The Defeated Aristocrat (33 page)

‘It means that when you’re in trouble and ask for help, the Franks will do all in their power to help you. I’ll get Johanna Behn and Ralf here tomorrow morning and try to find out where Engels, Schult, and Grunman are.’

‘Good idea …’

Josef watched Wolf’s eyelids close. He arranged another blanket over him, left the office and went to the room that housed the switchboard. He picked up the receiver and spoke to the operator.

‘Johanna Behn, please.’

Johanna answered within two minutes of the operator putting the call through. ‘Behn.’

‘Fraulein Behn, it’s Josef Baumgarten from Baumgarten’s department store. My apologies for telephoning so late on a Sunday evening. I regret to inform you that one of our tailors has succumbed to influenza so it’s been necessary to reschedule our fittings tomorrow. Could you please come in at seven thirty so the final adjustments can be made to your new suit?’

‘Seven thirty, Herr Baumgarten?’

‘If that’s too early for you we could offer a later appointment.’

‘Seven thirty will be fine, Herr Baumgarten. Thank you for your call.’

Johanna terminated the telephone call. Josef replaced the receiver and picked it up again. ‘The Green Stork, please.’

‘Hello.’ Ralf answered on the first ring. Josef imagined his friend sitting behind his desk listening to the noise from the restaurant and kitchens. He also imagined a police officer listening to their conversation.

‘It’s Baumgarten’s store with a message for Ralf Frank.’

‘Is that you, Josef?’

‘Yes. My father has set me to work already.’

‘So has mine. No peace for wicked devils, eh? You’d think they’d give more credit to heroes. Two weeks holiday or at the very least a brass band reception. It wasn’t our fault the government surrendered.’

Ralf’s whining sounded so like Helmut Norde’s Josef had to stifle his laughter.

‘I’m calling because one of our tailors has influenza. We need to reschedule your appointment for fittings for your spring wardrobe. I apologise for the early hour but can you come in at seven fifteen tomorrow morning?’

‘For an old comrade, just this once, yes. But in future I’d prefer late afternoon to early morning fittings.’

‘I’ll remember that. I’ve been trying to get a message to Dolf Engels, Emil Grunman, and Reiner Schult to reschedule the fittings of their civilian clothes …’

‘Leave it with me. I’ll try to get a message to them. You want them to come in early too?’

‘Before eight o’clock if possible.’

‘I’ll try to get them there. Goodnight, Josef.’

‘Goodnight, Ralf.’ Josef replaced the receiver. He wished he could think of someone else to contact, but Wolf was right: given Dorfman’s power and influence, it could only be a matter of time before he targeted Peter.

Baumgarten’s Store, Konigsberg, Monday January 13th 1919

Josef shook Wolf awake at half past eight the next morning. ‘I’d like to leave you to your dreams, Sleeping Beauty, but we need you.’

Wolf frowned in confusion. ‘Ralf’s already here?’

‘And Johanna Behn.’

‘Colette?’

‘Johanna’s taking a statement from her now. Go wash your face, comb your hair and I’ll send for more coffee.’

Ralf was sitting at one end of the rectangular table, Johanna the other. She was passing papers to Colette. To Wolf’s surprise the girl was signing them. Josef was refilling coffee cups. He poured one for Wolf and pushed it towards him together with a plate of pastries.

‘Sorry I slept,’ Wolf apologised.

‘You look like death,’ Ralf declared.

‘Anyone care to update me?’ Wolf picked up his coffee.

‘You sound as though we’re still on the battlefront.’

‘We may as well be.’ Josef sat next to Wolf.

‘Peter Plewe was arrested this morning,’ Ralf revealed.

‘The charge?’

‘Murder. Apparently he, like you, Georg, and Lilli Richter, are all members of this conspiracy Dorfman’s uncovering.’

Wolf thought for a moment. ‘We need more than Colette’s statement about what happened before we confront Dorfman. Otherwise it will just be Colette’s word against whatever evidence Dorfman has fabricated.’

‘We have some.’ Ralf tossed an envelope on to the table. ‘Statement from Grunman about the night the nuns were attacked in the convent.’

‘How do you know about what happened in the convent and how did you get Grunman to talk?’

‘It’s amazing what men will say when you offer them enough free drinks.’ Ralf said casually.

Johanna looked up at Wolf. ‘I checked Grunman’s account of events against Colette’s. There are no discrepancies.’

‘Where are Grunman, Engels, and Schult now?’ Wolf asked.

