The Defeated Aristocrat (21 page)

They looked down at the lights that ribboned Honey Bridge and the Linden Strasse on the island of Lomse across the river. Lamps burned in the mullioned windows beneath the high dome of the New Synagogue and flickered in the prows of the moored boats.

‘Beautiful and peaceful.’ Wolf gazed up at a sliver of new moon surrounded by glittering stars.

‘As you see from the comfortable chair, and well-placed lamp, this is where I read my Schiller before bed.’

‘ “Talent is formed in quiet retreat, character in the headlong rush of life.” ’

‘You read Goethe as well as Schiller.’ She moved towards him. Unbuttoning her dress she stepped out of it. She was naked apart from heeled slippers and black stockings fastened by silver garters. She held out her hand. ‘Let’s talk about that kiss you promised me?’

Astounded, he froze. She drew his jacket over his arms. It fell to the floor with a clatter.

‘I hope that wasn’t something breakable.’

He found his voice. ‘Keys, tobacco tin …’

Taking his hand she led him back into bedroom and folded back the bedcover. Her mouth closed over his, her hands unfastened the buttons on his flies.

‘Johanna …’

‘It’s time for silence and action – and before you go looking for the author of that quote, it was pure Johanna Behn.’

She helped him out of his clothes. Closing her hand over his erection, she examined his penis.

‘You checking for disease?’

She pulled back the bedcovers and pushed him on to the bed. The mattress was soft, smooth. The linen crisp and clean, the pillows yielding.

Johanna stood over him for a moment. Her figure was that of a marble Juno. Broad-hipped and full-breasted, her nipples a deep rose against the pallor of her skin. She slipped in beside him.

‘Don’t look worried, Wolf. I’m not proposing marriage. Just sex. I happen to like it and I don’t get enough.’

‘I’m married.’ He regretted the superfluous remark as soon as he made it. It was hardly as if he was trying to seduce her by keeping his marriage secret.

‘Not for much longer.’ Her hand slid between his thighs, cupping his testicles, engendering a response he could no more control than he could stop breathing. ‘You’re tense.’ She moved over him, covering his body with her own.

‘I have a strange woman in my bed.’

‘You’re in a strange woman’s bed.’

Wolf had never considered himself sexually naïve until that moment. He’d seduced two older women – or rather they’d allowed him to seduce them – before he married Gretel. The single aspect of his relationship with Gretel that had worked was sex because they couldn’t quarrel when they were making love. Unfortunately, as he’d also discovered, it wasn’t possible to make love continuously.

Love – had he ever really ‘made love’ to Gretel? Johanna had been right to use ‘sex’ rather than love. He didn’t love Johanna – in a sense he’d only just met her – so love couldn’t possibly be a factor in what they were sharing. But one thing he did know. He’d never felt more passionate, more stimulated, or so totally erotically involved.

He’d also never felt so manipulated. Johanna utilised muscles he’d never suspected women of possessing. Even when he lay beneath her, too exhausted to move, she persisted in enflaming, provoking, and ultimately arousing him until he was oblivious to everything except desire.

When Johanna eventually moved away from him, she reached out to her bedside table, lit two cigars and handed him one.

He took it and slumped on the pillows. ‘Thank you.’

‘For the cigar or the sex?’

‘Both. I had no idea …’

‘What?’

He tried to be tactful. ‘That either could be so good.’

‘The cigars are good,’ she drew on hers. ‘But they should be. They’re Cuban, imported by one of my clients.’

He looked into her eyes, dark, enigmatic in the subdued lighting. ‘You astound me, Johanna Behn.’

‘You’re surprised a straight-laced spinster likes sex enough to make love like a whore? Admit it, Wolf Mau, you didn’t even think of me as a woman until I climbed into bed with you.’

‘I admit I never thought of you as a Venus.’

‘To be compared to the Roman goddess of eroticism is flattering.’ She turned on her stomach and set her cigar on an ashtray on the bedside cabinet. ‘I like sex and have taken the trouble to study the responses it engenders in the human body. At the risk of sounding conceited I believe I’m fairly good at it.’

‘I’d say expert.’

‘There are so few pleasures open to a woman we owe it to ourselves to take advantage of those we can. Have I shocked you?’

‘No.’

‘Not even a little?’ she probed.

‘What we shared might not come into the category of behaviour expected of a well-bred Prussian lady but it was fun.’

‘In other words I behaved like a whore.’

