Prague Fatale
Page 21
‘So, what do you make of it, sir?’
‘Bloody fool,’ I muttered.
‘How’s that, sir?’
‘Heydrich. The way he drives around the city like he’s invulnerable. Like Achilles. As if daring the poor bastards to come and have a go.’
‘The Czechos are just mad enough to do it, too.’
‘You think so?’
Kahlo nodded.
‘How long have you been in Prague?’
‘Long enough to know that the Czechos have got guts. More than we like to give them credit for.’
‘Kurt, isn’t it?’
Kahlo nodded.
‘Where are you from, Kurt?’
‘Mannheim, sir.’
‘How did you become a cop?’
‘I’m not exactly sure. My dad was a car-worker at the Daimler-Benz factory. But I never much fancied being stuck in a factory myself. He wanted me to become a lawyer, only I wasn’t clever enough, so becoming a cop seemed like the next best thing.’
‘So what do you make of it?’
‘It’s a puzzle, sir. A man is found shot dead inside a first-floor bedroom that’s locked from the inside. The windows are bolted and there’s no murder weapon present. Down the corridor there’s a spent nine-millimetre Parabellum round on the floor, so clearly a gun was fired at some time between the hours of midnight and, say, five o’clock this morning. And yet you’d also expect someone to have remarked on that, because a P38 wasn’t picked as the Army’s choice of firearm because it’s so bloody quiet. They can’t all have been so pissed they didn’t hear anything. The staff weren’t pissed. Not with Kritzinger in charge. Why didn’t they hear something? And not just a gunshot, either. I can’t imagine Kuttner standing on the landing upstairs and saying nothing as someone is about to shoot him. Me I’d have shouted “Help” or “Don’t shoot”, or something like that.’
‘I agree.’
‘Kuttner was under the influence of a sleeping pill,’ he said. ‘Maybe he didn’t realize quite how much peril he was in. Maybe it was dark and he didn’t see the gun. Maybe he was shot outside and because he was drugged he didn’t realize the severity of his injury. So he comes back in the house, goes back to his room, locks the door, lies down, and dies. Maybe.’
I shook my head. ‘You’ve got more maybes there than Fritz bloody Lang.’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘Frankly, I wouldn’t know where to start with this one, sir. However, I’m keen to learn from someone who does, such as you. That is, if General Heydrich is to be believed. Anyway, you have my full cooperation, sir. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it, with no questions asked.’
‘Questions are good, Kurt. It’s obedience I have a problem with. In particular, my own.’
Kahlo grinned. ‘Then I think yours should be an interesting career, sir.’
I opened Kuttner’s SD file and glanced over the details of the dead man’s short life.
‘Albert Kuttner was from Halle-an-der-Saale. Interesting.’
‘Is it? I can’t say I know the place.’
‘What I mean is, Halle is where Heydrich is from.’
‘So he could be taking this personally.’
‘Yes. True. Kuttner was born in 1911. That makes him seven years younger than Heydrich. His father was a Protestant pastor at a local church. But instead of pursuing a career in the Church, or in the Navy – like his boss—’
‘Heydrich was in the Navy? I didn’t know that.’
‘It’s said he got kicked out of it for conduct unbecoming when he knocked up some admiral’s daughter. But don’t tell anyone I said so.’
‘This admiral’s daughter. Is that the present Frau Heydrich?’
‘No. It’s not.’
‘So he is human, after all.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
‘Kuttner studied law at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and the Humboldt University of Berlin, where it seems he was a brilliant student. He received his doctor of laws in 1935 and worked for the ministries of justice and the interior before joining the SD.’
‘So far, so predictable.’
‘Hmm. Near the top of his class in officer school. Highly praised by everyone who assessed him; he was being groomed for one of the top jobs in Berlin. In May this year he was transferred to the Einsatzgruppen and ordered to Pretzsch, where he was assigned to Group A and sent east. Nothing unusual about that. Lots of decent men have been sent east. Decent men and some lawyers. On June 23rd he and the group were ordered to proceed to Riga, in Latvia, to help with “the resettlement of the indigenous Jewish population”.’
‘Resettlement. Yes, I know what that entails.’
‘Good. It will save me having to explain the distinction between “resettlement” and “mass murder”.’
‘Am I to assume that your appreciation of the distinction is based on personal experience, sir?’
‘You are. But please don’t assume that I did a good job. There are no good jobs out east. Albert Kuttner didn’t take to his work any more than I did. Which is why he felt guilty. Like me. And why he wasn’t sleeping.’