‘Grunman, safe where Dorfman can’t lay his hands on him,’ Ralf answered. ‘I sent men out looking for Engels and Schult.

Johanna looked at the last document Colette had signed and shuffled the papers together. ‘We have witnesses as to what happened in the convent. That gives us motive for the murders but no witnesses to the killings and Colette refuses to identify the nuns.’

Colette shook her head to reinforce what Johanna had said.

‘How many nuns are attached to the Catholic Church?’ Wolf asked.

‘I’ve no idea,’ Ralf answered. ‘We should go to the Catholic Church and convent and confront them there. With Colette.’

Colette cried, ‘No, I won’t go. I won’t …’

‘We don’t need Colette to go to the church and convent. I’ll go with Johanna. I saw Sister Luke drop that note in the Richters’s letter box. She must know the identity of the killers.’

‘Dorfman will have you arrested the moment you leave here, Wolf,’ Ralf warned.

Josef left the table. ‘Not necessarily.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Baumgarten’s Store, Konigsberg, Monday January 13th 1919

‘I feel like a medieval Russian courtier.’

Josef adjusted the false beard and side curls he’d glued below Wolf’s ears and on to his chin. ‘On the contrary, you look like a wealthy Hasidic Jew dressed for winter. Be careful with the clothes. You’re wearing Rabbi Goldstein’s new suit which he hopes to pick up tomorrow. I’d hate to have to order another to be made. Apart from the time it will take, we’d be severely out of pocket. A man his height  takes twice as much cloth as a normal being. Here,’ Josef held out a floor-length black coat. ‘Time to put on your Rekel.’

‘A coat is a Rekel?’ Wolf rose from the stool and held out his arms.

‘A Rekel is an everyday coat as opposed to a Sabbath coat. Whatever you do, don’t flex your shoulders. Rabbi Goldstein is slimmer than you and you’re likely to strain or tear the cloth.’

‘The man must be skinny as a rake and this coat or Rekel or whatever it is, buttons the wrong way.’

‘Right over left is the holy way.’

‘Like a girl.’

‘Nothing but moans. I’m trying to help you. Your shoes.’

‘Slippers?’ Wolf stared down at the black slip-ons.

‘Shoelaces require tying. Shoes worn on the Sabbath must be plain black “slip-ons” so as not to have to make a knot which is forbidden.’

‘This isn’t a Sabbath.’

‘But you’re a rabbi and they try to be holy every day. If you touch your shoes you’ll defile your hands and then they’ll require ritual purification.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Long and boring. Can you please pretend to be a rabbi without asking all the questions?’ Josef picked up an immense fur hat. ‘The final touch, your kalpak.’

‘You have to be joking. If I put that on I’ll be seven foot tall.’

‘That’s the idea, instead of trying to hide your six and half feet, you flaunt your height in front of the police. You’ll be so obvious, they’ll ignore you.’

‘No one can ignore a man with half a dead bear on his head.’

‘It’s beaver, not bear. There,’ Josef stood on tiptoe and lifted it on to Wolf’s head. ‘Provided you don’t get close enough for any police officers to see your beard is fake, you could be Rabbi Goldstein’s twin brother.’

‘A twin brother who feels as though he’s been clamped into a straitjacket. I can’t breathe.’

‘Who needs to breathe?’ Ralf leaned in the doorway. ‘We going out through the warehouse, Josef?’

‘No, the front door. I’ve ordered one of the store carriages. No one will be surprised to see a Rabbi leaving. With you and Johanna accompanying him they’ll assume he’s been here on a charitable mission. Everyone in the city knows you and your father have been contacting everyone with money to support the soup kitchens. I’ll come with you,’ Josef reached for his own coat.

‘You stay and look after Colette. Those papers she signed are our insurance policy with Dorfman if anything goes wrong. Keep her and them safe,’ Ralf ordered. ‘Ready, Wolf?’

Wolf stared at his reflection in the mirror. ‘I’ll stick out on the street like a clown at a funeral.’

‘Precisely,’ Josef said. ‘And that’s exactly why no one will give you a second glance.’

Wolf felt totally exposed when he left the office, took the elevator with Ralf and Johanna and walked through the store. It took them less than five minutes to reach the carriage but it seemed like an hour. As soon as he climbed into the corner of the vehicle he pulled down the blind.

‘I’ve never felt so conspicuous in my life.’

‘No one gave you a second glance.’ Ralf asserted.

‘Really?’

‘They were too terrified. All that fake hair makes you look positively Neanderthal.’

