Chapters (38)
- Cover
- Also by Philip Kerr
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
This one I’d seen before; it was a picture of me taken in Prague with SD General Reinhard Heydrich, just a short while before he’d been murdered by Czech assassins.
“You’ve had an interesting life,” said the monk. “No doubt about it. I expect you’re an excellent hotel concierge, able to provide all sorts of information. Not just about local restaurants.”
“What are you—a spy? A cop? A civil servant?”
“Something like that.”
“Put me in a room with Harold Hennig,” I said. “And let me ask him some questions. You’ll see just how unreliable your star witness really is. Frankly, it’s just his word against mine.”
“Perhaps.”
“Look, I can see that this man, Erich Mielke, and the Stasi—they’ve been to a great deal of trouble here. But ask yourself this: If they went to all this trouble to discredit your man Hollis, how is it that their plan now falls apart so easily? How is it that Harold Hennig is possessed of pictures that are incriminating to me, if he’s supposed to be on an operation with me? That makes no sense at all.”
“He’s a blackmailer. You said so yourself.”
“Think about it. How is it that you’re now able to discount what was in Burgess’s confession so quickly? So conveniently?”
“You’ll understand everything soon enough. We’ve decided that it would be quickest to assemble all of the interested parties here in this room, to go over all of the available evidence and to hear what the various people involved have to say. A chance to clear the air. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
I glanced at the open door at the end of the room where someone had coughed.
“Are my judges in there?”
“Judges?”
“What you’re describing here sounds suspiciously like a trial,” I said.
“I suppose you might say that, yes.”
“And if I’m found guilty?”
“That’s a very good question.”
“Maybe you’d like to answer it.”
“I think it’s you who needs to think very carefully about your answers, Herr Gunther. We’re asking the questions. And I would strongly advise you to cooperate. You’ll find life is so much easier for you that way.”