‘That’s no reason to throw in the towel.’
‘I can’t work there anymore, not for this police force in this state.’
‘You can’t just go chucking it in. When I think of how long you’ve been striving for this. Things change.’
‘You really think so?’
‘Nothing stays the same. Things always change.’
‘The question is when.’
‘I certainly wouldn’t tell Wieking what you’ve just told me. The new government is sensitive about that sort of thing; the Nazis want to be loved.’
‘And if you aren’t prepared to court them, they break your skull.’
‘Something like that.’ He needed time to digest the news. ‘Have you really thought about this? You haven’t completed your probationary period, you’ll have nothing if you quit now.’
‘I’ll have my state examination.’
‘What are you going to do with that? Go back to Professor Heymann? He’s Jewish in case you’d forgotten, hardly the best reference in the new Germany.’
She could have slapped him. Did he even realise that Heymann was one of those who had been forced out of office despite the new law supposedly not applying to veterans? Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service they’d termed it, cynically, when in reality it got rid of thousands of decorated officials. She was about to give Gereon a piece of her mind when the telephone rang. Answering, she was surprised to hear a familiar voice.
‘Speaking of Jews in the new age,’ she said. ‘Dr Schwartz. For you.’
96
It was still overcast but the rain had stopped. Rath parked on Robert-Koch-Platz and proceeded on foot. He had a strange premonition, which was why he had asked to meet in the lunch break rather than during office hours.
Evidently Magnus Schwartz, the pathologist, shared his concern. Following his resignation from all duties (to spare him worse) he had summoned Rath to a cafe just next to the Neues Tor. He hadn’t said what it was about, insisting instead on a face-to-face meeting.
Schwartz sat alone at a window table reading the newspaper. Seeing Rath, he stood up. ‘Good of you to come, Inspector,’ he said, shaking Rath’s hand. ‘I’d buy you a coffee, but I think it’s better if we take a walk.’ Even in his local cafe a law-abiding citizen such as Magnus Schwartz no longer felt safe from informers. Berliners were becoming more and more suspicious.
‘Then let’s go,’ Rath said.
Outside they faced a chill breeze. The pavement was still wet but the sky was starting to clear. They strolled along Invalidenstrasse, where on the other side of the road the façade of the Natural History Museum rose impressively into the sky. ‘What’s on your mind, Doctor?’
‘It’s about the corpse they found yesterday in the Spree. This war-disabled fellow, but I thought I’d rather speak with you in private.’
Rath said nothing and waited.
‘Karthaus sought me out. Karthaus, who a few weeks ago suggested I take early retirement.’ Schwartz shook his head. ‘Did you know he’s a Nazi now too?’
‘I can’t say I’m surprised.’
‘You need to be, to get on in the new Germany. There are even Jews who want to join the party. They can’t have read the manifesto.’ The doctor waved his hand dismissively. ‘Karthaus is carrying on as if everything is normal between us, as if I took early retirement because of my age. A simple passing on of the baton.’
After only a few metres they turned onto Hessische Strasse, moving towards the Charité Hospital and the morgue. Rath wondered what the veteran pathologist was getting at, but curbed his impatience and waited for Schwartz to make his point.
‘Anyway, Karthaus shows me this corpse, wants confirmation that the puncture channels match those I examined a few weeks back.’
‘Do they?’
‘Without question, but that isn’t why I wanted to see you.’ He came to a halt and looked Rath in the eye. ‘Inspector, there is no way on earth that corpse belongs to Benjamin Engel, even if a thousand witnesses say otherwise.’
Rath feigned surprise. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Engel is a baptised Jew, am I right?’ Rath nodded. ‘But Jewish born and bred.’
‘Yes. He was baptised Catholic prior to his marriage.’
‘The man in there…’ Schwartz pointed in the direction of the morgue, ‘…is no Jew.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘He hasn’t been circumcised.’ Dr Schwartz looked at Rath triumphantly. ‘With all the stab wounds and burn scars, no one seemed to notice. He also has two older wounds that haven’t healed, to the buttocks and upper thigh.’
From Hannah, Rath thought. ‘What does Karthaus say?’
‘He was painfully embarrassed, but gave me to understand that none of it could appear in his report.’
‘I see.’
‘He’s afraid it will make the commissioner look foolish. Seems our Levetzow was a little too eager to stick his head above the parapet.’ Schwartz shook his head. ‘Karthaus cried his eyes out over his own helplessness. An affront when you think how brazenly he’s exploited the political situation himself.’
‘Some people are oblivious to the damage they cause.’ Rath remembered Böhm’s words. How risky it was to make a fool of the commissioner. ‘Why are you telling me all this?’ he asked. ‘Detective Gräf is leading the investigation.’
‘I can’t get involved officially, I’d be stabbing Karthaus in the back.’
‘You prefer to do your backstabbing unofficially?’
‘I know you’ll keep investigating.’ Schwartz hunched his shoulders. ‘You’ve never worried about being taken off a case. As far as you’re concerned, that’s just the chiefs telling you not to put in for overtime.’
‘You’ve seen right through me, Doctor!’
‘Böhm’s confided in me on more than one occasion how difficult you are to work with.’
‘He’s no picnic himself.’
‘Yet he has always spoken very highly of you.’
‘He has?’ It would be hard to find anyone who made a greater show of disdaining him than Wilhelm Böhm. ‘Böhm’s handed in his notice too,’ Rath said, as casually as possible.
‘Sabbatical, early retirement, resignation, that’s the fate of many a public official these days. Funny, Hitler has always spoken about lowering unemployment. I’d question whether ousting civil servants is the way to go about it…’
Reaching the morgue, the pathologist halted as if to enter one last time and show Rath his findings. Instead he sighed. ‘Only a few weeks ago. Göring was telling the world that so long as the Jewish community went about its affairs and proved itself to be loyal, no one had anything to fear. Idiot that I am, I believed him. He just wouldn’t tolerate Jews in positions of government, he said, that’s all.’ Schwartz pointed towards the dirty yellow brick building. ‘Does that look like a position of government? The Berlin morgue? So why, I ask you, am I no longer entitled to work there?’
Rath didn’t know how to respond and caught himself turning away. Damn it, he thought, horrified at himself, if things carry on like this the Nazis really will turn us into a nation of cynical, good-for-nothing cowards.
97
For the first time in weeks, the Alberich investigation played a lead role during A Division morning briefing. Since the discovery of the corpse, Homicide had renewed their interest in the case, and even Forensics had plenty to be getting on with, as Kronberg set out in his own, inimitable way.