rosen. She was sitting with them. Also, see if you can find a family named Schultz in Regensburg, Germany. That may be where the babies ended up. That was Siegfried’s family name. Either one of those people could corroborate Lena’s story.”
“Siegfried? Like the opera? There must be a million Siegfrieds in Germany. And Schultz? Could he have a more common last name? That’s like tracking down a man named Smith in America. Not to mention that Muriel Bernstein is a pretty common name as well.”
“Too hard for the great Taggart?”
“I didn’t say that.”