Chapter Twenty
Johnny hugged Veronica as they stood at departures in Terminal One of Stuttgart Airport. “Give me a phone when you get there. Caitlin phoned this morning, she says to remind you of Disney World.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” said Veronica, wiping a tear from the side of her eye. “Listen John I have something to tell you …”
He put a finger to her mouth. “Not now, tell me later, as long as it’s not about another man.”
“No,” she smiled. “Nothing like that.”
They kissed and then she joined the queue for the security check carrying her laptop.
Johnny, whose flight wasn’t until later, headed into a shop and bought a British newspaper. He then strolled into a busy café and got himself a latte and sat at a table which faced a departures monitor.
After a while someone sat down beside him. He paid no heed and kept on reading an article on the British monarchy. Another person sat at the table then another.
“Really, Mr Duncan German newspapers are much better than the British gutter press,” said a voice in German accented English.
The voice sent terror through every nerve in his body. “Menzel!” he growled as he raised his head and eyed the German and two of his thugs sitting around the table. “So you slithered out of the hole in the mountain.”
“I’d like to sit around and trade insults with you all day, but let’s get to business. You have something I want, and I have something you want.”
“What do I have that you want?” Matthew asked.
“Come on Mr Duncan, don’t be tiresome, I know of the diary. Old Günter was very talkative before he joined his colleagues.”
“That man was a hero.”
“A dead hero!”
“You make me sick. What is it you’ve got that I would possibly want?”
Menzel reached under the table and then placed Veronica’s laptop on the table.
“What…? But you can’t have, I just watched her go through security.”
“As I told you before there are neo-Nazis everywhere.”
Johnny felt his heart sink. He looked around and saw passengers… happy passengers.
“Now Mr Duncan we understand each other–ja!”
“Where is she?”
“She’s safe, for now.”
“Okay, I’ll get you the diary,” growled Johnny.
“Right, where is it?”
“It’s at the hotel we stayed in last night–the Holiday Inn.”
Menzel turned to Schroeder. “Go and get Miss Cahill we’ll meet you at the car.”
In the car park Johnny got pushed into the back of the black BMW by Meine, the driver, as Menzel climbed into the front passenger seat.
“No tricks Mr Duncan,” said Menzel as Meine got in behind the wheel.
The opposite door to where Johnny sat opened, and Veronica climbed in followed by Schroeder.
“Veronica, am I glad to see you?”
“Johnny!” she cried.
Menzel turned to face them and said: “How touching.” Then turning to Meine, he said: “Right let’s go to the Holiday Inn.”
While Schroeder stayed with Veronica Johnny led Menzel and Meine into the Hotel.
“Hello,” he said approaching the reception desk.
“Mr Duncan?” the receptionist said.
“Could I have the key-card for the room we stayed in last night please? I’ve lost one of my rings–it has sentimental value,” he said as he turned and saw Menzel and Meine loitering around the door area.
“It may have been cleaned.”
“Maybe I could go and have a look?”
“Yes, okay.”
Johnny took the card and headed to the elevator. At the same time Meine left Menzel and slipped into the elevator behind him. The doors opened on to the fourth floor and Meine followed Johnny along the deep, red carpet of the hallway. They entered the room and Johnny took out his penknife and went into the bathroom. Meine watched as he unscrewed the vent cover on the back wall above the cistern.
“Polizei!”
Schroeder spun to look at the figure that had knocked on the window of the BMW. Then he pressed a button, and the window lowered. “Let me see your ID card,” he barked.
An old Walther P38 pistol levelled at him through the open window. “Will this do?” A familiar voice to Veronica said. “Put your gun on the front passenger’s seat and come out of the car–slowly,” continued Matthias.
Schroeder threw his semi-automatic onto the front passenger’s seat and opened the door, then climbed out of the car.
“Now, hands behind your back. Veronica will you hold the gun?”
“With pleasure, and nice to see you.”
They tied the thug’s hands, gagged him and then shut him in the boot.
“The diary’s hidden in the room we stayed in last night,” said Veronica as they ran toward the front door. But they halted when they saw Menzel, sitting in the foyer, through the glass.
“Round the back, there must be a fire escape or something,” said Matthias.
They rounded the corner which took them to the back of the hotel. A white truck sat beside open double doors, and a man in blue overalls jumped down from the open rear and then carried three cardboard boxes into the building.
The pair slipped through the open doors, after the delivery man disappeared into the darkness, and found a hallway that led to a swing door and, to their relief, a stairway to the right.
Johnny removed the cover and then stuck a hand inside and pulled out the diary. Meine grabbed the book with one hand while pointing a handgun at Johnny with the other.
“Hoi!” Someone shouted.
