The Sixth Lamentation Part 24

Mr Bartlett said, 'The whole point of the exercise is to deceive the reader or listener, is it not? Someone somewhere is expected to believe the surface meaning?'

'Yes, I accept that.'

'There were three meetings held in Paris to plan the Vel d'Hiv round-up. Mr Schwermann attended two of them. The understanding was that those arrested would be deported "for labour service" - is that right?'

'Yes - even though thousands of children would be taken.'

'Phraseology that Mr Schwermann could reasonably have taken at face value?' pressed Mr Bartlett.

'I have already told you, he is one of the deceivers, not one of the deceived. He will have seen other doc.u.ments that refer to extermination.'

'Would he? Do you always read the notes of the meetings you miss or avoid?'

'As a matter of fact I do.'

'Do all your colleagues?'

'No. No, they don't, actually'

'Thank you, Doctor Vallon.'

Mr Bartlett promptly sat down.

'That is enough for today,' said Mr Justice Pollbrook with a weariness of having seen it all before.

5.

Lucy went to Chiswick Mall and listened to the news with Agnes. There was a lengthy report on the evidence of Doctor Vallon. Agnes listened impa.s.sively while Lucy broke ice cubes in a saucer, feeding the melting fragments to her on a spoon. Agnes turned them over in her mouth like boiled sweets, her eyes glazed as one hearing a dull story on a wet afternoon.

Time mocked the survivors, thought Lucy. Everyone who lasts long enough becomes an end point in history, and then they must listen to others pa.s.s judgment upon what they have not known. But even after all this time, could there be any serious doubt? Schwermann must have understood the circ.u.mlocutions of his masters, just as Pam had understood Freddie's.

Chapter Thirty-Four.

1.

In the natural course of things, Father Andrew made many decisions, pa.s.sed off as 'suggestions', that Anselm was unable to fathom. One such was the proposal that Anselm 'might' show Father Conroy the North Country on the way to finding Victor Brionne. To Anselm's mind sightseeing did not blend with the task of confronting a fugitive collaborator. But the 'suggestion' had been made. There was some sense to the proposal: it transpired that Con was writing another book after all (only this time he intended to ignore its likely condemnation by Rome) . Frequent travel to the library at Heythrop College, London, and hours of drafting at Larkwood had worn him out. He needed a break.

And so, on the day Lucy listened to the considered views of Doctor Pierre Vallon, the two men left Larkwood first thing after Lauds. With Conroy at the wheel they sped north, the skies getting wider and brighter, the horizon flatter and longer. Anselm's mind opened like a plain and he saw scattered here and there, like totems, the outline of those who had recently crossed his path; and Conroy sang wonderfully mournful songs to himself about a betrayed woman and her abandoned child, a young father on a British prison ship and a ditty on violent child abuse. You had to cry; you had to laugh.

Anselm turned his mind to the conversation with Father Chambray the night before, noting bitterly how apposite it was that the truth should finally have made its way out in a confessional. Father Pleyon, a monk of Les Moineaux, had betrayed The Round Table. Unforeseen executions had followed. And by an inexplicable, almost comic quirk of circ.u.mstance, Father Pleyon had become the new Prior. Why was it, thought Anselm, that chance so often a.s.sisted the wicked? Schwermann and Brionne had been handed a lifeline just when they might have been brought to justice: their accomplice had become the Prior and had lived long enough to secure their escape.

But Father Chambray had pieced together some fragments. He had read the signs. He had told Rome and they had done nothing. And, in dismay, he had left his Priory and his church, a priest for ever in a wilderness without sacraments.

'Con,' said Anselm, 'would you mind not singing for a moment?'

'All right, so.'

'Tell me again what Sticky Fingers told you.' Anselm had already been told, but he wanted to place the little Conroy had found out in context now that he had spoken to Chambray Conroy pursed his lips, thinking. 'The Vatican Secret Archive holds two reports from Les Moineaux, and both had been withdrawn by your man Renaldi in early April 1995.'

'Just after Schwermann was exposed.'

'Aye. The first was written by Chambray shortly after the end of the war.

