The older woman coughed, and Chloe brought her a glass of water and assisted her while she sipped at it, birdlike.
‘Such a long time ago,’ she continued after recovering, closing her eyes again.
‘I can tell she’s getting tired,’ Chloe said.
Sophie became anxious. ‘I need to ask her something else. Miss Strauss, do you think you can answer one more question?’
Marcus translated.
The old woman’s eyes flashed open again, as if she was forcing herself to remain in this present moment. Slowly, she nodded her head. ‘What else do you need to know, my dear?’
‘I… I just need to know how Vivienne died.’
The question was weighted and heavy in the air, and the woman stared at Sophie as though pondering whether she should tell her.
‘You do not know?’
Sophie shook her head. ‘We have no war records. All we know is that she was a Nazi.’
The woman hinted at a smile. ‘I can tell you many things, and it was a crazy time, but I don’t think she was a Nazi. I think she was in love with the wrong person. And she was executed.’
‘Executed?’ asked Sophie, swallowing down the word.
The old woman shook her head slightly. ‘It was his fault. Vivi wasn’t evil like so many of the rest of them.’
‘Can you tell me anything about her last days?’
The woman nodded her head. ‘It is not a happy story. I was young, but that meant I could slip in and out of rooms like a ghost without people really being aware of my presence. I overheard my father talking about it, just bits and pieces, but I have built up my own version of what happened. My theory is that Vonstein… Marcus… had somehow seduced her into coming to work for him. The day before the D-Day landings, he received some information, that he carelessly misplaced, that the much-awaited attack was about to take place in Normandy. The high command was furious with him because of the error. Until that point, they had believed that the strike would take place in Calais. There was a hideous row, which even I heard from my father’s office, and eventually, Marcus blamed Vivienne for the mistake. They were so furious they demanded that she be executed.’ The old woman hesitated. ‘Her execution took place the following morning. They marched her out into the courtyard.’
‘And they shot her?’ whispered Sophie, her voice trembling.
The woman spoke again in German, and Alex heard the words, but he didn’t seem to be capable of translating them.
Sophie looked over at him. ‘What happened, Alex? What did she say?’
The elderly woman repeated the words, but Alex’s mouth just stayed dropped open. He coughed and then swallowed. ‘She said she was murdered at the hand of my great-uncle, that he alone murdered her.’
Sophie stared at Alex. His face was ashen. She glanced back at the woman. Surely there was a mistake. Surely, even though Marcus used Vivi terribly, he wouldn’t have killed her? Sophie realised then she’d been hanging onto a hope, a hope he’d loved her, genuinely loved her, and hadn’t been using her. But now, with these particular words, all hope of that had been ripped from her.
‘How can you be sure?’ asked Sophie.
The woman’s speech became faltering. ‘I was there. I was there as her body slumped to the ground. I wasn’t meant to be. I’d heard there was an execution, and oh, how I loved Vivi. I had some childhood notion of stopping it, but when I got to the courtyard where it was to take place, the horror and the weight of it froze me, so that all I could do was hide and watch.
‘They issued the orders, Vonstein lifted his gun, and, to be fair, he hesitated for a second. Then she shouted out to him some words in French. I remember them as it was such a strange thing to say – “Souvenez-vous des hirondelles” and he raised his weapon and put two shots into her head, and she collapsed to the floor and was dead.
‘He was not a good sort, your great-uncle, I’m afraid, young man. His office tried with all of his might the next day to thwart the plans of the landings to cripple the wireless network across Germany and France and would’ve succeeded. But somehow the plan went wrong. A day or two later he too was killed, fleeing Paris, I believe. Good riddance. I’m sorry to say, but it was a good thing.’ She coughed again, and Chloe signalled them it was time to leave.
39
After their visit to Frau Strauss, Sophie and Alex were quiet, alone with their thoughts, and travelled back to the hotel in silence. On exiting the taxi, they stood on the street, neither sure what to do. Finally, Alex asked if she wanted to go for a cup of coffee and she nodded. They made their way into a coffee shop on the corner and ordered drinks and were halfway through drinking before one of them spoke. It was Sophie.
‘I’d like to visit my great-aunt’s grave. Do you think there is a way we can find out where she’s buried?’
‘I’m sure with the war records, it shouldn’t be too difficult. We can go there in a while if you want.’ He studied her as if he was trying to weigh her up. ‘Sophie, you’ve barely spoken. Are you okay?’
She nodded. She didn’t want to tell him Frau Strauss’s words had put a wedge in her heart, and now she was finding it hard to connect with him. She knew he wasn’t Marcus, but still, their sad history made it almost impossible for her to feel warmth towards him.
‘What do you think about what we heard today, Alex?’ she enquired.
He peered into his coffee cup before speaking gently. ‘To be honest with you I am amazed that Vivienne fell for him. If only we could tell exactly what transpired between them.’
Sophie closed her eyes and tried to recall everything that the woman had said to her. She’d been so shocked by the admission of the execution that she had missed a lot of what had been said around those words. Now, she tried to remember the exact conversation.
‘What did she say about Vivienne? She said something in French. Do you remember what those words were?’
Alex also seemed to be trying to retrieve the memory. ‘Remember the swallows? That’s what I think she said. “Souvenez-vous des hirondelles”,’ he reiterated the words in French.
‘What could that mean? Do you think she was signalling something to him? It’s an odd thing to say right before you die. Surely you would plead for your life? It sounds so out of place. Do you think for even a second she was challenging him to kill her? I know it sounds preposterous, but maybe it was a signal between them?’ Sophie speculated.
‘But “remember the swallows”? What could it mean?’
‘I have no idea.’
He reached forward to touch her hand and instinctively she drew it away.
‘Sophie? What’s wrong?’
‘I need time to come to terms with this. Things are happening too quickly.’
‘Do you mean what we’re finding out about Vivienne and Marcus, or between us?’
She glanced out of the window, trying to avoid his question.
‘Sophie, are you having any regrets about what has happened between us?’
‘I don’t know, Alex. I have to be honest with you, I’m struggling with all this new emotion. It’s a lot to take in, and I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep well last night, you know, realising we would see Frau Strauss today. I think I need to take a step back. Things have happened incredibly quickly between us.’