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Back The Woman on the Stairs Save as PDF
Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Bernhard Schlink
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. Part Two
  33. 1
  34. 2
  35. 3
  36. 4
  37. 5
  38. 6
  39. 7
  40. 8
  41. 9
  42. 10
  43. 11
  44. 12
  45. 13
  46. 14
  47. 15
  48. 16
  49. 17
  50. 18
  51. 19
  52. 20
  53. 21
  54. 22
  55. 23
  56. 24
  57. 25
  58. Part Three
  59. 1
  60. 2
  61. 3
  62. 4
  63. 5
  64. 6
  65. 7
  66. 8
  67. 9
  68. 10
  69. 11
  70. 12
  71. 13
  72. 14
  73. 15
  74. 16
  75. 17
  76. 18
  77. 19
  78. 20
  79. 21
  80. 22
  81. Author’s Note
  82. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

Then he laughed. It was an ugly, mocking laugh. “So from the beginning. If he,” Gundlach nodded in my direction, “still has the contract, he’ll never dig it up in a million years. That’s not the sort of contract you draw up, not even as a young lawyer, and as an old one you’d rather you’d never drawn it up. No, Schwind, the contract is of no use to you. If you’re thinking that you have Irene as a witness – Irene won’t help you either. You won’t testify in court as a witness, Irene.”

“You’re right, I won’t go to court.” She stood up. “The painting…”

But Gundlach wouldn’t be deprived of his triumph. “The police are looking for you in Germany. They’ll look for you in Australia if they know you’re here. I don’t know how no one recognized you. Because you were never arrested, never booked. So the police didn’t have a good mugshot, just a photo from a speed camera with you in sunglasses, with dyed hair, with your head down? But I recognized you from the wanted poster, and if you went back into the world, others would recognize you too.”

18

Irene didn’t reply. She looked at Gundlach doubtfully, as if she didn’t know what to make of his revelations, or of him, or of herself. Then she shrugged and smiled. “Do you want to turn me in?”

“What did you do back then? You knew our routines, how we lived, where we drove – your friends could have put you to good use.”

“We?” Irene gave Gundlach a mocking look.

“I know you. Your spite, your antagonism, your rebelliousness. You didn’t just want to hurt me, and him,” he turned his head towards Schwind, “and him,” and towards me, “you wanted to get even with everyone. How far did you go? Did you want to knock on the door one day as if everything was back to normal? And shoot Hannes first, and then me?” Gundlach was talking himself into a rage. “Hannes liked you, he was my butler, but he liked you more than me. Of course he would have let you in and it would have been easy for you…him then me…or me first and then him…” Gundlach was looking at Irene as if she were threatening him even now.

“You think I wanted to shoot you?”