“I’m not alleging, that’s exactly what happened.”

“I can’t know that for sure. Do you have a particular suspect in mind?”

“I was traveling with an elderly lady and two gentlemen. One of them had a blond mustache.”

The inspector laughed or coughed, it was impossible to tell. “Is that all you can tell me?” he asked. “Would you recognize them?”

“I believe so.”

“What did the briefcase look like?”

“It was brown leather with a steel lock. Here, this is the key.”

“Did you note the number of the train?”

“No, unfortunately I didn’t think to do that.”

“At what time did this supposedly occur?”

“It was the last train to Berlin, I think.”

“You think! What time did the train arrive in Berlin?”

“Toward one AM.”

“Is that all the information you can provide? You claim that on the last train from Dresden to Berlin you lost a briefcase…”

“It was stolen!” Silbermann cut him off.

“Don’t be so rude! I’m not deaf.”

“What do you intend to do?” asked Silbermann.

“We’ll have to see.”

“I’d like to add a finder’s fee of ten percent of whatever amount I receive when the perpetrators are apprehended.”

“First you have to get your money back, second you have to have lost it, and third…”

“You don’t seem to be taking my report seriously. Do you think I’m joking? Is that it?” Silbermann interrupted the inspector. As he did so, he sat down in the chair opposite the desk, having waited in vain to be offered a seat.

The inspector viewed this uninvited gesture as disrespectful, but didn’t exactly know how to respond. “Kindly let me finish,” he snapped. “My opinion on the matter is not at all up for discussion. You have filed a report, and my job is to examine it and pass it on. Will you now please explain why you were traveling around with thirty thousand marks in your briefcase?”

“Who said I was traveling around?”

“In any event you were in Dresden.”

“Don’t I have the right to travel to Dresden?”

“I’m the one asking questions here! And what I want to know from you is”—he paused and glanced at the paper he had just filled out, then suddenly looked up and asked—“were you planning to take the money out of the country?”

“Do you want to look for the thief or cast suspicion on the victim?” Silbermann retorted, having anticipated that particular line of attack.

“As I’ve already told you, what I want or don’t want isn’t the issue. Here in this office I am not who I really am, but a public official. Otherwise you might be surprised at who you’re dealing with!”