The Heritage Paper

Chapter 26



Veronica’s mind continued to wander as she drove the winding countryside of Rhinebeck. Just a few hours ago, her biggest problem was the chaos of trying to get her kids to school. Now she was following the woman who may or may not have had an affair with her dead—murdered?—husband, on her way to visit some infamous Nazi who she’d never heard of before this morning, and who must be well over a hundred years old.

Never a dull moment.

The light drizzle turned into pounding rain. Veronica turned on some music. She wouldn’t be so cliché as to play “November Rain” from Guns N’ Roses, and instead went with “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. It was a perfect description of how they were rolling at the moment.

Flavia pulled into the entrance of the St. Marks Cemetery. After parking the Jeep, she got out and began walking toward the headstones. When Veronica chose to follow, she felt another chill. She hoped it was just the cold rain, but suspected it was a warning she wasn’t heeding.

Youkelstein seemed the most excited of the group. He had a bounce in his step as Flavia held his hand and led him over the wet ground. He finally got to use his umbrella for its intended purpose, and like the gentleman he was, he held it over Flavia’s head.

How cute.

Eddie caught up to Veronica and put his protective arm around her. She’d yet to tell him how sorry she was for his loss of Ellen. But this wasn’t the time. As long as they were involved in this—whatever this was—he’d put on his tough-guy policeman facade.

Veronica just stared ahead where Maggie was quoting FDR, while Jamie was stepping on the back of her shoe and then acting like he had nothing to do with it. The normalcy made her smile … but it was short-lived. Flavia stopped behind a large marble headstone that read:



Gus Becker

April 28, 1900 - May 14, 1981

A beloved servant of God.



Flavia rubbed her hand over the top of the headstone, cleaning off the accumulating raindrops. “I’d like everyone to meet Heinrich Müller—the former head of the German Gestapo.”