Later that night while Miriam combed her computer for more information on the Wittelsbach dynasty in Bavaria, David lay on one of the beds with his hands behind his head.
“You don’t think our killer is after this emerald, do you, Miriam?”
“What, David, I didn’t hear you.”
“Listen, oh quiet one, I said I wonder if he is after the emerald for some reason?”
“Why would he be doing all this killing if all he wanted was that emerald? He could just steal it or buy it. After all, evidently he is quite wealthy.”
“You don’t suppose he thinks it should be his even thought his Grandfather disinherited his father?”
“So now you are a psychiatrist delving into the brains of people.”
Miriam shut off her computer, closed the lid and said, “David I’m tired and want to go to bed. We can explore some of your weird ideas tomorrow. Please go to your own room, Mr. Cohen, and let me get ready for bed.”
“But Mrs. Cohen, this bed is so comfortable.”
“David, go!”
CHAPTER 14
David and Miriam left the library and headed back to the safe house in their rented VW.
Miriam said, “I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. What does all that Huber family history have to do with anything?”
“I don’t know either, but let’s talk about what we found out. We know the Huber family goes back over a hundred years here in Munich and one member was something in King Ludwig’s government in the 19th century.
“Yes, and Josephine said that the family acquired the emerald, when the government put some property up for sale because of financial problems.”
“Right, that’s when it came into the hands of a Hartmut Huber, evidently the grandfather of this man we’re supposed to be looking for. Remember his diary, that Josephine showed us told of this Hartmut disinheriting his son who joined the Nazi party in the early 30’s.”
“And Josephine thinks Hartmut’s son was the bodyguard of Eichmann, Hans Huber, to one our agents killed in Argentina, and the father of the one we’re looking for.”
“If this is the family line, what are Hans’s reasons for all this killing?”
“You don’t suppose the Wittlesbach Emerald is the key to the whole thing, do you?”
“That’s a possibility, but why the killing? Why not just steal the emerald and be done with it?
“I don’t know, that would seem logical to me.”
Miriam excitedly pointed at a restaurant they were passing and shouted, “Stop, David. There’s a restaurant I remember from when I was here with my father, and the food was wonderful. Find a place to park and let’s have lunch, I’m famished.”
“I’m not too fond of German food,” David responded, but still found a parking spot nearby. “I hope they have a decent matzo ball soup and a hot pastrami sandwich.”
Getting out of the car Miriam quipped, “David, you’re hopeless. Didn’t you ever hear “When in Rome, do as the Romans do?”
“Sure I heard of that, but I still would like a good Jewish lunch.”
Just as they were to enter the restaurant Miriam’s cell rang and she listened for a few minutes.
“That would be great. We’re just going to have lunch at Restaurant Ederer on Kardinal Faulhaber- Strasse. Do you know it? It’s about six blocks east of the Bavarian State Library. Oh, you know where it is. Could you meet us here? Wonderful, we’ll look forward to seeing you.”
Miriam hung up and turned to David. “That was Elsa, Chief Beinschmidt’s secretary. She knew we were in the chief’s office asking questions about the murders of the two officers and she wants to talk to us about that.”
“I wonder what that’s all about.”
They had just finished ordering, no matzo ball soup on the menu, but David did order a hot pastrami sandwich and a beer, when a young woman entered the restaurant and looked around. Miriam waved at her and David pulled out a chair and waited for the obviously nervous woman to join them.
“Glad you could join us, Lisa. Won’t you have something to eat with us?”
The nervous woman looked around at the others in the restaurant and then responded, “No thank you. I can’t stay long. The chief would probably fire me or worse if he found out I was talking to you, but I had to come. The chief didn’t tell you about the other suspicious killings in Munich.” Lisa looked around again, and then continued, “Two days before Marvin and Herzog were shot; another murder occurred — this time again the victim had slash marks on his upper arm. This murder had taken place in an alley behind the Cobra nightclub, in a rather seedy part of the city. I think the chief should have mentioned it to you,” she said. “And you ought to know that the chief was very angry when the Police Board recruited Marvin and Hertzog. There is something going on in the department ever since he took over about a year ago, nothing that I can actually put my finger on, but things just aren’t the same.” Agitated, she again looked around at the other patrons in the restaurant and began to get up. “I have to go. I’ll call you again if I find out anything more.” And almost tipping over her chair in her need to leave, she walked quickly out of the restaurant.
Their food arrived. David took a drink of his beer and said, “Well, what do think of that? What does your womanly intuition tell you about our new, but very scared friend?
You know, with all this weird stuff going on with the police here, I’m not too sure we should stay at that safe house.”
“But Levi said he trusted Simon completely and Simon told us that safe house hadn’t been used in a while.”
“I know, but Levi and the Office trusted Marvin and Herzog also and look where that trust got them. If you’ll trust my male intuition this time I think we should check into a hotel and not even tell Simon. I know he’ll be pissed and no telling what Levi will do, But I have a feeling about this.”
“Ok, I’ll go along with you on this one, but I think hell-fire and brimstone may be headed for both of us.”
Hans pulled the vibrating cell phone from his pocket, turned it on and listened. Emily, on the other end was telling him, as Klaus, that the bank had released the emerald and it would be in their next auction in two weeks. If he really wanted to bid on that, he would have to finish filling out the required financial statement and other papers for Christies right away. She concluded with the words, “I hope this is the right number, Klaus, just thought you might want to know,” and the cell phone went dead.
Hans called Lufthansa Airlines and found that he could get a flight to Geneva several times a day and decided that day after tomorrow would be fine and that would give him enough time to plan his bid at the auction.
“Let’s go back and see the Chief again, Miriam. We can snoop around and see if we can’t find out more about the killings and Hans. It might even give us a lead to where the Nazi groups hang out,” suggested David.
“I don’t know what we can find out from that butch-haired chauvinist, but I supposed it’s worth a try. I’ll try to bite my tongue and let you ‘big boys’ talk over the top of my head.”
“Now who’s got an attitude problem?”
They couldn’t park in the police parking lot because of crime scene tape surrounding the lot.
“Something’s happened here.”
“Boy, that’s a real girlie deduction.”
“Oh, com on David, let’s be at least civil with each other.”
When David and Miriam walked back to the station, they were stopped by several policemen standing about. The two showed their passports, then identified themselves as official friends of Chief Beinschmidt and were allowed under the tape. The Chief was in his office and a young police woman showed them right in.