He briskly stepped forward, flipped the page back, then pinned it down with a pencil. I cleared my throat again. Out came Semyonov’s words in my quavering voice:
“The bright beam of the searchlight cut easily through the night like a sharp knife through a slice of black bread. The night was split apart and they all saw the dead Kopytov. He was lying in a crumpled ball, a puny old man with big, peasant hands, which still looked as if they were alive.”
The tall detective snatched up the book and shut it in one neat motion. Then he leaned down, breathing into my face. I was pretty sure he’d eaten a sausage for lunch. Maybe the shorter detective had sold it to him.
“A murdered puny old man with big peasant hands,” he said. “Pretty fair description of Boris Trefimov, wouldn’t you say?”
I shrugged.
“I wasn’t there. I wouldn’t know.”
“Of course you were. You’ve already admitted as much.”
“Not when he was dead.”
He shook his head slowly and eased away from me. Then he held the book aloft like a backwoods preacher with a Bible, preparing to deliver some fire and brimstone. As he opened his mouth there was a knock at the door.
The tall man paused, book held high. Then another knock sounded, louder and more insistent, followed by a voice.
“Manfred?”
The door opened. Another stubby fellow who might have been the wurst vendor’s cousin motioned the detectives out into the corridor.
“Both of you. Now.”
“But-”
“Orders from the top.”
Manfred shut the book with a snap, then left in disgust. The wurst vendor shambled out in his wake. They locked the door behind them. All was quiet, but my heart was leaping against my chest. I wondered if the tape was still rolling, or if there was anything more to see inside the book. Another marked passage, or a scribbled message. I listened for footsteps. Nothing. I pulled a handkerchief from my trousers and was on the verge of pulling the book toward me when I stopped abruptly, remembering the two-way mirror.
I looked at it, wondering who might be watching from the other side, and what they were thinking. In a half- hearted attempt to cover my blunder, I pretended to blow my nose, then stuffed the handkerchief back in my pocket.
A few minutes later the door burst open. It was Manfred, alone now.
“Get out of here!” he snapped.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Leave now! Leave this station house before I change my mind.”
I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it.
“I’m free to go?”
“I won’t say it again!”
He was furious. I scrambled out of the chair and sidled past him. Out in the hallway I saw that Litzi had just emerged as well. She looked uneasy and pale, a flashback to Bad Schandau. Maybe Dad was right. Why hold her accountable for the desperate actions of a seventeen-year-old girl? We exchanged inquiring glances. Then a uniformed policeman approached with our suitcases and wordlessly escorted us to the main entrance.
As we stepped into the sunlight I saw Dad approaching from across the street. His face was a mask of abiding patience.
“The cavalry’s arrived,” I said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
She nodded, still too shaken to do anything but agree.
20
“So how did you manage it?” I asked.
We were walking fast, eager to put as much distance as possible between ourselves and the police. Dad and Litzi had barely acknowledged each other, so I was feeling a little awkward.
“Manage what?”
“Getting us out of there.”
“I didn’t even know you were in there until the embassy phoned saying you were about to be released. I take it this was all about the dead Russian?”
“They thought I did it. They found one of my damn books in his apartment.”
They turned toward me as if I’d jerked their heads on a string, faces incredulous.
“Petrovka 38,” I added for Dad’s benefit.
He shook his head but said nothing. A few feet later he stopped abruptly in front of a cafe and gestured toward the door. “In there,” he said, as if it were a pharmacy with just the cure for what ailed us. “Now.”
We followed without a word and took a table toward the rear. He ordered for everyone, reverting to full Dad mode as he dispensed the prescribed medicine-three shots of brandy on a tray. I have to admit, they were therapeutic. The first swallow eased our breathing. The second restored color to our cheeks, although Litzi still hadn’t said a word.
“I suggest you take the next available train,” Dad said. “Reprieves like this don’t always last. While you’re gone I’ll do what I can to sort things out. And, by the way, hello, Litzi. Even under the circumstances, it’s quite a pleasure to see you.”
She smiled thinly, but some of the tension went out of her shoulders.
“A pleasure for me as well.”
“She told me she sees you around town now and then,” I said. “Out and about with your friends. I told her she ought to say hi sometime.”
They looked at me as if I’d said something inappropriate, which made me too uncomfortable to continue.
“I would imagine she does,” Dad said. “Vienna can be a pretty small place that way.”
“Yes,” she agreed instantly. “You are so right.”
He’d slipped into German for Litzi, even though she was fluent in English. It doubled my eerie sense that somehow they were operating on a different wavelength from me. I noticed a quick exchange of glances, but couldn’t decipher it.
“I, uh, saw Lothar Heinemann on our train,” I said. “He was watching out the window as the police led us away.”
This remark also turned their heads. In unison, of course. They were acting like brother and sister.
“I’m beginning to wonder,” Litzi said, “if he was the same man who spoke to me in a bookstore a week ago.”
Now it was Dad and me whose heads were yanked on a string.
“Lothar?” we said.
“Which bookstore?” I asked.
“Kuhnhofer, an antiquarian store just off the Graben. I was looking through a pile of old manuscripts and he asked if I needed help finding anything. I thought he worked there, then later I saw him leave with a bag of books in one hand and a cane in the other. He even recommended a title to me.”
“Which one?” Dad asked.
She paused, trying to remember. We awaited her answer as if she were the Oracle at Delphi.
“I don’t remember.” She looked down at the last of her brandy. “But the word ‘secret’ was part of it.”
“Genre title,” Dad said. I nodded in agreement.
He swirled the last of his brandy, still deep in thought. Litzi and I swallowed ours, fully medicated now.
“I’ve been thinking about Lothar,” Dad said. “It would be a mistake to regard him as a malign influence. If
