Emerald

by Garner Scott Odell

  “I’m not too fond of German food,” David responded, but still found a parking spot nearby. “I hope they have a decent matzo ball soup and a hot pastrami sandwich.”

  Getting out of the car Miriam quipped, “David, you’re hopeless. Didn’t you ever hear “When in Rome, do as the Romans do?”

  “Sure I heard of that, but I still would like a good Jewish lunch.”

  Just as they were to enter the restaurant Miriam’s cell rang and she listened for a few minutes.

  “That would be great. We’re just going to have lunch at Restaurant Ederer on Kardinal Faulhaber- Strasse. Do you know it? It’s about six blocks east of the Bavarian State Library. Oh, you know where it is. Could you meet us here? Wonderful, we’ll look forward to seeing you.”

  Miriam hung up and turned to David. “That was Elsa, Chief Beinschmidt’s secretary. She knew we were in the chief’s office asking questions about the murders of the two officers and she wants to talk to us about that.”

  “I wonder what that’s all about.”

  They had just finished ordering, no matzo ball soup on the menu, but David did order a hot pastrami sandwich and a beer, when a young woman entered the restaurant and looked around. Miriam waved at her and David pulled out a chair and waited for the obviously nervous woman to join them.

  “Glad you could join us, Lisa. Won’t you have something to eat with us?”

  The nervous woman looked around at the others in the restaurant and then responded, “No thank you. I can’t stay long. The chief would probably fire me or worse if he found out I was talking to you, but I had to come. The chief didn’t tell you about the other suspicious killings in Munich.” Lisa looked around again, and then continued, “Two days before Marvin and Herzog were shot; another murder occurred - - - this time again the victim had slash marks on his upper arm. This murder had taken place in an alley behind the Cobra nightclub, in a rather seedy part of the city. I think the chief should have mentioned it to you,” she said. “And you ought to know that the chief was very angry when the Police Board recruited Marvin and Hertzog. There is something going on in the department ever since he took over about a year ago, nothing that I can actually put my finger on, but things just aren’t the same.” Agitated, she again looked around at the other patrons in the restaurant and began to get up. “I have to go. I’ll call you again if I find out anything more.” And almost tipping over her chair in her need to leave, she walked quickly out of the restaurant.

  Their food arrived. David took a drink of his beer and said, “Well, what do think of that? What does your womanly intuition tell you about our new, but very scared friend?

  You know, with all this weird stuff going on with the police here, I’m not too sure we should stay at that safe house.”

  “But Levi said he trusted Simon completely and Simon told us that safe house hadn’t been used in a while.”

  “I know, but Levi and the Office trusted Marvin and Herzog also and look where that trust got them. If you’ll trust my male intuition this time I think we should check into a hotel and not even tell Simon. I know he’ll be pissed and no telling what Levi will do, But I have a feeling about this.”

  “Ok, I’ll go along with you on this one, but I think hell-fire and brimstone may be headed for both of us.”

  Hans pulled the vibrating cell phone from his pocket, turned it on and listened. Emily, on the other end was telling him, as Klaus, that the bank had released the emerald and it would be in their next auction in two weeks. If he really wanted to bid on that, he would have to finish filling out the required financial statement and other papers for Christies right away. She concluded with the words, “I hope this is the right number, Klaus, just thought you might want to know,” and the cell phone went dead.

  Hans called Lufthansa Airlines and found that he could get a flight to Geneva several times a day and decided that day after tomorrow would be fine and that would give him enough time to plan his bid at the auction.

  “Let’s go back and see the Chief again, Miriam. We can snoop around and see if we can’t find out more about the killings and Hans. It might even give us a lead to where the Nazi groups hang out,” suggested David.

  “I don’t know what we can find out from that butch-haired chauvinist, but I supposed it’s worth a try. I’ll try to bite my tongue and let you ‘big boys’ talk over the top of my head.”

  “Now who’s got an attitude problem?”

  They couldn’t park in the police parking lot because of crime scene tape surrounding the lot.

  “Something’s happened here.”

  “Boy, that’s a real girlie deduction.”

  “Oh, com on David, let’s be at least civil with each other.”

  When David and Miriam walked back to the station, they were stopped by several policemen standing about. The two showed their passports, then identified themselves as official friends of Chief Beinschmidt and were allowed under the tape. The Chief was in his office and a young police woman showed them right in.

  “Oh, you two, just what I need, more experts. We’re in the middle of a difficult situation here. One of our highest ranking men had his throat slashed this morning in the parking lot. There were marks cut into his arm. We’re looking all over for your “Dagger”, As you call him. He must have returned from Geneva.”

  “This morning, huh? Have you sealed off the city?” David asked.

  “Very funny, that’s pretty difficult to do without bringing Munich to a standstill.”

  “Who was the officer, Chief?” Miriam inquired.

  “Frank Wiezer, second in command - - - my right hand man. He will be dearly missed. I’m looking through his case files now - - - he took over the case of your two friends who were killed.”

  “Was he Jewish?” she asked.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. Why do you ask?”

  “Can you tell us where Nazi sympathizers hang out?” David asked.

