Julian sat impatiently in the small café in Kreuzberg waiting for Felix. It was the same café where they’d met before, only this time there was no piano player or beautiful redhead surrounded by suitors. But none of that mattered. Julian saw nothing around him except the watch on his wrist. Where was Felix?
A half hour late, Felix finally appeared, visibly distracted. He sat down, ordered a bottle of expensive wine and a slice of fruitcake, and did not waste any time on small talk or even a hello.
“Damn it, Julian, you should not have mentioned to my father that I said Jacob Levi could see René,” Felix scolded. “That was between us, Julian. Now I have to clean up your mistakes.”
Clean up my mistakes? I should strangle you right now. Julian ordered a cup of coffee and tried to keep his voice even. “Well, are you planning to take care of it?”
Felix speared his cake with the fork and ignored the question. Julian watched him separate the fruit from the crust. His only goal was to keep Felix talking, anything to stall for time. Ludwig should be on his way to Sachsenhausen with Jacob Levi by now, Julian thought anxiously. A thousand things could go wrong.
Felix glanced at his watch. “Charlotte should have been here. Did she mention anything to you?”
“I know she is posing for Friedrich Fricke, and she said something about going out with Fricke’s assistant, Eva, and then coming here to meet us. She said we should wait for her if she is running late.”
Felix licked his lips. “Going out with Eva, huh? Was that her excuse?” He cleared his throat angrily and stood abruptly. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
Felix glared at him. “I have to make a phone call.”
As Felix turned, Julian grabbed him by the sleeve. “Can’t it wait? Charlotte should be here very soon.”
Felix pushed away Julian’s hand and stared him down. “You look nervous, Julian.”
Before Julian could respond, Felix headed to the back of the café. Julian could barely breathe. Who was he calling? Julian watched his determined stride and felt that his feeble plan was about to fall apart. Using Ludwig as a middleman was much too risky. But Ludwig was the only person who had keys to both René’s and Jacob’s prison cells. He was the only viable option.
Felix returned, his arms stiff at his sides, his eyes blazing. “I’m cutting this short. I have to leave.”
Julian’s head began to spin.
“Jacob Levi is missing.”
“Missing?” Julian’s heart was racing.
Felix laughed contemptuously. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised.”
“Where are you going?”
Felix leaned forward, eyeing Julian with hatred. “You know exactly where I’m going.”
“Then I am going with you,” Julian announced and stood.
Felix glared at him. “No, you’re staying here. You’ve done enough, Julian. Besides,” he gestured to the entrance. “We wouldn’t want to miss Charlotte, now would we?”
They stood facing each other, the lies between them palpable. Felix broke the silence. “You are playing both sides, aren’t you?” “I said I am going with you.”
“For old time’s sake, right?” Felix angrily tossed some bills onto the table, turned, and left the café. Julian followed him to his car. The young driver leaning against the door was smoking a cigarette and immediately threw it to the ground when he saw Felix approaching.
Julian got into the car and Felix did not stop him. They sat side by side in silence. Felix stared out his window. Julian also looked out the window as they weaved through the streets like rats in a maze. He saw nothing; his thoughts were muddled. He glanced sideways at Felix and noticed several cake crumbs stuck to his cheek. Julian concentrated on them for the rest of the journey, too afraid to think about anything else.
The guards waved Felix’s car through the gate as they entered the prison grounds. An instant chill overtook Julian as he absorbed the desolate landscape of endless cement buildings—long, cold, windowless, gray blocks of monotony. He imagined René’s creativity dying inside.
Felix ordered the driver to park in front of the farthest building from the entrance and to wait for him to return. Julian noted that Felix had not included him in that order.
Julian followed Felix through a wide steel door, opened by the guards who had seen them approaching. Felix began to run and Julian kept pace with him. They ran through the prison corridors, maneuvering through the serpentine configuration.
Slowing down, Felix stopped in front of the last cell, which was also the darkest. Julian stood next to him. Neither acknowledged the other’s presence. They heard voices coming from inside. Felix immediately removed a Luger from his jacket.
“What the hell, Felix?”
“Insurance. Keep talking, Julian, and I use this.”
Julian said nothing. What he was feeling did not matter. If Jacob was in the cell with René, he wanted them to have every possible second together.
“You’ve got a visitor, Levi,” Julian heard Ludwig say from inside the cell. “But if you open your trap about who brought him, I will kill you.”
Julian heard a loud kick, then an excruciating moan. It was René. Julian’s entire body tensed, as though the painful cry had been released from his own throat.
“My God, Father, what did they do to you?” René cried out.
