“Don’t think that’s not appreciated. It will look good on you too.”
Felix put down his cup. He looked at the stain on the saucer for a moment.
“Okay,” he said, and stood up. “I’m going to do what I should have done before.”
“Which is?”
“Phone my C.O., or a bighead in Central Office. Ask to get you two off my back.”
“Sure about that, Kimmel?” Franzi asked.
“I’d be interested to know what they think about your project being out of hand.”
“‘Out of hand’?” said Speckbauer. “You’re being hard on us.
But I understand. It’s a shock to the system, all this. It’s hard for you.”
“I don’t give a shit. I just want to protect my family.”
“Your career,” said Speckbauer. “You hardly want to disgrace your family.”
“That doesn’t work. At least I’ll be able to get real police up here then.”
Speckbauer pushed his cup away.
“That would not be a wise plan,” he said. “It will complicate matters in ways you can’t imagine.”
“Are you going to phone my C.O. and get him to give me an order on that?”
Felix took the cordless phone from the wall. He thumbed through his mobile for a number he knew he had, one for Payroll.
They’d switch him from there.
Speckbauer rubbed at his nose and muttered something to Franzi. ‘The old ones,’ Felix heard. Franzi rose, Speckbauer didn’t.
“Look, Felix,” said Speckbauer. “I’m looking forward to meeting your grandparents when we get through this little chat. But for the moment I’d like them to stay where they are, so they do not overhear some things I need to tell you.”
Franzi had taken up a stiff-looking lean against the staircase.
“Don’t make that phone call now. Make it later, if you decide then. I won’t stop you.”
Berndt had taken a shine to Franzi, it seemed. Felix heard his murmurs to the dog and the sighs as Franzi stroked its head.
“Really,” said Speckbauer. “I’ll answer your questions. Please sit. Now, do you want to start, or will I?”
Felix sat slowly.
“Okay, I will. There are two dead men. We don’t know who they are yet. It looks like they are there a couple of weeks. One of them swallowed a diamond. He wrapped it in a condom. So, we are curious: A) was he carrying it back to wherever he came from for himself, maybe? Or… B) he knew he was in a tight spot. Okay so far?”
Felix nodded.
“Now. We are almost certain now that the Himmelfarb family was murdered.”
He paused, eyeing Felix for a reaction.
“That is not public knowledge. It will not become so until I decide. If you want to know, someone used an accelerant know what that is? inside the house. People who know such things are ninety percent sure it was paraffin. The house burned hot, all that old wood. Intense, I should say. So here is deliberate, calculated murder of people who someone supposed might know something about the two dead men. Will I stop now?”
Felix glanced down the hall. He was sure that Franzi was watching him.
“The person, or the people, who knew something about this are connected with the people who know something about those two men from the forest. Got that?”
“Maybe the same people,” said Felix. “Or person?”
“Exactly,” said Speckbauer. He tilted his cup to move coffee around. “It is not hard to suppose they’re one and the same, or that he is the one who has done everything. Verstehst?
“So far,” said Felix.
“Next, then. A more personal matter for you. And please, let your head into this more than your guts.”
Speckbauer gave him a teacher’s look, to see if he were paying attention.
“We are beginning to suspect,” he said slowly, “that someone considers you have knowledge about the former matter. The two in the woods, what started this.”
“Someone thinks Hansi Himmelfarb told me something?”
“Right. Maybe just or a hint, a clue. Something that will lead to them.”
“‘Them’? You seem pretty sure.”
Speckbauer sat back.
“Really? And why do you say that?”
Felix nodded in Franzi’s direction.
“Your job is not about any single criminal.”
“Ah,” said Speckbauer. “You put it so well. And you’re right.
We leave petty criminals to the hardworking men in uniform, the real backbone of the Gendarmerie.”
“Is that what we are considered?”
“Absolutely: the backbone, the foundation.”
“Not a bunch of clowns working with the dummies up here, in the hills?”
“Now really,” said Speckbauer. “You know that’s a myth.”
Felix’s irritation was cresting.
“Look,” he said. “My grandparents are trusting people. They thought my dad was the greatest. They think I am half-sainted too now because I’m ‘following in his footsteps,’ or something.”
“And you are,” Speckbauer offered.
“My point is they have to be told what’s going on here. They’re probably up there saying to one another how nice it is that Felix’s colleagues are dropping by, and how important his work is and…
It’s all crap. Something has to get done. Right now.”
Speckbauer seemed to think about Felix’s words. He sighed and shifted a little.
“Maria,” he muttered. He stopped rubbing at his eyes and looked at Franzi.
“Didn’t I tell you,” he said. Franzi said nothing but made a small shrug. Felix imagined his grandparents upstairs, listening.
“Okay,” said Speckbauer then. “I’ll get to the point here. It’ll save you all these theatrics. You wonder, don’t you, why Franzi and I are up here. ‘Where’s everyone else?’ you wonder. ‘If these two coppers are the real thing, they would pull out all the stops and have police crawling all over the area.’ Right?”
Felix waited for him to continue.
“Back to the dead men in the forest. Remember I said they shouldn’t be there?”
Felix nodded.
“That sounds stupid, no? I mean, they’re not there by choice.
It wasn’t just their mistake being there. No. A mistake was made by whoever shot them. Someone did something unplanned. ‘Off the radar.’ ‘Freelance,’ you could say.”
“You believe a local killed them, then.”
“I don’t know,” said Speckbauer. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know how a local could get those two, two strangers, into the woods like that.”
“They walked,” said Speckbauer. “That’s how.”
“Voluntarily?”
“They trusted who they were with,” said Speckbauer. “They knew him, or they knew them. My bet is that one of them was getting a bit suspicious. The one with the diamond in his guts.”
“You think he just swallowed it up there on that track?”
“No. Of course not. It wouldn’t have made its way to where they found it. ‘An hour’ is what those lab rats told me, the pathology people. But one of the two was suspicious for a while.”
“It’s not getting any clearer.”
“How do you gain a person’s trust? Answer me that.”
“Trust?” said Felix. “I don’t know. Help them some way?”
“Let’s say you’re a foreigner.”
Felix’s annoyance and his clouded thoughts suddenly evaporated.
“Language.”
