The Lioness of Leiden by Robert Loewen

Author:Robert Loewen [Loewen, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

The sound of the door to her flat being unlocked startled Mimi awake. Rubbing her eyes, she opened it and stepped back, her mouth agape. “Oh my. What happened to you, Kees?”

Then she saw Hetty standing behind him, covered in blood head to toe. “Where did you go?” the astonished Mimi asked, glancing toward Hetty’s empty bed as she closed the door behind her friends. “I didn’t hear you leave.”

“Turn around, Kees,” Hetty ordered to give her privacy while she removed her blood-stained clothes before throwing them in the waste basket. “We need to sink our clothes in the river,” said Hetty as she entered the bathroom. “Get out of that bloody outfit while I have a shower.”

Kees did as he was told while Mimi faced the wall. “Do you have something to drink?” he asked, with a hint of desperation in his voice as he wrapped a towel around his waist.

“We have some whiskey,” said Mimi, who went to the kitchen and returned with the half-empty bottle that she and Hetty had shared earlier. “Is that Hess’s blood?”

Hetty returned in her bathrobe, using a towel to dry her hair.

Kees sat down heavily in the only chair, staring blankly at the whiskey bottle. “What have we done?” He ran a hand through his hair. “We just killed a German officer in cold blood. There will be reprisals.”

“We need to run!” Mimi said urgently.

Hetty turned calmly toward Kees. “You’d better take a shower.”

He stood up with a dazed expression as Hetty handed him a fresh towel from a shelf in the bathroom. “Wash your hair; it’s caked with blood.”

Then she went to the closet and gathered a pair of pants and a work shirt. “Try these on. Karl left them here before the war.”

Kees sat down on Maria’s bed. “I need a minute.” He put Maria’s pillow against his face and inhaled. “I can smell her, like she’s still here.”

“You promised not to kill him,” said Mimi, huddled on her bed.

“I wasn’t going to,” said Kees, lighting a cigarette. “Then Hess said something terrible about Maria, and I lost my head. Still, if Hetty hadn’t saved me, I’d be dead right now.”

“What were you thinking, Hetty?” said Mimi. “You shouldn’t have left without telling me.”

“Would you have let me go?” asked Hetty.

“Thanks to you, the Gestapo will be crawling around Leiden like ants looking for us,” said Mimi, her voice agitated.

“He needed killing,” Hetty said sharply, plucking the cigarette from Kees’s mouth. She took a deep drag and coughed.

“You’re wrong. We would all be safer if you two had left Hess alone,” said Mimi, pacing the floor. “And what about the night Gerhardt killed Brecht? You didn’t say he needed killing.”

“I was wrong about Brecht but not about Hess,” said Hetty, smoking the cigarette in rapid puffs. “We need to stay focused on what’s important. I should not have asked Maria to take my place on yesterday’s assignment just because I wanted to be with Pier. She died while I was having a meaningless fuck.

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