Читать книгу Battlefield Berlin - Reginald Rosenfeldt - Страница 5

Michael Herold means his announcement very seriously; the very next day he visited the bath shop into the Kinkel-Street. With a helpless expression he strolled past the exhibited mirror cabinets and approached the street facing window. Beside the broad windowpane was a shelf with mixer taps and Michael grabbed one of the glittering pieces. Undecided, he turned it between his fingers, as a trained voice asked him from behind: "Good day sir, can I somehow help you?"

"Uh, yeah..." Michael had the young man next to the shower not notice until now. "Thanks, but I'm waiting for my wife. We agreed to meet us here, and she must arrive at any moment."

"I understand. Feel free to look around, and if you have a question, just call."

"Thanks, I think about it!" Michael Herold lay down the faucet and mustered unobtrusively Leo Oblonsky video store on the other side of the street.

"NO TABOO" announced a neon sign above the for at least half a year no longer cleaned shop window and behind the door denied a poster further insight. Michael gave the oversized breasts in the photo a tired smile and turned back around. Intentionally speaking a little bit louder, he told the seller, who waited behind him: "I'm afraid my better half is not on time, and I have not the intention, to make the selection alone."

"No Problem; we are open to 18 clock."

"See you." Herold walked to the exit and remained a moment behind the glass door. Calmly he shut the zipper of his suede jacket and cast a glance out into the street. Before the shop two excited school girls argued vociferously about a boy named René, and on the road rolled a light blue Mercedes in reverse. The battered car slowed squeaky, drove half a meter in the opposite direction, and parked just outside the sex shop. Almost simultaneously opened the car doors, and three young men forced their way into the street. The well trained body’s clad black leather jackets, jeans and combat boots, and the whole presentation was so equal switched, that Michael alerted squinted his eyes.

Instinctively, he stepped back and watched tense the boys that smell after a lot of trouble. Two of them leaned bored at Leo's shop window, while the third stands in the middle of the road, and watched the surrounding houses with a critical eye. After a minute or two, he suddenly turned around, stared again down the road, and stretched then his right thumb in the air. Immediately pushed one of his comrades the shop door open, smiled contemptuously, and marched into the video store.

"Shit!"The sight of the nasty show turned Michael Herold almost the stomach. Such a primitive display of latent violence had he not seen for a long time. He takes a deep breath, left the bath-shop, and tried to ignore the warning voice in his head.

"Forget it", whispered the countless years of work experience in Michaels mind. "Make your inquiry another day." He shook his head and blinked imperceptibly in the for this time of year unusual sunshine. Outwardly very calm, he crossed the road and walked past the car. Behind the windscreen chunky fingers drummed on the handlebars and a broad-shouldered figure moved restlessly on the seat.

“The same for you!" Michael muttered unimpressed and entered the Sex-boutique. Cheerful, he greeted loudly: "Good day," but the only person in the room overlooked him entirely. The guy with the short-cropped hair flipped yawning through a glossy magazine, and covert with his body a cheesy beaded curtain. Behind the plastic balls creaked a wood plank, someone coughed dryly, and Herold could not suppress a mocking smile. "Okay," he thought with satisfaction, "So, there stuck the Herren comrades.”

Michael Herold turned around and looked at the shabby shop a little more intense. Its center point presented a stand with porno magazines, on the two long sides were shelves full of video tapes, and on the opposite side was the Cash desk. Michael looked briefly on the stacked condom boxes and listened again to the sounds from the back room. Something clattered loudly, cabinet doors were slammed, and a hateful voice yelled, "It is enough for now, you bitch! You can plug the silly fairy tales into…"

"Please, gentlemen! I really do not know where Leo stays! I have heard since three days nothing from him. No call, no sign of life, not a single word! I will not lie to you, honestly!" Understandable panic distorted the otherwise melodious alto voice of the woman. "What shall I do? I can't conjure Leo, but I promise in everything I hold sacred, I call immediately, if I see him again."

"How stupid do you think we are? You Polish whore, I think all you need is a little bad reminder... "Two beats echoed through the curtain, followed by an incredulous cry.

