More Beer

2

I was working on my third slice of ham on toast in the Hotel Intercontinental’s breakfast room when Max Schwartz came marching in. He is a reliable fellow, and the boyfriend of one of the most beautiful women I know. Unfortunately, she is an alcoholic, and Max is also hitting the bottle, to drown his sorrows. He is a professional electrician and knows how to debug a room. He planted himself in a facing chair, squinted at me with interest, and said, “What on earth did they do to you?”

I gave him a brief report, adding that my doctor had brusquely shown me the door an hour ago after I had refused to take to my bed. Max looked around the large, impeccable room until he located the small group of waiters standing by the buffet and waiting for a soft clapping of hands. Max signaled to them and ordered coffee and Scotch. I abandoned my good intentions and did likewise. Around us, bankers took their seats. Young, tanned professionals, all of the same model, trim and fit. They ordered lox and champagne and appeared to be in excellent spirits.

I pondered what I would look like behind a desk in a bank. “So what’s up?” asked Max.

I lit a cigarette.

“Yesterday afternoon I started looking into the Bollig case. Last night the cops came to get me and beat me up until I promised to leave well enough alone. I need to know who tipped them off-or if and how they managed to find out, all by themselves.”

“You want to know if they bugged your office?”

“Not mine. The attorney’s.” A little later, when the gentlemen next to us had elevated their mood with bubbly to the point of expounding and exchanging useful advice on the gliding capabilities of secretaries and prop planes, we paid and left.

A small senora in a brown smock, holding a bucket and a mop, came to the door. With many expressive gestures, she explained that she was Dr. Anastas’s Spanish cleaning woman, and that he had not told her anything about our visit. After I too waved my arms a lot, to reassure her that I had recently joined Dr. Anastas’s team, she allowed us to enter, albeit with some hesitation. Max started putting his equipment together in the entrance hall while I went in search of potables and found a refrigerator in the library. I returned with a bottle of champagne and three glasses. I had just poured them and persuaded the Spanish lady to have one when the phone rang. It was Anastas. I explained to him why I was there. He confirmed that my nice little man was a Detective Superintendent Kessler, and stated that he did not want any trouble with the police.

“You don’t want any trouble with the cops, you don’t want any trouble with your clients. You want me to spend my time playing ping-pong?”

He begged me to keep the lowest possible profile. “That’s just great,” I said, and hung up.

Max growled, “What kind of a guy is he, this attorney?”

“I really don’t know. Some kind of a cross between Gandhi and a guy with a chateau in France. For presents, he gives his friends either bottles of wine or the works of Wallraff. I suspect that he is in favor of free elections in South Africa.”

I lit a cigarette, drank champagne.

“How come he’s defending those four?”

“So he can sleep at night.”

“And why are you looking for the fifth man?”

“Probably for the same reason.”

Next door, the senora’s chamois squeaked against the windowpanes. Max sipped his champagne. “What happens if I find a bug?”

“Good question.”

“Or if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, one of the people I met yesterday must have told the cops that I’ve entered the Bollig game. Someone known to Kessler. An informer.”

Half an hour later, we were done. We were back in the car, and Max cranked the engine. Dense and heavy raindrops were falling from the sky and rattling on the roof. The window wiper on my side was out of commission. I couldn’t see anything. Entering the traffic with caution, Max recapitulated. “So, as I told you, unless they’ve come up with something completely new, there are no bugs in that office. Maybe your attorney talked about it with someone in court, and the prosecutor’s office passed it on to the cops? They’re hand in glove, aren’t they?”

“Maybe.”

We stopped at a light. I looked at the window displays.

“Tell me, Max, do you know a joint called Lina’s Cellar?”

“Leftist sort of place, with a touch of bella Italia. I’ve been there. Terrible wine, and the waitress wasn’t so hot either.”

“A buxom blonde?”

“That’s right.”

“Anything else you know about it?”

“They used to deal hash there. Now it’s more the kind of place where male professors take their female students.”

We stopped by my office, made a date to shoot some pool, and said goodbye.

“And how is Anna?”

He made a face.

“She’s going into detox the day after tomorrow. So she’s been really hitting the bottle for a week.”

He turned and drove off. I entered the building and checked my mailbox. The Bilka store wished me a “good morning” and provided me with a lot of wonderful ideas to get shit-faced. Corn schnapps for seven marks, gin for twice that, and if nothing else worked, there was always the liter bottle of methylated spirits to really fry your liver. My office was on the third floor. It was cold and smelled of stale smoke. I turned up the heat and sat down at the desk. There was a dentist’s office on the floor below me. For a while I listened to the faint hum of his drill. Then I picked up the phone book and found the number of Rundblick magazine. After three rings someone answered, and I asked to speak to Carla Reedermann.

“Reedermann speaking.”

“Kayankaya. Could you please tell me exactly what you did yesterday?”

“Why-?”

“This morning the cops worked me over. Because of the Bollig case. I would like to know how they found out about me so quickly. Someone must have tipped them off.”

“Are you implying that-?”

“I’m just wondering. First you show up at Anastas’s, then you drive to Doppenburg, then there’s all that talk about the female and cultural perspective … Not too convincing. But look at it this way: You suggest to Anastas that I might provide a lead for the cops, and then you could keep tabs on me. Then, of course, the cops want to know what I have to do with the case.”

Her breathing sounded labored. Typewriters were clattering in the background.

“So what now? You won’t believe anything I tell you.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway. I promised Kessler to drop the case. In return, he told me who tipped him off.”

“Wha-at?”

While she damned both me and the detective superintendent to the lowest pit of hell, and shouted that this was the worst swindle she’d ever been involved in, I retrieved my half-empty bottle of Chivas from a drawer, jammed the receiver between ear and shoulder, rinsed a coffee cup, and poured myself a drink. When she turned down the volume and her imprecations became more sporadic, I growled, “All right. Calm down. Kessler didn’t tell me anything.” Peace and quiet reigned for about a second, followed by a hoarse “What?” and another tirade. Screaming women give me a headache, unless they’re screaming in Italian, and I hung up.

I took a pencil and a sheet of paper and made a plan. Half an hour later I had a list of names and many question marks. I decided to visit the night watchman again. He had been the least talented liar of all.