  “Difficult to tell these days. They’re out there, but they’re not organized and as easy to pinpoint now. They still gather at some of the clubs: the Zebra Club and the Cobra Club are very popular with that crowd now. It’s easy to move around in that scene and not be spotted. Those damned kids paint their bodies and faces and they wear the most outlandish clothes now. It’s hard to tell who the Nazis are but we suspect they might be there. Most of the old Baader- Meinhoff gang have dispersed, died or are in prison, but I really don’t think they’re still very active here.”

  “Sorry to hear about you loss, Chief. Guess there’s not much we can do around here and I can see you’d like us to get out of your hair.”

  Bruno rubbed his polished scalp and growled, “Think you two hotshots are pretty funny, don’t you. Yeah, why don’t you leave us city boys alone and ride off into the sunset.”

  “Thanks, Chief. We’ll look around and keep in touch,” Miriam said sarcastically as they walked out the door.

  “I guess we’re not going to get much help from old Bruno, Are we?

  “Doesn’t look like that. What do you think we should do next?”

  “I think we should get back to Levi and find out what he thinks. Then, how about checking out one of those clubs the chief mentioned.”

  After they decided on a hotel David went up to the reservation desk while Miriam went into the gift shop to buy a magazine. They met again near the elevator and he handed her a key.

  “What’s this?” Miriam asked.

  “It’s the key to our room. That’s the only room left. Seems there is some international banking convention’s in town, and this was a cancelation.”

  “So what are we supposed to do, sleep in the same bed?”

  David looked at Miriam, “that’s not a bad idea, Mrs. Lowenstein.”

  “No, Mr. Lowenstein there better be two beds, one for you and one for me.”

  “Ok for you, party pooper. Why don’t you go up to the room and call Levi. Fill him in on what we’ve found so far and see what he suggests? I’ll go back
to the safe-house, get our things and be back in an hour or so.”

  Miriam responded, “I hope he suggests that we find a hotel with two rooms.”

  David laughed and walked away as Miriam pushed the up button beside the elevator.

  David knocked on their hotel room door twice, paused, twice again, paused, and then once. Miriam opened the door and said, “Why that secret knocks, are you a spy or something?”

  Smiling as he walked past her, “I always knock like that when I come to a single woman’s hotel room.”

  Dropping their bags down on one of the beds he asked, “What did you find out from Levi?”

  Sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs she answered, “Several things, first he thinks we are wrong about our suspicion concerning Simon. There has never been anything at all for him to suspect Simon of any wrong doing. We should trust him and don’t worry about staying at that safe house. But he did say he’ll trust our judgment and explain our misgivings to Simon. Second, and more importantly, the auction that includes the emerald will take place in a couple of weeks and we should be back in Geneva. His reasoning is that if Hans Huber is the killer and is after that emerald, he will certainly be in Geneva. Our chances of catching him there are certainly greater that in Munich, especially if our suspicions about Chief Beinschmidt are correct. He will talk more with Servette about and we can also talk to him when we return to Geneva. That’s about it, I guess.”

  “So do you want to escape this single room and drive back to Geneva tonight or what?”

  “I thought we had a date to go clubbing. Are you going to chicken out on me about that?”

  “No way, I’m game if you are. Why don’t we change clothes, have dinner downstairs, and then head out to the Cobra Club.”

  David kicked off his shoes and started unbuttoning his shirt when Miriam got up from her chair and said, “Whoa buster, I may have to share one room with you tonight, but I certainly don’t have to see your hairy chest. Moving to the bags on the bed she began going through her clothes.

  “If you wait a few minutes I’ll take my shower and steam up the bathroom, just so you can’t see anything, you understand.”

  David and Miriam were some of the few who didn’t have to show ID to get into the Cobra Club. They got there early and sat at a table near the dance floor facing back into the crowd so they could look around the place. A waitress in bra and skimpy shorts served them drinks. Miriam said, “Go ahead and look, just as long as you don’t think you’ll see more of that in our hotel room tonight.”

  Miriam paused for a moment and glanced around the room. “David, do you think Hans could have shaved his head?” Miriam asked, seeing how many of the young men were bald. “Maybe we should have Malcolm compose a picture of Hans with no hair. It might give us a better idea of who to look for.”

  “There’s a lot of them with Mohawks too. Hey, what about that guy over there near the end of the bar? He’s shaved.”

  “No, he’s too young. Hans is 47, if we have the right guy, and in this place even we’re dinosaurs. These are mostly just kids. Maybe we’re in the wrong place.”

  “Would he be in a group or more probably just a loner?”

  “A loner. See that guy who just walked in? What about him?”

  “He looks more like what I think he’d look like. And he’s alone. I’ll watch him. You keep a watch on the entrance,” David said.

  “They sipped their drinks and watched. The club filled up, the noise level was really too high for conversation anyway.

  “Miriam, I’m going to tail that one.” David leaned close and spoke directly into her ear. “He seems to be looking around a lot, and I don’t think just for girls,” and gently nibbled her ear.

