Page 96 of The Little Liar
The breeze was picking up, and the white balloons whipped with the wind. Sebastian walked across the platform and stopped at the microphone. He glanced skyward to see an unusual sight: snowflakes blowing through the air. Snowflakes? In March? He cocked his head, as if curious, and he felt one land on his nose, cold, small, and wet.
Forty feet away, Udo Graf reached into his jacket.
Finally, a clean shot. He could put an end to this Jewish filth who had ruined his life.First the Brother, then the old man.He would barely have to move his arm.
Sebastian opened his mouth to speak, planning to begin the way the others had. The words echoed over the crowd.
“On this platform...”
Udo looked up. Sebastian looked up, too. Because it wasn’t Sebastian’s voice saying those words, but someone else’s, a man’s voice, blasting through the loudspeakers the Nazis once used to announce their train departures.
“On this platform... I told your families a terrible lie!” the voice bellowed. “I told them it was safe! I told them they were going someplace good! I told them they would have jobs, and they would all be together again!
“I’m sorry. It was never true.”
The crowd hushed. Heads swiveled. For the first time in their lives, Sebastian, Fannie, and Udo Graf shared the same thought at the same time:
Nico.
“On this platform, I deceived my own people. Everyone I knew. Everyone I loved. I watched them all taken away, still believing what I’d told them.
“But I was lied to, as well. I was told my words were true. I was told my family would be safe.”
A pause.
“They weren’t.”
Sebastian bent forward and back, trying desperately to determine where the voice was coming from. A fury rose inside him as it continued.
“There were many people responsible for the horrors that happened here. But one man more than anyone else. His name was Udo Graf. A NaziSchutzhaftlagerführer. He organized it all.”
In the crowd, Udo froze, his hand still gripping the gun in his jacket.
“He put our families in the ghetto. He sent them to Auschwitz. And in Auschwitz, he had them murdered like animals. Shot. Gassed. Their bodies never buried, just burned to ashes.”
Udo felt sweat beading under his wig.
“But you should know that justice was served. Udo Graf is dead. He died at the hands of a brave Jew. He died with all his evil dreams denied.Er starb als Feigling. Er starb allein.He died a coward. He died alone.”
Udo couldn’t take any more. He ripped off the hat and wig, let go of the balloon, and whipped out his gun.
“It’s a lie!” he screamed. “You’re a liar! You lie!”
***
What happened next took less than nine seconds, yet felt like a long dream. Sebastian saw a white balloon rising, and beneath it, Udo Graf waving a pistol. He heard Fannie’s voice screaming his name. He saw the Hunter dive to the ground. Then, just before the sudden pop of gunshots, Sebastian was smothered by a body that knocked him to the platform and sent the carnations flying.
He landed with a thud, blinded by the impact. He tried to find his breath. Lying on his back, feeling the cold concrete beneath his shoulders, he opened his eyes to see a blond-haired man lying on top of him, and a face he would have known forty years earlier, or forty years in the future.
“You!” Sebastian gasped.
“I’m sorry, brother,” Nico whispered. “I knew he would be here. I had to draw him out.”
“Graf?”
“He’s yours now. You can bring him to justice.”
In the crowd, three men tackled Udo to the ground. Another man stepped on his arm, freeing the gun, and a police officer pushed through and grabbed it. Tia was on her knees, screaming and holding on to Fannie, who was dragging forward, trying to reach the two men entwined on the platform.
