in it up to her hatband. I believe that she's planning to go abroad tonight, so you'd better start talking. There's not much time.'
For a moment Marlene chewed her lip thoughtfully, her eyes gazing emptily at the hurdlers as they came up to the starting line. She remained oblivious of the buzz of excitement in the crowd that gave way to silence as the starter raised his pistol. As he fired she began to tell me what she knew.
'Well, for a start there's her name: it's not Eva. That was Paul's name for her.
He was always doing that, giving people new names. He liked Aryan names, like Siegfried, and Brnnhilde. Eva's real name was Hannah, Hannah Roedl, but Paul said that Hannah was a Jewish name, and that he would always call her Eva.'
The crowd gave a great roar as the American won the first heat of the hurdles.
'Paul was unhappy with his wife, but he never told me why. He and I were good friends, and he confided in me a great deal, but I never heard him speak about his wife. One night he took me to a gaming club, and it was there that I ran across Eva. She was working there as a croupier. I hadn't seen her in months. We first met working for the Revenue. She was very good with figures. I suppose that's why she became a croupier in the first place. Twice the pay, and the chance to meet some interesting people.'
I raised my eyebrows at that one: I, for one, have never found the people who gamble in casinos to be anything less than dull; but I said nothing, not wishing to cut her thread.
'Anyway, I introduced her to Paul, and you could see they were attracted. Paul was a handsome man, and Eva was just as good-looking, a real beauty. A month later I met her again and she told me that she and Paul were having an affair.
At first I was shocked; and then I thought it was really none of my business.
For a while maybe as long as six months they were seeing quite a lot of each other. And then Paul was killed. The diary should provide you with dates and all that sort of thing.'
I opened the diary and turned to the date of Paul's murder. I read the entries written on the page.
'According to this he had an appointment with her on the night of his death.'
Marlene said nothing. I started to turn back the pages. 'And here's another name I recognize,' I said. 'Gerhard Von Greis. What do you know about him?' I lit a cigarette and added: 'It's time you told me all about your little department in the Gestapo, don't you think?'
'Paul's department. He was so proud of it, you know.' She sighed profoundly. 'A man of great integrity.'
'Sure,' I said. 'All the time he was with this other woman, what he really wanted was to be back home with the wife.'
'In a funny way that's absolutely true, Herr Gunther. That's exactly what he wanted. I don't think he ever stopped loving Grete. But for some reason he started hating her as well.'
I shrugged. 'Well, it takes all sorts. Maybe he just liked to wag his tail.' She stayed silent for a few minutes after that one, and they ran the next heat of the hurdles. Much to the delight of the crowd, the German runner, Nottbruch, won the race. The matron got very excited at that, standing up in her seat and waving her programme.
Marlene rummaged in her bag again, and took out an envelope.
'This is a copy of a letter originally empowering Paul to set up his department,' she said, handing it to me. 'I thought you might like to see it. It helps to put things in perspective, to explain why Paul did what he did.'
I read the letter. It went as follows:
The ReichsFuhrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior o-KdS g2(o/RV) No. 22 11/35
Berlin NW7
6 November 1935
Unter den Linden, 74
Local Tel. 120 034
Trunk Call 120 037
Express letter to HauptSturmFuhrer Doktor Paul Pfarr I write to you on a very serious matter. I mean corruption amongst the servants of the Reich. One principle must apply: public servants must be honest, decent, loyal and comradely to members of our own blood. Those individuals who offend against this principle who take so much as one mark will be punished without mercy. I shall not stand idly by and watch the rot develop.
As you know, I have already taken measures to root out corruption within the ranks of the S S, and a number of dishonest men have been eliminated accordingly. It is the will of the Fuhrer that you should be empowered to investigate and root out corruption in the German Labour Front, where fraud is endemic. To this end you are promoted to the rank of HauptSturmFuhrer, reporting directly to me.
Wherever corruption forms, we shall burn it out. And at the end of the day, we shall say that we performed this task in love of our people.
Heil Hitler!
(signed)
Heinrich Himmler 'Paul was very diligent,' Marlene said. 'Arrests were made and the guilty punished.'
'Eliminated,' I said, quoting the ReichsFuhrer.
Marlene's voice hardened. 'They were enemies of the Reich,' she said.
'Yes, of course.' I waited for her to continue, and seeing her rather unsure of me I added, 'They had to be punished. I'm not disagreeing with you. Please go on.'
Marlene nodded. 'Finally, he turned his attention to the Steel Workers Union, and quite early on he became aware of certain rumours regarding his own father-in-law, Hermann Six. In the beginning he made light of it. And then, almost overnight, he was determined to destroy him. After a while, it was nothing short of an obsession.'
'When was this?'
'I can't remember the date. But I do remember that it was about the time that he started working late, and not taking telephone calls from his wife. And it wasn't long after that he started to see Eva.'
'And exactly how was Daddy Six misbehaving?'
'Corrupt D A F officials had deposited the Steel Workers Union and Welfare Fund in Six's bank '
'You mean, he owns a bank as well?'
'A major shareholding, in the Deutsches Kommerz. In return, Six saw to it that these same officials were given cheap personal loans.'
'What did Six get out of it?'
'By paying low interest on the deposit to the detriment of the workers, the bank was able to improve the books.'
'Nice and tidy then,' I said.
'That's just the half of it,' she said with an outraged sort of chuckle. 'Paul also suspected that his father-in- law was skimming the union's funds. And that he was churning the union's investments.'
'Churning,' I said. 'What's that?'
'Repeatedly selling stocks and shares and buying others so that each time you can claim the legal percentages. The commission if you like. That would have been split between the bank and the union officials. But trying to prove it was a different story,' she said. 'Paul tried to get a tap on Six's telephone, but whoever it is that arranges these things refused. Paul said that somebody else was already tapping his phone and that they weren't about to share. So Paul looked for another way to get to him. He discovered that the Prime Minister had a confidential agent who had certain information that was compromising to Six, and for that matter to many others. His name was Gerhard Von Greis. In Six's case, Goering was using this information to make him toe the economic line.
Anyway, Paul arranged to meet Von Greis and offered him a lot of money to let him take a look at what he had on Six. But Von Greis refused. Paul said he was afraid.'
She looked around as the crowd, anticipating the semi-final of the 100-metres, grew more excited. With the hurdles cleared off the track, there were now several sprinters wanning up, including the man the crowd had come to see: Jesse Owens. For a moment, her attention was devoted entirely to the negro athlete.
'Isn't he superb?' she said. 'Owens I mean. In a class of his own.'
'But Paul did get hold of the papers, didn't he?'
