‘I’m not sure why I put on my belts this morning,’ he muttered. ‘I suppose it was because I was suddenly roused from sleep by Captain Pomme. I mean, I wouldn’t normally—’
He unbuttoned his holster and handed over the Walther P38, standard issue for most SS officers unless, like me, they were anything to do with the criminal police, in which case they were given the PPK. He checked the safety, ejected the magazine quickly, and placed both in my hands. It was an impressively competent display for a man who was a doctor and an SS bureaucrat.
I inspected the breech, which was empty, sniffed the barrel, and then glanced at the single-stack magazine in the palm of my hand.
‘Only three rounds,’ I said. ‘And it’s been fired. Recently.’
‘Yes. I did some shooting practice with my gun yesterday afternoon. In the woods near the Upper Castle. It was just to keep my hand in. It’s my belief that one cannot be too careful, what with all these Czech terrorists from UVOD running around.’
‘And are you a good shot, sir?’
‘No. Not good. Competent, perhaps.’
I nodded at Kuttner’s body. ‘Obviously we won’t know the kind of gun that was used to kill the Captain until a postmortem has been performed. However, I’m afraid I will have to keep your weapon for now, sir.’
‘Is that really necessary?’
‘Yes. I may need to try to match the bullet that killed Captain Kuttner with a bullet fired from your gun. What were you using for target practice yesterday?’
‘Songbirds. Pigeons.’
‘Hit anything?’
‘No.’
‘Did anyone see you? Baron Neurath perhaps?’
‘I don’t know. You’d have to ask him, I suppose.’
‘I will.’
‘I didn’t kill Captain Kuttner,’ he repeated.
I said nothing.
‘But I think that perhaps I could explain my opinion of him to you and the General in private.’
‘I think that’s an excellent idea, Hugo,’ said Heydrich. He glanced at Kritzinger and Pomme. ‘Gentlemen. If you would excuse us for a moment, please.’
The butler and the Captain left the bedroom. I closed the door as best I could given the fact that it had been broken in. I stayed there for a moment, running my fingers over the splintered wood and broken brass-work while Jury blustered his way through an explanation of why he had disliked the dead man.
‘The matter is a delicate one, involving a lady I know. She is a woman of probity and reputation, you understand. However, the other day I overheard Captain Kuttner talking about her in a way I considered extremely distasteful. I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t mention her name or the specific details of the scurrilous gossip that was being relayed.’ Jury cleared his throat nervously, removed his glasses and started to polish the lenses with a handkerchief. ‘But I can assure you it was not the sort of thing one would expect to hear from an officer and gentleman.’
‘It’s true,’ admitted Heydrich. ‘Kuttner had an unfortunate tendency to be indiscreet. Even outspoken. I had occasion to speak to him about this.’
I nodded. ‘Exactly who did Kuttner tell about your affair with this little opera singer?’ I asked him bluntly.
‘Well, I really must protest.’ Jury proceeded to give me a look as if he wished it was me lying on the bed with a bullet hole in my torso.
‘What was her name again? Elizabeth something. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, wasn’t it?’
‘Suppose we just leave her name out of this,’ said Jury.
‘All right. Suppose we do. Only that’s going to make it a little difficult to try to clear your name, General. You see I’ll need to speak to this other officer that Kuttner was speaking to. About your girl friend. Who was he?’
Jury bit his lip. This took some doing given how thin it was. ‘Major Thummel,’ he said.
‘And by the way, you were right,’ I said. ‘Captain Kuttner was a gossip. He told me the same thing. About you and Fräulein Schwarzkopf and Doctor Goebbels. Kuttner seemed to think that there might be some other reason behind the Minister’s patronage than just her singing.’
‘You are impertinent, Captain Gunther.’
‘There’s no question about that, sir. The question is what else was said. And whether any of that is enough of a motive for murder.’
‘Need I remind you that you are speaking to a general?’
‘You can sit on the highest branch if you want, sir. But it certainly won’t stop me from shaking the tree. And I can shake it quite hard if I have to. Hard enough to dump you on your backside.’
‘I’m afraid Gunther is right, Hugo,’ said Heydrich. ‘This is really no time to be sensitive. I must have this situation cleared up as soon as possible if I am to avoid any embarrassment. That’s embarrassment to me and my office, you understand, not to you, Hugo. I can’t allow anything to get in the way of an early conclusion to this unfortunate matter. Even if that does mean us riding roughshod over your feelings and quite possibly your whole future, too, if you refuse to cooperate with the Commissar’s inquiry.’
Heydrich looked at me now.
‘The fact is, Gunther, that Captain Kuttner heard this story from me. It was I who told him about General Jury’s affair with Fräulein Schwarzkopf. I’m sorry, Hugo, but everyone in Berlin knows what’s been going on. Except perhaps the Leader, and your wife, Karoline. Let us hope that she above all people can remain in ignorance of all this.
‘But, Herr Commissar, I think that the part of the story at which poor General Jury will have taken most offence relates not to her talents in the bedroom, which I assume are considerable, but to her talent as a singer. I’m afraid it’s true, Hugo. If the Fräulein was really any good as a soprano she’d be singing with the Berlin State Opera and not the German Opera. And you may not know it for sure but the Commissar is quite right that she has been sharing her sexual favours with the Minister of Propaganda. I have the incontrovertible proof of that, which at some future stage I would be happy to show you. So there’s no need to get on your high horse about all of this. You’ve both been fucking her and that’s all there is to it. I mean, how else do you think she was made a principal soprano so soon after joining the chorus? It was Goebbels who fixed that for her. In return for services that she rendered to him horizontally.’
Jury’s cheeks were now quite red and his hands were fists. I wondered if that showed a man who was angry enough to kill a brother officer in cold blood.
‘I don’t care for your manners, General Heydrich,’ said Jury.
‘That is of small account to me, Hugo.’ Heydrich paused. ‘Well, how about it? Did you kill Captain Kuttner?’ He paused. ‘If you did then I promise that we can arrange things so as to avoid too much of a scandal. You can resign, quietly, and go back to your loyal wife, Karoline. Perhaps you can even pick up your medical career again. But I can promise that if you deny it and it turns out to be you after all who murdered the Captain, then it will go very hard for you. We have plenty of filthy prison cells in Terezin Castle where even a distinguished man such as you can be forgotten for years, right up until the moment when I sign his death-warrant and have him hanged the old Austro-Hungarian way. By strangulation from a pole.’
‘I didn’t kill him,’ insisted Jury and then, with a short click of his heels and a bow of the head, he left the room abruptly.
‘I hope you enjoyed that capricious demonstration of your new powers,’ said Heydrich. ‘I know I did.’
A few seconds later there was a knock on the open door. It was Kurt Kahlo.
‘I searched underneath the window, sir,’ he told me. ‘Nothing. But I found this lying on the floor further down the corridor. I marked the spot, so don’t worry.’
He placed a small brass object in my hand.