Rough hands grabbed Mary’s arms from behind.
She cried out and glanced over her shoulder to see Mr. Fiske. She sighed in relief.
“Get out of here, Miss Stirling.” He guided her back, away. “You’ll get hurt.”
Something fierce and determined stirred within her, and she wriggled out of his grasp. “No! I’m taking notes for Agent Sheffield. He asked me to. I need to stay.”
His deep-set eyes narrowed. He glanced at her notebook, the open page covered with shorthand scrawls, and he frowned.
“Excuse me.” She turned back to the melee and tried to make sense of it.
Bauer pinned Kaplan to the ground. “You did this. Why did you do this to me?”
“’Cause you’re a stinking Nazi.” He spat in Bauer’s face.
Men pulled Bauer back. Kaplan stumbled to his feet, darted forward, but other men grabbed him from behind.
Bauer strained against his captors, his eyes flaming, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “I am not a Nazi. I left Deutschland to escape the Nazis.”
“Baloney!” Kaplan rammed an elbow into the chest of the man to his right, but he failed to get free.
Mary scrawled down the words she couldn’t believe—Mr. Bauer had left to escape the Nazis? How could that be? What would such an Aryan-looking man have to fear?
Bauer’s shoulders rounded, like a bull ready to charge. “I am not a Nazi,” he growled.
“Sure you are, German pig!” Kaplan struggled, arms flailing. “You hate the Jews, think you’re better than us.”
“Mywifeis Jewish!” Bauer startled, cried out, then ducked his head, curling his hands before him as if to protect himself.
The room hushed.
Mary’s lips tingled while her fingers took down the words. His wife was Jewish. His wife—no wonder he’d fled.
Bauer shook his head behind his raised fists.“Meine Magda. Meineliebe Magda.”His voice cracked.“Es tut mir leid.”
Mary didn’t speak German, but shorthand was phonetic, so she did her best, though her heart broke for the man.
“Your wife...?” Kaplan’s voice quavered through the silence. “Your wife is Jewish?”
“Ja.”Bauer looked up, his face stricken. “That is why we escaped. She was not safe.”
Kaplan sagged back, his arms hanging loose. “You—you never said anything.”
“She is not safe here either. You should know. Folk hate the Jews. It is wrong.”
Kaplan’s eyes widened, and his hand rose and covered his mouth and nose like a cage. “You—you aren’t the saboteur.”
No, he wasn’t, and Mary almost smiled. No wonder Bauer was so secretive—he feared for the safety of his family. Thank goodness he wasn’t guilty.
“No, he isn’t.” George O’Donnell stepped forward and jabbed Kaplan in the chest. “But now we know who the real saboteur is. You.”
“What?” Kaplan’s face scrunched up. “That doesn’t even make sense. Why would I—”
“Why would you frame Bauer?” Curly Mulligan joined O’Donnell. “Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe to make it look like a German was blowing up our ships. That’d get us in the war right quick, wouldn’t it?”
In tandem, realization and horror dawned on Kaplan’s face. “You think I—I didn’t—I couldn’t.”
Mary’s mouth drooped open. Nothing insincere in his reaction at all. “He didn’t do it either,” she whispered.
