“Could be worse,” said Speckbauer.
“Tell me how. A family died in a fire. It looks deliberate, and that’s murder?”
“Well,” said Speckbauer in the same quiet tone. “It would be that.”
“On top of the ones in the forest,” said Felix.
Speckbauer nodded.
“Now someone was snooping around here last night,” Felix went on. “So I don’t see how it could be worse.”
Speckbauer nodded again, and studied the piece of bun he was holding. Franzi was chewing slowly and methodically. To Felix, it began to sound like a metronome. The clicking and gulping sounds began to nauseate him.
“Well, am I the only one who gets this?”
“Gets…?”
“That they could be looking for me,” said Felix. “But you say ‘Don’t call in the local Gendarmes, they’ll just screw things up.’ I’m thinking: Someone’s trying to find me, or do a hell of a lot worse.
Am I getting through to you?”
Speckbauer glanced at Felix, and let out a sigh. Then he looked over at Franzi.
“‘Sons of bitches,’ I was expecting,” he said to him. “You, Franzi?”
“‘Bastards,’” Felix made out through the pause in Franzi’s chewing.
“Which of us is closest?” said Speckbauer to Felix. “‘Sons of bitches,’ or ‘bastards’?”
“Not funny,” said Felix. “I’m not going to be jerked around.
This is not right.”
“Absolutely,” said Speckbauer, and nodded vigorously. “You are right, again.”
That seemed to settle the matter for Speckbauer. He made a yawn and turned to his coffee again.
“So what are you proposing?” Felix asked.
Speckbauer eyed him again before sitting back and turning to Franzi.
“Any suggestions for Gendarme Kimmel here, Franzi? I’m too tired to think.”
“I think Gendarme Kimmel should not panic.”
“Easy for you to say,” said Speckbauer. “Put yourself in his boots.”
The man’s lips were slashes, Felix thought, bloodless. For a moment he imagined Franzi’s face on fire.
“Then he should go somewhere else.”
“What’s to happen to my grandparents then? I abandon them?”
“When you go, their troubles are over.”
Felix stared hard at the glasses. He could not be sure that Franzi was staring back.
“Look,” said Speckbauer. “We talked about this. Someone thinks the Himmelfarb boy told you something. Something that could drop someone in the shit.”
“You never said to me that there’s a local involvement in this,” said Felix.
“Is there? Why do you say that?”
Felix waited for Speckbauer to look over again.
“If doesn’t help to think I’m an idiot.”
“We don’t hold your university days against you. On the contrary.”
Felix had a few moments to consider things but he knew he’d come around again to what he had wanted to tell Speckbauer right away.
“You’ve been a good help so far, Kimmel,” Speckbauer went on.
“Don’t think that’s not appreciated. It will look good on you too.”
Felix put down his cup. He looked at the stain on the saucer for a moment.
“Okay,” he said, and stood up. “I’m going to do what I should have done before.”
“Which is?”
“Phone my C.O., or a bighead in Central Office. Ask to get you two off my back.”
“Sure about that, Kimmel?” Franzi asked.
“I’d be interested to know what they think about your project being out of hand.”
“‘Out of hand’?” said Speckbauer. “You’re being hard on us.
But I understand. It’s a shock to the system, all this. It’s hard for you.”
“I don’t give a shit. I just want to protect my family.”
“Your career,” said Speckbauer. “You hardly want to disgrace your family.”
“That doesn’t work. At least I’ll be able to get real police up here then.”
Speckbauer pushed his cup away.
“That would not be a wise plan,” he said. “It will complicate matters in ways you can’t imagine.”
“Are you going to phone my C.O. and get him to give me an order on that?”
Felix took the cordless phone from the wall. He thumbed through his mobile for a number he knew he had, one for Payroll.
They’d switch him from there.
Speckbauer rubbed at his nose and muttered something to Franzi. ‘The old ones,’ Felix heard. Franzi rose, Speckbauer didn’t.
“Look, Felix,” said Speckbauer. “I’m looking forward to meeting your grandparents when we get through this little chat. But for the moment I’d like them to stay where they are, so they do not overhear some things I need to tell you.”
Franzi had taken up a stiff-looking lean against the staircase.
“Don’t make that phone call now. Make it later, if you decide then. I won’t stop you.”
Berndt had taken a shine to Franzi, it seemed. Felix heard his murmurs to the dog and the sighs as Franzi stroked its head.
“Really,” said Speckbauer. “I’ll answer your questions. Please sit. Now, do you want to start, or will I?”
Felix sat slowly.
“Okay, I will. There are two dead men. We don’t know who they are yet. It looks like they are there a couple of weeks. One of them swallowed a diamond. He wrapped it in a condom. So, we are curious: A) was he carrying it back to wherever he came from for himself, maybe? Or… B) he knew he was in a tight spot. Okay so far?”
Felix nodded.
“Now. We are almost certain now that the Himmelfarb family was murdered.”
He paused, eyeing Felix for a reaction.
“That is not public knowledge. It will not become so until I decide. If you want to know, someone used an accelerant know what that is? inside the house. People who know such things are ninety percent sure it was paraffin. The house burned hot, all that old wood. Intense, I should say. So here is deliberate, calculated murder of people who someone supposed might know something about the two dead men. Will I stop now?”
Felix glanced down the hall. He was sure that Franzi was watching him.
“The person, or the people, who knew something about this are connected with the people who know something about those two men from the forest. Got that?”
“Maybe the same people,” said Felix. “Or person?”
“Exactly,” said Speckbauer. He tilted his cup to move coffee around. “It is not hard to suppose they’re one and the same, or that he is the one who has done everything. Verstehst?
“So far,” said Felix.
“Next, then. A more personal matter for you. And please, let your head into this more than your guts.”
Speckbauer gave him a teacher’s look, to see if he were paying attention.
“We are beginning to suspect,” he said slowly, “that someone considers you have knowledge about the former matter. The two in the woods, what started this.”
“Someone thinks Hansi Himmelfarb told me something?”
“Right. Maybe just or a hint, a clue. Something that will lead to them.”
“‘Them’? You seem pretty sure.”
Speckbauer sat back.
“Really? And why do you say that?”
Felix nodded in Franzi’s direction.
“Your job is not about any single criminal.”
“Ah,” said Speckbauer. “You put it so well. And you’re right.
We leave petty criminals to the hardworking men in uniform, the real backbone of the Gendarmerie.”
“Is that what we are considered?”
“Absolutely: the backbone, the foundation.”
“Not a bunch of clowns working with the dummies up here, in the hills?”
“Now really,” said Speckbauer. “You know that’s a myth.”
Felix’s irritation was cresting.
“Look,” he said. “My grandparents are trusting people. They thought my dad was the greatest. They think I am half-sainted too now because I’m ‘following in his footsteps,’ or something.”
“And you are,” Speckbauer offered.
“My point is they have to be told what’s going on here. They’re probably up there saying to one another how nice it is that Felix’s colleagues are dropping by, and how important his work is and…
It’s all crap. Something has to get done. Right now.”