‘That’s none of your concern,’ Juretzka said. ‘Just see that I get out of here.’
Rath nodded.
‘So what happens now?’ Kohn asked. ‘The SA are waiting for my client outside. They don’t care that I have a prisoner release order.’
‘Don’t worry about the SA.’ Rath spoke quietly, not knowing if they could hear behind the door. ‘Come to my office at three o’clock this afternoon.’
‘And how…’
‘Just trust me. Be there at three and you can walk out of here with Herr Juretzka, but right now I need you to leave. Make a little scene as you go.’
‘By all means, Inspector.’ Kohn put on his hat, and took a few frantic breaths until his face turned red.
‘This is an outrage,’ he shouted, flinging the door open. ‘An outrage!’ He turned in the doorway. ‘My client is not a common criminal!’
Rath calmly followed. ‘Your client is a common criminal,’ he said.
‘There will be consequences, Inspector, that much I can guarantee!’
‘Do whatever you see fit, but Prisoner Juretzka’s place is here in custody. And there’s nothing a Jew shyster like you can do about it.’
‘You mean to insult me now?’
‘Please. It must still be possible to call a Jew a Jew.’
Kohn let his gaze flit to the SA officers and back. He waved dismissively, turned on his heels and stormed down the corridor, coat billowing behind him.
The SA men gazed after him in amusement. ‘Let’s have the prisoner then,’ said the higher-ranking of the two, a Scharführer.
‘Pardon me?’
‘We have to get him back to Papestrasse. You’ve finished interrogating him, haven’t you? And he’s seen a doctor. Time to take the gloves off.’
‘Prisoner Juretzka is staying here.’
‘We have strict instructions to return him once the interrogation is complete. He’s a career criminal.’
‘Once the interrogation is complete. It will be continuing after lunch.’ He winked at the Scharführer. ‘Without a lawyer.’
The SA man nodded and grinned.
‘For the time being Juretzka will remain in police custody. I should be through with him by tonight. You can come and fetch him then.’
The SA officers looked uncertainly at each other. ‘Very well,’ the Scharführer said at length, ‘but you could have spared us the waiting around.’
Right on cue the custody officer emerged, whom Rath had requested by telephone. ‘I’m here for a Prisoner Juretzka,’ he said.
The SA officers took their leave with a Hitler salute and the custody officer placed Juretzka in handcuffs. ‘I hope I can rely on you to return the prisoner at three o’clock,’ Rath said, ‘and that he’ll be fit for questioning.’
‘Have no fear, chief. You’re not dealing with the SA here.’ He turned to Juretzka. ‘You have bread and pea soup to look forward to.’
45
The canteen was as chaotic as ever. Rath looked for an out-of-the-way table to read Roddeck’s novel in peace. The story of the murdering army captain was now their official line of investigation. If the police commissioner needed a Jewish villain in order to approve Gereon Rath’s return to Homicide, then he could have one.
Achim von Roddeck had excoriated Benjamin Engel in print, depicting him as a cold-blooded sadist who took pleasure in death, only to die in an explosion himself. Or not, if the lieutenant’s hunch was correct.
‘Afternoon, Gereon. Can I join you?’ Reinhold Gräf stood tray in hand.
‘Reinhold! Sit down!’
Gräf unfolded his napkin and began on his soup. Pea soup. Rath wondered if it was the same as the batch served in custody. It wasn’t for nothing that he’d plumped for pork with sauerkraut and mash.
‘Still working for the Politicals?’ he asked when the silence threatened to become embarrassing.
Gräf nodded and gestured towards the manuscript. ‘I see you’ve got your old case back?’
‘Orders of the police commissioner. After the Wosniak investigation wound up in the papers again.’
‘Through no fault of your own, of course…’ Gräf grinned over his spoon. There was something in his tone that Rath couldn’t abide.
‘You think I enjoy being summoned by the commissioner?’ he barked, regretting it instantly. Goddamn it, he thought, the man’s done nothing to you. Once upon a time you thought of him as a friend. Until you realised he’d been lying all these years…
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean anything. So, there’s something in this lieutenant’s story after all?’
‘Looks that way.’
With that, conversation stalled again and, for a time, there was nothing to be heard save the tinkling of cutlery and murmur of voices from other tables. Gräf placed his spoon to one side.
‘About what happened recently. I have the feeling you might have got the wrong end of the stick.’
Rath was surprised Gräf could broach the subject so directly. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s just, I have the feeling you’ve been avoiding me lately.’
‘I have a lot on my plate. I’m getting married soon.’
‘Fare thee well bachelor days…’
‘If you say so.’
‘Why don’t we have a drink in the Dreieck to mark your final days of freedom?’
‘Let’s.’
Rath was glad when Gräf had cleaned his plate and said his goodbyes. He lit a cigarette and pretended to immerse himself in Roddeck’s manuscript, but couldn’t concentrate any longer. Soon his thoughts turned elsewhere.
Returning from lunch the interview transcript lay on his desk, ready-typed by Christel Temme, quick and reliable as ever. He picked it up, left a note for Erika Voss and went on his way. Gustav Kohn was waiting outside the interrogation room when he arrived. There wasn’t an auxiliary officer in sight as Leo Juretzka was escorted in at three on the dot by the same guard as before.
‘Shall we, then?’ Rath said and opened the door.
‘Should I wait?’ the guard asked.
‘No need, but you can take off his cuffs.’
The guard did as bidden, and pressed the cuffs into Rath’s hand. ‘Your choice,’ he said and went to the door. ‘Shout if you need me.’
Rath waited until he was gone, then unfolded the interview transcript.
‘I’ll read what you need to sign before leaving,’ he said, and began. ‘“On the afternoon of February 20th 1933, I was passing under the elevated railway line at Nollendorfplatz when I saw a man leaning over a homeless person, who then proceeded to walk in my direction. Since he was coming towards me, I got a good look at his face; it was the same man whose image Detective Inspector Gereon Rath later showed me.”’
‘Rolls off the tongue,’ Juretzka interrupted. ‘What are you going to do with it?’
‘It’ll go into the case file. It’s my justification for prising you away from the SA.’
‘You already have. So I don’t need to put my Friedrich Wilhelm on it, am I right?’
‘Your what?’
‘My client prefers not to provide his signature,’ Kohn said. ‘He retracts his statement.’
‘That will make it harder for me to justify Herr Juretzka’s release from SA prison.’
‘You’ll think of something. My client’s incarceration had little to do with the rule of law, so I wouldn’t go overboard on any legal justification.’ Kohn gestured towards Juretzka, who seemed more and more like a swashbuckling pirate the nearer he came to release. ‘Herr Marlow doesn’t want the name Juretzka appearing in any police statements.’
‘Then tell Marlow that I’m risking my career here. Juretzka only got out of SA prison as a result of this statement – and now you’re saying he won’t sign?’