‘Sounds pretty naive to me.’
‘The pot calling the kettle black!’
Thelen was right. Rath, too, had been duped by the demolition expert.
‘It all seems so obvious in retrospect,’ Thelen continued. ‘We got out of the car, and Grimberg crouched in front of a bush to the side. I thought it was strange at the time, carrying on like that. He was only tying his laces. Anyway, the captain pressed ahead.’
‘Let me guess: Grimberg told you exactly where to park.’
‘I didn’t think anything of it. He was the one with local knowledge, and who’d planted the traps. Now, of course, I see why I had to park there, and why he crouched on the floor. The detonator was hidden behind the bush. Roddeck must have put him up to it during the night.’
‘What did Roddeck have against your captain?’
‘He didn’t like him, which perhaps made it easier, but the real reason was that he and his men were afraid of being turned in. The captain didn’t want to leave the gold. He wanted to get it behind German lines and claim it as spoils of war.’
‘Why didn’t they just blackmail him? He had shot three men, including a recruit from his own unit.’
‘You shouldn’t believe everything Achim von Roddeck says. Much less everything he writes.’ The eyes in the rearview mirror looked at Rath. ‘My captain was no saint, Inspector, but he was no killer either.’
‘What happened that night?’
‘Inspector, I wasn’t there.’
They were approaching the Spree. The dark building of the Märkisches Museum loomed on the horizon. Rath flicked his cigarette out of the window. ‘I don’t understand it,’ he said. ‘What was Engel doing, climbing into the trench alone like that? Didn’t he see he might be in danger?’
‘Why would he? He didn’t know Grimberg was one of those wanting to conceal the gold. The man wasn’t even there when they buried it.’
‘Engel could have turned them all in to the field police.’
‘He was going to, but the police were behind the Hindenburg Line. We were the last of the Mohicans! The rearguard.’ Thelen’s eyes looked for Rath’s in the rearview mirror. ‘Our retreat was to begin that morning. Operation Alberich was on a tight schedule, and Benjamin Engel was a dutiful captain. He had no intention of jeopardising the operation and risking people’s lives all because of a dishonourable troop of soldiers. They’d get their just deserts soon enough.’
‘Things never got that far.’
‘No.’ Thelen shook his head. ‘If he’d told me what happened that night, I’d have been more wary. Perhaps I’d have noticed that something with Grimberg wasn’t right.’
‘And he has the nerve to play the innocent. He didn’t have much good to say about Roddeck, but I’d never have guessed the pair were in cahoots.’
‘That’s my story, Inspector. Do what you can with it.’
‘The only way I can do anything is if you sign a statement and repeat it in a court of law.’
‘I’m not about to renounce my new life.’
‘I know,’ Rath said. ‘Thank you all the same.’
They arrived at police headquarters, but Rath directed Thelen towards Dircksenstrasse, where the Buick was parked. Thelen turned around and Rath thought he might ask for his fare after all.
‘Inspector, before you go… There’s something else I need to tell you. Roddeck’s novel, this whole series of murders…’
‘Yes?’
‘I’m partly to blame. I saw Roddeck again about a year ago, in the Hotel Eden, where I was attending a tea-dance with my wife.’
‘You’re married?’
‘My wife married Erich Heintze, not Franz Thelen. She’s part of my new life, not my old.’
‘You only changed your name a few years ago. Why?’
‘Because I began to think I might be in danger too. I left the Rhineland to start afresh in Berlin with a new name and some money from Frau Engel. I couldn’t have known that others would do the same. People I had no wish to see again.’
‘You saw Roddeck. Did he recognise you?’
‘I don’t think so. He was entirely occupied with his lady friend, and not just on the dancefloor. I pretended to be ill, and Elli and I left.’
‘Then nothing happened?’
‘On the contrary.’ Thelen gave an embarrassed smile. ‘I wrote him a letter. Just like that: Hotel Eden, care of Achim von Roddeck.’
‘What sort of letter.’
‘I rubbed the whole story from back then in his face. Told him he could write off the gold, and that the truth always finds a way. I wanted to spite him, do you understand? Put fear in him. He was strutting about the place… no guilty conscience, no shame. I had to.’
‘You risked your anonymity… to frighten him?’
‘That’s just it. I didn’t write the letter in my name.’ Franz Thelen hunched his shoulders as if to apologise. ‘I wrote it as Benjamin Engel.’
98
Fritze sat at the breakfast table, eating a cheese sandwich and reading the Vossische funny papers. Charly was happy he was at least reading something. It was high time, school was starting soon, but he was making good progress.
‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I have to read this out. In… Halberstadt a man calls a boy to the window of his… coupé: Get me a pair of… Halberstädter… sausages. Here’s a mark, buy yourself a pair too as a… reward. The rascal hast… hastens away and returns with both cheeks bulging. Here’s fifty pfennig back – I got the last two.’
He delivered the punchline without looking. Even Gereon had to smile.
She was starting to feel as if he’d made his peace with the situation. At Easter they had hidden a few eggs for the boy, and felt almost like a little family. Sunday afternoon they had strolled in glorious sunshine, and visited Johann Marlow’s house at Freienwalde next day. Hannah was making astounding progress. It wasn’t just the speed at which her wounds were healing. Even more astounding was her conversation, albeit she still found it difficult to talk about her past, the Crow’s Nest and her childhood.
‘It was my old life I was torching,’ she had said, more to herself than to Charly, her first and only explanation for her terrible crime.
Charly still didn’t know what would become of her. She couldn’t let the state authorities near her again, but what was the alternative? They could hardly take her in at Carmerstrasse, a fugitive killer from the asylum. Hannah didn’t just need a new future, like Fritze, she needed a new past: a new life and a new name.
She had asked Gereon if Marlow could obtain false papers, and how much it might cost, but he looked at her wide-eyed before shaking his head. Next thing she knew he had withdrawn to Marlow’s office.
In the meantime, she had come to appreciate the gangster more. The armed guards told a different story, but Marlow himself was exceptionally polite and there was something touching about the way he cared for Hannah. He had even given her a present for Easter.
She was wondering if there might be room for a fourth person at the breakfast table when Gereon stood up. ‘Time I was on my way. Want me to drive you?’
‘Yes,’ she said firmly, and half an hour later was strolling down the corridors of G Division towards Friederike Wieking’s office. She felt like a stranger. Even the once familiar smell of tea and dust was alien. She took a deep breath and knocked. Yes, her mind was made up.
‘Do you have an appointment?’ the superintendent’s secretary looked at her over the rim of her glasses.