The Riddle of Sphinx Island by R. T. Raichev

sister.’
    ‘Ach, yes.’ Doctor Klein nodded reminiscently. ‘I know exactly the kind of chessboard you mean. I used to have a socialist chessboard. They were very funny. They were not meant to be funny. I gave one such set to my sister. That was a long time ago.’
    ‘They set it up and laugh at the unusual-looking pieces. Freddie has a little scar above the right eye. It is in the shape of a horseshoe. Oswald asks about it and she explains that she got it when a boy threw a stone at her. She says she must be very lucky. She could have been killed! She takes a sip of wine, then another. The scar is oddly becoming –’ Ella broke off. For some reason she shivered. Something – she couldn’t say what – brought an icy chill to her bones and a tingle to the hairs on the nape of her neck.
    ‘What is the matter, Ella?’
    ‘I don’t know. Someone walking on my grave.’
    ‘Would you like me to shut the window?’ Doctor Klein sounded concerned.
    ‘Yes, please. Just for a moment I imagined that – I don’t know what I imagined. No, it’s nothing. I feel light-headed – a little giddy – a little sick –’
    ‘I do apologise, Ella. I am keeping you up. You have had a terrible experience. You should go to bed. I must leave you alone –’
    ‘No, don’t go yet. I haven’t finished. Where was I? Oh yes. The home movie. Freddie picks up and eats a sausage. She laughs. She looks happy and excited. She bares her teeth in a mock snarl. She displays a strong set of teeth. She says she likes to fight with her teeth. She laughs again. Gabriele says she used to be covered in bites when they were children. Freddie starts singing a song – Wenn Der Sommer Wiede Einzieht – is there such a song?’
    ‘I believe there is. I congratulate you on your superb memory.’
    ‘Freddie remembers how she danced with a sailor once, at some club, and how he then tried to seduce her … The two girls get quite silly … They hug and kiss and laugh … Oswald laughs with them … They sing and they dance with Oswald … He puts his arms round them … He kisses them … The camera swirls … Blackout … Well, that’s the end of the film. It only lasts about seven or eight minutes.’
    ‘What else did they talk about? Did Oswald tell you?’
    ‘Freddie got a bit drunk and became voluble. She said she hated her Soviet job. She hated her Soviet masters. She was terrified of the Stasi. She also said how much she wanted to be with her sister, how much she’d like to live in the “West”, though she couldn’t quite see how that could happen. Oswald told her that that wasn’t as impossible as she seemed to think …’
    ‘He raised her hopes …’
    ‘He gave her presents – a brand new handbag, a cashmere sweater, a warm winter coat, bars of Swiss chocolate, Nivea soap and some nylons … Apparently poor Freddie started crying … She insisted on kissing his hand, which pleased him … He then overheard Gabriele and Freddie talk about him …  My boyfriend is rich and he likes you very much. He can get you out. You can trust him. Look at this gold bracelet he gave me. And these earrings – do you know how much they cost? He can do anything. ’
    ‘He didn’t suggest he might be able to smuggle her sister out of the East sector into Free Berlin, did he?’
    ‘That’s exactly what he suggested.’
    ‘But couldn’t Freddie simply have stayed on, given that she was already in West Berlin?’
    ‘She couldn’t. There was an old friend of their late father who was in a hospice in East Berlin. Onkel Wolf. She couldn’t leave him. Onkel Wolf was an old man and mortally ill. He wasn’t expected to last long. She had promised to go back. It had to be done at some later date. Oswald said it was tricky but not impossible. He promised her a new identity and protection in case the Stasi sent a hitman after her. There was only one thing he wanted Freddie to do in return. One very tiny thing. So tiny it