The blond man stiffened. ‘My father is dead?’
‘Yeah.’ She became horribly aware that the gun’s muzzle was still only inches from her face…
But Kroll stepped back. ‘They are dead. They are all dead…’ A long inhalation — then he grabbed her by the throat and drove her backwards against a wall.
She cried out, but the sound choked off as he pushed the gun hard up under her chin. ‘I will kill you! I will kill you!’ The last words were a spittle-flecked screech, his face so close to hers that she could smell his breath. She felt his hand strain as he tightened his finger around the trigger—
Then he pulled away abruptly, shoving her to the dusty floor. Nina looked up at him. The Nazi was breathing heavily, trying to contain his seething emotions. She might still have a chance to talk her way out of the situation…
‘They… they know you’re still alive,’ she said. ‘My husband — he was in Little Italy, he tried to warn me about you. And the only way he could know is if the Mossad had told him.’ That was guesswork, but it seemed the most likely explanation. ‘They know you’re here, and they’ll hunt you down. If you hurt me, Eddie, my husband, he will find you. He’ll kill you,’ she added, more forcefully. ‘Trust me, I’ve seen him do it. It scares me, and I’m his wife! But you can save yourself, Ulrich.’ His gaze locked on to hers at her use of his first name. ‘Just get out of here, go. Your war’s over. Leave me here and run while you still can.’
For a moment she thought she had got through to him. But then emotion returned to his face: cold hatred. ‘The war is not over as long as one soldier remains to fight it,’ he growled. Fear rose in Nina again as he advanced, looming malevolently over her. ‘You are still alive not because of grief, or despair, Dr Wilde. I did not shoot you because… it would be too quick.’
He surveyed the room. Skeins of electrical wiring ran along the unfinished ceiling, markings on the concrete showing where light fittings were to be installed. Keeping his gun pointed at Nina, the Nazi hopped up to snag a dangling cable, yanking it down from its supporting bracket. ‘At the Enklave, the Führer sentenced you to be hanged. That sentence will now be carried out!’
Eddie regarded the photo that had just been sent to his phone. ‘That’s the bastard who took Nina.’ He had only glimpsed her kidnapper, but it was enough to identify him.
‘Ulrich Kroll is the name on the fake passport,’ Jared Zane told him. ‘Probably a son or grandson of Erich Kroll.’
‘Being a shithead runs in the family, then.’
‘Yeah. And Eddie, there’s something else. We just learned that a man named Earl Hatchens was found dead at his home in New Jersey. Hatchens is on our watch list; we got his name from Kroll’s computer, via Leitz. He’s a neo-Nazi, a sympathetic contact. Or rather, he was. He was shot, but the cops didn’t find a gun.’
‘You think Kroll killed him?’
‘Possibly. He could have gone to Hatchens for support and information.’
‘Like where to find me and Nina,’ said Eddie. ‘Then he took him out to cover his tracks. Great, so now he’s armed.’ He spotted a street sign as the cab turned at an intersection. ‘Okay, Jared, I’m here. Got to go.’
‘Be careful, old man,’ said the Israeli.
‘Bloody right I will be!’ He disconnected as the cab arrived at its destination.
The Yorkshireman knew even before he saw the abandoned delivery truck that he was in the right place: an NYPD Ford Taurus patrol car was parked at the end of the alley, red and white strobe lights blinking. ‘Let us out here,’ he told the driver.
Natalia got out as he paid the fare. ‘I do not see Nina.’
‘Didn’t expect that you would,’ Eddie replied as he started towards the alley. A couple of uniformed officers came into view, guarding the empty truck. ‘So he dumped it here — where did he go next?’
‘He could be anywhere,’ she said gloomily. ‘I knew that New York was big, but I had not realised how big!’
‘He won’t be far away. He doesn’t know the place.’ He studied the truck until one of the cops gave him a distinct move along stare, then continued down the street. ‘He got out of the truck, then opened the back door to get Nina, but someone saw him and reported it to the cops. That means he didn’t go into any of these buildings here, or he’d have been seen. He must have gone to the other end of the alley.’ Natalia followed him as he jogged to the next side passage and went down it, emerging on a parallel road. He looked back towards the first alley, then at the neighbouring structures. ‘They’re in one of these.’
‘But which?’
‘Don’t know yet. I know how to work it out, though. To find him, I need to think like a Nazi.’
Natalia made a sour face. ‘That is not a way that anyone should think.’
‘No, but a lot of people seem to be doing it lately.’ He shook his head. ‘So: he’s here for revenge, but he doesn’t know New York. Nina didn’t decide to go to Little Italy until this morning, so he can’t have checked out the area in advance. He’s improvising. And he’s kidnapped a woman in broad daylight — a woman who’ll take any chance she gets to fight back or kick up a stink. Even in the worst parts of town, that’ll attract attention.’
‘So he will not have gone far,’ the young German suggested.
‘Nope.’ Eddie turned to survey the surrounding buildings. ‘He’s got to be in one of these. Question is… which one?’
There were several possibilities. Manhattan was constantly changing, districts falling out of favour and becoming run-down before inevitably seeing an influx of new money as developers grasped the opportunity to cash in on a relatively underpriced section of the island’s real estate. The area south of Chinatown was on the cusp of one of these rises; many of the street’s buildings were in poor condition, a couple even appearing derelict, but there were also a handful in the process of being renovated, and in one case a brand-new apartment block was being constructed. As it was the weekend, building work was currently on hold, the sites protected only by far-from-impenetrable plywood board and orange plastic netting.
‘One of those empty ones,’ he decided. ‘He won’t have taken her somewhere with people in the next apartment — too much risk of someone calling the cops.’
Natalia peered at one of the condemned buildings. ‘He may have gone in there. Look, the wood covering that window is broken.’
Eddie considered the possibility, then dismissed it. ‘You’re not thinking like a Nazi. They think they’re superior, they’re the master race, the rulers of the world — he’s not going to be grovelling about in a rat-infested shit-pit. ’Scuse my French.’
She gave him a small smile. ‘That was not French.’
‘No, but I don’t picture him hiding somewhere that’s been used as a toilet by a load of homeless guys and druggies. I’ve seen where these arseholes lived. They were like…’ His eyes went to the building under construction. The steel frame was complete, along with most of the outer walls and even some windows. ‘Barracks,’ he concluded.
‘That was not French either.’
‘No, barracks, not boll— Never mind.’ He headed for the construction site, Natalia following. ‘The inside of that place won’t be that much different from the barracks him and his mates grew up in. It’s where he’s most likely to be hiding.’
‘But what if you are wrong?’
Eddie gave her a grim look. ‘I just hope to God I’m not.’ He reached the barricade, noticing that a tall grillework barrier seemed to have been pushed back. A quick check of the ground revealed recent footprints in the sand and dust spilled across the sidewalk. Some were noticeably smaller than the others: a woman’s shoes. ‘Don’t think I am, though. Look.’ He indicated the prints, then pushed through the gap.