Kitty shook her head and watched in surprise as Mock, despite her negative reply, smiled gleefully and ran from the room, almost breaking the high mirror sprinkled with powder.
BRESLAU, THAT SAME SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1919
SIX O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING
Mock bumped into Muhlhaus in the hotel entrance. The new chief of the Murder Commission was crushing the mouthpiece of his pipe in his teeth and twirling his grey beard in his fingers. He took Mock by the arm and very slowly led him to where the corpse had been found. The birds, lost in song, announced another hot September day. Above the plane trees rose the yellow circle of the sun.
“Let’s take a little walk, Mock. Do you like taking early-morning walks in the park?”
“Only when there are no corpses hanging from the trees.”
“I see you’re in a good mood, Mock. Nothing like gallows humour.” Muhlhaus took the pipe from his mouth and squirted brown saliva into the bushes. “Tell me, are we dealing with a serial killer?”
“I’m not well up on criminal theory, and anyway, I don’t know whether such a thing exists, or how serial killings are defined …”
“And according to you …”
“I think we are.”
“Victims of serial killings have something in common with each other. Firstly, the murderer leaves them in a place where they’re bound to be found. The sailors’ corpses at the dam, a body hanging from a tree in a popular walking spot … And secondly, what do these victims of ‘Mock’s enemy’, as the perpetrator is widely known, have in common?”
“‘Widely’ meaning where?”
“For the time being where we work, in the Police Praesidium … Before long in the Breslau newspapers and across the whole of Germany. Despite the secrecy of the operation, sooner or later there’s going to be a leak to the press. We can’t hold everybody in quarantine, like that maid in the park and her lover. You’re going to be famous …”
“What was it you asked me?” Mock wanted to slap Muhlhaus as he had August, and then to run, fly to where pimps offer up male prostitutes dressed in sailors’ outfits; instead of which he had to traipse along beside Muhlhaus with the acrid, smoky aroma of Badia tobacco in his nostrils. His fingers and his back itched; he knew that no amount of scratching would relieve him. The sensation overwhelmed him quite frequently, and he could never find quite the right word for it. A fragment from Livy came to mind in which a Latin adjective perfectly expressed the present state of his spirit: impotens — out of one’s mind with impotence.
“I asked you what the victims of ‘Mock’s enemy’ have in common with each other?”
“That singular name given to the perpetrator is an answer in itself. Why are you asking something we’ve already known for so long?”
“I could give you the cutting answer that I’m the one asking questions here, Mock, but I won’t. I’ll play at being Socrates and you’ll arrive at the truth yourself …”
“I haven’t got time …” said Mock, leaving Muhlhaus abruptly and walking resolutely alongside the pond.
“Halt!” shouted Muhlhaus. “That’s an order!” Mock stopped short, turned towards the pond, knelt on the grassy bank and scooped some water into his hands. “No time, eh? Well then, as from today you’ll have plenty of time. There isn’t much going on in the Vice Department. You don’t work for me any more. You’re going back to Ilssheimer.”
“Why?” Trickles of water ran down Mock’s face, and through them he could see the slits of Muhlhaus’ squinting eyes. He conjured up his future in the Vice Department: bisexual Ilssheimer sacking the man who had exposed him, giving as his reason “dereliction of duty due to alcohol abuse”.
“I took you on for two reasons. Firstly, the murderer wants something from you. I thought you knew what he wanted; I thought you would make after him like a rabid dog avenging the death of innocent people …”
“The rabid dog of vengeance.” Mock wiped the water from his cheeks. “Are you acquainted with Auweiler’s poetry?”
“Whereas you have no idea what the murderer wants. The psychotherapy session with Doctor Kaznicz certainly hasn’t moved the investigation …”
“And that’s why you’re dismissing me?” Mock saw columns of magnesium shoot into the sky several metres away, where the body had been discovered. Smolorz had just left the spot and, carrying the notes he had taken when questioning the unfulfilled lovers, was making his way over to Mock and Muhlhaus. “The rabid dog of vengeance no longer proved necessary, right?”
“That’s not the reason, Mock.” Muhlhaus took him once again by the arm. “That’s not the reason. You haven’t answered me. I’m not going to play at being Socrates and you’re not going to be my Alcibiades …”
“No, especially as the latter came to a sticky end …”
“Secondly, what do the victims have in common? Their murderer’s hatred of Mock. That’s what all six have in common. But what do the last two victims have in common?” Muhlhaus raised his voice and glanced at Smolorz as he approached. “Well, tell me, damn it, what do the last two victims have in common? The old sailor Ollenborg and Wohsedt, the river port director?”
“They were both questioned by Criminal Assistant Mock,” Smolorz said.
“Correct, Sergeant.” Muhlhaus looked approvingly at Smolorz. “That swine wants to tell us: ‘I’m going to kill everyone you question, Mock. So don’t question anyone. Don’t conduct the investigation.’ Now do you understand why I’m taking you off the case? Who else did you question, Mock? Who have you poisoned? Who else is going to die in this city?”
BRESLAU, THAT SAME SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1919
A QUARTER PAST SIX IN THE MORNING
A prison wagon pulled up outside South Park Hotel. Two uniformed policemen climbed out and ran briskly into the building, swords clanking at their sides. A moment later they emerged holding Kitty by the arms as she thrashed about and tried to bite them in an attempt to break free. One of the men’s shakos was knocked askew. Muhlhaus, Mock and Smolorz watched attentively. Kitty stared at Mock, her eyes full of hatred. He walked up to her and whispered:
“Try to understand, Kathe, it’s for your own good. You’ll be put up in the best single, warm cell for a few days and then you’ll be able to leave.” He moved closer and whispered even more quietly: “Then later I’ll make it up to you …”
The promise did not impress Kitty in the slightest. She spat at Mock, her spittle landing on the sleeve of his jacket. He looked round. All the policemen were smiling to themselves, banking on a violent reaction from the Criminal Assistant. They were disappointed. Mock approached Kitty, removed the wig from her head and smoothed her somewhat greasy hair.
“I’ll visit you in your cell, Kathe,” he said. “Everything’s going to be alright.”
The policemen had no trouble loading Kitty into the wagon. One of them joined her under the tarpaulin while the other took a seat on the box and cracked his whip.
“Commissioner, sir.” Mock wiped his sleeve with a large leaf. “We can set a trap for the killer. He must be following me. Otherwise, how would he know who to kill? It should be enough for me to question someone and then for us to keep a close eye on that person. Kitty, for example. Let’s free her. If we don’t lose sight of her day or night we’ll get hold of that swine in the end. And besides … I want to work for you. Of course, I don’t have to lead this particular investigation, I could …”
“I’m not a street preacher. I don’t repeat myself.” Muhlhaus folded Smolorz’s notes in four. “Besides, we don’t have any other cases on apart from the Four Sailors. Every policeman in town is on the Four Sailors case or, to be precise, Six Sailors counting Ollenborg and Wohsedt. Wohsedt also held the honorary title of Rear Admiral. Goodbye, gentlemen.”
Muhlhaus set off towards the Horch which was just drawing up outside the hotel. He climbed in and Ehlers the photographer, laden with his tripod, tumbled in after him. Doctor Lasarius’ men heaved the stretcher bearing the corpse into their wagon. The engine of the Horch growled and shot a cloud of fumes from the exhaust. The car pulled away but did not go far, stopping beside Mock and Smolorz.