Felix was watching Julian’s reaction, but Julian did not care. At least he had fulfilled his promise to Jacob.
As Felix raised the pistol, Julian shouted, “No!”
“What the hell is going on out there?” Ludwig opened the cell door to face Felix and Julian. He could not mask his surprise. His face reddened and his thick, pale neck began to splotch with hives. “Look what I found in here, Felix,” Ludwig said unconvincingly.
“Shut up.” Felix pushed Ludwig aside and entered the cell, Julian right behind him. René and Jacob were lying next to each other on the floor, both beaten beyond recognition. But Julian couldn’t help himself—it was the cell that caught his immediate attention. The cement walls had been painted with a vibrant mural: children playing, lovers holding hands, friends toasting one another at a café, artists painting along the seashore, boats gliding over aquamarine water. Julian stood back, amazed. They were trite images, yet within this structure of doom, René had created hope, had surrounded himself with light—but how had he managed to paint?
What was going on in here?
He turned slowly toward René, who was gaunt and pale, but his charcoal eyes appeared invincible, filled with some kind of enduring strength. His eyes alone thanked Julian for bringing his father to him.
Julian gasped as he turned toward Jacob. His nose had been broken and both eyes were blackened. Jacob smiled at Julian through busted lips, and Julian held his battered, appreciative gaze for a few seconds, then quickly looked away. The debonair art dealer was gone.
A nauseating smile spread across Felix’s face. “Welcome to Germany, Jacob.”
“You bastard,” Jacob squeezed out from his cracked lips.
“Father, don’t,” René begged Jacob. Turning to Felix, he said, “Leave him out of this, Felix. Haven’t I painted for you day and night in here? Haven’t I done exactly what you asked?”
Painted for him? Julian glanced at Felix with surprise. Felix’s face became flushed, but he refused to look at Julian. René, using the wall to brace himself, now stood in front of Felix, trying to block Jacob, to protect him somehow. Despite his ravaged appearance, René held his head high and steady.
The tip of Felix’s tongue was visible at the corner of his mouth, and then he bit down hard on it. Julian had seen him do that many times before, often when he was assessing his own artwork, likely disturbed by what he saw.
“See what my son can do, even in prison?” Jacob pointed a proud, swollen finger at the vibrant wall behind him. He took a deep, difficult breath and said, “Don’t destroy him, Felix. Don’t be afraid of René’s talent.”
For a brief moment everything stood still except for the flare of Felix’s nostrils and the muscles tightening his face. His shame was overwhelmingly apparent.
The first bullet hit Jacob in the chest.
As René dove toward his father, Felix shot him in the leg. René cried out in pain. Julian tried to wrestle the gun out of Felix’s hand, but Ludwig was quicker. He grabbed the gun first and then dutifully handed it back to Felix.
“Damn you, Julian!” Felix yelled, aiming the gun at him. “You set me up!”
Nothing mattered anymore. “Set you up, you bastard!” Julian shouted. “You lied to me so that I would bring Jacob here. There was never any deal, was there? All Jacob wanted was to see René, but you couldn’t even give him that.”
“Get out of here!” Felix roared.
“I am not going anywhere without René. You will have to shoot me too.”
“Julian, stop! Just go!” René pleaded as he clutched his leg.
“I am not moving,” Julian said firmly.
Felix called for the nearest guard then turned to René, “I am not finished with you yet.”
Ludwig smiled approvingly.
“What’s so goddamn funny?” Felix’s voice was frighteningly controlled. “And what are you doing here anyway? You are not scheduled to be here until tomorrow. Or is that when you are fucking Charlotte at the Bristol?” Felix wiped his mouth slowly with his free hand, saying calmly, “Get over by the wall.”
Ludwig sputtered an incoherent explanation.
“Save it!” Felix ordered, and then shot Ludwig in the back as he walked slowly toward the wall, toward his imminent death without a fight.
Julian dropped to the floor, next to Jacob, who was still breathing and trying desperately to say something. He pressed his mouth against Jacob’s ear. “You saw René. He will be okay. I’ll make sure of it. Go in peace.”
Jacob began to pant, struggling for words. He pulled Julian to him. “Find Max Kruger.”
Find Max Kruger?
“What? Why?” Julian shook him for more information, but Jacob Levi was dead.
Ludwig howled as the final bullet ripped through his shoulder, and then he, too, toppled over.
Felix stared at the bodies, at the blood, at René, and then at Julian. He turned and slammed the cell door behind him. Julian heard the pounding of Felix’s boots echoing down the corridor as he shouted at the guards to clean up the mess.