Hitler's peace

I shrugged. “I guess I was hoping to meet a man who’s missing a coat button.”

“Of course it might have been there a while,” admitted Luger. “Still, it is evidence. Not as good as a gun with fingerprints on it, however. Your fingerprints, you say?”

“As well as the murderer’s.”

“It’s a pity that radio wasn’t here,” said Luger. “That might have made things very different.”

“I imagine that the same person who killed the Princess must have removed it. And for the same reason. To conceal the fact she was a German agent. Something must have spooked him.” I sighed as I realized what might have happened. “I think that must have been me. You see, I searched the house last night when everyone was asleep. At least that’s what I thought at the time. Someone must have seen me and decided to cover their tracks. The fact is, Inspector, I believe I’ve stumbled on a plot to kill the Big Three.”

I handed over the plaintext message. There was no sense in hanging on to it now. I was inches away from being charged with murder.

“I believe this message was received by someone, very likely the murderer, using that missing radio.”

Luger glanced at the message. “It’s in German,” he said.

“Of course it is. It was sent from Berlin. ‘Mordanschlag.’ That’s the German word for ‘assassinate.’”

“Is it?”

“German intelligence is my speciality. I’m with the OSS. That’s the American intelligence service. I’m the president’s liaison officer with the agency. It’s imperative that I speak to the head of the president’s Secret Service detail as soon as possible. His name is Mike Reilly.”

Cash appeared in the doorway. “No German radio, sir?” he asked.

“No German radio. And don’t let anyone touch that gun in the bedroom. The professor here has confessed his fingerprints are on it.”

“Actually, no. I said you might find them.”

Inspector Luger leaned forward. “Shall I tell you what I think happened, Professor Mayer?”

I groaned inside. It was easy to see where his elementary thought processes were going with this.

“My friend is dead, Inspector. And what you think about that is of little interest to me right now.”

“I think that sometime during the night, when you were in bed with Princess Pontiatowska, you had an argument. A lover’s quarrel. So sometime this morning, you shot her.”

“As complicated as that, eh?” I shook my head. “You must read a lot of novels.”

“We leave the complications to you. This was very simple. All this stuff about a German radio is complete nonsense, isn’t it? Just like the story about there being a plot to kill the Big Three.”

Luger advanced slowly on me, followed closely by Sergeant Cash, until I was close enough to smell the tobacco and the coffee on his breath.

“It’s bad enough that you should murder a woman in cold blood,” said Luger. “But what really pisses me off is that you should take us for a pair of fucking idiots.” Luger was shouting now. “German spies? Plots to kill the Big Three? Next thing you’ll be telling us that Hitler is hiding in the fucking cellar.”

“Well, I didn’t see him when I was down there this morning.”

“Why don’t you tell us the truth?” Cash said quietly.

“I don’t like Yanks,” said Luger.

“For the first time since you opened your big trap you’ve said something that makes sense. This is personal.”

“You were late for this war, just like you were late for the last one. And when you do finally bother to show up, you all think you can treat us like poor relations. Tell us what to do, like you owned this bloody war.”

“Since we’re paying for it, I think that gives us a say.”

“Tell us what really happened,” murmured Cash.

“You’ve told us a pack of bloody lies, that’s what,” bellowed Luger, taking hold of my coat lapels. “You’re full of shit, mate. Like the rest of your bloody countrymen.”

Cash grabbed hold of Luger’s arm and tried to pull him off me. “Leave it, guv,” he said. “It’s not worth it.”

“I’m going to have this bastard,” and Luger tightened his grip on my lapels. “That, or the truth, so help me.”

“You boys have got quite an act here,” I said, grabbing hold of Luger’s wrists and wrenching them off my coat. “It’s a real shame to waste it on someone who’s seen it performed before. By better actors, too.”

“The truth,” yelled Luger, punching me hard in the ribs.

I lashed back, catching Luger with a glancing punch on his jaw. Cash stepped in, just managing to hold us apart. Glancing sourly at Cash, Luger said, “Get him out of my sight.”

They drove me back to the Citadel and locked me in a hot stinking cell. I sat down on the solitary wooden bunk and stared into the solitary slops bucket. The bucket was empty but it seemed to be where my life was headed.

Toward the end of the day, I heard the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. His powerful, sonorous voice drifted through the still air of the Citadel. The sound was soothing, something felt as much as heard.