Rastenburg, East Prussia, Farm of Tadeauz Malewicz
July 20, 1944, 1310 hours
Vladimir had just straightened up when the barn door opened again. Instinctively Vladimir raised the pistol toward the shape in the door and just as quickly lowered it when he realized it was Tadeauz.
"I was almost to the house and I heard gunshots," Tadeauz said breathlessly. "What the hell happened in here?" He looked at the lifeless body on the ground and back up at Vladimir.
"Who is this?" Stauffen asked.
"I live here," Tadeauz shot back. "Who are you?"
Jacinta appeared at the barn door and gasped when she saw the dead body on the ground. "Oh dear," she said. "This is bad."
"Who are these people?" Stauffen asked Vladimir.
"Keep quiet," Vladimir said. "This is their farm."
At that moment, Grzegorz appeared behind Jacinta. He was breathless from having run across the fields. "I heard shots," he gasped. "Is everyone all right?"
"Everyone but him," Vladimir said, pointing at Major Gerstein.
"Another person?" Stauffen asked. "This place is getting to be more crowded than a train car."
Vladimir turned towards Stauffen. "I said keep quiet!" he ordered. He turned back to his team. "This is General Stauffen, my contact from the Wolfsschanze. He is also the one that was supposed to kill Hitler today, but apparently failed."
"I did not!" Stauffen insisted. "That man was lying. No one could survive that blast!"
"Regardless, this Major followed Stauffen here and was about to take us away," Vladimir said. "I shot him instead."
Tadeauz looked the situation over for a moment before replying. "Where were you heading?" he asked Stauffen.
"I was on my way to Berlin to help take charge of things now that the Führer is dead," Stauffen replied.
"Then go," Tadeauz said. "Do what you were going to do. Vladimir, let him have his gun."
Vladimir handed Stauffen his pistol. The General took it and put it in its holster. "What about him?" he asked, pointing towards Gerstein.
"We will take care of that," Tadeauz said, causing Vladimir to stare at him. "You get out of here. I do not want anyone else to find you here."
Stauffen nodded and quickly left the barn.
"We will take care of him?" Vladimir asked. "How?"
"I saw his car parked on the road, beside the other one," Tadeauz said. "We will take his body up there to make it look like he was shot by the car."
"What about Stauffen?" Grzegorz asked.
"He is as good as dead," Tadeauz said. "If they tracked him here then they obviously know he's guilty of something."
Vladimir nodded. "This is true," he replied. "So we make it look like they scuffled on the road instead of in here?" he asked.
Tadeauz nodded. "Exactly," he replied.
"What about the blood on the ground here?" Vladimir asked. "And there will not be any blood on the ground by the car."
Tadeauz smiled. "We needed some meat, so we just butchered a pig," he replied.
"We did?" Grzegorz asked in surprise. "When?"
"Right now," Tadeauz said. "Go get one of ours and kill it … here in the barn. Try to save as much of its blood as you can and bring it out to the car." He turned to Vladimir. "Help me get him to the car."
"If we are butchering, I must get things ready in the kitchen," Jacinta said, and scurried to the house.
- - - - -
Vladimir and Tadeauz carried Gerstein's body to his car and arranged it on the ground nearby. The tracks of Stauffen's car were still visible in the soft earth around the roadside, which would lend validity to the scenario they were attempting to paint. Grzegorz arrived with a pail of blood from the dead pig and they poured it on the ground and arranged Gerstein over the spill.
"Now what?" Vladimir asked.
"We go back to the house and finish our butchering," Tadeauz replied. "We should burn these clothes – they have too much blood on them to be explained by the killing of one pig."
Vladimir looked at his clothes. Tadeauz was right – he was covered with Gerstein's blood from carrying the body to the car. "And we just leave him here to be found?"
Tadeauz shrugged. "When we are finished and have everything cleaned up, I could go into town to tell the authorities," he said.
"Tell them what – that there is a dead SS Major on the road by our house?" Grzegorz asked.
"I will tell them that while butchering one of our pigs, we saw two cars on the road, heard gunshots and then one of the cars disappeared," Tadeauz said. "This car never left, so we went to investigate and found a dead man."
"Do you think they will believe that?" Vladimir asked skeptically.
"Can you think of something better?" Tadeauz asked.
Vladimir shook his head. "No – but I do not like this," he replied. "We might think about leaving as soon as we can."
"I had the same thought," Tadeauz said. Grzegorz nodded his head in agreement.
"Come, we have work to do," Tadeauz said and started back to the house.
Vladimir had taken a few steps when he remembered the list of names that Gerstein had shown them in the barn. "Wait – I want to get that list he has," Vladimir said. He ran back to the body and removed the paper from the jacket pocket. The paper was blood soaked, but the text was still legible.
"What do you want that for?" Grzegorz asked.
"I might recognize some of these names," Vladimir said. "Those people are in danger. And I also must radio The Center and tell them what has happened here."