As Meine turned he was caught on the side of the head with a ferocious left hook from Matthias. He collapsed onto the tiled floor of the bathroom, his pistol sliding around the back of the cistern.
“Matthias! Veronica! “Johnny shouted as he hugged them.
“Right let’s go, said Matthias, “down the back stairs.”
When they were out of the bathroom Johnny slammed the door and pushed the back of a chair, he had hauled from beside the window, under the handle.
Outside, they ran over the car park to the blue Mercedes, Johnny stopping briefly at Menzel’s car to grab his bag. Matthias gunned his car when they were all in and, they flew out onto the Bundesstrabe.
“Where will we go?” Matthias asked.
“I will put this,” Johnny held up the diary, “in a safe place–in Scotland.” He then turned around to face Veronica in the back and said: “How about you Veronica what are you going to do?”
“I’ve no change of clothes; Menzel has my laptop; I’m coming with you for now.”
Matthias guided the car onto the east bound side of the A8 Autobahn. “You’ll need an airport then; Stuttgart’s out–too obvious.”
“How about Munich?” Johnny asked.
“No I think Menzel might head there after Stuttgart. I’ll take you to Frankfurt; it’s a big airport–more people with which to mingle. Would one of you phone airlines for a flight to the UK?”
The journey to Frankfurt took an hour and forty minutes. The airport lay to the south-west of the city and sprawled over a large area. Matthias drew up in front of terminal two where the British Airways desk was located, Veronica having booked them on one of their connecting flights to Edinburgh.
“Well, thanks again Matthias. Will you be okay?” Johnny said.
“Yes I have many friends both gay and straight.”
“I never realised you were… you know!”
“Gay. Yes, since I left school.”
“No doubt we’ll meet again,” said Veronica as she raised herself over the back of the driver’s seat and kissed him on the cheek.
When they were sitting on the London bound flight, which was speeding along the runway, Johnny said: “I never realised Matthias was gay.”
“Yeah, I knew by his mannerisms.”
“I guess it takes a woman to notice such things.”
“You sexist beast!” she laughed as they soared up through the thick, grey clouds.
When the plane levelled out at over thirty-thousand-feet Veronica turned her head to face Johnny. “Where are you going to put the diary?”
“I’ll tell you once I’ve made the phone call.”
He then gazed out at the top of the cloud cover through which they had just broken.“As a child I used lie on the grass of the park not far from my home and gaze up past the wiry branches of the trees. I dreamed of floating up to touch the clouds. I thought if I ever achieved this I would meet God, all white-haired, playing a harp or something.”
“That’s the image of God we, as Christians, were taught at elementary school,” said Veronica, looking past Johnny at the clouds.
“A benevolent old man who looked after us in life and death.”
“Yep!”
“All this before we grew up and asked awkward questions. All this before life’s realities bit.”
“I suppose we were lucky, some kids aren’t sheltered from the realities.”
After thirty minutes the plane again broke through the clouds, downward, into a rain-lashed Heathrow. Johnny could just make out the terminal buildings through the watery haze.
Veronica gripped his arm as the plane bumped onto and then sped along the slick runway eventually coming to a halt, then taxiing into a slot.
“Well that’s the first part of the journey,” sighed Johnny.
“Yeah it’s on to Bonnie Scotland now,” said Veronica, undoing her seat belt.
Edinburgh Airport was relatively quiet as they strolled out of baggage retrieval and into the main concourse after the flight from London. Men in suits with briefcases scurried around looking at departure monitors while families sat in cafes waiting to go on holiday.
The taxi journey to the city centre took twenty minutes. In which time they passed street after street of blackened sandstone tenement buildings before entering the busy thoroughfare that was Princes Street.
The black cab drew up in front of the Ramada Mount Royal Hotel, a modern building that stood incongruently next to Jenner’s department store and gazed up at Edinburgh Castle.
They checked in and then dined in an Indian restaurant in Rose Street, which lay a block away from Princes Street, but ran parallel with it. After the hot curry and a pint of Guinness Johnny felt better than he had done for days and declared: “There’s nothing like Scottish food and beer to get you back on form.”
They left the eatery and strolled along the cobbled street past pubs and shops. The pair then turned down Castle Street and on to Princes Street where they encountered couples window shopping and homeless people with dogs asking for money.
The evening was mild with only a slight breeze as the maroon city buses thundered down the road stopping to allow smartly dressed youngsters out, heading off for a night on the town.
In the hotel they went to the bar for a night cap before retiring. They sat at a table by a window and admired the illuminated castle, which looked as if it hovered above the city.
“I’ll make that phone call first thing in the morning,” said Johnny stifling a yawn.
“And I’ll have to buy some clothes.” Veronica said with a smirk.