Private Berlin (Private 5)

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“Where’s Pavel now?” Brecht asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He disappears for days at a time. He’s very secretive, but frankly I didn’t want to know where he goes.”

“Uh-huh,” Morgan said. “Well, I can tell you that after the beating he’s going to take this afternoon on the Hertha Berlin game he’s going to come looking for you, Perfecta, and he’s not going to be happy. As a matter of fact, I expect him to be homicidal.”

CHAPTER 98

MATTIE WALKED OUT of the methadone clinic with Ilona Frei, who was glassy-eyed and moving slowly with a contented expression.

But Mattie craned her head all around, looking everywhere, knowing that the clinic was a choke point in Ilona’s life, a place where she could be counted on to show up, a place where someone like Falk might try to attack her.

But they made it to the car safely.

“Do you think Burkhart will find the records?” Ilona asked.

Mattie wanted to say that she doubted it, but she replied, “I’ve learned that he’s a very determined man.”

Ilona blinked several times. “I heard they were shredding everything they could at the end. It’s what started it all. The end I mean. Do you remember?”

“Other than Niklas’s birth, they were the greatest days of my life.”

“People were dancing and singing,” Ilona recalled as Mattie pulled away from the curb. “Ilse and I left the orphanage with Chris and Artur and Kiefer and Greta and came to Berlin. We wanted to see what was happening for ourselves.”

Mattie remembered everything about those days, how extraordinary it felt to be sixteen with everything suddenly new and everything possible.

She started to sing the Jesus Jones song, “Right Here, Right Now.”

“‘A woman on the radio talks about revolution…’”

Ilona joined in with her. “‘When it’s already passed her by…’”

They stopped singing. Their smiles sagged.

In a faraway voice Ilona said, “When we got to Berlin, I saw the crowds and got scared. I kept looking for him in the crowds. For Falk. Chris tried to convince me that we would never see him again.

“But I think he was there somewhere that night, Mattie. I could feel him. Everyone else was so happy. But I felt like he was right there as the wall was coming down. Even though we’d been freed from the state, I knew I would never be safe from Falk. Until yesterday, I hadn’t seen him in almost thirty years, but he was in my thoughts constantly. Falk, he ate at my mind. He…”

Mattie glanced over to see tears streaming down Ilona’s face again as she said, “I didn’t know who I was half the time; I invented things, lives. I…”

She started to rub her hands as if washing them and began a slow rocking motion. Mattie wanted to pull over and calm her, but then her cell phone rang.

“Engel,” she said.

“I’ve been at it all night, Mattie,” Dr. Gabriel said. “I tried every database I could think of. There’s no Kiefer Braun in Germany that comes close to matching our guy.”

Mattie’s heart sank. “What? Is he dead? Left the country?”

“No, he’s here in Berlin,” the scientist replied. “He changed his name. Three times.”

CHAPTER 99

I LOOK IN the mirror as I apply the last bit of makeup.

Sadly, I think, this may be the last mask in my superb collection of original, onetime creations.

When I’m finished with my disguise, I return to my masks, letting my eyes linger on old favorites—the Dogons and the Indonesians—and new friends like the Chokwe and Jaguar masks.