‘She’s undecided.’
‘Well, if you like, I’ll write to her and give her a few tips and one or two names.’
‘She’d love that. And thank you for your hospitality. I’m sorry we got off to a rough start.’
‘Oh well, it wasn’t you, Professor – it’s these military types. What can one do?’
She was staring at him hard. There was something in her eyes but it was difficult to discern what exactly. For a moment he thought she was laughing at him, but that was absurd.
‘You know, Mr Wilde – Professor Wilde – I still don’t have the faintest idea what you are doing in my DP camp. Nor have you told me who’s behind the shooting? Should I be involving Major Derrick in this?’
‘That’s up to you.’ He rose from his chair. ‘Thank you for the tea, Dr Gray.’
‘Can I call you Tom? And you call me Angie? Everyone here is so bloody formal in that Germanic way – Frau Doctor this, Herr Professor that . . . I’m rather tired of it.’
‘My pleasure, Angie.’
She smiled. ‘By the way, have you got a good supply of chlorine pills? Not safe to drink the water without them.’
‘Then I’d better stick to beer and schnapps.’
She raised an eyebrow, then opened a cupboard pulled out a small brown bottle. ‘Here, my treat. Just drop one into the glass if you’re ever desperate enough to drink H2O.’ She handed him the pills. ‘Oh, and would I be right in thinking it was that madman Mo Heck who shot our new patient?’
‘No comment.’
‘Heck’s been hanging around here two weeks now. Claims he’s a refugee from Amsterdam searching for his family. But he’s too well fed. He’s hunting SS men.’
‘Maybe, but the bit about his family’s true. He believes they were murdered in one of the death camps.’
*
Wilde met up with Heck five minutes later outside the cookhouse. He assumed the Dutchman had avoided going to the medical centre so as not to be identified or have to face any sort of inquiry. He was sitting on the ground, knees bunched up to his chest and a skinny, obviously malnourished boy of about thirteen was filming him with a home movie camera which Wilde recognised as a Kodak 8, the exact same one that he had at home.
‘What kept you, Professor?’ Heck said.
‘I was shooting the breeze with the doctor.’
‘Is the fucking Nazi alive or dead?’
‘Still alive.’
‘That’s a shame. I’ll fix him later.’
‘Not a good idea, Lieutenant Heck. We have other things to do and it won’t help if you’re in court on a murder charge. Now, let’s make our way to CIC Garmisch.’
‘First meet my friend Jerzy. Jerzy Krakow, because he comes from Krakow. Either he doesn’t know his real name or he doesn’t care to use it.’
Wilde saw that the boy had now turned the camera lens in his direction. He kept the device up to his eye, seemingly filming constantly. He nodded to him. ‘Hello, Jerzy, I’m Tom.’