The Last Word (A Books by the Bay Mystery)
better manners, sure enough, but I saw through his mask. That writer thought he was above the rules, that he was better than the rest of us, just like his daddy did. When men like that think no one’s watchin’, their eyes go cold. They both had those ice-cold eyes.”
“What happened the night Ziegler escaped?” Olivia asked. She wasn’t ready to hear about Plumley’s death.
In the tired afternoon light, the harbor seemed lethargic and calm, a contradiction to the turbulence and sorrow that ran through Wheeler’s past like floodwaters.
“You gotta understand somethin’,” Wheeler said. “Ziegler was a Nazi. He was brainwashed through and through, and he looked at the rest of us like we weren’t worth the pot he pissed in. He reckoned we were traitors, workin’ with the Americans the way we did. Watchin’ their movies and learnin’ baseball.”
“Why were you on that U-Boat in the first place?”
Wheeler shrugged. “I wanted to see the world. My folks were farmers and I would’ve done anythin’ to get away from that life. I didn’t wanna get stuck, see? I was so young . . . I thought it was gonna be such a thrill to travel underwater, silent as a shark, and surface to find a white beach filled with beautiful women.” He laughed. “Lots of boys got in that war outta boredom. What fools we were.”
“But Ziegler was a true Nazi,” Olivia stated.
“Would have killed us all if he could, his yellow-bellied countrymen, but what he wanted most was Evelyn.” Wheeler winced, as if the act of speaking her name caused him physical pain. “That devil stole my knife and stabbed a good, hardworkin’ man in the back. Poor guy never saw it comin’. We coulda walked outta there anytime without hurtin’ a soul, but Ziegler wanted blood. He’d wanted it since the war started. Craved it, even. I followed him that night ’cause I saw his eyes at suppertime. There was murder in those icy blues. It was shinin’ out like the ghost lights you see in the fog every now and again.”
Olivia knew about those lights. She’d seen them the night her father had disappeared, while she’d waited, shivering and alone in a small dingy, to be rescued. More than once, she’d spotted a glow and expected the prow of a ship to slice through the curtains of fog, but the luminescence had faded as quickly as it had appeared. Many a fisherman had gone temporarily mad in the deep waters, having gone adrift far off the coast because of a storm or mechanical problems. These grizzled seamen talked of hearing strange noises and seeing an unearthly light, unable to completely believe that the soft twinkles were the product of hallucinations brought on by dehydration.
“After curfew, I heard Ziegler leave his tent. I followed, my knife in my pants,” Wheeler continued. “I figured on rescuin’ someone that night, savin’ some poor sod from him, seein’ as that boy was hell-bent on killin’ a Yank. He’d lusted for blood since the war started, but he’d had lots of schoolin’ and was given a desk job. That made him mad too. He hadn’t been able to take a shot at a single GI.”
It was easy to get caught up in Wheeler’s narrative, to see Ziegler creeping out in the darkness. The guards, who’d never been threatened by one of their prisoners, relaxed at their posts. Perhaps they played cards or dozed off or stared at the moon as they smoked cigarette after cigarette, their hushed voices rising with the smoke into the night air. “Did you fight him?”
Wheeler nodded. “Aye, but I was no good. He sucker punched me in the gut, grabbed my knife, and stuck it in the guard’s back before I could catch my breath. I rolled the man on his side to see if I could help him, and that’s when another pair of guards approached on their rounds. I knew they saw my face and that they’d find my knife. When all was said and done, I was still a Kraut. I was the enemy. Didn’t matter that I loved everythin’ about this country. Didn’t matter how pretty my paintings were. Didn’t matter that she was waitin’ on me, waitin’ for the war to be over . . .”
“You had to run,” Olivia said soothingly.
His face clouding with grief, Wheeler nodded. “I wanted to go straight to Evie, just to tell her I’d be back for her and that I didn’t do what they were gonna say I did, but I didn’t know where she lived.” He stared at the water, the hopelessness of that night replaying across his features. “I had a general
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