Chapter One Thousand Five Hundred Fifty-Two
31st March 1963
Tempelhof, Berlin
It was because of two men named Dirksen and Martz, aged nineteen and twenty years of age. They were not going to be getting older. When their autopsies have been conducted, the cause of death had been ruled death by gunshot. In both cases, it had been 9-millimeter bullets weighing eight grams that had been pulled from their bodies that were the approximate cause. When Kiki had been informed of that detail, she had gotten sick in a way that she hadn’t since she was a child. There had been only one weapon on the scene that could have fired the bullets in question, hers.
It was something that Kiki found that she couldn’t get past, it was the complete antithesis of every single thing that she had ever wanted to happen in her life. Kat had told her that the blame for what had happened was entirely on them, Kiki couldn’t afford to think about the incident any other way. It might cause her to hesitate in the future and that would make her a serious liability to the people trying to protect her. Kat had been brutally frank with her about how they had had been self-styled “Jacobins” who saw her as a useless parasite. They had wanted to kill her. Did she not realize what they would have done to her if they had taken her alive? Kat had practically been yelling at Kiki by the time she was through. The rational part of her accepted at face value what Kat was saying, that wasn’t the part of that felt guilty over the indelible fact that she had ended two lives.
Kiki had still been reeling from that whole thing a couple days later when she remembered that she was obligated to spend the midday meal with Benjamin’s parents and that had turned into an absolute nightmare. Nadine had ripped into her about everything that had happened over the years. She had basically said that Kiki was a terrible person and except for the idea that she saw ordinary people as playthings, there was a lot of truth in what Nadine had said. The thing that really hurt though, had been to look of dismay on Ben’s face. What did he think was going to happen here? If Kiki told off his mother, then she would confirm forever in her mind everything that Nadine thought of her. So, she had sat there and taken it until Nadine had asked where she thought it was going to lead.
That was when Kiki had told Nadine the absolute truth, that her relationship with Ben was impossible. That it was eventually going to fall apart despite what she might have wanted. She saw Ben’s look of dismay turn to one of horror as Kiki realized that she had just told his mother, who hated her, how to end their relationship if that was what she really wanted.
The pattern they were stuck in had to end somehow.
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Nadine was furious, she had been for days. Having that girl in her house again… She didn’t care who Kristina was, this had been coming for a long time and it had felt good to finally tell her what she thought of everything that had been happening, everything that Nadine had been forced to put up with over the last several years. That was however when Kristina did something that was entirely unexpected. She had told Nadine a bit of harsh truth, that if her relationship with Benjamin became common knowledge then it would probably be the end of them. Forever.
For a brief minute, Nadine felt triumphant as she watched Ben and Kristina retreat into the parlor. She had finally cornered Kristina and gotten her to tell the truth with none of her evasions or lies. All she would need to do is pick up the phone and call a newspaper, proof of her claims wouldn’t be too difficult. There were photographs of Ben with that girl around somewhere. Nadine would need to find them…
“You haven’t won anything Nadine” Bernhard said, “All Kiki did was put the ball on your side of the court.”
“We finally have a chance to set things right” Nadine said.
“If that is how you want to play it, then the girl will go away and so will our son” Bernhard said.
“You say that after all the half truths that evasions that the two of them have engaged in?” Nadine asked.
“Ben once told me who she was shortly after they broke up for the first time and I didn’t really believe him” Bernhard replied, “I was more interested in his telling me how he had convinced her to kiss him. That seems silly now, but it was important enough at the time.”
“Can’t you see what has been going on?” Nadine demanded.
“Yes, but I also see what is going on right now” Bernhard said, “Can’t you put your anger aside for a few minutes?”
“What are you talking about?” Nadine replied. Then she saw what Bernhard was getting at. Kristina and Benjamin were sitting on the sofa in the parlor as she was weeping, and he was trying to comfort her without much success.
“I see a girl who made a long series of mistakes with good intentions and has had it all blow up in her face” Bernhard said, “One who is willing to give you the power to end her relationship with Ben in an effort to end the conflict with you. Unless I’m mistaken. She thinks that it is over because you’ll rush to call any newspaper who will listen to you.”
Nadine hesitated, for the first time in days she felt a twinge of uncertainty.