Butcher

24

Kansas City

It had been a weekend of killer headaches, the worst he could recall, and he could remember some dillies. Aaron Kamen arched his neck up, then stood and stretched, putting his hands on his hips and swiveling from side to side. Saturday morning services, he'd been saying Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, when a Godzilla-like migraine had enveloped him. It had stayed with him for two days, one of those things that neither medication nor sleep seems to shake. He had to wear them off. This one started somewhere down in the shoulders and worked its way up the spine, across the top of his head, and settled above the eyes. Maybe that was it, he thought, taking off his glasses and rubbing his aching eyes. He cleaned his glasses with a tissue and put them back on. His head was throbbing. Maybe it wasn't a migraine, maybe he needed to get his prescription lenses adjusted. He glanced at the time. The two extra-strength Tylenol hadn't had time to kick in. He'd busy himself.

The tape box read Microcassette—Contains 10 Pieces, and he shook it gently, absent-mindedly, as he thought what to do about the woman. He would call. That was it. He couldn't wait any longer, it wouldn't stop nudging.

The tapes were neatly labeled in his firm printing, each title in block-lettered caps. SHTOLZ/PURDY, A. He finally got it out of the case, the small box difficult to handle in his big, thick-fingered hands. They were the hands of a man who'd labored hard all his life; beat-up, broken, rough-hewn hands with a workingman's calluses, even though he now did only paper work. Only paper work, he smiled. Nobody would believe how much work paper work could be.

Aaron Kamen felt the toll of his age, as he inserted the tape into the recording device plugged into his telephone.

“Hello,” he heard himself say from the miniature speaker.

“Is this Mr. Kamen?” He pressed stop when he heard her voice again and went to find a pen. Some notebook paper. He'd already forgotten the killer headache. His tunnel vision was locked back in on the woman, on finding her and making sure she was all right. The sense of something gone amiss was very strong. He wanted to hear the tape one more time before he began with the authorities. He'd make sure he took notes this time.

“This is he,” he answered. A small silver thing, a sleek machine with little holes and controls, a miracle that could record voices over a phone.

“Are you the one who tries to find Nazis from the war?” She spoke with a heavy accent.

“I try to do that,” he said simply, “yes."

“I'm calling because I know where there is a Nazi. I read about you two years ago when they had a story in the paper about you finding that guard from the camp. Then I called the operator and got your number from the Kansas City phone directory, that's how I found you."

“Yes.” He'd let the caller go on at her own pace.

“I was taken by them when I was a young girl in Germany. They didn't know I was Jewish at first and when they found out they ... did things to me. They killed my son, my baby. They were going to kill me, too. It was a doctor for the SS. Shtolz! I saw this man again. All these years. Twice I saw him. The first time I wasn't sure, but now I've seen him again. He's the one murdered my baby.” Her voice was full of pain.

“Emil Shtolz you saw?” He tried to keep his voice calm and measured, but every fiber in him was alert.

“Yes. You heard of him?"

“He had a nickname, did he not?” Kamen spoke to her softly in the German tongue she knew best. “The Butcher of Lebensborn?"

“Yes,” she hissed in a razor-edged voice. “The Boy Butcher."

“You're certain it's Shtolz you saw?"

“I wouldn't forget his smiling devil's mask."

“Where is he?"

“He's here in Missouri.” Aaron Kamen underlined her words as he printed them and chided himself for not being more thorough. He should have pulled it out of her then, but it had seemed so unlikely. “I'm in the southeast part of Missouri. A little country town called Bayou City, do you know it?"

“No. Where is it located?"

“Between St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee. I don't know exactly how far but—"

“That's all right. I have maps. Listen, your name is—what?"

“Alma Purdy. I didn't know who to call so I called the police. I could tell they didn't believe me."

“You phoned the police in Bayou City?"

“They weren't going to do anything. I decided to call you,” she said, exhaling deeply into the mouthpiece of the phone.

Everything about the call seemed genuine but one had to be on guard. Crackpots occasionally called and some could be quite cunning. One in particular, a man from a morning radio program in California, had pretended to have found a Nazi in hiding and had made a fool of Kamen, playing a recording of their conversation on the air as a prank. A less serious man would have found it actionable, but Aaron had done nothing.

He felt sure this was a legitimate call. Next was the question of its authenticity with respect to the sighting. Survivors of the camps saw their share of ghosts, so to speak. The voice on the other end of the line sounded like a woman in control of her faculties, but ... who knew?

“Precisely what did you say to the police?"

“This man named Pritchett took all the information, who I was, where I lived. He wanted to know about me, as if I might have done something, but he asked nothing about Shtolz. I knew he would not act, so I found the clipping, the one with the story about a Nazi hunter, and I called."

“You must be very, very sure this is the same man. The people who investigate such things are extremely busy and overworked and unless you're positive, please do not pursue it until you are one hundred percent sure."

“I'm sure. This man killed my baby. He sawed the top of my child's ... “ It was as if the connection had been broken. Nothing. Then there was a racking noise like a cough and her voice returned to its former monotone. “Do you think I would not know the Boy Butcher to see him in front of me?"

“Yes. All right. Please, take it easy now. I will help you and we shall proceed. I'm going to give you the number of an organization that deals with these matters. I will phone them first, myself, and have them contact you. Do nothing further until you've been called. Understand?"

“It is his turn to squirm now."

“Did you understand what I said? You must not make any further contacts as it could jeopardize the situation, perhaps even put yourself in danger or allow the man you've sighted to be warned."

“I understand. I will do nothing more.” There was another line but it was garbled, and he stopped the tape, rewound it for a second, and played it back. It sounded as if she'd said, “I'm sending you something—” but he couldn't make the words out. He heard himself testing her.

“I have a small photo of Shtolz from the war years. There is something that makes his appearance unique. Do you recall what it is?"

“If you mean the Tear of Satan, which is what we called it, the ugly, red mark on his face? No. I didn't notice it. He looks different. Much older of course, but the eyes in that face are the same. I don't remember the birthmark. Maybe it faded. Or—he's a doctor—he might have had it changed."

“Yes."

“But I swear it's Shtolz. The eyes. That mouth like a curveh.” A whore's mouth.

He rewound the tape again to the place he'd warned her to do nothing further, listening with the volume up as high as it would go.

“I understand. I will do nothing more,” the voice said. “I'm sending you something."

What? What could she be sending, this woman who recognized old Nazis, how could she send him anything? She'd neglected to ask his mailing address, and he hadn't thought to provide it.