  As David got up from the table, the man saw him watching and quickly stepped into the densest part of the crowd to disappear. David suddenly appeared about ten feet from him again, though he was looking the other way. The bald headed man made his way swiftly through the crowd over to the other side of the club and went into the men’s room. He stayed there watching everyone through the stall door he held slightly ajar, then slipped out the door and through the back exit.

  When David returned to the table, Miriam was talking to a guy who was trying to get her to dance.

  “Hey, didn’t you hear her say no, David said to him loudly. The guy took off.

  “I lost him, now I’m suspicious. He looked at me then quickly moved into the crowd. I never saw him again after that, and I circled the whole club three times. Do I look suspicious or something?”

  “Not something, but you are looking pretty hard. You gotta remember these are kids and a lot are Nazi sympathizers - - - it’s the new fad. They are really loud and aggressive with each other, so we stick out. You want to try another club? Or just go back to the hotel?”

  “Let’s go back to the hotel.”

  “That’s the best idea you’ve had all evening.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Munich - - - Geneva

  In his pajamas, David walked out of the bathroom and noticed that Miriam was still asleep and slipped into his bed again. Miriam turned over, “Good morning, David. Did you sleep all right?”

  “Well, until your cell phone went off on some ungodly hour this morning.”

  “Sorry David, I guess Levi thinks we work round the clock like he does.”

  “What time was that?”

  “Five ten. He didn’t even wait for me to wake up and started in with what Research thinks is going on with the bastard we are looking for.”

  David got up and sat on the edge of Miriam’s bed, and wondered what it would be like to be in there with Miriam.

  “So what did Levi say?”

  “He and Research seem to have put two and two together and come up with just about the same as we have. David, will you please stop patting my bed and listen.”

  “Sorry, tell me more.”

  “Malcolm thinks that, like Josephine at the Library, Hans probably is after the Wittelsbach Emerald because he’s convinced it belongs to him as part of the Huber legacy. You remember that Josephine found in his grandfather’s diary that he had disinherited Han’s father when he joined the Nazi party. Evidently that emerald was given to two of his valued and trusted long-time employees and just recently will be put back on the auction block.”

  “Ok, that makes sense, but why all the killing of Jews?”

  “Malcolm’s theory is that he is doing all those killings out of a pathological hatred based on his angry proclamation to get even when his father was killed and he was shot during our 1960 capture of Eichmann.”

  “Isn’t that stretching theories a bit?”

  “Not really, evidently Malcolm pulled the report of the capture in Buenos Aires out of some dusty file and it clearly indicates that the young Huber threatened to revenge the death of his father on Jews.”

  “But why after all these years living in Argentina and becoming a very successful and wealthy business man?”

  “They don’t have an answer for that question. The closest they can come up with is that it is a pathological neurosis that has lain dormant for all this time. They have no idea what caused it to rise to the surface of his personality at this particular time in his life. David, we need to get dressed, pack up and head back to Geneva.”

  “Whoa, what’s going on? We haven’t finished what we came here to do.”

  “I know, but Levi had a call from Servette telling him that the auction is back on and will be held this coming Friday. Levi told me to forget about the murders here, Simon can handle things here at the moment and if needed we can come back after the auction. He feels certain that Hans will be at the auction. Simon has purchased airline tickets already and we can pick them up at the Swiss International ticket counter at the airport. And incidentally Simon went back to the safe-house and would you believe he did find a bug in the living room that you missed when you swept it when we arrived.”

  “What, I missed a bug? Where was it?”


  “Simon said it was built into the smoke detector over the door to the dining room. He didn’t even find it on his first sweep. Anyway we’re not staying there, so don’t worry about it.”

  “Thanks, but it does bother me. When is our flight out of Munich?”

  “Would you believe seven-thirty tonight?”

  “I guess we won’t have to take you nightclubbing at the Cobra Club again tonight.”

  “Guess not, but if you get out of here and let me get dressed, you can buy me breakfast and maybe I’ll take a rain-check on another hot date at the Cobra Club.”

  Hans went to several Munich department stores before finding the clothes he needed for the auction. Then he went to a theatre supply store and replenished his supply of theatrical prosthetics, glues and glue removers, hairpieces and makeup both dry and wet. He carefully packed his suitcase, locked his make-up case and stowed them both in his beloved ‘68 Mercedes 250 SE.

  Emily’s phone call had caught him off guard, the auction to be held on Friday, in just four days? Did he have time to get ready? Going over his plan in his mind he tried to visualize any possible issues that might prevent him from getting his emerald. He had gone to the hotel and carefully explored the room where the auction was to be held, disguised as a security man from a bidding conglomerate. He had evaluated every possible escape route from the auction gallery in the hotel, should he need to leave in a hurry. His weapons were ready, taken apart, cleaned, oiled, still stored in the flat case under the false floor of the trunk in his car, cleverly hidden should anyone inspect the car.

  Gunther, his mentor in Argentina had mailed two new daggers to him, made of porcelain with cork handles so that they would pass through metal detectors at airports or the hotel, should they use a detector there. The larger one would remain in the special sheath just below his collar behind his head, the smaller one kept in the sheath strapped to the inside of his left calf.