superior, he was better-looking if apparently less intelligent. The general glanced over a file that was open on the desk in front of him, if only to indicate that they knew everything there was to know about me and my business.
'Precisely so,' he murmured. After a short while he looked up at me and said:
'Why ever did you leave Kripo?'
'Coal,' I said.
He stared blankly at me. 'Coal?'
'Yeah, you know, mouse, gravel money. Speaking of which, I had 40,000 marks in my pockets when I checked into this hotel. I'd like to know what's happened to it. And to a girl who was working with me. Name of Inge Lorenz. She's disappeared.'
The general looked at his junior officer, who shook his head. 'I'm afraid we know nothing about any girl, Herr Gunther,' said the colonel. 'People are always disappearing in Berlin. You of all people should know that. As to your money, however, that is quite safe with us for the moment.'
'Thanks, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I'd sooner leave it in a sock underneath my mattress.'
The general put his long, thin, violinist's hands together, as if he was about to lead us in prayer, and pressed their fingertips against his lips meditatively. 'Tell me, did you ever consider joining the Gestapo?' he said.
I figured it was my turn to try a little smile.
'You know, this wasn't a bad suit before I was obliged to sleep in it for a week. I may smell a bit, but not that badly.'
He gave an amused sort of sniff. 'The ability to talk as toughly as your fictional counterpart is one thing, Herr Gunther,' he said. 'Being it is quite another. Your remarks demonstrate either an astonishing lack of appreciation as to the gravity of your situation, or real courage.' He raised his thin, gold-leaf eyebrows and started to toy with the German Horseman's Badge on his left breast-pocket. 'By nature I am a cynical man. I think that all policemen are, don't you? So normally I would be inclined to favour the first assessment of your bravado. However, in this particular case it suits me to believe in the strength of your character. Please do not disappoint me by saying something really stupid.' He paused for a moment. 'I'm sending you to a K Z.'
My flesh turned as cold as a butcher's shop-window. I finished what was left of my schnapps, and then heard myself say: 'Listen, if it's about that lousy milk bill '
They both started grinning a lot, enjoying my obvious discomfort.
'Dachau,' said the colonel. I stubbed out my cigarette and lit another. They saw my hand shake as I held the match up.
'Don't worry,' said the general. 'You'll be working for me.' He came round the desk and sat on its edge in front of me. 'And who are you?'
'I am ObergruppenFuhrer Heydrich.' He waved his arm at the colonel and folded his arms. 'And this is StandartenFuhrer Sohst of Alarm Command.'
'Pleased to meet you, I'm sure.' I wasn't. Alarm Command, were the special Gestapo killers that Marlene Sahm had talked about.
'I've had my eye on you for some time,' he said. 'And after that unfortunate little incident at the beach house in Wannsee I have had you under constant observation, in the hope that you might lead us to certain papers. I'm sure you know the ones I mean. Instead you gave us the next best thing the man who planned their theft. Over the past few days, while you've been our guest, we've been checking your story. It was the autobahn worker, Bock, who told us where to look for this Kurt Mutschmann fellow the safecracker who now has the papers.'
'Bock?' I shook my head. 'I don't believe it. He wasn't the sort to turn informer about a friend.'
'It's quite true, I can assure you. Oh, I don't mean he told us exactly where to find him, but he put us on the right track, before he died.'
'You tortured him?'
'Yes. He told us that Mutschmann had once told him that if he were ever really wanted so that he was desperate, then he should probably think of hiding in a prison, or a K Z. Well, of course, with a gang of criminals looking for him, not to mention ourselves, then desperate is exactly what he must have been.'
'It's an old trick,' explained Sohst. 'You avoid arrest for one thing by having yourself arrested for another.'
'We believe that Mustchmann was arrested and sent to Dachau three nights after the death of Paul Pfarr,' said Heydrich. With a thin, smug smile he added:
'Indeed, he was almost begging to be arrested. It seems that he was caught red-handed, painting K P D slogans on the wall of a Kripo Stelle in Neuk/lln.'
'A K Z isn't so bad if you're a Kozi,' chuckled Sohst. 'In comparison with the Jews and the queers. He'll probably be out in a couple of years.'
I shook my head. 'I don't understand,' I told them. 'Why don't you simply have the commandant at Dachau question Mutschmann? What the hell do you need me for?'
Heydrich folded his arms and swung his jackbooted leg so that his toe was almost kicking my kneecap. 'Involving the commandant at Dachau would also mean having to inform Himmler, which I don't want to do. You see, the ReichsFuhrer is an idealist. He would undoubtedly see it as his duty to use these papers to punish those he perceived to be guilty of crimes against the Reich.'
I recalled Himmler's letter to Paul Pfarr which Marlene Sahm had shown me at the Olympic Stadium and nodded.
'I, on the other hand, am a pragmatist, and would prefer to use the papers in a rather more tactical way, as and where I require.'
'In other words, you're not above a bit of blackmail yourself. Am I right?'
Heydrich smiled thinly. 'You see through me so easily, Herr Gunther. But you must understand that this is to be an undercover operation. Strictly a matter for Security. On no account should you mention this conversation to anyone.'
'But there must be somebody among the S S at Dachau that you can trust?'
'Of course there is,' said Heydrich. 'But what do you expect him to do, march up to Mustchmann and ask him where he has hidden the papers? Come now, Herr Gunther, be sensible.'
'So you want me to find Mustchmann, and get to know him.'
'Precisely so. Build his trust. Find out where he's hidden the papers. And having done so, you will identify yourself to my man.'
'But how will I recognize Mutschmann?'
'The only photograph is the one on his prison record,' said Sohst, handing me a picture. I looked at it carefully. 'It's three years old, and his head will have been shaved of course, so it doesn't help you much. Not only that, but he's likely to be a great deal thinner. A K Z does tend to change a man. There is, however, one thing that should help you to identify him: he has a noticeable ganglion on his right wrist, which he could hardly obliterate.'
I handed back the photograph. 'It's not much to go on,' I said. 'Suppose I refuse?'
'You won't,' said Heydrich brightly. 'You see, either way you're going to Dachau. The difference is that working for me, you'll be sure to get out again.
Not to mention getting your money back.'
'I don't seem to have much choice.'
Heydrich grinned. 'That's precisely the point,' he said. 'You don't. If you had a choice, you'd refuse. Anyone would. Which is why I can't send one of my own men. That and the need for secrecy. No, Herr Gunther, as an ex- policeman, I'm afraid you fit the bill perfectly. You have everything to gain, or to lose. It's really up to you.'
'I've taken better cases,' I said.
'You must forget who you are now,' said Sohst quickly. 'We have arranged for you to have a new identity. You are now Willy Krause, and you are a black-marketeer.
Here are your new papers.' He handed me a new identity card. They'd used my old police photograph.
'There is one more thing,' said Heydrich. 'I regret that verisimilitude requires a certain amount of further attention to your appearance, consistent with your having been arrested and interrogated. It's rare for a man to arrive at Columbia Haus without the odd bruise. My men downstairs will take care of you in that respect. For your