Anselm knew what it contained, and he would soon see a copy 'The second was written a year or so afterwards by Pleyon, just before the Lord called him to Himself. It was sent on to Rome by the new Prior with a note saying the old skin didn't get a chance to finish whatever he wanted to say Anselm, like Father Chambray, could now read the signs that had fallen into his hands. He placed himself before an earnest, sincere Monsignor quietly watched by an attentive Cardinal, each knowing the whole narrative set out by Chambray But they had only disclosed the incomplete report of Pleyon, knowing it was the beginnings of a self-preserving fiction. 'I'm trying to protect the future from the past,' the Cardinal had said.

Conroy returned to his singing and Anselm slept. They lunched and then pressed on, saying little. As late afternoon cloud gathered over the rolling Cheviot Hills, Conroy pointed to the signpost directing them to Victor Brionne's hideaway After a few miles of empty, windswept road they reached a display board, informing the unwary that Lindisfarne was a tidal island. They were just in time to cross the narrow causeway before the cold, slate-blue sea crept over the sands and cut them off from the mainland. By the time they had found their bed and breakfast, booked by Wilf the night before, no one could reach or leave the island.

When night fell, Anselm left his companion in the bar and wandered outside, over to a cl.u.s.ter of solid monastic ruins, a fortress carved out of the sky. Standing alone with the wind in his face, he joined himself to the Celtic monks who had once gathered beneath brooding arches by a sea that ran to the ends of the earth; he said the psalms of Compline, as they had once done, while the sharp night enclosed him. Then he walked along a rocky sh.o.r.e towards a large house with its windows lit, the curtains left open. A wooden plaque on a gatepost bore the name 'Pilgrim's Rest'. Anselm leaned on the adjoining wall, concealed by darkness, looking in upon a play of domestic contentment.

Robert Brownlow sat at a piano. Adults and children, seemingly endless in number, pa.s.sed to and fro across the gla.s.s as if on a stage, each with a walk-on part. Most were laughing, cans or cups in their hands, little boys and girls with beakers spiked with straws, and no one seemed to notice the old man seated by the window, looking out into the night as if he were alone.

That must be Victor Brionne, thought Anselm, and none of his family realise he carries a secret, except perhaps Robert. All available generations had gathered for a bash, untouched by the trial in London that had never been more than words in a news-. paper, remote but disturbing if read, destined to be thrown out with the cold leftovers within a day or so. Anselm suffered a stab of grief on their behalf, Was it really necessary to pull down what had been built over fifty years? Should the little boy with the beaker have to lose the grandfather he thought he had? Or go to school and hear whisperings or taunts? But then Agnes Embleton was approaching death, unknown to the judicial process, a forgotten victim. Lucy had once been a child with a beaker spiked by a straw but she had not been spared by ignorance. The vindication of one family entailed the destruction of another.

Anselm turned away heavily, wishing dearly that he did not have a part of his own to play: the awful role of the minor character who brings the news he does not understand, whose brief speech shatters unsuspecting lives, and who then walks off for a smoke in the dressing room. That would be Anselm's contribution to the Brownlow family history.

Brownlow Again Anselm strained to recover a stirring at the back of his mind evoking a pleasant sensation. It was a name he'd known as a boy

2.

Max Nightingale's studio was a single room above a pet shop in Tooting. He said he lived elsewhere but a camp bed stood folded in the corner next to a small fridge, a Primus, a wobbly clothing rail and other innumerable signs of sustained habitation. Leaning against each wall were canvases stacked three or four deep. The walls themselves were covered with work in progress. Light swam among the colour. It was extraordinarily peaceful.

Max was self-conscious but seemed pleased to bring Lucy and Mr Lachaise into his private place. He glanced easily at the walls as if they represented a quiet gathering of his silent family, not one of whom had the capacity to cause acute embarra.s.sment.

Mr Lachaise walked slowly past each canvas, his gla.s.ses off, his face peering at the fluid marks of the brush, once wet, now caught glistening in time. He took several steps back, replacing his gla.s.ses. 'Quite wonderful,' he said, almost to himself.

Max had withdrawn to one end where an easel was angled against the light, beside a table with jars and saucers huddled by a battered box. He kept away from Lucy, though not obviously, rearranging brushes and tubes of paint. Turning round she saw a painting hung upon the back of the door.

