EPILOGUE

FUNERAL IN BERLIN

Berlin, Germany, 1993

There is something sobering about wandering around the city of the dead. And a great truth comes as a revelation. Death is not the great equaliser it is said to be. For even in death, the social structure of society is strictly observed. And the wealthy, in death as in life, occupy mansions even in a necropolis.

Hand-in-hand Stephanie and Johnny strolled slowly along one of the wide shady paths just inside the perimeter of the cemetery. Leafy linden trees cast cool dappled shadows on the large, well-tended mausoleums which bordered the surrounding wall, and the birds in the branches serenaded the wealthy merchant princes and lawyers, society matrons, and millionaires who lay inside these marble and granite temples adorned with cornices and columns, pediments, and carved friezes, their names chiselled in gleaming gold.

Except for the birds, the silence was unearthly.

Stephanie pressed his arm and said, 'Look, Johnny! There's a funeral in progress.'

For a moment they stopped and watched the solemn ritual from a distance. The mourners all in black. The giant wreaths and opulent flower arrangements. The mahogany casket gleaming richly. The priest leading a prayer.

Slowly they continued walking until they reached the largest and grandest mausoleum of them all. It was a half-circle of white

marble, with ten fluted Corinthian capitals carved with olive leaves, a fancy rotunda, dome under which was centred an above-ground crypt. An eternal flame flickered in front of a white life-size marble statue of a woman with arms outstretched.

Stephanie recognised it at once. 'This is it,' she said. Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence, and she lowered it to a near-whisper. 'Eerie, how the sculptor captured her likeness.'

Johnny smiled grimly. 'Yeah, but who's buried in it?'

Stephanie sighed. 'That, I'm afraid, is something we will never know.' She looked around, as though to soak up the surroundings, to memorise them like a photograph. 'According to Grandpa's notes, this is where it all began for him. The mausoleum hadn't been built when he attended the funeral, but it's what set the entire biography in motion. It's what got him killed.'

'From the look of that statue, one would think she was a saint.'

'She was a monster. But the one thing you can't take away from her was her talent. She sang like an angel.'

They fell silent as a stooped old man approached. He was wearing a hat and holding the hand of a small boy, his grandchild, Stephanie guessed. The boy was holding a bunch of pink carnations. When the man reached them, he doffed his hat in greeting.'Guten Mor gen,' he said, politely.

'Hello.' Stephanie smiled at him and Johnny nodded. The boy laid the flowers on the steps of the mausoleum.

'You are English?' the old man asked.

'American,' Stephanie said.

'Americans saved us after the war with the airlift. Us Berliners will never forget.' He paused. 'Strange, is it not? The Wall has come down and the country is reunited.'

Stephanie asked. 'Do you come here often?'

The old man smiled. 'I visit her grave every day. You see, during the war, even as we were losing, her voice gave us hope and strength. It is a tragedy she had to die so young.'

Stephanie caught Johnny's glance. 'Yes,' she said huskily, 'it's too bad.'

The old man doffed his hat again and took the boy's hand and they walked off.

A tear sparkled in the corner of one eye and slowly slid down her face. 'So many deaths!' she said quietly. 'And for what? Vanity! The curse of eternal youth!' She shook her head. 'All those thousands murdered. And Grandpa. Vinette. Aaron Kleinfelder. Astrid. Eduardo.' She stifled a sob as she uttered his name.

Johnny said gently, 'Miss the caballero?'

She blinked back her tears, then slid her arm through his and smiled bravely. 'You're my caballero,' she said huskily.

'Forever?' he asked.

'Don't use that word!' She gazed at the cold marble statue and then pressed herself against the warm living reality of his body.

'In that case, what if I settle for loving you a lifetime?'

She smiled and held tightly on to him. 'Now that,' she said, holding her face up for his kiss, 'is something I think I can live with.'