She crossed her long legs and lit a cigarette.
‘Will you do it?’
‘Just answer this question first, Kommissar. And I want an honest answer. I’m tired of all the evasions. Do you think that Emmeline can still be alive?’
I sighed and then shook my head. ‘I think she’s dead.’
‘Thank you.’ There was silence for a moment. ‘Is it dangerous, what you’re asking me to do?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Then I agree.’
Now, as we sat in Vogelmann’s waiting-room in his offices on Nurnburgerstrasse, under the eye of his matronly secretary, Hildegard Steininger played the part of the worried wife to perfection, holding my hand, and occasionally smiling at me smiles of the kind that are normally reserved for a loved one. She was even wearing her wedding-ring. So was I. It felt strange, and tight, on my finger after so many years. I’d needed soap to slide it on.
Through the wall could be heard the sound of a piano being played.
‘There’s a music school next door,’ explained Vogelmann’s secretary. She smiled kindly and added: ‘He won’t keep you waiting for very long.’ Five minutes later we were ushered into his office.
In my experience the private investigator is prone to several common ailments: flat feet, varicose veins, a bad back, alcoholism and, God forbid, venereal disease; but none of them, with the possible exception of the clap, is likely to influence adversely the impression he makes on a potential client. However, there is one disability, albeit a minor one, which if found in a sniffer must give the client pause for thought, and that is short-sightedness. If you are going to pay a man fifty marks a day to trace your missing grandmother, at the very least you want to feel confident that the man you are engaging to do the job is sufficiently eagle-eyed to find his own cuff-links. Spectacles of bottle-glass thickness such as those worn by Rolf Vogelmann must therefore be considered bad for business.
Ugliness, on the other hand, where it stops short of some particular and gross physical deformity, need be no professional disadvantage, and so Vogelmann, whose unpleasant aspect was something more general, was probably able to peck at some sort of a living. I say peck, and I choose my words carefully, because with his unruly comb of curly red hair, his broad beak of a nose and his great breast-plate of a chest, Vogelmann resembled a breed of prehistoric cockerel, and one that had positively begged for extinction.
Hitching his trousers on to his chest, Vogelmann strode round the desk on big policeman’s feet to shake our hands. He walked as if he had just dismounted a bicycle.
‘Rolf Vogelmann, pleased to meet you both,’ he said in a high, strangulated sort of voice, and with a thick Berlin accent.
‘Steininger,’ I said. ‘And this is my wife Hildegard.’
Vogelmann pointed at two armchairs that were ranged in front of a large desk-table, and I heard his shoes squeak as he followed us back across the rug. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture. A hat stand, a drinks trolley, a long and battered-looking sofa and, behind it, a table against the wall with a couple of lamps and several piles of books.
‘It’s good of you to see us this quickly,’ Hildegard said graciously.
Vogelmann sat down and faced us. Even with a metre of desk between us I could still detect his yoghurt- curdling breath.
‘Well, when your husband mentioned that your daughter was missing, naturally I assumed there would be some urgency.’ He wiped a pad of paper with the flat of his hand and picked up a pencil. ‘Exactly when did she go missing?’
‘Thursday, 22 September,’ I said. ‘She was on her way to dancing class in Potsdam and had left home – we live in Steglitz – at seven-thirty that evening. Her class was due to commence at eight, only she never arrived.’ Hildegard’s hand reached for mine, and I squeezed it comfortingly.
Vogelmann nodded. ‘Almost a month, then,’ he said rumi-natively. ‘And the police -?’
‘The police?’ I said bitterly. ‘The police do nothing. We hear nothing. There is nothing in the papers. And yet one hears rumours that other girls of Emmeline’s age have also disappeared.’ I paused. ‘And that they have been murdered.’
‘That is almost certainly the case,’ he said, straightening the knot in his cheap woollen tie. ‘The official reason for the press moratorium on the reporting of these disappearances and homicides is that the police wish to avoid a panic. Also, they don’t wish to encourage all the cranks which a case like this has a habit of producing. But the real reason is that they are simply embarrassed at their own persistent inability to capture this man.’
I felt Hildegard squeeze my hand more tightly.
‘Herr Vogelmann,’ she said, ‘it’s not knowing what’s happened to her that is so hard to bear. If we could just be sure of whether or not -’
‘I understand, Frau Steininger.’ He looked at me. ‘Am I to take it then that you wish me to try and find her?’
‘Would you, Herr Vogelmann?’ I said. ‘We saw your advertisement in the
‘Yes. Yes, we are.’
‘Do you have a photograph of your daughter?’
Hildegard opened her handbag and handed him a copy of the picture that she had earlier given to Deubel.
Vogelmann regarded it dispassionately. ‘Pretty. How did she travel to Potsdam?’
‘By train.’
‘And you believe that she must have disappeared somewhere between your house in Steglitz and the dancing school, is that right?’ I nodded. ‘Any problems at home?’
‘None,’ Hildegard said firmly.
‘At school, then?’
We both shook our heads and Vogelmann scribbled a few notes.
‘Any boyfriends?’
I looked across at Hildegard.
‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘I’ve searched her room, and there’s nothing to indicate that she had been seeing any boys.’
Vogelmann nodded sullenly and then was subject to a brief fit of coughing for which he apologized through the material of his handkerchief, and which left his face as red as his hair.
‘After four weeks, you’ll have checked with all her relations and schoolfriends that she hasn’t been staying with them.’ He wiped his mouth with his handkerchief.
‘Naturally,’ Hildegard said stiffly.
‘We’ve asked everywhere,’ I said. ‘I’ve been along every metre of that journey looking for her and found nothing.’ This was almost literally true.
‘What was she wearing when she disappeared?’
Hildegard described her clothes.
‘What about money?’
‘A few marks. Her savings were untouched.’
‘All right. I’ll ask around and see what I can find out. You had better give me your address.’
I dictated it for him, and added the telephone number. When he’d finished writing he stood up, arched his back painfully, and then walked around a bit with his hands thrust deep into his pockets like an awkward schoolboy. By now I had guessed him to be no more than forty.
‘Go home and wait to hear from me. I’ll be in touch in a couple of days, or earlier if I find something.’
We stood up to leave.
‘What do you think are the chances of finding her alive?’ Hildegard said.
Vogelmann shrugged dismally. ‘I’ve got to admit that they’re not good. But I will do my best.’
‘What’s your first move?’ I said, curious.
He checked the knot of his tie again, and stretched his Adam’s apple over the collar stud. I held my breath as