The picture described the hint of a face, perhaps an open mouth crying out, amongst swathes of gorgeous yellow and orange, breaking down in places to smatterings of diaphanous brown and gold, lifted up, as it were, like tiny hands. It was more a study in colour than shape, but the coincidence of lines suggested such a fragile purpose that the viewer was compelled to impose a reading upon it. Lucy understood its mood and wanted to run her fingers along the frail ridges of paint.

She said, 'Does it have a t.i.tle?'

"'Sibyl's Cave".'

Lucy surveyed the vibrant, tragic beauty, unable to detach herself from its activity.

'Would you like it?' asked Max.

In her taut mind she clutched at a refusal, but she wanted it. Lucy nodded quickly, keeping her eyes on what she had seen.

3.

Anselm rose at 5 a.m., having been unable to 'sleep. He tried to say Lauds but a strong, invasive melancholy scattered his powers of concentration. And yet his mind was deeply attuned to the important task of the day He would neither eat nor drink nor rest until it was over.

Conroy emerged cheerily for breakfast, eating everything that was brought forth from the kitchen. His irrepressible gathering in of all life's moments - even eating - raised Anselm's spirits. The Prior had been right all along. It was a good idea to show Conroy the North Country ... for Anselm's sake. He decided to bring his companion with him for the confrontation, as long as the great oaf didn't tell any jokes.

Shortly after ten, Anselm pushed open the gate to 'Pilgrim's Rest'. Conroy followed him to the stone porch. The door was ajar. Voices drifted warmly from an unseen room. Anselm immediately imagined a coffee pot, loaves of bread, jars and pots upon a table, mingled morning greetings, children opening the fridge. He knocked. A moment later the door swung back in the hands of a little girl with large, enquiring eyes. And then Robert Brownlow appeared.

'Ah,' he said lamely, the colour draining from his face. 'You've made it for my wife's birthday'

Inside, they were introduced to Maggie, Robert's wife; and then two of their five children, Francis and Jenny (with their respective spouses); and then the three grandchildren. But not Victor. He was not in the room. Anselm and Conroy were described as friends of Robert, who, throughout the entire charade, masked his anxiety with near complete success. Only Maggie, with her tight folded arms, betrayed a suspicion of insight. Then Robert led his guests to an upstairs room and knocked on the door.

Is this what a major war criminal looks like? thought Anselm. He wore various shades of respectable green, with a tartan tie, the unmistakable appearance of good but ill-fitting finds from tatty high street charity shops. His shoes were well worn but neatly polished. Robert stood behind the armchair that swallowed up the runaway Now that he'd found him, Anselm had no idea what to say Whatever enquiry Cardinal Vincenzi expected Anselm to undertake, and whatever insinuated pressure Renaldi hoped he would exert, was not going to happen. The meeting had its own agenda. Anselm introduced himself and said: 'Schwermann couldn't hide for ever and neither can you. The police already know that you're here. Even if you say nothing to them, and Schwermann's convicted, he'll begin an appeal. His legal representatives were looking for you and they'll not let you go once they know that you've been found. So if you're going to hide, it's for the rest of your life. Is that what you want?'

The gentle clunking of a trowel upon the rim of a plant pot rang from the garden. Anselm glanced out of the window Maggie was helping one of the children plant a flower.

'Victor,' said Anselm, 'I don't know what happened in 1942 or 1944. n.o.body does, except Eduard Schwermann and you.'

He was standing upon a worn rug, uncomfortably aware his calling in life transformed any public reflection into a sort of sermon. He stepped off the thread pedestal, saying, 'There's a jury empanelled in London to make a decision. They sit there, day in day out, hearing evidence, mostly from people who weren't there. It's a journey into memory with stumbling guides doing their best. But you, Victor, are different. You know the answers. Schwermann believes that if you enter the witness box, he'll be acquitted. There are others who believe the opposite; that you, and only you, can prove he is guilty. Only one side can be right. I'm afraid I'm going to sound like a priest now, but the truth will out. Hasn't the time come to give the past a proper burial?'

Victor Brionne's face became mobile but his lips did not part. Deep down, thought Anselm, he's holding tightly on to something. Anselm wrote down DI Armstrong's name and number and placed it upon a sideboard. As he reached the door he turned instinctively and said: 'You knew Jacques Fougeres?'

'Yes.' It was the only word he had spoken. His voice, in that one brief sound, disclosed a grave, enduring ache.

