“Did you find Hans?” Simon asked.
Sergeant Hoch shook his head.
Simon looked out at the passing buildings.
“Where are you, Hans?”
* * *
Hans looked out from the alleyway as Simon passed by in the cart. It was good to know that the boy was still safe and in good health. If Simon was, then Uschi was as well.
He had been watching for some time; watching, but not moving into view, not speaking. It wasn’t safe to do so; not for the boy, and not for himself.
“God go with you, Simon,” a rare prayer passed through his lips.
He remembered almost the last thing Simon had said to him.
Consequences.
* * *
“We have been looking for your brother,” Gotthilf said with patience for the third time. “But it is hard to find someone who doesn’t want to be found in less than a day.”
“But what is he doing?” Ursula demanded. “Do you know?”
Ursula stood as straight as she could, rigid with fear and anger, facing him and demanding answers. Margarethe and Frau Marie stood behind her, saying nothing. It amused Gotthilf in one corner of his mind to see that his sister had the same identical frown as his mother.
“No, we do not know what Hans is doing,” he replied.
Ursula must have seen something in his face.
“What do you think he is doing, then? Surely you have a guess!”
Ursula’s tone was savage and her face was hard. It was obvious she would have an answer from him.
“You will have no peace from this,” he warned her.
“I don’t want peace! I want the truth! I want to know what is happening with my brother!”
Ursula’s face was pale, almost as if carved out of ice. It drew Gotthilf; drew him in a way no other woman had ever drawn him.
“Very well,” he capitulated. “We think—and it is only a guess, mind you—we think that he has set himself up as a stalking horse to trap those who would hunt him and you.”
At that, Ursula wavered on her feet, and Gotthilf sprang forward to ease her onto a chair. His mother and sister clustered around her, and he stepped back.
After a moment, the young woman raised her head and motioned Frau Marie and Margarethe back.
“Is he still alive? My brother?”
“We think so. No body has been found.”
The word yet hung in the air between them, for all it had not been spoken aloud.
Ursula leaned back and placed both hands atop her cane before she spoke again.
“His body has not been found, you mean. But what of others? What of those you say would be hunting him?”
Gotthilf shrugged. “There are two corpses in the city morgue, apparently dead at your brother’s hands, and three men in the city hospital with serious injuries. Two of them may be crippled for life. The witnesses we have are all clear that they attacked him.”
Ursula’s hand flew to her mouth at the mention of the dead men, and if possible she grew even paler.
“So, if we are correct in our guess,” Gotthilf finished, “your brother’s plan to hunt the hunters has succeeded to this point.” He looked away from Ursula to see Simon crouched in misery in a corner of the room. “It remains to be seen how successful it will prove to be in the end.”
Chapter 62
Hans had very little warning.
There was a sound of running feet behind him. He looked around to see half a dozen or more men swarming toward him in the moonlight.
Hans had been heading toward that same nook in the Neustadt where he thought he would be safe for the night. Now, all he could do was tuck himself into an angle in the freestanding wall of an old building that had burned in the great fire of 1625 and had never been rebuilt. At least there no one could get behind him, and they were forced to come to him almost head-on.
He settled his back against the stones of the walls, holding the walking stick in both hands. He was glad that Frau Anna had given him the stick. It would be put to use one more time tonight.
The pack slowed their pace, and came to a stop just beyond his reach, settling into a semi-circle. They were silent.
“Devil got your tongues, lads?” Hans mocked.
“You are a dead man, Metzger,” a cold voice said.
“Ah, is that you, Ernst?” Hans laughed. “I wondered how long it would be before you found me. Of course, I’ve been leaving a trail behind me all over town.”
He laughed again. “Got some new boys, have you, Ernst? Did you tell them the reason you need them is because I hammered five of your men into the mud yesterday, left two of them for dead and the others probably crippled for life?”
“You are a dead man, Metzger,” Ernst Mann repeated.
“Maybe I am. But I’ll tell you this: if I am, I’m not the only one. Hope you’ve all made your peace with God, boys, because I’m not going to meet Him alone.”