‘Thank you, Inspector.’ I lit a cigarette, and then held the match to Illmann’s roll-up. ‘Very well then,’ I puffed. ‘So what we have are five girls, all of them about the same age, and all of them conforming to the Aryan stereotype that we know and love so well. In other words, they all had blonde hair, naturally or otherwise.
‘Now, after our third Rhine maiden is murdered, Josef Kahn gets himself arrested for the attempted rape of a prostitute. In other words, he tried to leave without paying.’
‘Typical Jew,’ said Lobbes. There were a few laughs at that.
‘As it happened, Kahn was carrying a knife, quite a sharp one at that, and he even has a minor criminal record for small theft and indecent assault. Very convenient. So the arresting officer at Grolmanstrasse Police Station, namely one Inspector Willi Oehme, decides to turn a few cards and see if he can’t make twenty-one. He has a chat with young Josef, who’s a bit soft in the head, and what with his honey-tongue and his thick knuckles, Willi manages to persuade Josef to sign a confession.
‘Gentlemen, here I’d like to introduce you all to Frau Kalau vom Hofe. I say “Frau”, as she’s not allowed to call herself a doctor, although she is one, because she is very evidently a woman, and we all know, don’t we, that a woman’s place is in the home, producing recruits for the Party, and cooking the old man’s dinner. She is in fact a psychotherapist, and is an acknowledged expert on that unfathomable little mystery that we refer to as the Criminal Mind.’
My eyes looked and licked at the creamy woman who sat at the far end of the table. She wore a magnolia skirt and a white marocain blouse, and her fair hair was pinned up in a tight bun at the back of her finely sculpted head. She smiled at my introduction and took a file out of her briefcase and opened it in front of her.
‘When Josef Kahn was a child,’ she said, ‘he contracted acute encephalitis lethargica, which occurred in epidemic form among children in Western Europe between 1915 and 1926. This produced a gross change in his personality. After the acute phase of the illness, children may become increasingly restless, irritable, aggressive even, and appear to lose all moral sense. They beg, steal, lie and are often cruel. They talk incessantly and become unmanageable at school and at home. Abnormal sexual curiosity and sexual problems are often observed. Post-encephalitic adolescents sometimes show certain features of this syndrome, especially the lack of sexual restraint, and this is certainly true in Josef Kahn’s case. He is also developing Parkinsonism, which will result in his increased physical debilitation.’
Count von der Schulenberg yawned and looked at his wristwatch. But the doctor was not deterred. Instead she seemed to find his bad manners amusing.
‘Despite his apparent criminality,’ she said, ‘I do not think that Josef killed any of these girls. Having discussed the forensic evidence with Professor Illmann, I am of the opinion that these killings show a level of premeditation of which Kahn is simply incapable. Kahn is capable only of the kind of frenzied murder that would have had him leave the victim where she fell.’
Illmann nodded. ‘An analysis of his statement reveals a number of discrepancies with the known facts,’ he said. ‘His statement says that he used a stocking for the strangulations. The evidence, however, shows quite clearly that bare hands were used. He says that he stabbed his victims in the stomach. The evidence shows that none of them was stabbed, that they were all slashed across the throat. Then there is the fact that the fourth murder must have occurred while Kahn was in custody. Could this murder be the work of a different killer, someone copying the first three? No. Because there has been no press coverage of the first three to copy. And no, because the similarities between all four murders are too strong. They are all the work of the same man.’ He smiled at Frau Kalau vom Hofe. ‘Is there anything you wish to add to that, madam?’
‘Only that that man could not possibly be Josef Kahn,’ she said. ‘And that Josef Kahn has been the subject of a form of fraud that one might have thought was impossible in the Third Reich.’ There was a smile on her mouth as she closed her file and sat back in her chair, opening her cigarette case. Smoking, like being a doctor, was something else that women weren’t supposed to do, but I could see that it wasn’t the sort of thing that would have given her too many qualms.
It was the count who spoke next.
‘In the light of this information, may one inquire of the Reichskriminaldirektor if the ban on news-reporting that has applied in this case will now be lifted?’ His belt creaked as he leant across the table, apparently eager to hear Nebe’s reply. The son of a well-known general who was now the ambassador to Moscow, young von der Schulenberg was impeccably well-connected. When Nebe didn’t answer, he added: ‘I don’t see how one can possibly impress upon the parents of girls in Berlin the need for caution without some sort of official statement in the newspapers. Naturally I will make sure that every Anwärter on the force is made aware of the need for vigilance on the street. However, it would be easier for my men in Orpo if there were some assistance from the Reich Ministry of Propaganda.’
‘It’s an accepted fact in criminology,’ said Nebe smoothly, ‘that publicity can act as an encouragement to a murderer like this, as I’m sure Frau Kalau vom Hofe will confirm.’
‘That’s correct,’ she said. ‘Mass murderers do seem to like to read about themselves in the newspapers.’
‘However,’ Nebe continued, ‘I will make a point of telephoning the Muratti building today, and asking them if there is not some propaganda that can be directed towards young girls being made more aware of the need to be careful. At the same time, any such campaign would have to receive the blessing of the Obergruppenführer. He is most anxious that there is nothing said which might create a panic amongst German women.’
The count nodded. ‘And now,’ he said, looking at me, ‘I have a question for the Kommissar.’
He smiled, but I wasn’t about to place too much reliance on it. He gave every impression of having attended the same school in supercilious sarcasm as Obergruppenführer Heydrich. Mentally I lifted my guard in readiness for the first punch.
‘As the detective who ingeniously solved the celebrated case of Gormann the strangler, will he share with us now his initial thoughts in this particular case?’
The colourless smile persisted beyond what might have seemed comfortable, as if he was straining at his tight sphincter. At least, I assumed it was tight. As the deputy of a former SA man, Count Wolf von Helldorf, who was reputed to be as queer as the late SA boss Ernst Röhm, Schulenberg might well have had the kind of arse that would have tempted a short-sighted pickpocket.
Sensing that there was even more to be made of this disingenuous line of inquiry, he added: ‘Perhaps an indication as to the kind of character we might be looking for?’
‘I think I can help the administrative president there,’ said Frau Kalau vom Hofe. The count’s head jerked irritatedly in her direction.
She reached down into her briefcase and laid a large book on to the table. And then another, and another, until there was a pile as high as one of von der Schulenberg’s highly polished jackboots.
‘Anticipating just such a question, I took the liberty of bringing along several books dealing with the psychology of the criminal,’ she said. ‘Heindl’s Professional Criminal, Wulf-fen’s excellent Handbook of Sexual Delinquency, Hirschfeld’s Sexual Pathology, F. Alexander’s The Criminal and his Judges — ’
This was too much for him. He collected his papers off the table and stood up, smiling nervously.
‘Another time perhaps, Frau vom Hofe,’ he said. Then he clicked his heels, bowed stiffly to the room and left.