Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee

Author:Abir Mukherjee [Mukherjee, Abir]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473556010
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2019-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-NINE

The light from a candle flame reflected off black water.

The room was freezing. It might have been the one I’d passed through on my way out of the massage room or it might have been completely different. I had no idea, such was my disorientation.

The German issued a command in what I presumed was Yiddish and suddenly one of my captors had taken a hold of my hair. My head was snapped back and I was led, splashing across the tiled floor, to a water-filled trough. Behind me came measured footsteps as Hermann walked over. He was outside of my field of vision but I could feel his breath on my neck and smell its sour tang. When he spoke his voice was calm, almost reasonable.

‘What’s your name?’

There was no harm in telling him.

‘Wyndham. PC Wyndham.’ I threw in my collar number for good measure.

‘And, Constable Wyndham, how did you know Vogel was here?’

That was information I didn’t feel like revealing.

‘You’re under arrest,’ I said.

I heard him sigh. ‘Please, Constable. That statement grows tiresome. You should tell me what I wish to know.’

‘I don’t need to tell you anything.’

There was silence for a moment, then suddenly my head was rammed forwards and down into the trough. Contact with the ice-cold water felt like a thousand volts of electric current coursing through my head, the shock causing me to gasp involuntarily. My mouth and lungs filled with water. I struggled, tapping into reserves of strength I never knew I possessed, but again it was to no avail. I barely moved, the grip of my captors holding me in place like iron shackles. An eternity of seconds passed, ten, twenty, thirty, then the same again. I felt my lungs cry out for air. Another ten seconds and it would be over. Just as I was about to pass out, the hands hauled me up. I choked, fighting for breath between fits of coughing. Somewhere out of my line of sight, I could feel the presence of Israel Vogel.

Hermann was speaking again.

‘I ask you once more. How did you know of our friend’s location?’

‘Lucky guess.’

His accomplices didn’t even wait for an instruction before forcing my head back under. This time though, I was better prepared. The freezing water had lost its bite and I hardly noticed the chill. I’d learned too that struggling was not just useless but counterproductive. Instead I saved my strength and my breath. In this manner I managed to eke out what felt like an additional minute but was probably closer to an extra ten seconds before my lungs burned once more beyond the limits of endurance. Darkness began to descend until again the rough hands hauled me out, and I thanked them by way of another chorus of coughs.

Hermann stood in front of me. He clamped a hand round my jaw, pulling my face close to him.

‘I will ask you one last time: how did you know Vogel was here?’

I continued to cough the water out of my lungs.

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