"Oh crap," flashed it through Michael. Instinctively, he took a step forward and the hitherto motionless guards set himself in motion. With crossed arms he stood in front of the counter, while his indifferent glance sent out the unmistakable warning: "Thus far and no further!"

Michael Herold sighed tortured. "Take it easy, my young friend. No excitement!" Slowly, so as not to unnecessarily provoke, drew he from his pocket a badge with a police emblem and waved it imperiously through the air.

"All right then?" Michael squeezed himself past the proverbial, like a salt pillar solidified boy, and knocked firmly against the door frame. "Ms Oblonsky?" Beyond the curtain prevailed within fractions of a second the silence of a sealed mausoleum.

"Dethlefsen, BKA! Please Ms Oblonsky, it is about information which relates your husband! "Herold threw a conspiratorial glance at the guard, that still blocked the space. "This Poland pack believes actually that they all stand outside the German law, but now it's over with the fun. Ms Oblonsky!"

Again Michaels pounded his fist against the wooden frame. "What’s now? Must I really pick you up on my own?"

Quietly rustling shared the strings of pearls and a slim, at least 1.75 meters tall woman stand waiting on the threshold. A contemptuous smile played on her full lips, while her manicured fingers ran uncertain over her hips.

"Well, well!" Herold mustered unabashedly for a breath her flawless figure, then he darted his look on the behind her appearing thugs. "I'm really sorry guys, but the party is over."

"It's all right, boss." It was clear to see, that the "bald patch man", did not know exactly, in which way he must assess the situation. "I mean, you don't interrogate the bitch throughout the whole day. Tomorrow starts the party again! I promise you that, darling!”

"Whatever you say!" Michael clapped encouragingly in the hands. "Well, Ms Oblonsky, swing your butt! I have no desire, that the chief torn my ass, because we arrived to late in his office.”

Ms Oblonsky mouth twitched imperceptible and she walked without a look on the other men to the exit. Gracefully put she like a mannequin one foot before the other and nothing of the events of the last few minutes seemed really touching her. Almost bored, she stopped in front of the closed shop door, and a touch of irony vibrated in her dark voice, when she asked Michael: "Well, Commissioner, will you not quickly show me your office?”

“Don’t worry; we are away, faster than you can imagine it!” Michael Herold registered the keen perception of the women. She leaned confident against the door frame and whirled challenging a key ring around the index finger. "Boys, time to close."

"Well, gentlemen! You have heard the lady; end of the show! "Herold pointed in the direction of the door. "I think we understand each other now better. You are welcome to enjoy yourself, but please not in my presence."

"All right, boss!" The balding struck one of his comrades on the shoulder. "Here we go. You've heard the boss; tomorrow is another day! "

Emphasizes slowly, strolled the three to the exit, and on the threshold remained the man with the sparse blond hair again standing. With an exaggerated gesture, he raised his right hand, and stroked the quivering woman slightly above the cheek. "Hey, baby! Leo does not deserve you. So forget the loser and let us be really good friends."

Ms Oblonsky nodded silently, while a blood-red line blemished her white skin. Provocative clenched the bald one his fingers into a fist and breathed at the silver ring with the engraved skull.

"Stop it! It’s enough!„ Herolds voice deepened imperceptible, he has now exactly the authoritarian tone that the brute knew only too well. Uncomfortable, he shifted his weight on the right leg and grinned disarmingly. "But, hey boss, there's really no reason to be violent. Have fun with the lady!"

Instead of answering, Michael moved a paper towel from his pocket, and handed it to Mrs. Oblonsky. "In the name of god, clean your face, and then lock the door; otherwise we are all here still for Christmas."

"Thanks. It's ok for me." Gently dab the cut, Ms. Oblonsky turned to the door, and Michael gave the next to the Mercedes waiting battle group a pensive look. At the moment the men treated him still with a certain respect, but that could change very quickly. These guys were suspicious by nature and each idle minute would change their minds. He could not stay longer; impatient, Michael turned back to the woman. "If you are ready, you just follow me. I sit in the Datsun on the other side of the street."

