Chief Beinschmidt left his small listening room, entered the interrogation room, and motioned for Gottschlag to leave.
As soon as the door shut, he told the man to stand up and drop his pants.
“What the hell for?”
“Shut up and do as you’re told!”
Hans angrily, very slowly, unbuckled his belt and let his pants slide to the floor. He did not step free of them. What is this man after, wondered Hans.
The Chief ordered him to put his foot up on the chair. Hans raised one leg, resting his foot on the chair. Bruno peered closely at the leg, then, told him to show the other one. After the examination, he told Hans he could put his pants back on, to sit down and relax.
“I see the plastic surgeon in Buenos Aries did a fine job on you, Hans.”
“The name’s Oscar, sir. Oscar Hedel”
“No, yours is Mr. Golch or perhaps even Hans Huber! I know who you are. Just watch your step. Don’t get arrested again. Do you understand?”
When Hans heard those words do you understand his eyes focused sharply, staring into the Chief’s eyes, those words were identical in inflection and tone to the words spoken to him on his telephone the day someone from the organization had threatened him. Max stared back and they stared intently at each other for almost a minute. The Chief said, “You may go.” Hans quickly pulled up his pants, left without a word and drove back to his house as the Eastern sun began to creep through the awakening city.
I’ll be damned, thought Hans. The head of the terrorist squad in Munich. He’s my boss in the GRS! He’s the one who threatened me just a day or so ago. Well, this certainly changes things. Now that I know this, I can just follow our good Chief until he leads me to the others in his little organization. Hmmm. I knew the goddamned scar that Jew commando gave me would be my downfall, even with the plastic surgery I guess the Mr. Golch disguise is finished forever now.
Tired and angry, Hans almost drove right past his house.
Several days later, a short, heavy-set man came out of the house next to where Hans was staying and walked over to where Hans was washing his Mercedes.
“Beautiful car!”
“Thanks, yea, it’s my only love, I guess,” Hans said, still sponging the car.
“I’m your neighbor, Tom Metz. Are you a relative of Mr. Golch?”
“That’s right. I’m his cousin, Mike Kermitz from Berlin. He invited me to housesit for a few days while he went on a business trip to England. So how is this area? I’ve only been in Munich a few times, so tell me what I should do first to see the city like a tourist.”
I’ve got a city guidebook I can loan you. It’s a couple of years old now, but it should be enough to get you started. I’ll just get it, but, I promise not to pester you. I hate having neighbors pester me, especially with gossip, don’t you? I try to mind my own business. So, I’ll get the book for you and then see you around.”
When Tom returned with the book, Hans ended the exchange by saying, “Thanks, Tom, I’d better get the soap off my love before it causes spots, and thank again for the city guide book.
He had purposely put a hairy wart on his Adam’s apple, in addition to two others on his cheek and chin, as part of his new disguise as Mike Kermitz. Hans knew the neighbor would concentrate on the wart as it bounced up and down while he talked and swallowed, and forget most other details of his looks.
He had more free time than he was comfortable with. The organization had not contacted him for several weeks, but he still felt under their constraints. Miriam was no longer around, and he missed her. He didn’t know where she was, and that also bothered him. Rutger and Ingrid, his closest associates among the Nazis, were gone too. He now had to fill his free time with something to keep from thinking about the wait for the emerald auction — or about Miriam. He decided to start a “research project,” checking out the background of the police officers he could identify in Munich.
He became obsessed with the role of a “lurker,” watching in public places and listening to conversations. He could add to or subtract from his new Mike disguise easily with an array of prosthetic items. His Mike had graying blond hair, much like Bruno’s. He wore huge horn-rimmed glasses and crooked nosepiece with widely flared nostrils. Sometimes he wore a black watch cap that he pulled down over his thinning hair. However, he had to be careful, because his neighbor had seen him as Mike, washing his car. If Tom recognized him through all these disguises, he’d have to take care of him.
Hans had seen fake horn-rimmed big-nosed glasses in a costume shop, bought several pairs, and then molded various noses for each with putty he brought from Argentina.
He thought back to his boyhood in Argentina when he would spend hours in Gunther’s workshop, watching the man make various disguises for everyone in the compound. Gunther had developed a type of skin colored; stretchy putty with acrylic dust mixed into it that could take various shades of makeup. Moreover, the best thing about of “Gunther’s Putty” was that it was easily removed without leaving a trace. Other putty he tried seemed too porous to stand up to repeated uses and left traces when he pulled it off. Hans had also learned the trick of flexing the putty as he put it on to create wrinkles and sags as well. Yes, Gunther had been an artisan as well as a good friend in sharing his craft with those in the compound back home. He could also forge the best documents, almost undetectable, except by the most expert examiners. Gunther had showed him how to peel off names with clear acrylic liquid paper and replace them on any paper item, which allowed Hans to update his identification as needed. It was tedious work, but it kept his security intact and Hans had never been caught — at least not until he came face to face with the Chief of Police, that day at the station. He still didn’t know why was the police were looking for him? Nevertheless, why just release him? It did not make sense, and it bothered him greatly.
Hans researched Bruno, first using the Ludwig Library computers in their main branch, but really wished he had one for himself. Computers were too large, however and Hans did not want to keep anything incriminating on one he possessed. Therefore, he spent a lot of time in the library using different disguises, including Monique, but for “her” he now wore jeans or loose-fitting slacks, not the dress he had used at the auction.
He discovered that the Bruno had been with the department since 1960, the year his father was killed, and had become Terrorist Chief ten years ago. Before 1960, he lived and worked in Denmark. There was little Hans found about the Chief during the WWII years, which somehow made Hans suspicious.
Hans called Rutger at the Klement Compound asking if they had any information about the Chief. Rutger said give him a day and he would see what he could find out. When he talked to Rutger again he told him that a Bruno Beinschmidt had served in a multinational SS division called Wiking under the command of a SS-Brigadifüher Felix Steiner and had the rank of Oberstleutnant. Toward the end of the war, Beinschmidt had become Steiner’s personal bodyguard. Rutger was sure that he had known Han’s father. They were the same age and high up in the same military branch. So that’s how the Chief knew, thought Hans.