The Navigator's Daughter: A Kat Lawson Mystery by Nancy Cole Silverman

Author:Nancy Cole Silverman [Silverman, Nancy Cole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781685120900
Google: HIHtzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2022-06-06T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

As we got closer to Keszthely, Aanika talked more about the town where she and Sandor had spent their honeymoon and how excited she was to return for a day’s outing. She went on about the beauty of the Festetics Palace, the museums, there were several—everything from cars to dolls—the cafes, and the shopping. One day she and Sandor hoped to buy a small piece of property, maybe somewhere close to the lake, and enjoy a simpler life.

Despite my interest in hearing about Keszthely and all it had to offer, I couldn’t help but notice that Aanika had stopped talking about her personal life. I felt as though she was trying to lead the conversation in an entirely different direction, and I was uncomfortable with it.

Until that morning, it had never occurred to me to ask where Sandor’s family was during the war. Like every other able-bodied, young Hungarian man, I had assumed Sandor’s father had been in the Army and that Sandor didn’t like to talk about it. Particularly with Americans, since we would have been on opposing sides. But after learning Sandor’s family was Jewish, I wanted to know everything about them and how they had survived.

I began with some reasonably simple, straightforward questions. “Was Sandor’s family from Keszthely?”

“No,” Aanika said. “The Zselnegellers were from Budapest. They were quite well-to-do. Sandor’s grandfather was a pharmacist. He owned several pharmacies there and another here in Keszthely, plus a farmhouse for vacations. But toward the end of the war, Sandor’s grandfather worried for his family’s safety and sent his wife and daughters away.”

“And they came here, to Keszthely?”

“By then, Hitler had sent his troops into Hungary, and the German Army had purged the forest and small towns of any Jews hiding there. Many Jews from Poland and those who could escape Germany had tried to sneak across Hungary’s borders. They hoped to find refuge in our forest or in Budapest. Of course, they didn’t. The Germans were waiting for them. Those that got as far as Budapest were rounded up and exported to concentration camps. Sandor’s grandfather thought if he could get his family out of the city and to the small farmhouse outside of Keszthely since it had already been declared Judenfrei that they could hide there and be safe. They didn’t have many options.”

“Is that how Margit met Katarina?”

“I don’t know, I guess.” Annika shrugged. “Sandor never mentioned how his grandmother knew Katarina. I suppose if Katarina’s alive, you could ask.”

Up until that very moment, I had believed Aanika had been as engaged in the hunt to find Katarina as I was. But there was something in Aanika’s very lukewarm answer that caused me to wonder if Sandor might have said something to her. He had been adamant we didn’t have enough time to visit Keszthely when we went to the fortress. I hadn’t questioned it at the time. But now, judging from Aanika’s response, I felt like our day trip to Keszthely was about to be nothing more than a shopping trip.

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