‘Thus the Veronal in his room.’
I turned the page in Kuttner’s file and read on a little before speaking again.
‘That guilt appears to have manifested itself for the first time just three weeks into his tour of Latvia when he put in for a transfer to the Army. But the request was refused by his commander, Major Rudolf Lange. Well, that hardly surprises me. I knew Rudolf Lange when he was with the Berlin police. The cat never stops catching mice. He was a bastard then and he’s a bastard now. Reason given for refusal of request for transfer: personnel shortages. But a week later he puts in for another transfer. This time he’s given an official reprimand. For conduct likely to damage morale.’
‘It’s a dirty job so someone has to do it, right?’
‘Something like that, I suppose.’
I turned another page in Kuttner’s file.
‘By August however, Albert is back in Berlin facing a disciplinary inquiry. It seems he threatened a superior officer with a pistol – it doesn’t say who, but I hope it was Lange, I’ve often wanted to stick a gun in that fat fucker’s face. Kuttner’s placed under close arrest, but not close enough because he then attempts suicide. No details on that either. But he’s sent back to Berlin for that disciplinary inquiry. A so-called SS court of honour. Only the disciplinary inquiry is suspended. No reason given.’
‘Do you think Heydrich might have pulled some strings?’
‘That’s what it looks like, because the next thing is that Albert is on the General’s staff in Berlin. Lighting his cigarettes, booking seats at the opera, and fetching coffee.’
‘Now that is a good job,’ said Kahlo.
‘You don’t strike me as an opera fan.’
‘Not the opera. The cigarettes.’ His eyes were on my cigarette. ‘The tobacco ration being what it is.’
‘Sorry.’ I opened my cigarette case. ‘Help yourself.’
Kahlo took one, lit up and then puffed with obvious satisfaction. Holding the cigarette in front of his eyes, like a rare diamond, he grinned happily.
‘I’d forgotten how good a cigarette can taste,’ he said.
‘There’s a page missing from this file,’ I said. ‘In my own SD file there’s a page headed “Personal Remarks”. I’ve only ever seen it upside down but it’s full of things my superiors have said about me like “insubordinate” and “politically unreliable”.’
‘You read good upside down.’ Kahlo grinned. ‘I’m a bit of a beefsteak Nazi myself, sir. Brown on the outside but red in the middle. Although I’m not as rare as my old dad. Being a car-worker he was red all the way.’
‘Mm hmmm.’
I handed Kahlo the file.
‘It’s not much to go on,’ he said, flicking through it.
‘Let’s see what we can find out for ourselves.’
I picked up the telephone and asked the Lower Castle
switchboard to connect me with the Alex in Berlin. A few minutes later I was able to speak with the Records Division. I asked them if they had a file on Albert Kuttner. They didn’t. So I had them run a check on his address, which was always something you could do in Berlin because it wasn’t just individuals who generated records in Prussia, it was places, too. The Prussian State Police were nothing if not thorough. And a few minutes later Records called back to tell me that Flat 3, 4 Pestalozzi Strasse, in Charlottenburg was home to another man besides Albert Kuttner.
And when I had the Records people check him out, I started to believe I had something.
‘Lothar Ott,’ I said, reading aloud my notes of these several telephone conversations. ‘Born Berlin February 21st 1901. Two convictions for male prostitution, one 1930, the other 1932. Not only that but his previous address was number one Friedrichsgracht, near Berlin’s Spittelmarkt. That won’t mean much to a cop from Mannheim but to a bull from Berlin it means a lot. Until 1932, number one Friedrichsgracht was a notorious homosexual club called the Burger Casino. Either the late Captain Kuttner was very tolerant of homosexuals or—’
‘Or he was maybe a bit warm himself.’ Kahlo nodded. ‘I mean, you wouldn’t live with someone like that unless you were, would you?’
‘What do you think? You met him.’
‘You’re asking if Kuttner struck me as the type? I dunno. A lot of officers strike me that way. It’s possible, I suppose. He could have been the type. You know, a bit fastidious. A bit too careful about his appearance. A bit too much Cologne on his hair. The way he walked. Now I come to think of it, yes, I can see it. When he shrugged it looked just like my brother’s daughter.’
‘I agree.’
‘Someone ought to give this other fellow, Ott, a knock and see how he takes the news that Kuttner’s dead.’
‘That’s an idea.’
So I telephoned the Alex again and explained Kahlo’s idea to an old friend in Kripo called Trott, who promised to go and see Lothar Ott and give him the bad news in person and then report back on the show.