"Just one more second, please! Have I told Leo for weeks, that he must lubricate the door lock!"

Michael Herold just shook his head and stepped onto the roadway. Behind him sounded frantic steps, then he felt a light touch on the shoulder, and a breathless voice whispered in his ear. "Not so fast, it’s not so easy, to follow you!"

"This is not a fashion show. Tear yourself together! "True to his role, Michael continued to forget his good manners, although he feels sincerely sorry for the beautiful woman. Her high-heeled pumps and tight skirt forced her literally to run beside him. Now she raised proudly her head, as Michael did not respond to her request, and stumbled forward without another word of self-defense. Each step had to cause her difficulties on the uneven pavement, but Ms Oblonsky smiled contemptuously. She had successfully defied the primitive guys in their store and now, she would survive the new humiliation.

"Get in the car; we have no time to spare!" Michael Herold tore the car door open and waved impatiently. "God, why wear women always so impractical dresses?"

Without a answer, Ms. Oblonsky swung gracefully her long legs into the car and Michael cursed silently. It was about time, that he finished his lousy role. Frustrated, he strapped himself at the seat, and assured not very credible: "Relax; from now on you can forget these fine gentlemen."

"Better, you promise nothing you cannot keep." Leo's wife watched skeptical the Mercedes. "They do not give up just because a police officer has disturbed them. Oh, sorry, I mean it not personally; you know how bad they can be."

"Then we should not give them another opportunity." Michael Herold turned the ignition key around, and curved out of the tight parking spot, while he watched at the same time the Mercedes in the rear view mirror. The light blue car shrinks first at toy size and then finally disappeared behind the next corner.

"So, that was it?" Ms Oblonsky doubtfully casts a look at the slow-moving traffic.

"If you behave yourself properly, you will never see again these rats. But we'll talk later, at that moment we have other sorrows."

Michael Herold inserted himself in the sluggish sheet-caravan and thought about his next problem. Slowly, but surely, it was time that he tells Ms Oblonsky his true identity and that must happened in the presence of a trusted people. Better yet, a mutual friend, and that was only one person: Lech Bronslav, the good shepherd of Spandau! Every member of the Spandau Poles had spooned dried fruit with snow- dumplings in his living room, and Mrs. Oblonsky formed surely no exception.

No, he knows Lech only too well! There was no doubt, that Ms Oblonsky had enchanted him with their charm upon his own couch. Inspired by the idea, he gave the woman beside him a quick look. Her flawless figure has he noticed earlier, but now, that she was sitting so close to him, he also felt her overwhelming sexual charisma.

Ms Oblonsky wore her auburn hair in a smooth style, that touched gently her chin. Her eyes concealed a black Ray-Ban, while the slipped up skirt of the subtle silver gray costume revealed her shapely legs. Confident, she adjusted the expensive sunglasses and Michael noticed confused a swollen eye. Its multicolored splendor could not possibly result from the blow at the video store.

"Oh, come on! Deep in your heart, you think that I accustomed to a rough handling. Serves me only right; that the guy attack me so hard. I am nothing more than a silly cow, the wife of a shabby scum."

Michael Herold wisely refrain any unnecessary comment. Silently he tapped a cigarette out of the pack and offered it to his involuntary passenger.

"Forget it, no need to be gallant!" Ms Oblonsky sounded unusually aggressive, when she turns over her pretty face at Herold. "I only smoke, when I feel very comfortable and that is at the moment probably not the question. And besides, why you turn towards Neuendorfer-Street? This is not the way to the police station!"

The startling conclusion of this finding let her wince. "You are not a policeman..."

Without a warning, she tramples on Michael's shoe, and the Datsun slowed down in split second. He slid to the right side, missed narrowly a parked car, and raced a terrible moment uncontrollably across the sidewalk. A lamppost came dangerously close and the car roared again back on the road.

A loud honking accompanied the suicidal maneuver, and for a moment Michael could not believe, that he was still alive. With both hands, he clutched firmly the steering wheel, and remained adamant on the empty lane next to the traffic flow.

"Good responds," he murmured excitedly. "Nothing has happened! Nothing..."

Ms Oblonsky clawed screaming her fingers in his right arm and tugged at the fabric. Michael pulled his arm away with a jerk, and gave her such a slap in the face, that the Ray-Ban slammed in a high arc against the glass. Outraged, screamed the woman and Michael yelled: "Damn, are you now completely nuts? You have catapulted us almost to eternity!”

Michael shook irritably his head and drove the Datsun in the parking bay of a bus stop. With slightly trembling hands, he turned off the engine and looked into the pale face from Leo's wife. "My God, do you really know, how close we are escaped a disaster? Be glad, that no other car used the bus lane!"

"Yes, yes, I am grateful that no people were on the sidewalk! But please, understand me! We drove past the police headquarters! I recognized the ugly statue at the entrance only too well!”

Two discreet sobs shook Ms Oblonskys narrow shoulders. "I know, I know, my behavior is simply unforgivable embarrassing! I behaved so idiotic, so damn idiotic!"

In a somewhat milder mood, Michael handed the woman a paper towel. "Here! Dry your eyes and then calm down. No one's been hurt. Agreed? "Ms Oblonsky blew her nose instead of an answer discreetly in the handkerchief and looked coquettishly on her knees. "And now, what do you want to do with me? Show me your plan!”

"I will drive pass the monument and I find it just as tasteless as you!" Michael smiled encouragingly and started the car. He carefully drove to the roundabout of the Falkenseer-Square and left him at the junction to the police headquarters.

Even from afar, the monument could be recognized, which resembled more a walrus, than a horse and Michael shook involuntarily his head. So suspicious as Ms Oblonsky observed her surroundings, it was not too unwise, first to visit the canteen of the police headquarters. The sober room surely calmed down her tarnished nerves, and until they reached him, it was the best; he employed her with a few long overdue routine questions.

"When was the last contact with your husband?"

"Do you mean, as I saw Leo for the very last time? Oh, that was three days ago, he wanted to travel to Krakow. He ordered me, to open the shop at least in the forenoon, and then he went without saying goodbye. You must know, he disappeared more and more often lately, and I was not exactly sad about it. Leo has a very lively temperament, if one of his fantastic plans bursts."

With a shy acting gesture Ms Oblonsky sat back her sunglasses. "You have a completely false picture of Leo. Believe me, he is a good man, even if it doesn't looks so."

"You must live with him." Herold grinned disarmingly and slowed down. He crossed the passage to the courtyard of the police headquarters and parked naughty the car at the reserved space of an officer, which owed him a small favor.

"So here we are at last." Michael undid the belt and nodded encouragingly at Ms Oblonsky.

“Yes, yes, honestly, even a few minutes ago, I do not bet a Groszy on it. But… I hope we come not too late. I do not want; that you are having troubles with the Commissioner, just because of me!"

"Do not worry about it. The Commissioner has closed me in his big heart for so many years."

"Oh, great love among men calms me always!"

"Very well, then at least, we're in the right topic. Let's talk about Lech Bronslav and Joseph Zcybulski."

"I'm sorry; I do not quite understand?"

"You did, believe me!" Herold locked the car and pointed to the double doors of the main building. "Have you not noticed, how much Leo has sought the favor of the two men? Lech Bronslav, girl! A beautiful woman he could not refuse anything! I think, this must be the main reason, why you have accompanied your husband to Lech!"

"Yeah, well, of course I know who Lech Bronslav is, but where is the relationship to my own problems?"

"Oh come on, Mrs. Oblonsky, really!" Michael Herold stepped aside and let her walk into the entrance hall. On the opposite wall hung several telephones and Herold slipped a coin in the first apparatus. "All I want is that you talk with Lech."

At the end of the telephone line persistently rang the dial tone and Michael grimaced. "Typical Lech, he searches his apparatus! As I know him, he has him probably buried under the mountains of newspapers on the floor."

"Yeah?" As usual, the eternally distrustful Bronslav answered not with his name.

"Hello Lech, Michael! Watch out, only very short!" With a few words Herold informed the old man about the events of the morning, and finished then determinedly the never ending tirade on the other of the line. "Now calm down! The woman is not responsible for the practices of her husband! So, speak with her, she keeps me namely for one of Kowalski's colleagues. Please Lech, this is not funny, you must talk to her! Yes Lech, whatever you want!"

Michael Herold rolled his eyes and handed Ms Oblonsky the phone. "It is about time that you learn the full truth. Talk with my old friend, he like your voice."

Leo's wife gave Michael an appraising look; he did not know to interpret, and pressed obedient the plastic shell to her ear. She listened attentively to the distant words and replied then with a quiet, controlled voice. Then the volume of the conversation significantly increased, and Ms. Oblonsky looked horrified to Michael. "By all the saints, how could I think so shamefully of you?"

In a spontaneous gesture she put her left hand on Michael's forearm. "What should I say? I'm so ashamed, I have completely misunderstood you! But now, Lech has opened my eyes. My God, if you had not been so brave! Who knows what these criminals might have done to me." Ms. Oblonsky voice trailed off, and a single tear ran down her cheek.

"It's all right, it's over. You have survived it." Michael took with gentle force the phone from her hand. "Come, I invite you to a strong coffee. Is that an offer?"

"Elzbieta! Please, call me Elzbieta! I am so glad that I finally know your true identity. Lech, he likes you very much, I heard it in the way he speaks respectful of you. And he advised me" - a silent smile lighted Elzbietas face - "to trust you. So, we drink a hot coffee, or it may also be a cappuccino?"

"I'm afraid; you overestimate the German police canteens, Elzbieta! Be glad, if the machine at least drips milk coffee in the cup."

Michael Herold led Elzbieta in the cafeteria located on the first floor and stood at the entrance with her. "Well, now you know why the citizen miss so much cops on the streets!"

With a vague gesture, he pointed at the prosaic room. "I'll get us the best coffee, that is here possible, and you can organize us a nice little free place."

"Oh, in organizing I'm since my youth a pro!"

“I believe that anytime!." Michael Herold lined up in the queue before the buffet and bought the promised drinks. He balances carefully the serving tray around the crowded tables, and looked then down on Ms Oblonsky. "Caution! The cappuccino is not particularly strong, but very, very hot!"

"Good! That awakes my spirit." Elzbieta looked at Michael unexpectedly seriously, and for a fleeting moment, her true colors shone through her mask of feigned carelessness.

"I'm very sorry about my derailment in the car. Honest! I know very well, that I have reacted hysterical! But that’s not the real me, and it has nothing to do with the attack in the video shop. For so many weeks scares me the feeling of an impending disaster; literally takes my breath away."

"Your Husband?"

“Yes, he has changed a lot in the last time. For several weeks, he speaks no longer with me! Not a single important word! And when I ask him about his new friends, he only lied to me, or tells me fairy tales.”

With a straight face Elzbieta sipped at the now cooled coffee and threw a challenging look at Michael. "Well, of course this is not unusual, but lately, he hides his deteriorating transactions before me. Oh, shit!"

Quietly sobbing, Elzbieta put down the cup, and stared at her trembling fingertips. "But why am I telling you all that? That’s not your ridiculous marital problems."

"I fear, I am more deeply entangled in them, as it is good for me."

"You just tell me that, to reassure me." With a sad smile Ms Oblonsky touched her wet cheek. "Sorry, I'm really not in a good mood right now. I must look horrible!!"

A small pocket mirror flashed in Elzbietas right hand, and softly sighing, she studied for a moment her face. Without any false modesty, she wiped her smeared mascara with a cloth and closed then the gold plated case. Hesitantly, she looked for a moment on the expensive-looking utensil and then said in a low voice: "Maybe you should form your own impression of Leo. Although, a photograph can often be deceive."

Elzbieta opened the back of the mirror and pulled out a passport photo. With two fingers, she handed it across the table, and Michael looked curiously at the unknown smart face.

"Check it for yourself." Elzbieta cleared her throat. "It is somehow indicative for Leo, that he learned French as his the first foreign language. He speaks therefore also German with a tiny French accent. You cannot imagine how proud he is, if many consider him as southerner. Should you even see his face, when a beautiful woman asks him: You are from the Cote d'Azur, dear sir?"

Michael Herold had no doubt over Leo's primary talents. With its tightly combed-back black hair, and dark stubble, he looked like the perfect prototype of the Latin lover. A real golden boy, whose seductive image Elzbieta surely caused a lot of pain

"Well, what do you say to the photo? Not at least an honest remark from a man for a man, or at least a polite phrase?"

Elzbieta pushed the Ray-Ban back in her hair and stroked gently with the index finger over the swelling under her left eye. "Okay, it's not necessary! I agree with you, that you despise Leo like all the other cowardly guys that beat their wives. Very honorable, but Michael, are you so much different? You surely know nothing of my existence, as you came in the video shop. So what are you hoping to find? Cheap sensations?”

Elzbietas perfectly painted lips showed the hint of a wry smile. "No, no, you must not reply! I know, you are not the Gandhi of Spandau; because, you have saved me only by accident. I'm a big girl and can very well handle the truth. So, be a nice guy and give me now the promised cigarette. I think, I feel then halfway reconciled with that terrible day."

Michael Herold knocked the required cigarette out of the pack and offers Elzbieta fire. She inhaled deeply and suddenly coughed then convulsively. "This taste is really obnoxious!"

“Menthol! So I'm trying to quit smoking!”

"You really understand it to give an girl courage!" Elzbieta stubbed her cigarette in the ashtray. The only subdued melancholy lingers again on her face, and she poked around with the cigarette butt in the plastic cup. "It is just typical for me! Everything I touch trickles like water through my fingers. Not one of my lousy plans succeeds more, and now punished me my own stupid jealousy."

"Leopold cheats you?"

"That would not be the first time! I know my husband only too well and he had again this hungry look. I really thought he fucks some of his cheap bitches."

Elzbieta laughed in vexation. "The signs were not to be overlooked, and when he allegedly wanted to meet a specific customer, I traced him to this damn English pub. You should have seen me there, I crouched all the time like an idiot behind the wheel of my car and my heart was in my throat. Over and over again, I imagine myself, how he was trying to impress his new bitch, and then it turned out quite differently. When Leo finally left the pub, he had no skinny blonde with big breasts in his arms. No, two guys followed him; absolutely sinister character!"

"Guys like our charming interlocutors?"

Elzbieta nodded mutely and touched with a confidential gesture Herolds arm. "Tell me Michael! Why do I keep right with my misgivings? That evening, I saw clearly the doom, and only a few hours later Leo grabbed his flight bag, and left our apartment. He left without saying goodbye, or turn around. He simply went away, and since then, I heard nothing more from him. Not a single sign of life; not one of his usual control calls!"

"That sounds not good. Your husband caught in his greed a bite, that was just too big for him. Now he's gone and Charley murdered." Michael looked seriously into Elzbietas brown eyes. "And now, this is the worst of all, you are the only available contact person for the mysterious thugs."

"I know nothing, absolutely nothing! I was not privy in Leo’s business."

"Ok, ok! But maybe you have noticed some tiny details! Names, addresses… and this English pub, can you remember where that was?"

"Well, that's a good question. I looked on the outward journey only on Leo’s taillights, and on my way back home, I drove after a long and weary journey through the Kloster-Street. But the pub itself, he looked like the stage scenery in one of these German Edgar Wallace thrillers. On the windows stick advertising posters for Guinness beer and dart and directly over the door hung a large sign. Carved from wood, and in his middle was a red bull's head."

"The" Bull Eyes Tavern "in the Seeburger-Street..." Michael Herold interrupted his unfinished sentence and looked unwillingly up. A shabbily dressed man approached quietly at the table and looked outrageous on the natural curvature at Elzbietas suit-jacket. "Herold, you old slanderer! Who is this pretty face?"

"Bube! Is there any reason, why you not crawling your lord and master in the ass? Herold looked disapprovingly to the greasy, shiny face from Kowalski's underling. Karl-Heinz Bubes entire appearance was again so wrinkled, as if he had spent the last three nights in the open. But Herold could not be fooled by this conscious image of the eternal loser. This man was a lone wolf, who always hunted a once tracked victim to the bitter end. Absolutely mercilessly and without the slightest regard for the normal human manners. Now he grabbed an empty chair at the back and placed him with a penetrating grin next to Elzbieta.

"Do not worry my beautiful one! We'll get along together! But your clever friend..." Karl-Heinz Bube dug a tin box from the depths of his cardigan, opened the lid, and tucked a short cigarillo between his lips.

"Clever Herold, really clever! You are only here, because my dear boss cannot kick your ass."Tube leaned confidentially over Ms Oblonsky. "Your clever friend here knows of course, that the chief inspector sits at that time always at the so-called round table. This is the weekly information meeting of all department heads and my boss annoys it terrible that he owes this Punch and Judy show only a single asshole from the town hall. You should have seen him, when the guy was rewarded with a high position in the Friesen-Street."

Karl-Heinz Bubes pale face almost disappeared behind the enveloping him tobacco cloud. Smug, sucked he on the stinking cigarillo, and leave Elzbieta not out of sight.

"Well, that's just life, injustice is everywhere. This reminds me of the way mate Scherpel from the police…"

"Overload our friendship bonus not too much, Karl-Heinz!" Disgusted, Herold distributed with a fleeting gesture the stinking smoke.

"But, mon ami! You know exactly how much I hate open invoices. Therefore, once again, for the record! Scherpel plays again the scapegoat for the media. His already battered department takes responsibility for the crown exhibition, while the public sees only the well-paid private security forces."

"I understand this correctly? Bergmeier with his low budget has hired private security guards?"

"So it is, my good man. Twenty former top killers of the GSG 9, all highly motivated, and thanks to the quadripartite agreement practical castrated."

Karl-Heinz spat a tobacco crumb on the ground and winked to Elzbieta. "The guy’s dances there merry go round without their shiny weapons and so, they are practically castrated!"

"What Karl Heinz will explain, is..." Michael Herold coughed discreetly, "Thanks to our friends of the allied forces, in West Berlin firearms are prohibited for private persons and this includes of course a commercial guard service."

"That's what I'm saying! For these impotent forces Bergmüller wasted our hard-earned tax dollars. A flagrant scandal is that!" Carelessly pressed Kowalski assistant the still smoldering cigarillo in the ashtray and mustered Elzbietas knee. "But what can you do? After all, we cannot change the world! It was nice to chat with you, and Herold, I see you next week on mayors David's Birthday at the Schützenhof."

Without looking back, Bube walked slowly to the buffet, and Elzbieta shook her head in disbelief. "What a disgusting guy! Is he also on your special payroll?"

"Karl-Heinz? That's just the unofficial mouthpiece from Kowalski's frustrations. Forget the pushy guy and take care about something more important! What about our special friends?"

"Do not take the big boys a bit too seriously?"

"Elzbieta, before Karl-Heinz has interrupted us, I have already explained it: Your husband has not met his obligations! And now the nasty people cannot rest. They surely tried it a second time and then it ends not after a slap in your face!"

With a firm grip Michael Herold spanned Elzbietas small wrists and looked imploringly into her eyes. "You cannot return at home! Visit your family in Poland or some of your girl friends."

"Okay, okay, I understand it now! That's no great problem. Can I stay for a while with a good girl friend of mine; even Leo did not know her address. I phone her quickly and then we break up immediately."

Elzbieta stand up, and smoothed instinctively her skirt. "What are you waiting for? You must drive me first in the city for shopping. Finally, I cannot hide without a fresh toothbrush and a cozy pajama!"