Without waiting for an answer, Gabriel pressed a photograph of the painting into her hands. For several seconds, Lena Herzfeld’s face betrayed no emotion other than mild curiosity. Then, bit by bit, the ice began to crack, and tears spilled down both cheeks.

“Do you remember it now, Miss Herzfeld?”

“It’s been a very long time, but, yes, I remember.” She brushed a tear from her cheek. “Where did you get this?”

“Perhaps it would be better if we spoke inside.”

“How did you find me?” she asked fearfully, her gaze still fixed on the photograph. “Who betrayed me?”

Gabriel felt as if a stone had been laid over his heart.

“No one betrayed you, Miss Herzfeld,” he said softly. “We’re friends. You can trust us.”

“I learned when I was a child to trust no one.” She looked up from the photograph. “What do you want from me?”

“Only your memory.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Someone died because of this painting, Miss Herzfeld.”

“Yes,” she said. “I know.”

She returned the photograph to Gabriel’s hand. For an instant, he feared he had pushed too far. Then the door opened a few inches wider and Lena Herzfeld stepped to one side.

Treat her gently, Gabriel reminded himself. She’s fragile. They’re all a bit fragile.

CHAPTER 17

17

AMSTERDAM

Gabriel knew the instant he entered Lena Herzfeld’s house that she was suffering from a kind of madness. It was neat, orderly, and sterile, but a madness nonetheless. The first evidence of her disorder was the condition of her sitting room. Like most Dutch parlors, it had the compactness of a Vermeer. Yet through her industrious arrangement of the furnishings and careful choice of color—a glaring, clinical white—she had managed to avoid the impression of clutter or claustrophobia. There were no pieces of decorative glass, no bowls of hard candy, no mementos, and not a single photograph. It was as if Lena Herzfeld had been dropped into this place alone, without parentage, without ancestry, without a past. Her home was not truly a home, thought Gabriel, but a hospital ward into which she had checked herself for a permanent stay.