Sarah was shaking her head. She was not concerned with the paintings, but with something else. ‘This makes no sense. Are you saying my grandfather was a Nazi German art officer?’
‘Sarah, let me finish. All will be revealed, I promise. When Otto returned to Zakynthos, soon after the war, to be reunited with the children, remember I told you that Miriam was gone, taken away to live in Israel with the Greek family who’d given them refuge. So, he only found Joseph, the little English boy who no one wanted to adopt. They both had nobody left after the war. They were both so alone.’
Lili stared at Elspeth.
‘Alena had disappeared, although Otto would never acknowledge that she ended up on a death boat with Joseph’s mother. Miriam was gone, taken off the island with a Greek family to start a new life abroad. Even so, Otto took Joseph with him in search of Miriam and Alena on Corfu, and that’s when they ventured into the cemetery and Otto showed Joseph his father’s final resting place. George died on the island trying to stop the Nazis taking his friends and family. And that’s when Otto told Joseph his plans for their future.’
Elspeth had kept this secret for decades. Now it was time to reveal the truth. ‘Otto needed a new identity. He was a German art officer, a Nazi. And Joseph neededhim. So, Otto assumed George’s identityand together they returned to the summerhouse on the East Coast of England after the war to start a new life.’
Lili frowned. She had to say something. ‘So, if Joseph was still alive, why was there a small gravestone erected next to his father saying he’d died?’
Elspeth nodded. ‘It wasn’t official. The family who had looked after the cemetery for generations knew the two children had been smuggled off the island. The Germans had lists. Joseph’s name was on it. So, to protect him, they erected the gravestone next to his father’s and told the Nazis he was dead.’
Elspeth paused for a moment and gazed around the old cabin before continuing. ‘This is where they came to live after the war. The summerhouse had been abandoned during those war years. The family who owned it, Joseph’s parents, weren’t well-known in the local community. They were outsiders from London who only spent the summer there and kept themselves to themselves. So, when a young man and his son moved into the abandoned place, nobody batted an eyelid. They assumed they had returned. No one in the town remembered George and his family who used to come down from London to their summerhouse by the lake.’
Everyone sat in stunned silence.
Elspeth continued, ‘Otto opened a shop in the town, and he was an immensely popular and well-liked character. He’d arrived in England using false documents, and to the world at large – not to mention the small community of Aldeburgh – he was just George, the owner of the local antique shop.’
She cast her gaze over to Nate and Sarah. ‘I think that by now, you realise that you were no blood relation of this man whatsoever.’
Sarah looked at Elspeth in shock. ‘You mean, all these years the man I thought was my grandfather …?’
‘He died in the war, Sarah. I’m so sorry.’
Sarah stared at her.
Ray was staring at her too, as was Alex, who rubbed his forehead. ‘So, let me get this straight. Otto didn’t just pass himself off as George; he had, in fact, stolen Joseph’s father’s identity?’
Elspeth nodded. ‘In a nutshell.’
Sarah said, ‘How is that even possible?’
This time Ray stepped in. ‘I’ve never come across this type of identity theft before in all my years on the force, but I have heard of it. It’s a type of identity theft calledghosting.’
‘Ghosting?’ Sarah had never heard of the term before.
Ray leaned forward in his seat and explained. ‘You hear about identity theft in the news all the time – the type that is carried out for short-term financial gain, stealing from people’s bank accounts, that sort of thing. But in Otto’s case, he needed a new identity to start over after the war; one that he could acquire that would give him an air of respectability and he could use for years without suspicion. So, he stole the identity of a person who had died – the ghost, hence the term. Now what’s important here is that the person’s death has …’ Ray was searching for the right words. ‘I wouldn’t say gone entirely unnoticed, but perhaps not a lot of people are aware of this person’s passing.’
Alex nodded. ‘Joseph’s relatives had perished in the London Blitz. There would’ve been nobody alive who’d have known George after the war.’
‘Apart from a little boy,’ commented Elspeth. ‘And let’s not forget,’ she added, ‘that George died on Corfu. I suppose the Mediterranean island is at least a thousand miles away. And it happened in the midst of war.’
Sarah was getting the picture.
So was Lili as she listened to all this intently.
Ray nodded. ‘Not to state the obvious, but the ghoster, if you like, would have to be around the same age that the deceased person would have been if they had lived.’
Sarah frowned. ‘I don’t understand. How did he get away with it? Surely, he should have got caught out by somebody in officialdom like a government agency or something because he was using false documents?’
‘Ah, that’s where you’re confusing identity theft with creating a false identity. If you do the latter, you’re quite right, Sarah – at some point, you’re going to get caught out. But in this case, it wouldn’t happen. There was a reason Otto could pull it off, and it wasn’t just because George’s friends and relatives were gone, save for his son, and because George had died on an Ionian Island in the midst of war in the middle of the Mediterranean. You see, Otto didn’t have a false identity he’d made up, with forged documents. At some point, he must have acquired George’s birth certificate.’
‘But how?’ Lili asked.
Alex stepped in. ‘It would have been very straightforward, to be honest. Before computers and databases full of personal information at government agencies’ fingertips, taking a dead person’s identity was easy – especially in this country.’
‘Why in this country?’ asked Sarah.