‘That I couldn’t say.’

‘Really?’

‘I’ve never visited “a lady of the night”, as the Pastor in Lichtenhagen used to euphemistically refer to them.’

‘You must be about the only male student who went to the Albertina who didn’t.’

‘I only had time for two dalliances before I was engaged to Gretel.’

‘You didn’t wander afterwards?’

‘I was naïve enough to believe in true love and “until death do us part”.’ He was angry with himself for allowing bitterness to taint his voice.

‘In the trenches? You were away for five years.’

‘I thought married men shouldn’t risk getting the clap,’ he used the army’s slang for venereal disease without thinking. Johanna’s astounding honesty had infected him. ‘You checked me for signs?’

‘A necessary precaution all women should take in this age of returning soldiers.’

‘Contrary to what you might have heard, most soldiers, ranks and officers, were more concerned with survival than sex.’

She slipped her fingers between his legs. ‘All the more reason to have fun now.’

He grabbed her hand and held it tight. ‘How many men have you worn out with your insatiable demands, Fraulein Behn?’

‘Didn’t you see the bodies under the bed?

‘Is that your doorbell?’ He dropped his cigar on the ashtray on his side of the bed.

‘I’m not expecting anyone.’ She squinted at the hands on her bedside clock. ‘It’s too early for your carriage.’

He left the bed and went to the chair where she’d thrown his clothes.

Johanna followed him. ‘I’ll look out of the hall window.’

‘Be careful.’

‘Are you worried about me, or the caller?’

‘The caller if he’s male. One look at you like that might be enough to give him a heart attack.’

She lifted a robe from a hook on the back of the door, left, and returned a few minutes later.

‘There’s a police carriage outside my door.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Behn’s House, The Kneiphof, Konigsberg, Saturday January 11th 1919

‘I’ll see what they want.’ Wolf flung on his clothes as the bell sounded a second time.

Johanna opened a small drawer in her dressing table and took out a key. ‘There’s a door at the back of the building. It opens into a hall that has a staircase leading directly to my kitchen.’

‘Is that an invitation?’

‘I wouldn’t give you this if it wasn’t.’

‘You could mistake me for a burglar?’

‘If a light’s burning on the balcony outside the kitchen, I’d welcome a visitor. If it’s not …’

‘I’ll stay away.’

‘Don’t feel obliged to visit just because we’ve shared a bed.’

‘You’ll see me again, Johanna. Just as soon as I’ve recovered my strength.’ Wolf kissed her and ran down the stairs.

Konigsberg, Saturday January 11th 1919

Wolf stepped out of Behn’s building and closed the door behind him. He tested it to make sure the lock had latched before walking to the police carriage. The door opened before he reached it. Steps clattered down, unrolled from inside by someone sitting too far back to be seen.

He approached. The blinds were down covering the windows.

‘You took your time. The driver rang the bell five minutes ago.’

Wolf sat opposite Georg, lifted the steps, and closed the door.

Georg hit the roof and shouted, ‘Munz Square.

‘Did you enjoy your evening with Fraulein Behn?’

‘We shared an excellent supper.’

Georg adjusted the oil lamp so the light fell on Wolf. ‘Your shirt is unbuttoned and your waistcoat inside out.’

Wolf removed his coat, jacket and waistcoat. While he rearranged his clothes Georg brought him up to date on Dorfman’s summation of the evidence, and warned him that the kriminalrat had taken control of the murder investigation. ‘Dorfman is questioning everything I’ve done. I’m sorry, Mau, there’s no way I’ll be able to get you a salaried position.’

‘Not a problem. Do you think Lilli Richter is implicated?’

‘She had no motive to kill von Braunsch or Dresdner. She had plenty of reason to wish Gluck out of her life, but I’ve known her since the day she was born. I’d stake my life on her innocence. However, Dorfman’s my superior and he’s given me a direct order. If I want to keep my post I have to arrest Lilli. When I think of the impact that will have on her daughter and father …’

‘My sister and sister-in-law are spending the evening with Lilli. They could take her daughter and father to my brother’s house?’ Wolf suggested.

‘Herr Richter’s bedridden and can’t be moved. I’ve arranged to meet Peter and Klein there. I’ll order them to stay overnight. With luck the kriminalrat will see sense after he’s talked to Lilli.’

‘If he doesn’t?’

‘I’d prefer not to consider that possibility. You’ll stay in the Richters’s?’

