Philip Kerr - Prague Fatale

‘All right, General. But here’s my price. That you have to listen, now, to some of those stupid Republican views that you mentioned. The ones regarding politics and government and racial policy you said are of no interest to you. I’ll say my piece and you listen. And when I’ve done, I’ll do what you ask. I’ll be your detective.’

Heydrich’s eyes narrowed. I preferred his profile. When you saw his profile it meant he wasn’t looking at you. When he looked at you it was only too easy to feel like the helpless prey of some deadly animal. It was a face without expression behind which some ruthless calculation was in progress. He flicked away his half-smoked cigarette and glanced at the Rolex on his wrist.

‘All right. You’ve got five minutes. But it won’t do any good, you know. When the panzers have finished doing their work in Russia what you say now will seem quite irrelevant. Even to you, Gunther. Even to you. We’ll make a Nazi of you yet.’

After lunch Heydrich and Generals Frank, Henlein, Hildebrandt and von Eberstein, a couple of colonels, and three of the adjutants convened a meeting in the castle library, leaving me and some others to amuse ourselves. Which is probably overstating what I was likely to do.

I was feeling tired, which was a combination of good wine and the adrenalin that was still in my blood after telling Heydrich what I really thought about his aim of Germanizing the Czech population, as well as several words on what was happening in the Ukraine. True to his word Heydrich listened for exactly five minutes, after which he walked silently back to the house leaving me feeling like a novitiate toreador who has just taunted his first bull. Perhaps I was still a little suicidal. It’s the only possible explanation for what I’d done.

For a while I contemplated returning to my room and having a sleep; I also contemplated returning to the Imperial Hotel and spending what remained of my life with Arianne, but I was unable to find Klein or anyone who could organize me a car and, mindful of the warm sunshine, I went for a walk in the castle grounds instead.

Naturally, I was unnerved by how much Heydrich already seemed to know about Arianne. But, more importantly, I was already regretting my candour with him, which I attributed to the amount of alcohol I had consumed during lunch. And I asked myself how long it would be before a couple of SS guards came and fetched me for execution at some pit that was even now being dug in the adjacent forest. That was surely one advantage of living in the countryside: there was always plenty of space to bury a body.

Half-convinced that this was to be my fate, I found myself heading out of the front gates, smiling a nervous smile at the stone-faced sentry, and then setting off up the fairy-tale road in the general direction of the Upper Castle. This wasn’t exactly an escape but I needed to be away from my so-called colleagues.

Thinking about escape I got to wondering about Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, the Jewish sugar merchant whose estate this had once been. Had the statues been placed at the gates by him, or the aristocrat who had owned the house before? And where was he now? England? America? Switzerland? Or was he one of those unfortunate Czech Jews who’d fled to France thinking it was safe there only to find it overrun with Nazis in 1940? Time would tell who had been luckier — Ferdinand or his late wife, Adele.

Further along the quiet road I came in sight of the Orthodox chapel, and as I rounded the bend I saw the matching pink gateway of the Upper Castle and, walking toward me, another SS officer — a General whom I recognized from lunch but whose name eluded me. I wasn’t wearing a cap or belts and neither was he, which meant I was able to forgo a salute. All the same I came to attention as he got nearer. I’d irritated enough SS generals for one day.

Even in uniform this General was a poor example of the master race. A bespectacled Himmler type with thinning hair, a wide mouth and a double chin, he was one of those pale, bloodless Nazis that reminded me of a very cold fish on a very white plate. Nevertheless, he smiled and stopped to talk, rippling his fingers in the air as though he was playing the upper register of a church organ as he tried to remember who I was.

‘Ah yes, now you’re-’

‘Hauptsturmfuhrer Gunther, sir.’

‘Yes. Now I have it. You’re the Police Commissar from Berlin, are you not? The Kripo detective.’

‘That’s right, sir.’

‘I’m Jury, Doctor Hugo Jury. No reason why you should remember me either, especially after a lunch like that, eh? I’ll say one thing for our new Reichsprotector, he knows how to entertain. That’s the best lunch I’ve eaten in God knows how long.’

Jury was an Austrian, his accent — or rather his vocabulary — unmistakably Viennese.

‘Walk with me for a while if you will, Captain. I’d like to hear more about the exciting life of a real Berlin detective.’

‘If you like, sir. But there’s not much to tell. I’m forty-three years old. I got my school certificate but didn’t go to university. The war got in the way and then there didn’t seem to be much call for a degree when there was a more urgent call to make a living and earn some money. So I joined the police and got married to a woman who died almost immediately afterward. Influenza they called it, but these days I’m not so sure. A lot of different illnesses got swept into that bin by a lot of overworked doctors and by some who were maybe not so much overworked as just inexperienced or even incompetent.’

‘And you’d be absolutely right to have doubts. I should know. You see, I’m not one of these legal doctors we seem to be overrun with these days. I’m a medical man. I took my degree in 1911 and the chances are that I was one of those overworked, inexperienced and very possibly incompetent doctors you were talking about. During the influenza epidemic I remember sleeping for less than four hours a night. Hardly a recipe for good medical care, is it? Throughout the Twenties I was a specialist in tuberculosis. TB’s one of those infectious diseases that present a lot of symptoms that are common to influenza. Indeed, I’ve sometimes thought that what we thought was a flu virus was actually pneumonia brought on by a massive outbreak of TB. But that’s another story.’

‘I’d like to hear it sometime.’

‘If I may ask: How old was she? Your wife?’

‘Twenty-two.’

‘I’m sorry. That’s young. Very young. And you’ve never remarried?’

‘Not so far, sir. Most women don’t seem to find my being a Berlin detective as exciting as you.’

‘I’ve been married for almost thirty years and I can’t imagine what I’d have done without my wife, Karoline.’

‘You’ll forgive me for saying so, sir, but I can’t imagine you’re an SS general because you’re a doctor, sir.’

‘No. I’m the District Leader of Moravia. And head of the Party Liaison Office in Prague. Before the war I was deputy leader of the Nazi Party in Austria. And if all of that sounds important, well, it isn’t. Not any longer. Not since General Heydrich took over. I had hoped to persuade the Leader to break up the Protectorate in order that Moravia could become a separate state. Which is really what it’s always been. But that isn’t going to happen. Or so I’ve been told. I had also hoped to be able to discuss the matter with Heydrich, but one of his minions told me that this wouldn’t be possible. Which leaves me rather wondering why I bothered to come along on this little weekend. In the circumstances, I’m surprised that I was asked at all.’

‘That makes two of us, sir. General Heydrich and I were never what you might call close. Then again, one hesitates to decline such an invitation.’