It was among the hardest things he would ever have to do. How do you tell a man his daughter has been murdered?
He collected Albert Heiden at nine thirty the next morning from the front office at Dachau concentration camp. At first the man looked bewildered by the offer of a lift.
‘Who are you? What is going on?’
‘I am Inspector Wolff of Munich criminal police. You are a free man, Herr Heiden.’
‘I was always free in my mind.’
Seb felt a surge of relief: this man had not been broken by his incarceration. But the relief did not last more than a few moments.
‘Well, why are you here? I don’t know you. Are you taking me somewhere quiet to shoot me?’
This was it. He had to tell him.
‘No, I am taking you home to your wife, who needs you badly. Very badly, sir, for there has been a dreadful occurrence.’ Don’t wait, Seb, you have to say the words. Now. ‘I must tell you, Herr Heiden, that your daughter Hildegard is dead.’
Albert Heiden had walked with pride and strength from his unwarranted imprisonment. He had survived and maintained his manhood. Now he looked Seb in the eye and saw within moments that he was telling the truth and that of all the terrible things he had suffered these past weeks, this was the worst.
He simply slumped, and Seb had to catch him and hold him.
*
The breeze was gloriously cooling. The sun was hot, hotter than it had been all summer. The waters of the lakes were warming up, shimmering in the light. It was late afternoon and Seb and Hexie were on their way to the exquisite lake of Starnbergersee and that little beach on the far side where they had planned to spend his birthday two weeks earlier.
‘And unlike our last swim, no one will be creeping through the undergrowth spying on us,’ he said.
‘You hope. Personally I don’t give a fig.’
They had a picnic with them in a basket. Sausage, cheese, bread, Austrian wine, fruit. Even cutlery, plates, glasses and a cloth to lay out their little banquet. This was the way it should have been all those days ago.
Hexie didn’t hesitate. She slipped out of her clothes and stood in front of him, bold and unashamed as he feasted his eyes on her.
‘It all belongs to you now, Seb. I have a Reserved sticker on me.’
‘You’re more beautiful than ever.’
‘And you meant it – what you said in hospital?’
‘What was that? What did I say?’
She hit him and laughed.
‘Don’t forget, Hexie, you were delirious. The knock on your head. You probably imagined some conversation that didn’t happen.’
‘You’re an easy man to hate sometimes, Sebastian Wolff.’
‘Then you won’t want to marry me, will you?’
‘Come on, get your clothes off and I’ll see whether you’re up to the task. I’m a hard girl to please.’