Rastenburg, East Prussia, Farm of Tadeauz Malewicz
July 21, 1944, 0830 hours
They were all in the kitchen of the small farmhouse when the pounding on the door began. Vladimir looked at Tadeauz. "It has begun," he said.
Tadeauz nodded as he rose from the table to answer the door. When he opened it, an SS Major pushed his way into the room, followed by two of his guards.
"You are the ones who reported finding the body of Major Gerstein?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," Tadeauz replied. "I was the one who rode into town to tell you."
The Major nodded. "I am Major Reinhardt," he said. "I was a friend of Major Gerstein."
"Please accept our condolences for the loss of your friend," Jacinta said from the table. She was chopping scraps of meat to make sausage.
"I do not want condolences. I want to find the person who killed him." Reinhardt replied. "What do you know about it?"
Tadeauz shrugged. "I know only what I told your man yesterday," he replied. "We were butchering a pig and we saw two cars stopped on the road. When we looked back later, we saw only the one car. We did not walk out there until much later when that one car did not leave."
"Did you see anyone at the cars?" Reinhardt asked.
"There were two men when we first looked," Vladimir replied. "We did not see anyone later … until we found the Major."
Reinhardt looked around the room, studying everything closely. "Do you all live here?" he asked.
Tadeauz nodded. "Yes, we all live here and work on the farm," he replied.
"You work nowhere else?" Reinhardt asked.
"I have a small market in town," Tadeauz replied. "I use it to sell vegetables and food to make extra money."
Vladimir noticed Reinhardt nod slightly. The Major had obviously checked up on them before coming out here.
"Do you mind if we look around?" Reinhardt asked.
Even though the Major phrased it as a question, Vladimir knew that it was not. The SS would look around whether they wanted them to or not … in fact, they would look harder if they objected.
"Not at all," Tadeauz replied. "It is a small house, but very cozy."
Reinhardt looked at Tadeauz. "I'm not interested in cozy," he replied tersely. He made a motion for his men to fan out and they went to explore the rest of the house. No one in the kitchen made a move to accompany them.
"I still do not understand why you waited so long to investigate the car on the road," Reinhardt commented.
"As I said, we were butchering a pig," Tadeauz replied. "Once we started, we could not stop until we were finished."
The farmhouse door opened and another of Reinhardt's men entered. "Sir, we found something in the barn," he said. "You should take a look."
Reinhardt drew his pistol and waved it at the people gathered in the kitchen. "I must ask you to accompany me to the barn," he said.
Without a word, Tadeauz, Vladimir and Grzegorz filed out of the house. Jacinta sighed heavily before putting down her knife and leaving the meat on the table. "I must get my sausage made," she complained.
"Depending on what we find in the barn, you might not need the sausage," Reinhardt said. "Now move!" He gave Jacinta a small shove towards the door.
When they got to the barn, another SS man was waiting. Reinhardt pushed his way through to look at what the man was pointing at. "This looks like blood, sir," the man said.
Reinhardt knelt down and touched the darkened soil. "It is blood," he said. He looked up at Tadeauz. "How do you explain this?" he asked.
"That is from the pig," he replied calmly. "When you kill a pig, it bleeds."
"And when you kill a person, he bleeds," Reinhardt countered with a sarcastic tone.
"I do not know what to say to that, sir," Vladimir said, stepping forward. "We did butcher a pig yesterday. I do not know what we can do to make you believe that.
"If you did butcher a pig, where are the unused portions?" Reinhardt asked.
"Sir, here on the farm there is very little that is unused," Tadeauz replied. "What we do not eat, we feed to the remaining animals. The only thing left are some of the larger bones."
"Sir, we did find a small pile of bones outside," the guard said.
Reinhardt nodded. "Okay, I believe you," he said.
The two guards that had left to search the house appeared in the doorway. "There is nothing unusual in there," one of them said.
Reinhardt straightened up. "I guess we have bothered you enough," he said. "Please accept my apology for the intrusion."
Tadeauz waved away the apology. "I just wish there was more we could do to help you," he said.
"So do I," Reinhardt replied. "So do I."
- - - - -
"Do you think we convinced them?" Tadeauz asked. He and Vladimir were walking along one of the fields of the farm.
"I doubt it," Vladimir replied. "We may have satisfied them for now, but if they do not find anything, I feel they will return."
"I am afraid my thoughts match yours, my friend," Tadeauz said.
"So where does that leave us?" Vladimir asked. "Do we sit here and wait for them to return?"
"That is not a pleasant thought," Tadeauz said.
"I think we should make arrangements to leave in the next few days," Vladimir said.
"And go where?" Tadeauz asked.
Vladimir shrugged. "I do not know," he replied. "I will radio The Center tonight and tell them we are not safe. They will have a suggestion."
"It is settled then," Tadeauz said. "You tell Grzegorz and I will go tell Jacinta. We will plan to leave tomorrow."