‘Are you all right?’
He blinked. ‘I think so. I thought . . . Anyway, I don’t think Matthew would have wanted to dirty his hands with what was in the briefcase. Whatever was in it – Brohm’s research papers, maybe even some clue to the location of the stone – will still be in there and it might have survived. Stranger things have happened. You only have to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Vindolanda Tablets.’
‘Got you.’ She’d given up on the locks and used all her effort to slice through the thick leather at the back of the case. ‘You were right, it was made to last. I suppose you should do this.’ She handed it back to him and he pulled apart the leather, allowing them both to peer inside.
‘Bugger.’
All that was left of the contents was a sodden mass of brown sludge.
‘So what do you think happened to the bodies, if there were any bodies here at all?’ Sarah asked as they were packing up, the galling disappointment of failure still creating a barrier between them.
‘Oh, the bodies were here.’ Jamie looked around the clearing distractedly. ‘I think the briefcase proves that. You saw the SS flashes on the leather and it was exactly where it would have been if my grandfather had thrown it away. In a way it makes sense. This must be a popular hiking trail, and probably has been for decades. Matthew wouldn’t have been able to bury them properly, only cover them with rocks and a few branches. The corpses could have been exposed by animals or the first decent spate. With dozens of people a week passing on the trail it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. Three skeletons in the remains of British uniforms, but without any form of identification. Remember old Werner telling us about the cemetery where they buried the escaping Allied prisoners of war who didn’t make it to the Swiss border. I’m betting that’s where Walter Brohm, Gunther Klosse and Paul Strasser ended up. Three British soldiers “known unto God”. I don’t know whether Matthew will be laughing or crying.’
‘And now?’
He hesitated because he wasn’t quite sure how to explain. The sensation had been so strong that it had been like someone physically standing beside him. ‘You asked me earlier what was wrong. It was because I suddenly had a feeling that we were very close to something important, but I was missing it. It was as if someone was screaming at me in a vacuum; I could see their lips moving but I didn’t know what they were saying. Can you understand that?’
‘Yes, but I still think we should take this chance to walk away, go right back down that hill and leave all the dead bodies behind us. Old Werner was right when he said digging up the past would only bring us grief.’
Jamie shook his head. ‘I can’t, Sarah. I’ll take you back to the airport and you can go home, but I have to keep looking. Maybe I’ll never find it, but I have to try. If I gave up now I’d be letting too many people down. You as much as anybody.’
She smiled, but when she replied there was a catch in her voice. ‘Don’t be an idiot. If we do this, we do it together. Christ, what have I done to us, Jamie?’
It seemed an odd question and he decided not to answer, because there was no answer. Instead, he asked: ‘What was I saying when I suddenly came over all queer?’
Sarah laughed and it rid her of the melancholy that seemed to permeate this place. ‘The one thing you’ll never be is queer, Mr Saintclair. You were talking about the Raphael, how Brohm had told your grandfather that the map would lead him to the Raphael.’
‘Yes.’ She could almost feel his excitement as he scrambled for the journal. ‘But that wasn’t exactly what he said. In the journal Matthew is always very careful to be precise, even when he’s under pressure. Here, you read it, exactly as he records it.’
She accepted the book and opened it where he’d placed the final page. ‘He took out a silk escape map with some sort of Nazi symbol on the reverse. This, he said, would lead me to the Raphael and everything else. Is that enough, or do you want more?’
He frowned, his face lined with concentration as he spelled out the words that had seemed to whisper to him earlier. What was it? What had he missed? The first sentence couldn’t have any hidden message, it was just a general description of the map. So it must be in the second. This, he said, would lead me to the Raphael and everything else. Ten words, without the attribution. Ten little words. Christ, could it really be that simple?
‘Everything else.’
‘What?’
‘Brohm told Matthew that the silk escape map would lead him to the Raphael and everything else. We were so blinded by the Raphael that we missed it. It was right there under our noses.’