As soon as I replaced the receiver, the telephone rang. Kahlo answered it.
‘It’s Doctor Honek,’ he said, handing me the candlestick. ‘Calling about the autopsy.’
I took the phone.
‘This is Gunther.’
‘I managed to find someone to perform an autopsy on Captain Kuttner,’ said Honek. ‘Today. Like you asked me, Commissar. In view of the circumstances, Professor Hamperl, from the Pathological Institute of the German Charles University in Prague, has agreed to carry out the procedure at four o’clock this afternoon. He’s most distinguished.’
‘Where?’
‘At the Bulovka Hospital.’
‘All right. We’ll be there at four.’
After I hung up, Kahlo said, ‘We? What’s this “we”? You don’t want me there, do you?’
‘You said you were keen to learn, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, but well, the thing is, I’ve never seen an autopsy before.’
‘There’s nothing to it. Besides, we have a distinguished professor to perform the autopsy.’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, anxiously. ‘I mean, dead people. I don’t know. They look like they’re dead, right?’
‘It’s best that way. When they look alive it puts the pathologist a bit off his knife.’ I shrugged. ‘It’s your choice. Now let’s have a look at that list of names that Major Ploetz gave us. I think some of them look like they’re people.’
Those present at the Lower Castle on the night of
2nd/3rd October 1941 included the following:
SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich
SS Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt
SS Obergruppenführer Karl von Eberstein
SS Gruppenführer Konrad Henlein
SS Gruppenführer Dr Hugo Jury
SS Gruppenführer Karl Hermann Frank
SS Brigadeführer Bernard Voss
SS Standartenführer Dr Hans Ulrich Geschke
SS Standartenführer Horst Bohme
SS Obersturmbannführer Walter Jacobi
SS Sturmbannführer Dr Achim Ploetz
Wehrmacht Major Paul Thummel
SS Hauptsturmführer Kurt Pomme
SS Hauptsturmführer Hermann Kluckholn
SS Hauptsturmführer Albert Küttner
SS Unterscharführer August Beck
Staff
SS Sturmscharführer Gert Kritzinger
Butler
SS Oberscharführer Johannes Klein
Chauffeur
SS Unterscharführer Hermann Kube
Chef
SS Rottenführer Wilhelm Seupel
Assistant Chef
SS Rottenführer Walther Artner
Senior Footman
SS Stürmann Adolf Jachod
Senior Footman
SS Stürmann Kurt Bauer
Footman
SS Stürmann Oskar Fendle
Footman
SS Helferin Elisabeth Schreck
Secretary to Heydrich
SS Kriegshelferin Siv Elsler
Assistant Secretary to H.
SS Kriegshelferin Charlotte Teitze
Maid
SS Kriegshelferin Rosa Steffel
Maid
SS Kriegshelferin Liv Lemke
Maid
Bruno Kopkow
Head Gardener
Otto Faulhaber
Assistant Gardener
Johannes Bangert
Assistant Gardener
Upper Castle Personnel
SS Gruppenführer Konstantin von Neurath
The Baroness von Neurath, Marie Auguste Moser von Filseck
SS Hauptsturmführer Eduard Jahn
SS Oberscharführer Richard Kolbe
Butler
SS Rottenführer Richard Miczek
Chef
SS Sturmmann Rolf Braun
Footman
SS Kriegshelferin Anna Kurzidim,
Maid
SS Kriegshelferin Victoria Kuckenberg
Maid
For obvious reasons it is recommended that you conduct your interviews at the Lower Castle in strict order of seniority. For reasons of security and confidentiality, please confine all interviews to the Morning Room. Interviews at the Upper Castle should be conducted by arrangement with the Baron’s adjutant, SS Hauptsturmführer Eduard Jahn. A safe will be provided for your use in the Morning Room. All documents pertaining to this inquiry should be placed in it when not in use for reasons of confidentiality.
Signed SS-Major Dr Achim Ploetz,
Adjutant to SS Obergruppenführer Heydrich
My eyes slid off the page and landed on the floor with a loud sigh.
‘If one were to assume that anyone at the Lower Castle might have had the opportunity and the motive to kill Captain Kuttner,’ I said, ‘that leaves us with thirty-one suspects.’
‘Christ,’ muttered Kahlo. ‘That’s at least one for every day of the month.’
‘Thirty-nine including the personnel at the Upper Castle with von Neurath. It’s only a short walk from there to the Upper Castle, so I don’t see how they can be excluded.’