Johanna opened her briefcase and pulled out the notes she’d made. ‘We, or rather Josef, has Colette’s statement, and the statement of an officer who was in the convent. We have you as witness to Sister Luke’s delivery of the notes inside the Richter house, Wolf. Anything else?’

‘Helmut Norde’s assertion that that his attackers left him when someone said “He’s not the one.”’ Wolf added.

Johanna made a note in her book. ‘Any other facts you can think of that will stop these nuns from protesting their innocence?’

‘Facts no, just witnesses,’ Ralf said.

‘Let’s hope it’s enough to prompt a confession.’

Church of the Holy Family, Haberberg District, Konigsberg, Monday January 13th 1919

Father Matthias recognised Wolf as soon as he alighted from the carriage.

‘You’ve changed your religion, Herr von Mau?’

‘It was necessary to adopt a disguise. There is …’

‘A warrant out for your arrest. Please, walk through the vestry and robing rooms. I have a small study at the back that affords some privacy.’ The priest showed them into a tiny cubicle off a makeshift preparation kitchen where women and children were sitting round a table peeling and cleaning vegetables that two nuns were chopping into a stew.

‘Father Matthias called out to one of his assistant priests, ‘Fetch Sister Ignatius, Sister Luke, Sister Marie and Sister Clare please.’

‘You know why we’re here?’ Wolf asked.

‘I can guess. I discussed the possibility of someone arriving here with Sister Ignatius after I read the morning paper.’

‘We haven’t seen it.’

The priest passed Wolf a copy of the
Konigsberg Sonne
. Ralf looked over Wolf’s shoulder and read the headline:

KRIMINALRAT UNMASKS KILLERS WHO CONSPIRED TO MURDER OFFICERS.

POLICE OFFICER AND EDITOR OF RIVAL PAPER IN GAOL

‘What else does it say?’ Johanna asked.

‘Not a lot besides watch this space and what a great man the kriminalrat is and how lucky Konigsberg is to have him in charge of the police force,’ Wolf folded the paper and passed it to Johanna.

Father Mathias said, ‘I knew good people wouldn’t stand by while the innocent were being charged with crimes they hadn’t committed.’

There was a knock at the door. At Father Matthias’s, ‘Come,’ a nun entered. Wolf recalled Ralf’s chef’s description, “large middle-aged woman – plain even for a nun.” It was apt.

She bowed her head and tucked her hands into her sleeves.

‘Sister Ignatius,’ Father Matthias began. ‘I sent for four sisters. Where are Sisters Marie, Luke, and Clare?’

‘I am the only one responsible. I acted alone. No one helped me.’

‘You are responsible for what?’ Johanna asked.

‘The murders of the police officers. That is why you’re here, isn’t it?’

‘It is.’ Wolf was taken aback by the nun’s confession.

‘Sister Luke said she realised too late that you were watching her through the keyhole when she posted that last letter in the Richters’s letter box, Colonel von Mau.’

‘You admit you killed all the officers?’ Wolf was stunned by Sister Ignatius’s calm demeanour.

‘I killed all the officers, Colonel von Mau. You want to know why?’

‘We know why, Sister Ignatius.’ Johanna opened her notebook.

‘They deserved death and God made it easy for me to ensnare them so I could do His work. Men are trusting when it comes to pretty girls. I have written a full account of what I did and why I did it. You could call it a confession, although I will not admit I have sinned.’ She produced a large envelope from her sleeve and handed it to Johanna.

‘You knew what Sister Ignatius and the other nuns had done, Father Matthias?’ Ralf asked.

‘I knew, but the secrets of the confessional are sacred.’

‘You didn’t stop her?’

‘I tried.’

‘Don’t blame Father Matthias,’ Sister Ignatius said. ‘He is a good man. Nothing but discovery could have stopped me sooner. I’m only sorry I didn’t succeed in killing Colonel Dorfman.’

‘So am I.’ Wolf meant it.

‘Responsibility for Sister Ignatius lies with the church. Her sin is ours, as must be her punishment,’ Father Matthias pleaded.

‘I see no problem with that, provided the church agrees that she needs to be incarcerated to prevent further murders.’

‘You’re not in a position to promise anything, Wolf,’ Johanna reminded.

‘Not at the moment, but the situation will be different once Dorfman has been removed from his post and Georg Hafen has been reinstated.’

‘How do you propose to do that?’ Father Matthias asked.

‘By walking into police headquarters and presenting our evidence to Dorfman.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE