Rath grabbed the dog lead.
‘Police dog?’ Goldstein asked, gesturing towards Kirie.
The lift door opened and both men stepped in.
‘More dangerous than she looks,’ Rath said. ‘Trained to go for New Yorkers.’
‘Didn’t I say I was from Brooklyn?’
‘The dog doesn’t care.’
A lady inside looked the pair up and down; the lift boy gazed stoically into the distance.
‘What’s the latest on your car?’ Goldstein asked. ‘Repaired already?’
That hit home. Rath swallowed his rage and fell silent. Don’t let the arsehole provoke you.
‘Ground floor,’ said the boy and opened the door for the woman passenger. Rath and Goldstein continued down to the basement, where Goldstein made a beeline for the tunnel.
‘What have you got against daylight?’ Rath asked.
‘I prefer the underworld.’
Kirie, however, was not so keen, and Rath had to pull on her lead to keep up. Only when they began climbing the stairs, back up towards the daylight, did her pace quicken.
Goldstein headed for the taxi stand.
‘I hope you won’t mind if I don’t invite you to travel with me,’ Goldstein said as he waved over the first taxi from the rank. ‘That would be breaking the rules.’
Rath took the second taxi, the driver reluctantly interrupting his reading of the paper.
‘Where to, then?’ he asked, as Rath manoeuvred the dog onto the back seat with some difficulty. Kirie had never willingly got into a car yet.
‘Follow that taxi,’ Rath said.
‘Seriously?’ The driver gazed disbelievingly into the rear mirror.
‘Do I look like I’m kidding?’ Rath showed his identification.
‘Alright, alright.’
At the same moment, Goldstein’s taxi moved from the verge onto the carriageway, and Rath’s driver accelerated. The inspector looked to the side, towards the pavement, where a baggage handler was struggling with several large items. At the last second he saw a familiar-looking coat. Shit! The Yank! Goldstein had either never got in or had got out straightaway! At any rate, he had sent the taxi on its way without a passenger.
‘Stop,’ he said.
‘Pardon me?’
‘Stop, damn it!’
‘After three metres? I thought I was supposed to tail my colleague?’
‘You did. Now stop the car!’
It took half an eternity for the taxi driver to pull over and accept a mark as payment – ‘Now I have to start again from the back! You won’t be getting a receipt!’ – before Rath and Kirie could finally get out. There was no sign of Goldstein. He must have disappeared inside the station.
Rath cursed, and dragged Kirie into the great entrance hall of Anhalter Bahnhof. Countless heads, countless hats. He gazed around and, at last, caught sight of a light-coloured fedora in the throng. He breathed a sigh of relief; Goldstein was in the queue at the ticket counter. Before he could disappear again Rath fetched up beside him.
‘You really aren’t so easy to shake off,’ Goldstein said.
‘I did warn you.’ Rath was trying hard to hide the fact that he was gasping for breath.
‘Is that why you’ve got the dog? So that it picks up my scent if I manage to give you the slip?’
‘You didn’t give me the slip.’
‘Do you know something? You’re starting to get on my nerves.’
‘Then I’m doing my job.’
‘I can think of better things to do than traipse around this city with you in tow. I’d rather stay here.’
‘You do that.’
Goldstein exited the queue and made for the main entrance. A short time later, they were back on Askanischer Platz. Gräf, who was sitting on a bench under the trees, spotted them and adopted a quizzical expression. Rath gave a discreet hand signal to let him know the situation was under control.
‘Your colleague?’ Goldstein asked. ‘I noticed him yesterday.’
‘Then I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you.’
Goldstein strolled across the square, taking a look at the neighbourhood. Rath followed. The workers were busy again at Europahaus, having erected a giant scaffolding around the entrance to the multi-storey building. Over the next few days they would install one of the largest neon signs in the city. Curious passersby kept stopping to look upwards, where workers were scrambling about on the scaffolding and screwing in the neon strips. Goldstein gazed open-mouthed towards the sky.
‘I must say, the building sites in Manhattan are more imposing. You’d need a good head for heights to work on those.’
‘These will do me just fine,’ Rath said, annoyed at himself. Why was he so talkative around the Yank? Especially when no detail escaped the man. He registered his surroundings with razor-like precision, and paid heed to even the most trivial detail.
‘Vertigo?’ Goldstein asked, quick as a flash, and Rath said nothing more, didn’t even look up at the workers. When would Weiss take him off this damn assignment? When would he get to investigate a real murder again?
‘Fancy a cup of coffee?’ Goldstein asked. ‘It’s on me.’
‘No, thank you. I can’t possibly accept.’
Goldstein grinned. ‘But if I were to have a cup somewhere,’ he said, ‘then you’d sit with me. If you’re absolutely set on paying for your own, that’s fine.’
A short while later they sat in Café Europa, where Rath had spent his first evening with Charly. There was no dancing at this hour, but a great deal of commotion on the roof garden. Two pots of coffee stood on the table in front of them, and Rath was secretly pleased that the American had fallen foul of the infuriating German custom of serving watery coffee in leaky pots. You either scalded yourself on the first cup, or drank the second cold, usually both.
Goldstein left the pot unremarked. ‘I don’t have anything against you personally,’ he said, after serving himself, ‘but it would be better for us both if you left me in peace. Perhaps if you had, you wouldn’t have needed to take your car to the garage.’
‘What do you know about that?’
‘Only that I wouldn’t be leaving my car unattended in a neighbourhood like that, particularly not such a nice model.’
‘I’m forbidden to leave you in peace. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.’
‘You know, I’m an American.’ Goldstein stirred his coffee, which was still far too hot. ‘Perhaps, as a German, you won’t understand this, but for me the most important thing is freedom. My freedom. If it’s taken away from me, I can get pretty nasty. Just so you know.’
‘Are you threatening me? We’re not in America now. You can’t just gun police officers down.’
‘I think you have the wrong idea about our country. You ought to go there.’
‘I know your country.’ Rath was annoyed. He kept allowing himself to be provoked into making comments that were none of the Yank’s business. He fumbled an Overstolz out of his case.
‘Interesting brand,’ Goldstein said. ‘May I?’ Rath hesitated. ‘Come on. Just because I take something from you doesn’t make it bribery. Besides, you cadged a Camel off me yesterday.’
‘Help yourself.’
The men smoked in silence for a moment and drank their coffee.
‘I still don’t understand what I’ve done to warrant this kind of treatment.’
‘Wrong tense. It isn’t about what you’ve done, but what you might do.’
‘Strange working methods, the German police. So, there’s nothing I can do to get rid of you?’
‘On the contrary. You can leave town.’
‘Do you know what? I have a better idea. I’ll wait until your bosses realise how ridiculous this operation is, and call you in.’