London
Fog seemed to envelop the city. Zahra got out of the taxi in front of Wilson & Wilson and felt the damp passing through her coat into her bones.
Benjamin met her with a serious expression on his face. Scarcely had he greeted her before he gave her a folder. She had come directly from the airport to Wilson’s office. She hadn’t even had a little bit of fun as she usually did, walking through the lower floors of the bookshop.
The building, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, had always been one that she loved. It was like an endless symphony of words, hidden in the volumes that covered the walls of the two lower floors. But up here, in the apartment and Benjamin’s office, the atmosphere was different. There were books all over the walls as well, but there were spaces for large paintings, and you could tell that Sara had a hand in the decoration from the presence of flowers in vases on little tables here and there.
Benjamin poured himself a glass of port. Zahra opened the folder, looking carefully at the photographs it contained and reading the papers that accompanied them.
When she had finished, she looked up at Benjamin.
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as one can be in such cases. My man was looking for an SS officer who had disappeared in the days after the war ended. Someone wanted to settle a score with him. Someone who lost his mother and his father at Auschwitz. His only goal was to bring this man to justice. I have spent five years looking for him, and I think I have found him, but as you can see from the folder, one of the men who is next to him in the photos I’ve taken looks astonishingly like Ludger Wimmer, your father’s former business partner.”
“Yes, it could be him. Who is your man?”
“A good investigator. A Jew. His father was a judge, a man who had given his life over to the law. He decided that his wife and son should leave Germany as soon as Hitler was made chancellor. My client was ten years old back then and didn’t want to go. He thought that he was a German and didn’t understand why suddenly they treated him as though he were no longer one. But leaving saved his life, because his father and his grandparents and his uncles and cousins all died at Auschwitz.”
“What’s his name?”
“Johan Silverstein. He’s a journalist, so he was able to go hunting without arousing too much suspicion.”
“And why did the Silverstein family decide to flee to Chile?”
“You’ll have to ask him. All I can tell you is that one of his mother’s sisters was married to a Chilean diplomat, which made it the most convenient choice. Johan grew up in Santiago, where he finished school and where he now works as a journalist. There’s a large German colony in Chile, which makes it a good place to look for former Nazis. Johan found me another man I was looking for there as well.”
“And what happened to this man?” Zahra asked.
“I don’t know. I gave the information to the people who were looking for him. All I had to do was find him.”
“All right, I’ll go to Chile.”
“And you’ll kill him,” said Benjamin.
“Yes.”
“Do you want one of my men to go with you?”
“I’ll ask Fernando to come with me.”
“Fernando? You know that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with this business, much less with killing anyone. He was able to kill for personal reasons, and would only do it again if it were for the same cause.”
“He’ll come with me. He doesn’t have to kill anyone. I’ll do the killing. This will be the only time that I pull the trigger for pleasure.”
Benjamin knew that Zahra didn’t need Fernando to help her on the mission, but in order to save her from herself afterwards, so he nodded.
“I’ll tell Sara that she needs to do without Fernando for a few days.”
“Yes, I suppose it will be a bit of an inconvenience.”
“Well, the Duforts are always good at sorting this kind of thing out. I’m sure they’ll find someone.”
“What about Catalina?”
“She could look after the bookshop while Fernando’s not there, but Marvin would never understand it. She’s obsessed and follows him everywhere. We owe it to him not to get her involved.”
“Well, it would be the best solution while Fernando is with me.”
Benjamin shrugged resignedly.
“Are you coming to eat with us this evening?”
“Thank you, but I’d rather get started on the trip to Paris to find Fernando. I’ll need someone in Santiago to get me a gun.”
“Yes, I know. I’ll give you a man’s address. Don’t get Johan involved: he only looks for people.”
“I won’t.”
“Good luck.”
Zahra smiled and left the office, and was not surprised to bump into Sara a few hours later on the train to Paris. Sara had decided that it would be she who took charge of keeping the bookshop’s doors open while Fernando was away.