Page 107 of The Girl You Left Behind
“You really think prisoners who end up in Germany ever come out again?”
“Liliane, please don’t talk like that. Please. You just need...” My voice tailed away.
“Dearest Sophie, with your faith, your blind optimism in human nature.” She half smiled at me, and it was a terrible, bleak thing. “You have no idea what they will do to us.”
And with that, before I could say another word, she whipped the gun from the soldier’s holster, pointed it to the side of her head, and pulled the trigger.
30
“So we thought we might take in a movie this afternoon. And this morning Jakey’s going to help me walk the dogs.” Greg drives badly, dipping his foot on and off the accelerator, apparently in time with the music, so Paul’s upper body lurches forward at odd intervals all the way down Fleet Street.
“Can I bring my Nintendo?”
“No, you cannot bring your Nintendo, Screen-boy. You’ll walk into a tree like you did last time.”
“I’m training to walk up them, like Super Mario.”
“Nice try, Small Fry.”
“What time are you coming back, Dad?”
“Mm?”
In the passenger seat, Paul is scanning the newspapers. There are four accounts of the previous day’s events in court. The headlines suggest an impending victory for TARP and the Lefèvres. He cannot remember the last time he felt less elated by a winning verdict.
“Dad?”
“Damn. The news.” He checks his watch, leans forward, fiddles with the dial.
“Survivors of German concentration camps have called on the government to fast-track legislation that would aid the return of works of art looted during wartime....
“Seven survivors have died this year alone while waiting for legal processes to return their families’ possessions, according to legal sources, a situation that has been described as ‘a tragedy.’
“The call comes as the case of a painting allegedly looted during the First World War continues at the High Court—”
Paul leans forward. “How do I turn this up?”Where are they getting this stuff?
“You want to try PAC-MAN. Now there was a computer game.”
“What?”
“Dad? What time?”
“Hold on, Jake. I need to listen to this.”
“...Halston, who claims her late husband bought the painting in good faith. The controversial case illustrates the difficulties for a legal system facing an increasing number of complex restitution cases over the past decade. The Lefèvre case has attracted attention across the globe, with survivors’ groups...”
“Jesus. Poor Miss Liv.” Greg shakes his head. “I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, all that stuff in the papers, on the radio—it’s getting pretty hard core.”
“It’s just business.”
Greg gives him the look he turns on customers who ask to run a tab.
“It’s complicated,” Paul says.
