Philip Kerr - Prague Fatale

But Kuttner’s bed had already been stripped. The sheets and blankets lay in a heap on the floor. The window had been opened wider than before and the room was full of the scent of freshly cut grass. The gardener at Jungfern-Breschan was forever tending the lawns. Outside the window the motorized lawnmowers were already at work.

Seated on the end of Kuttner’s bed was a girl of about twenty-five. She had blond hair and a handkerchief in her hand and was wearing a sleeveless grey pinafore and a regulation SS black dress — the one with the big floppy collar trimmed with white piping. She was an SS Helferin: a helper and, in this case, a maid.

I watched her silently from the doorway for several minutes. And not noticing me she didn’t move except, now and then, to press the handkerchief to her nose as if she had a head cold. Finally my curiosity could no longer be contained and, clearing my throat, I advanced into the dead man’s room.

Abruptly the Helper stood up and looked the other way — at least she did until I caught hold of her arm.

‘I’m sorry, sir,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean any harm coming in here. Mister Kritzinger sent me to strip the bed and I was just overcome for a moment, at the thought of that poor man being murdered.’

She was older than I had first supposed and not particularly good-looking — too thin and highly strung for my taste. Her skin was clear as tissue paper and you could see the little blue veins at the side of her forehead like the maker’s mark on good porcelain. The mouth was wider and sadder than it ought to have been perhaps, but it was her big eyes I was really interested in because they were red and full of tears.

‘I’m Commissar Gunther.’

‘Yes sir. I know who you are. I saw you when you arrived here, yesterday.’

She gave a little curtsy.

‘I’m investigating Captain Kuttner’s murder.’

She nodded. She knew that, too.

‘Did you know him?’

‘Not really, sir. We talked a few times. He was kind to me.’

‘What did you talk about?’

‘Nothing really, sir. Nothing important. It was just incidental talk, you might say. Idle conversation about nothing very much.’

‘It’s all right. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m just trying to get the handle on what kind of a fellow he was. Maybe when I’ve done that I’ll have a better grip on why someone killed him.’ I pointed at the bed where she’d been sitting. ‘Can we sit down and talk? Just for a minute.’

‘All right.’

She sat down and I sat beside her.

‘Albert was a very sweet, gentle man. Well, he was more of a boy, really. Such a handsome boy. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt him. Let alone kill him. He was thoughtful and considerate, and very sensitive.’

‘You liked him then.’

‘Oh, yes. Much more than some of these other officers. He was different.’

‘He certainly was.’

Thinking I might have sounded insincere, I added, ‘I liked him, too.’ Even as I said this I realized for the first time since hearing about Kuttner’s death that I really had liked him. Probably it was mostly the fact we had both shared a terrible experience in the East; but more than that, I had also liked his wit and candour, which bordered on the indiscreet.

To that extent at least Kuttner reminded me of me, and I wondered if I had started to take his murder a little more personally than seemed appropriate.

‘Go on.’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to get in any trouble.’

‘I can promise you that you won’t. But if there’s anything you know that sheds any light on what happened here last night then I think I need to know about it, don’t you? General Heydrich is very determined that I find out who murdered the Captain. And the only way that is going to happen is if I persuade people like you to have confidence enough in me to tell the truth.’

‘All right, sir.’

‘Good. What’s your name?’

‘Steffel. Rosa Steffel.’

‘Well, Rosa, why don’t you tell me what happened?’

‘Last night,’ she said, ‘when all of the officers started to go to bed, he insisted on helping me collect up the glasses, even though I could see he was dead tired.’

‘That was kind of him,’ I said. ‘What time was that?’

‘It must have been after one o’clock. I heard the clock chime in the hall. Some of the cauliflowers were still up, of course, swigging brandy in the library. And one or two were drunk. One in particular. I wouldn’t like to say who he was but he got a bit too familiar with me, if you know what I mean. You see, there’s something about this uniform. When some of the cauliflowers get drunk they think we’re little better than camp-followers and they take liberties with us. This particular officer touched my breasts, and he tried to put his hand up my dress. I didn’t care for it and told him so; but he’s my senior officer and it’s not easy trying to put a man in his place when he’s a general. It was Captain Kuttner who came to my assistance. Rescued me, if you like. He told the General off, in so many words. The General was furious and swore a lot at the Captain and told him to mind his own effing business. But Captain Kuttner was wonderful, sir. He ignored the General and escorted me back below stairs before the General could touch me again.’

I shook my head. ‘Some of these SS generals are loath-some,’ I said. ‘I’ve just come out of a rather rough meeting with General Hildebrandt. And he really put me back in my shell. Was it he who touched you?’

‘No.’

I sighed. ‘Rosa. Please. I’m in a real spot here. One of these men — yes, maybe even one of these cauliflowers — murdered a man in cold blood. Right here in this room. The room was locked from the inside and the window was bolted, which means that this investigation is already difficult. Don’t make it impossible. You need to tell me who it was who touched you last night.’

‘It was General Henlein.’

‘Thank you.’

‘What happened when Captain Kuttner escorted you below stairs, Rosa?’

‘We talked a bit. Like we usually did. About nothing much, really.’

‘Tell me one of the things you used to talk about, Rosa.’

She shrugged. ‘Prague. We talked about Prague. We both agreed that it’s very beautiful. And we also talked about our home town.’

‘You’re not from Halle-an-der-Saale, too?’

‘Sort of. I’m from Reidesburg, which is just outside Halle.’

‘It seems as though everyone but me is from Halle. General Heydrich is from Halle, do you know that?’

‘Of course. Everyone knows about the Heydrichs in Halle. Someone else here is from Halle, too; at least that’s what Albert told me, but I’m afraid I don’t remember who that is.’

‘What else did he tell you?’

‘That he went to the same school as the General. The Reform Real-gymnasium. My brother Rolf went there, too. It’s the best school in town.’

‘Sounds like they had a lot in common. Albert and the General.’

‘Yes. He said things had been difficult for him, lately. But that the General had been very kind to him.’

The idea of Heydrich being kind was not something I felt like contemplating. It was like hearing that Hitler liked children, or that Ivan the Terrible had owned a puppy.

‘Did he elaborate on any of that? On why things had been difficult? On exactly how the General had been kind to him?’

Rosa looked at her handkerchief as if the answer lay crushed inside its sodden interior.

‘Albert made me promise not to tell anyone about it. He said that people in the SS were not supposed to talk about such things. And that it might get me into trouble.’

‘So why was he telling you about it?’