The Girl You Left Behind

time when we were happy together. It reminds me that
     humankind is capable of love and beauty as well as destruction.
    I pray for your safe and swift return, my dearest.
    Yours ever, Sophie’
    ‘“That painting, above all
     others, belongs to you and me.”’
    Jenks lets that hang in the air. ‘So,
     this letter, found long after her death, tells us that the painting meant an awful lot
     to the artist’s wife. It also tells us pretty conclusively that a German
Kommandant
had his eye on it. Not only that, but that he had a good idea of
     the market as a whole. He was, if you like, an
aficionado
.’ He rolls out
     the word, emphasizing each syllable, as if it were the first time he had used it.
    ‘And here, the looting of the First
     World War would seem to be a precursor to that of the Second. Here we have educated
     German officers, knowing what they want, knowing what may hold value, and earmarking it
     –’
    ‘Objection.’ Angela Silver,
     Liv’s QC, is on her feet. ‘There is a vast difference between somebody
     admiring a painting and having knowledge of the artist, and actually taking it. My
     learned friend has not provided any evidence whatsoever that the
Kommandant
took the painting, simply that he admired it, and that he ate his meals in the hotel
     where Madame Lefèvre lived. All of these things are circumstantial.’
    The judge mutters,
     ‘Sustained.’
    Christopher Jenks wipes his brow. ‘I am
     simply attempting to paint a picture, if you like, of life within the town of St
     Péronne in 1916. It’s impossible to understand how a painting might be taken
     into somebody’s custody without understanding the climate of the time, and how the
     Germans had
carte blanche
to
requisition
,
or
take what they
     liked, from any house that they chose.’
    ‘Objection.’ Angela Silver
     studies her notes. ‘Irrelevant. There is no evidence to suggest that this painting
     was requisitioned.’
    ‘Sustained. Keep to the point, Mr
     Jenks.’
    ‘Merely trying, again,
     to … paint a picture, my lord.’
    ‘Leave the painting to Lefèvre,
     if you will, Mr Jenks.’ There is a low murmur of laughter around the
     courtroom.
    ‘I mean to demonstrate that there were
     many valuable items requisitioned by German troops that went unrecorded, just as they
     were not “paid for”, as promised by the German leaders of the time. I
     mention the general climate for such behaviour because it is our contention that
The
     Girl You Left Behind
was one such item.’
    ‘“He stares at your portrait of
     me and I want to tell him he has no right.”’ Well, it is our case, Your
     Honour, that Kommandant Friedrich Hencken felt he had every right indeed. And that this
     painting did not leave German possession for another thirty years.’
    Paul looks at Liv. She looks away.
    She concentrates on the image of Sophie
     Lefèvre
. Fools
, she seems to say, her impenetrable gaze appearing to
     take in every person there.
    Yes
, thinks Liv.
Yes, we
     are.
    They adjourn at half past three. Angela
     Silver is eating a sandwich in her chambers. Her wig lies on the table beside her, and a
     mug of tea stands on her desk. Henry sits opposite.
    They tell her that the first day had gone as
     they had expected. But the tang of tension hangs in the atmosphere, like salt in the air
     miles from the coast. Liv shuffles her photocopied pile of translations as Henry turns
     to Angela.
    ‘Liv, didn’t you say that when
     you spoke to Sophie’s nephew, he mentioned something about her being disgraced? I
     wondered whether it would be worth pursuing that line.’
    ‘I don’t understand,’ she
     says. They are both looking at her expectantly.
    Silver finishes her mouthful before she
     speaks. ‘Well, if she was disgraced, doesn’t that suggest her relationship
     with the
Kommandant
might have been consensual? The thing is, if we can prove
     that it was, if we can suggest that she was having an extra-marital affair with a German
     soldier, we can also claim the portrait might have been a gift. It wouldn’t be
     beyond the realms of possibility that someone in the throes of a love affair would give
     her lover a portrait of herself.’
    ‘But Sophie wouldn’t,’ Liv
     says.
    ‘We don’t know that,’ says
     Henry. ‘You told me that after her disappearance the family never spoke of her
     again. Surely if she was blameless, they would have wanted to remember her. Instead she
     seems to be cloaked in some sort of