‘You’re all here to see Herr Rubens?’ he asked the journalists.
Some nodded, others didn’t react. ‘You’ll need to be patient,’ said a slight man with his press card in the band of his hat, American style. ‘I’m next.’
Rath reached for his badge. ‘Police ID trumps press. Sorry, but rules are rules.’
The man didn’t contradict him. Respect for police officers had risen in recent weeks.
The interviews were coordinated by Roddeck’s publisher, Dr Hildebrandt, who took leave of an outgoing journalist with a cordial shake of the hand. ‘Next, please,’ he said, as if he were a doctor’s receptionist. On seeing Rath, his eyes grew wide, and Achim von Roddeck was equally astonished.
The author sat with a cup of tea behind a table by the window. A little to the side a policeman sat in an armchair leafing through a newspaper. By his bored expression he must be reading the Kreuzzeitung serial. Roddeck rose to his feet. ‘Inspector! You’re moonlighting as a reporter now? Or are you here on duty?’
The word inspector jolted the cop awake. He stood up and saluted. ‘Nothing to report, Sir.’
‘Thank you,’ Rath said. He looked at Roddeck. ‘It’s you I came to see.’
‘I thought CID were no longer interested.’
‘Uniform are certainly making up for it.’ Rath looked out onto Friedrichstrasse and two cops outside the hotel entrance. Another stood in the lobby by the lifts, and a fourth was stationed here in Roddeck’s suite. Commissioner Levetzow had spared neither effort nor expense.
Roddeck fixed his eyes on Rath. ‘Poor Meifert might still be alive if you’d afforded him the same protection, but you didn’t heed my warning.’
‘On the contrary,’ Rath lied. ‘Circumstances prevented it. The acute Communist threat… Limited resources…’
‘I don’t want to argue,’ Roddeck said. ‘It’s just, you so feel helpless when a comrade has to die – despite being aware of the risks.’
‘Like in war?’
‘What do you want, Inspector?’
‘To talk to you.’
Roddeck led him to the table. ‘Can I offer you something? Send for room service?’
Rath took his cigarette case from his pocket. ‘Do you mind?’
‘Not at all.’
‘Nice work if you can get it. Staying in places like this.’
‘Not when you’re always on the move. Your colleagues say it’s safer. That it makes it harder for him to track me down.’
‘Him?’
‘Engel, who else? As long as we keep changing hotels, no one knows where I am.’
‘Apart from the police.’
‘Of course.’
‘And the press. They have to know how to find you too.’
‘What are you driving at, Inspector?’
‘The fact that there’s a new story about you practically every day. This endangered author, who, in spite of the threats being made on his life, stands by his explosive revelations.’
‘Jealous? You’d rather the focus was on you?’
‘I’m just wondering how safe all this is.’ Rath gestured towards the door with his chin. ‘Who can guarantee that your would-be assassin isn’t waiting outside?’
‘First, if Benjamin Engel came through that door I’d recognise him, and I’m ready.’ Roddeck lifted his jacket to reveal the leather of a shoulder holster. ‘Second, my publisher is present for every interview, along with a police officer. Right now, there are two of you.’
‘It seems things are going well with your novel…’
‘Demand has increased dramatically since the start of the serial,’ the publisher, Hildebrandt, said, visibly proud. ‘We’ve had to reprint already.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘And we’ve brought forward the publication date.’
‘Aren’t you afraid you might provoke the killer?’
Roddeck sat up. ‘Like I’ve said before, Inspector, our decision-making won’t be swayed by these threats.’
‘I spoke with the widow Engel,’ Rath said, and Roddeck appeared surprised.
‘And?’
‘She can’t imagine her husband is still alive. Even less that he’s a killer.’
‘She can’t imagine! You’d give weight to the imagination of a sentimental widow who has never seen her husband at war?’
‘I’m not giving weight to anything. I’m just wondering how Benjamin Engel could have survived this blast of yours.’
‘Believe me, I’ve asked myself the same thing often enough.’
‘Could there be someone else trying to prevent your novel from being published?’
‘The only explanation I have is that Benjamin Engel is still alive.’
‘An explosion like that… he’d have been torn to shreds.’
‘That’s what we thought too, but British artillery fire meant we couldn’t confirm it. Besides, we were already in retreat. We had to keep moving.’
‘Where were you when the explosion occurred?’
‘This is all in the book,’ Hildebrandt interrupted. ‘What’s the use in giving you a proof copy if you don’t even read it?’
Rath glared at the man and he fell silent.
‘Like it says in the book, we were already in retreat,’ Roddeck said. ‘Perhaps three or four kilometres behind the front.’
‘Did you witness the explosion yourself, or is your account based on hearsay? The book uses the term “we” rather vaguely.’
‘I witnessed it, and I heard it. There was an enormous bang. We were all startled, thinking the British were advancing. Then came the news that Captain Engel had set off a boobytrap while inspecting our abandoned trenches.’
‘How can a trap like that be set off prematurely?’
‘You’d have to ask the man who built it.’
‘As a matter of fact, I have.’
Again, Roddeck looked surprised. ‘You’ve been rather more diligent than I anticipated, Inspector.’
‘Never underestimate the Prussian Police.’
‘I don’t know what Grimberg told you, but I suspected a British grenade landed in the trench at the wrong moment, and triggered the explosion.’
‘It happened by chance.’
‘You wouldn’t believe how often life and death are governed by chance, Inspector. Especially in war.’
‘Isn’t it possible that someone from your unit knowingly detonated the charge? Someone who wanted rid of Captain Engel?’
‘What gives you that idea?’
‘It can happen in war. Hated superiors who fall victim to their men.’
‘Not in the German army.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘What are you trying to insinuate?’
‘I’m not trying to insinuate anything. I’m just asking questions.’
Roddeck was on the verge of losing his composure. ‘Don’t sully the army’s honour in the presence of a Prussian officer or I could be forced to take unpleasant action!’
‘Surely you’re not going to challenge me to a duel? I thought those days were gone.’ Rath shook his head. ‘Besides, the last thing I want to do is sully your honour, or that of the German army.’
‘Then what is this? You’re speaking with a potential victim here, not a killer.’
‘Who knows?’
‘What did you say?’ Roddeck turned bright red, and Rath was grateful to Charly for the idea.
‘So far you’re the one who’s benefited from these deaths. Who’s to say you aren’t responsible for them?’
‘Fanciful! It’s like saying the SA set fire to the Reichstag in order to strike at the Red mob.’
‘Then such thoughts aren’t completely alien to you. I just want you to be aware of the various avenues we need to pursue.’