‘I will.’

‘About the rent …’

‘It’s already paid. Given the situation, money is the least of our worries.’

‘Thank you for that but I can reimburse you.’

‘We’ll talk about it later. Thanks to my brother, Martin, and the family lawyer I’m better off than most returning soldiers. Have your men tracked down all the surviving officers from the battalion?’

‘With the exception of Helmut Norde. I’ve arranged protection for every one, except him and you – , and before you ask, Peter won’t be working alone until we’ve tracked down the murderer.’

‘I’m glad to hear you’ve delegated someone to watch Peter but I can look after myself.’

‘I’d rather you left it to us. I’ll pick you up from the Richters’s tomorrow morning at seven. I’ve arranged for the surviving officers from the regiment to breakfast in the Green Stork. I’m hoping when my men interview them they’ll come up with information that will help break this case.’

‘I can get a tram …’

‘Please don’t. The discovery of another corpse in the city wouldn’t look good for the police.’

‘What about Lilli Richter? She’ll need a lawyer.’

‘I telephoned Rudi Momberg before I left headquarters. He’s the best defence lawyer I know. He’s agreed to represent Lilli and meet us when we get in.’ Georg glanced out of the window when the carriage slowed. ‘Munz Square. I should have resigned before agreeing to this.’

‘And given Dorfman the pleasure of arresting Lilli and having everything his own way?’ Wolf challenged. ‘You’re still working on the case, aren’t you?’

‘Under the direction of the kriminalrat and I have to report to him every day.’

‘What time?’

‘Six o’clock.’

‘A lot can happen before tomorrow evening, Kriminaldirektor.’

Richters’s House, Munz Platz, Konigsberg, Saturday January 11th 1919

Ludwiga took control of the situation just as she’d done when Wolf and Peter had turned up unannounced in Gebaur Strasse. She closed all the doors in Lilli’s father’s apartment after checking that he and Lilli’s daughter, Amalia were sleeping. Leaving Sister Luke to care for Herr Richter and watch Amalia, she sent Bertha, Lotte and Lilli up to Lilli’s apartment to help Lilli pack an overnight bag.

Drawing Georg from Herr Richter’s apartment lest they be overheard she talked to him in the hall.

‘I’m a nurse …’

‘I know who you are, Frau von Mau,’ Georg said.

‘Lilli’s in a state of shock. Clinical shock,’ she emphasised, ‘after being told of her husband’s murder.’

‘I can see that.’

‘She doesn’t know what she’s doing or what she’s saying. She’s simply not fit to be questioned by police officials. No one in their right mind would believe she’s responsible for her husband or Anton or that other man’s death.’

‘You’re right, Frau von Mau,’ Georg agreed, ‘which is why I’ve no intention of leaving her. I’ve arranged for her to be represented by a lawyer.’

‘Which will cost a fortune Lilli doesn’t have.’

‘That can be sorted later, Ludwiga,’ Wolf said. ‘As you say, no one with sense would believe the charges against Fraulein Richter.’

Georg looked at his watch. ‘I dare not delay. The kriminalrat is watching my every move.’

‘I’ll hurry them up.’ Wolf ran up the stairs.

Lilli and Lotte were standing in the doorway of Lilli’s apartment locked in one another’s arms, kissing. Wolf had seen kisses as passionate, but never between two women.

Lotte saw him and extricated herself from Lilli’s arms.

‘Wolf …’

‘When this ridiculous charge is dropped it might be as well if you and the girls move in here, Lotte.’ He smiled at Lilli. ‘Don’t worry, she can pay the rent.’ He drew Lilli aside and whispered. ‘Whatever else you do in police headquarters, don’t be heroic or make any confessions. I know your husband wasn’t killed by whoever killed the other two …’

‘I killed Dedleff Gluck and I’m not sorry. Lilli couldn’t even stand upright when I did for him.’ Bertha carried a tapestry travelling bag out of Lilli’s apartment.

Wolf held his finger before his lips. ‘Keep your voice down. I don’t care who killed Gluck, you, Ernst, or Lilli. Given the batterings Gluck meted out to Lilli, whoever did it, saved Lilli’s life, but keep your confessions to yourself. Both of you,’ Wolf advised, looking to Lilli as well as Bertha. ‘The least said, the less likely any official will regard his Gluck’s death as different from the others.’

‘How did you find out his death was different?’ Bertha demanded.