Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [66]
“I have one last question, Emma. Answer it carefully. Your life depends on it. Where did you get your silverware set?”
The sudden shift in questioning threw her. “My ... my ... what?”
“Your silverware set?”
“But I have two sets of silver.”
No actress could fake it. Emma Stoll was innocent of the charge. Sean knew that now beyond question. “Well, where did you get them?”
“The good silver, I purchased in Switzerland.”
“With funds stolen from German Winter Relief?”
She buried her face in her hands and wept again, sobbing now. The world would look upon her as a thief. This was more than she could bear. Sean waited until her crying spell ebbed. “And the other set. The one with the fancy carvings?”
“The old silver with the ivory handles was given to me by my father from his father. My grandfather was a soldier in German East Africa before the first war. He brought it back with him. It has become a family heirloom. It was ugly, but a German wife is taught to treasure family heirlooms ... so I kept it.”
Sean sighed deeply. His rugged, black Irish face was as perplexed as Emma Stoll’s. “For reasons best known to the Lord above alone ... I am going to try to save your life.”
The next morning there was a press conference called at Supreme Headquarters in Frankfurt Proclamation #22 was announced. The press officer intimated that a speedy trial would follow.
Those journalists who had become authorities in the American Zone quickly pieced two and two together. Within minutes of the announcement, as it was flashed around the world, there was open speculation that Klaus and Emma Stoll would be the first tried under the proclamation.
DELIVER BY PERSONAL COURIER TO BRIGADIER GENERAL A. J. HANSEN, G-5, SUPREME HEADQUARTERS: I. G. FARBEN BUILDING: FRANKFURT
Dear General Hansen,
I am not certain whether your communication constituted an order or a request. At any rate, I am hereby notifying you that I reject it in either event.
In the opinion of my legal officer and in my own lay opinion, Klaus Stoll is guilty and deserving of the death penalty. However, it will take weeks to prepare proper legal documents and conclude a case ... tried in American tradition.
Emma Stoll has done nothing to deserve a death sentence.
PROCLAMATION #22 is against my conscience, my morality, and, in my opinion, contrary to the best interests of my country.
Sincerely,
Sean O’Sullivan
Chapter Thirty
ANDREW JACKSON HANSEN’S STAFF car and motorcycle escort wiped everything out of its path like a hurricane blowing down from Frankfurt.
Eric the Red bounced out of his car before it was brought to a full halt at the Rombaden City Hall, churned up the marble steps, down the statue-lined corridor, and burst into Sean’s office, slamming the door behind him.
Sean arose. “Good afternoon, General. I was expecting you’d be down here.”
“You snot-nose bastard! Are you trying to make us look like idiots!”
“No, sir. I’m trying to save you from looking like idiots.”
“What the hell are you protecting that goddamned ghoul Emma Stoll for!”
“I am attempting,” Sean said slowly, “to protect the good name of my country. She happens to come with the bargain. You’ve read the report, sir. Those bone handles are not human skulls.”
Hansen leaned on his knuckles, bent forward over the desk, and aped Sean’s soft, smooth speech. “But the world doesn’t know. And, Major, that story will never be set straight. Corney has done her job well. And if by some miracle the story is corrected the world isn’t going to give a good rat’s ass. The world wants Emma Stoll’s neck.”
“I won’t sign my name to a lynch order.”
Hansen’s fist crashed two, three, four times atop the desk, making it bounce under his fury. “Now you hear this, boy. Emma Stoll is going to die! The Germans will laugh in our faces if we spring her and the whole goddamned world is going to scream that we’re coddling Nazis!”
“And I don’t give a big rat’s ass what the world screams!” Sean bellowed right back in Hansen’s face. “And furthermore, I refuse to talk to the General while he is