"Sam Connors?"
"Samantha Connors." The old woman corrected. "Ashley Regan's roommate."
"What did you do to her?"
Silence.
"What did you do to her?" Jake stared at the old woman. "Did you kill her too?"
"It was a simple case of mistaken identity. She is no longer a concern." The old woman said.
Jake studied Katzer's mother. She clutched the book against her chest with her free hand. She was visibly agitated. Which made her dangerous.
"How many more have to die because of that book?" Jake pointed to the journal.
"As many as it takes." Her voice trailed off. "As many as it takes to protect this family."
"Mother? Scott? What the hell is going on?"
Jake knew that voice. He looked past the old woman.
President Rebecca Rudd stood in the doorway.
44
Rebecca Rudd entered the embalming room. Jake observed the distressed look on her face. Understandable, considering the bombshell just dropped in her lap.
"You heard?" Jake asked.
"I heard enough." She looked at Scott Katzer and then Heidi Katzer. "How could you?"
Neither mother nor brother said a word.
"How did you know?" Wiley asked Rudd.
"I told her," Jake said.
Wiley pointed his finger at Jake. "I'll deal with you later." He turned to Rudd. "Rebecca, you shouldn't be here. I want you to leave. Now."
"No, Elmore." Rudd looked at Wiley. Her voice changed. "This is the one place I should be. And don't blame Jake. After you called me, I called him. I put him on the spot. He couldn't say no to the President. Jake did exactly what you asked him to do."
Rudd stepped toward her mother.
The old woman was visibly shaken, her aging body trembled. It seemed the one thing she didn't want to happen just did. Her daughter, the President of the United States, had discovered the truth.
"Mother, what have you done?"
"Whatever it took to protect you." Heidi Katzer started crying. "I've spent most of my life wondering if this book would ever surface. When you first went into politics, I tried to stop you. But you were so innocent and naïve. You said you had nothing to hide, that you had never done anything wrong. But Rebecca, our closet is full of skeletons."
"What are you saying?" Rudd looked at her brother. "Scott, what have you done? What skeletons is she talking about? I thought that book only contained the locations of Nazi treasures shipped to the United States in caskets of World War II casualties." Rudd walked over to Heidi. She raised her voice and pleaded to her mother. "What else is in that book? Tell me now."
"Don't say a word." Wiley yelled at Rudd's mother.
"This book belonged to your real father."
Had she heard her mother right? Her real father. Matthew Katzer was the only father she'd ever known. He had been a loving father and good provider for the family. When she received word he had died in a tragic accident, she was devastated. She rushed home from college to be with her mother. She thought Matthew Katzer was the only man her mother had ever loved.
Until now.
"What do you mean my real father? I remember when Daddy died. I had to console you. You cried for two days. We cried together. I refuse to believe Matthew Katzer was not my real father." Rudd pointed to the leather journal under her mother's arm. "Let me have the book."
"No," Wiley said. "Listen to me, Rebecca. I told you before and I'll reiterate it now. It is in your best interest not to know what's in that book."
"If this book says Matthew Katzer is not my biological father, then as the President, as your daughter, I demand to know who my real father is." Rudd turned to her brother. "Scott, who is our father?"
Scott turned to their mother. "She has a right to know."
Her mother stared at the floor for a few seconds then raised her head. "Your real father is Wolfgang Fleischer."
If Rebecca Rudd had tried to think of the worst possible answer, she never could have matched that name. The name of a man reviled in history books. She felt light headed.
"Wolfgang Fleischer? The Dachau Prison Nazi war criminal?"
Her mother nodded.
Rudd collapsed to the floor.
When President Rebecca Rudd fainted, Jake rushed toward her only to be forced away by Scott Katzer and the handgun he was holding. Jake's Glock. Katzer motioned for Jake to stand next to Wiley and Francesca.
Katzer walked over to a cabinet, grabbed a bottle from a shelf, and soaked a cotton ball with the liquid from the bottle. He waved it under his sister's nose and she slowly opened her eyes.
While the Katzers attended to Rudd, Jake leaned closer to Wiley. "Who the hell is Wolfgang Fleischer?"
"Ever heard of the holocaust?" Wiley asked.
Jake nodded.
"Fleischer was the commandant of the Dachau political prison and concentration camp during World War II. Under his command, over 15,000 political prisoners were executed, most in the Dachau gas chambers, and then cremated."
"Cremated?" Jake lowered his voice. "Do you see the irony in all this?"
Wiley shook his head.
"Fleischer was in the business of disposing of dead bodies…and so are the Katzers." Jake saw Wiley's lips turn up. "It's the proverbial 'apple doesn't fall far from the tree' thing."
Francesca whispered. "And she found someone to ship all Fleischer's stolen treasure in caskets."
Heidi Katzer raised her gun. "You three. Be quiet."
Scott helped his sister to her feet and walked her to a chair. She sat down and looked at her mother.
"Where was I born?" Rudd asked. "And no more lies."
"In your grandmother's house in Ehrwald, Austria."
"When?"
"March 15, 1944. You and your brother were less than ten minutes apart."
"But our birth certificates say June 6, 1946 in Nashville. How can they be wrong?"
"I was a nurse. I came here in April of 1946 and got a job at Protestant Hospital. Baptist Hospital now. I had easy access to birth certificates. It wasn't that difficult to do. That's where I met Matthew. I put you in school when you were eight years old and claimed you were six."
Rudd hung her head low. Jake could tell the President had full comprehension of the magnitude of what her mother just told her.
"I can't be President," Rudd mumbled. "I was never even eligible in the first place." She looked at her mother and yelled. "Why didn't you stop me? Do you have any idea what you have done?"
Rudd stood. "And for God's sake, put down those guns."
"No," Heidi said. "Not until there are no witnesses." She motioned with her gun. "No loose ends."
"You can not kill them." Rudd said. "Haven't you heard a word Mr. Wiley has said? He is on my side. These people," Rudd pointed to Jake and Francesca, "have been working behind the scenes to keep this from blowing up in our faces. All this time, they've been trying to protect me. It's too late for protection now. I know the truth, as ugly as it is, and there is only one thing left for me to do. Tomorrow I will step down as President of the United States. And I'll do it at the summit meeting."
Rudd stepped in front of her mother. "Now give me the gun."
"No, Rebecca. I can't let you do this."
Rudd grabbed at the gun in her mother's hands.
A single shot rang out.
45
Scott Katzer watched his sister stagger backward and fall to her knees, an expression of disbelief on her face. Her hand cupped her side where the bullet passed through. Blood oozed through her slender fingers. Wiley rushed toward her. Scott raised his gun and shot the old man in the shoulder. Wiley stumbled backward, hit his head on an embalming table, fell to the floor, and didn't move.