'You know he had a blood relative, Pascal Fougeres?'

He nodded.

'A young man who did everything possible to bring Schwermann to trial. Do you know he wanted .to find you?'

There was no response. Robert looked down upon Victor.

'Do you know why?' Anselm pleaded. 'Not to expose you, or blame you. But because he had faith in the love of old friends. He believed that you would tell the truth.'

Victor closed his eyes, averting his head from Anselm's unrelenting words.

'He died on the very night he met some friends to discuss your importance. Not for himself, not for his own family, but for all those whose memories are being scattered to the wind.' Anselm opened the door, his voice suddenly raised, indignant and accusing: 'Did Pascal die for nothing ... absolutely nothing at all?'

The house was empty when they got downstairs. Walking down the path they could see the family way ahead, ambling towards Lindisfarne Castle. Robert joined Anselm and Conroy at the gate. He said, trembling, 'Father, I meant what I said when we first met. Victor Brionne died in 1945 as far as I'm concerned. Is it right to dismantle their world?' He nodded over the wall, anxiously, at three generations becoming specks in the distance.

'Is it right to leave other lives in pieces?' replied Anselm. 'I don't pretend to have the answer, Robert. I doubt whether your father knows. But he's the one who has to choose.'

Chapter Thirty-Five.

1.

Lucy took 'Sibyl's Cave' home with her and placed it over the mantelpiece. For the rest of the weekend she kept re-entering the room to look at it. In that hint of a face drawn by the sweeping paint she saw Agnes, young and old, transcendent, aloft her disappointment.

When Lucy met Max and Mr Lachaise at court on Monday morning they all shook hands. Something like ease was growing between them. This was all the more remarkable because she (and presumably Max) had no idea as to who Mr Lachaise, their convener, might be. There was a disarming quality to his simplicity, like dealing with a child. Only he was nothing of the kind. He seemed older than anyone Lucy had ever known. And she recognised in his every move a type of empathy, something indefinable, that he held in common with her grandmother. She would have liked them to have met.

As was now common practice, the three of them sat in a row listening intently to the evidence presented before the court. For the next couple of days Mr Penshaw called a hotchpotch of witnesses to describe the nuts and bolts of organised murder. Mr Bartlett asked few questions, confining himself to small errors of detail.

'In fact, the first deportation from Le Bourget-Drancy comprised standard third-cla.s.s railway carriages, did it not?'

'Yes, I'm sorry, you're quite right. If it matters. '

'Precision always matters,' said Mr Bartlett kindly Bartlett very occasionally gave a brief smile to the jury. After all, they'd been seeing each other every day, listening to the same witnesses. Lucy felt an atmosphere was developing between them. They were in this together, doing their level best. One or two had begun to smile back at him. Was it courtesy or empathy?

Lucy struggled to name a growing sensation. By some alchemy, Schwermann was almost detached from the proceedings. The link between the young SS officer and the elderly Defendant before them was peculiarly slender, the actions and attributes of fifty years ago having to be fixed on an older, much changed and hence different man. The pa.s.sage of time itself had blurred not only the edges of responsibility but the consequences of the crime. Several newspapers had begun to question the propriety of the trial 'so long after the events in question', those being the fleshiness of killing, the smell of filth and the sound of fear. The younger man who'd been there was slipping out of reach; the older chap seemed crucially disconnected from his own past.

One radio programme debated 'the age-old problem of Personal Ident.i.ty'. If Schwermann at seventy-six was not the same man he had been at twenty-three could he be punished at all? Several newspapers explored the reach of ethics within the law, proper and improper. And many perfectly reasonable people from both sides of the fence appeared on Newsnight and within ten minutes were fairly evenly savaged for their trouble. The Defendant had become a 'philosophico-legal' problem, as well as an alleged killer. Lucy absorbed all the words, admiring the careful scrutiny of educated minds, but thinking all the time of leaves ... thousands upon thousands of them, wafted helplessly into the air, no one knowing from where they had come or where they would go.

Watching Mr Bartlett at work, Lucy thought that someone had to bring the SS-Unterscharfuhrer back into the present, through the tangle of reasonable civilised arguments, and put him in the dock - someone who had known him at the time. And, apart from Agnes, there was only one person left.