The Heritage Paper

Chapter 87



“Ben, is that you?” Veronica asked. “What is going on?”

“Think of me as a gypsy moth, Veronica. I have come to defoliate your family tree of evil.”

Maggie screamed out, “Mom—help!”

Her world began to spin out of control. She banged harder on the door.

“Your children are fine, Veronica. Let me set the scene for you. I’m holding Maggie down with the tip of my umbrella. I’m just going to lightly prick her with it and she will go to sleep. I am holding a gun in my other hand at Jamie’s head, but I don’t want to use it. I’m hoping he will cooperate and I will put him to sleep, also.”

“No!” Veronica shouted. “I don’t understand—why you are doing this?”

“Oh, I believe you do. And I think deep down you have the same fears I do about what the future brings for them. You know of their genetic makeup—they are the last leaves on the most evil family tree in history. The world cannot allow this disease to spread any more.”

“How did you know we were here?” Veronica asked sharply.

“I was able to attach a little gadget to Maggie’s cell phone when she visited my place, which allowed me to track her. Isn’t modern technology fantastic? When I was a boy, the automobile was a luxury, and now the whole world is connected by a signal.”

“Where’s Flavia?”

“She can no longer hurt anyone. Same with Jim Kingston, who was struck down by a sudden stroke earlier today, even if they are calling it a suicide.”

“My children are innocent!” Veronica shouted through tears, “Please let them go.”

“We both know that isn’t true. But let me tell you a story about someone who was innocent. My father was a doctor in Munich who helped those who couldn’t afford medical treatment after World War I. It was there he came across a young prostitute named Etta who was impregnated by a German corporal. He threatened her with violence if she didn’t terminate the child. But my father risked his life to help secretly deliver the child—a girl named Ellen.

“What he didn’t know was that his loyalty had helped to continue a shark infested gene pool. I think you have most likely figured out what that young corporal’s name was, Veronica. And how was my father rewarded for this? He was murdered by those with the same blood as your children.”

Veronica kept frantically pounding the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She tried kicking it, but the only damage she inflicted was on her own foot.

“If you do this, you are a monster just like those Nazis you hunted. Just like those secret police who tracked down Anne Frank hiding in that attic. Just like the ones who killed your father and fiancée. Just like the ones who loaded the trains with children and the elderly, and sent them to their death …”

She hoped to strike a nerve of guilt, but Youkelstein seemed unfazed.

“Mom—please!” Maggie called out again, and Veronica’s heart almost exploded.

“The ironic thing, Veronica, is after all the evil I hunted down across the globe, your family came to me—when Carsten brought the letters between Ellen and Heinrich Müller. That in itself was quite an impressive discovery. But you see, one of the letters was dated April 20, and in that letter Ellen and Müller discussed the birthday of their son Josef’s grandfather, who was an Apostle named Peter. April 20 happens to be the birthday of a certain former German leader. It allowed me to connect the dots.

“When I learned that Carsten’s grandmother was Ellen, it brought me back to the story my father told me. I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence, and I had to eliminate the tree at the roots.”

“You killed Carsten!” Veronica shouted through sobs. She was now bull-rushing the door with no success.

“I enjoyed my time with Carsten. He was intelligent and passionate, much like his daughter. As was Ellen when I surprised her with a visit. But in the end, I had no choice.”

“If it wasn’t for Maggie and Jamie then the world as we know it would be gone. How could someone who did that be evil?”

Veronica’s plan was to hold on as long as she could. An elderly man who suffered a multitude of injuries over the last two days, including a gunshot wound to the shoulder he held his weapon with, couldn’t hold out much longer, could he? Even fueled by his thirst for revenge, he’d ultimately run out of gas and drop his weapon.

She hoped.

Keep him talking, she told herself. Play into his ego … his vanity.

But Jamie threw a wrench into her plan. “Hey Maggie, let’s play the game we did at the subway.”

“No, Jamie—no!” Veronica shouted out.

But it was too late—she heard his small feet running across the floor and yelling out a nonsensical, primal scream.

“No!” Veronica shouted again.

A gunshot rang out and she heard a body hit the floor. Maggie screamed.

Veronica dropped to her knees, yelling at the top of her lungs. But there was nothing she could do to drown her pain.

Footsteps moved toward the door once again. She scrambled back, but it was too late. The door swung open and a man stood before her.

She thought she must be dreaming, because when she looked at the man with a gun in his hand, it was Zach. She shook the cobwebs out.

Still Zach. Was he in on this?

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She didn’t know what to say. But when Jamie bolted into the room with a smile on his face, she had her answer … she was perfect.

“But how?” she asked, still in shock.

“There was something Sterling said on that tape Youkelstein gave me, which got me thinking. He said he would protect your children from Youkelstein, who came to harm them.”

Before she could completely digest Zach’s words, she heard Maggie’s voice in the other room. But she wasn’t sure she liked what was coming out of her mouth. “He’s losing a lot of blood—we need to get him to a hospital.”

Veronica couldn’t believe Maggie was trying to help the man who tried to kill her. Youkelstein was not dead—he had been shot in the same shoulder as last night. But that was her daughter. Maggie wasn’t evil; in fact, she represented everything that was good and hopeful in this world.

Youkelstein had other plans. As if he mortgaged every last ounce of strength in his body, he rose to his feet and mumbled something, the only word Veronica could make out was ‘Esther,’ and rushed toward Maggie with his umbrella pointed at her.

Veronica instinctively grabbed the gun out of Zach’s hands and fired.

Youkelstein fell to the ground, dead.

Veronica threw the gun as far as she could and pulled her children into a group hug, trying to shield them from the horrible scene.