Фолькер Кучер - Babylon Berlin

‘Closed, my arse. There are still too many open questions.’

‘Who cares?’

‘I do, for one. It’s just that the killers can’t help us anymore.’

‘Then you’ll have to figure it out on your own.’

‘I know more than you think. There’s only one thing I don’t understand: why did Fallin and Selenskij torture Boris before they packed him off in a stolen car and sent him flying into the canal?’

‘Maybe they just messed up. It can happen. First the guy dies on them before they can get anything useful out of him, then they try to cover up the whole thing and start a campaign of disinformation. Only it fails.’

‘It was supposed to look like Boris had pinched the gold from the Red Fortress ?’

‘If you say so,’ said Wolter with a shrug. ‘Sounds plausible to me.’

‘I don’t think so. It stretches credibility when someone with mangled hands and feet is found in a car he’s supposed to have driven himself, don’t you think?’

‘Not if the car ends up in front of a tree and the driver’s already mush. Maybe that was the plan, until the wheel spun out of control at the kerb and everything went tits up. By which stage things were already dead in the water. Or should I say the canal.’

Rath remembered how the vehicle had shaved a tree on its way in.

‘Then why did they dig up Kardakov’s corpse?’ he asked. ‘Was that part of another failed disinformation campaign?’

‘What do you mean failed? They made the police look pretty ridiculous there. Above all the new hero of A Division. They made him into a laughing stock.’

‘Maybe. I’m just wondering why they’d bother. A Division weren’t interested in the Russians. On the contrary, they’d released them a week before. So why would they care about making the police look ridiculous?’

‘What do I know? I’m a vice cop, not a homicide detective.’

‘You know damn well. It was their skipper who’d run into difficulties, a police officer who had murdered a colleague and realised an old friend was closing in on him. An officer who along with everything else was also having problems with a Ringverein . So he tried not only to create trouble for this Ringverein , but for the police as well – to distract them, above all the new hero of A Division, as you call him.’

‘I prefer laughing stock…’

‘Dumb luck that this laughing stock won’t let go then, isn’t it? He’s hell bent on convicting a CID officer of his colleague’s murder.’

‘Everyone’s entitled to make a fool of themselves. Like I say, I’d recommend you take a holiday. Be satisfied with what you’ve got. I’ve just given you some excellent fodder for the commissioner.’

‘Would you be prepared to testify to it in court?’

‘Why should I? It’s all just speculation. An experienced CID officer gives an up-and-coming officer a tip-off. It’s up to you to find the evidence. You’re the homicide detective, I work in E Division.’

‘I could use your assertions against you, as proof that you’re in cahoots with the Russians, and Josef Wilczek too. As proof that you’re after the Sorokin gold, that you intend to use it to buy weapons for the Stahlhelm , that you’ve been trafficking police arms for years with Rudi Scheer, cutting deals with your volunteer army, the SA and God knows who else.’

‘With the Red Front too, no doubt?’ Wolter laughed loudly. He removed his hat and wiped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief. ‘You’ve got a big mouth for a cop with a cocaine problem.’

‘I just want to make it clear that you’ve reached the end,’ Rath countered. ‘You killed Jänicke for nothing. Just because it worked with Thies doesn’t mean you’ll get away a second time.’

‘ Me at the end?’ Bruno grinned, but looked as if he’d sooner have lashed out. ‘Have you looked in the mirror recently, Gereon? Do you think the court is going to believe a coked-up cop who shot someone and then botched the cover-up?’

‘I haven’t shot anyone.’

‘You shot someone in Cologne, remember? And you killed Josef Wilczek. Why else would you have given Ballistics the wrong bullet? It can only have been you.’

‘What you’ve just told me is as good as a confession. A confession that you killed Jänicke!’

‘Ach, would you cut it out!’

‘You know that Jänicke was killed with Krajewski’s Lignose because you’re the one who pulled the trigger!’

‘But where’s the pistol now? It isn’t in my possession, Inspector! Make sure you don’t dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of.’

‘Do you even know why you became a police officer?’

‘For the same reason I still am one. To maintain law and order and fight against those trying to destroy it. What about you? Why did you become a police officer? Because Daddy told you to?’

Rath ignored the jibe. ‘My reason is very simple. I’m a police officer so that bastards like you don’t get off scot free.’

‘We all deserve punishment. You’re a Catholic, you should know that.’

‘I can go to confession.’

‘Then go.’ Wolter smirked. ‘Stop pretending you have less to confess than me!’

‘You shouldn’t brag so much! I can finish you if I want to!’

‘Really? If you tell the truth about you and Josef Wilczek then perhaps you’ll have something on me. Perhaps. It would, of course, presuppose that you’re a credible witness. And there I have my doubts. Still, if you want, you can always take that chance. Tell them what you did with Wilczek! Tell them why Inspector Gereon Rath made no progress on the Wilczek case! Let’s see what happens. I won’t be doing it. I can promise you that much. I won’t be leaving you holding the greasy end of the stick. Don’t ask me why. For old time’s sake, perhaps.’

‘You really are a cynical arsehole.’

‘I’m a police officer and a realist. If you just thought about it for a moment, you’d realise I have more on you than you have on me. But that’s not what this is about. I want peace. So why don’t we just forget about the whole thing and pretend it never happened? Serve up the two dead Russians as the killers, and Zörgiebel will be happy. Why? How? Wherefore? No-one’s interested in these questions anymore. You want a career with CID, don’t you? Then you have to turn a blind eye occasionally, and not ask too many questions.’

‘Don’t you dare tell me what I have to do!’

Wolter looked him and up down, squinting. ‘Please excuse me. Emmi will be back any moment and I want to be finished with the lawn by then.’ He put his hat back on, turned round and trudged back to his lawnmower.

Rath looked at his broad, sweaty back, helpless with rage. When he was back in the car he slammed the flat of his hand against the steering wheel so hard it hurt.

The worst thing about it was that Wolter was right. There was nothing he could do, absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even find an outlet for his rage.

She was in the middle of tracing her eyebrows when the doorbell rang. It couldn’t be him already. Or could it? If he was one of those overly punctual types, then the evening would be over before it had even begun.

‘Greta, can you see who it is?’ she called from the bathroom door. ‘It’s almost certainly for you!’

She wasn’t expecting him for a good hour. Ten o’clock, she had said. She had got back from the station at eight, needing a little time to recover after such a lousy day.

Gereon Rath had reported another corpse. Every day it was someone new. The murder suspects were dropping around him like flies. Only, these dead Russians might actually be the killers. Unlike Kardakov, with whom he had made Böhm look a fool, only for it to emerge that he had been duped himself. She had almost felt sorry for him, the way the whole Castle made fun of him for selling Zörgiebel a dead man as the killer, but she had pushed aside her sympathy. He deserved everything he had coming, a thousand times over. The way he had treated Böhm, the way he had treated her . She thought she had finally found a man who might last longer than a week. Much longer, perhaps even the rest of her life. Yes, she had fallen in love. How unforgivably foolish! It made what he had done to her even worse, the dirty swine!