Self’s Murder

Ulbrich looked at the photos slowly, without saying a word. “What did she die of?”

“Cancer.”

He assumed a troubled look and shook his head. “It’s still not fair though. I mean, once a child is born it also has to…” He didn’t continue.

What would I have done if Klara had wanted to keep the child? Had she ever asked herself this and concluded that I couldn’t have handled something like that?

He shook his head again. “It’s all very unfair. What a beautiful woman she was. The man… the man must have also been quite handsome. And take a look at me.” He held his face toward me as if I’d never seen it before. “If you’d been my father, I could understand. But with two such good-looking people…”

I burst out laughing, and he was taken aback. He made himself another cappuccino and had another slice of apple pie.

“I read that article in the Ma

I didn’t say anything.

“You haven’t really done anything. But the other guy, the one from the bank…” He waited, and when I was still silent, he continued feeling his way forward. “I mean, he clearly preferred not to tell the police that he… And I imagine that he’d also prefer that nobody else would tell them that-”

“You would tell them?”

“You needn’t say that so sharply, as if I were some… All I’m saying is, he’d do better not to leave anything to chance. Are you still working for him?”

Did he intend to blackmail Welker?

“Are you in such bad financial shape?” I asked him.

“I-”

“You’d do better to go back where you came from. I’m sure the security network will soon be flourishing there the way it is everywhere else. Firms will be looking for representatives, and insurance companies will be looking for agents who know their way around. There’s nothing for you to gain here. It’ll be your word against ours-how far will you get?”

“My word? What do you think I’m going to say? I was only asking. I mean…” After a while he said quietly: “I tried to get a job as a security guard, and also as an insurance agent, even as a zookeeper. It’s not that easy.”

“That’s a pity.”

He nodded. “There are no free rides anymore.”

After he left I called Welker. I wanted to warn him. Should Ulbrich seek him out, I didn’t want him to find Welker unprepared. “Thank you for informing me,” he said. He took down Ulbrich’s name and address and seemed quite unruffled. “See you next Saturday.”

14 One and one that makes two

The children enjoyed Welker’s party most. They were the right age-Manu and Welker’s son, Max, were a little older than Isabel, Welker’s daughter, and A

The Nägelsbachs were there, along with Philipp and Füruzan, Füruzan’s colleague and her boyfriend, and Brigitte and me. I could see how relieved Philipp was that Nägelsbach had decided not to go to the police. There was also a young woman there whom Welker introduced as Max’s teacher at the Kurfürst-Friedrich Gymnasium and on whom he lavished as much attention as a young widower with two children could afford to. I’ve forgotten who the other guests were. They were Welker’s neighbors and friends, or acquaintances from his te

At first the conversation was a little stiff, but the awkwardness quickly evaporated. The wine, a chardo

It grew cooler, and a fireplace was glowing inside the house.

“Shall we go for a stroll in the garden before we go inside?” Welker said, taking me aside.

We crossed the lawn and sat down on a bench beneath the blackthorn.

“I’ve thought a lot about Gregor Samarin-and us Welkers, too. We took him in, but everything we gave him was like a handout. Because we gave, we also expected his services. When I was a boy I had the room in the attic, while his room was in the cellar so he could take care of the central heating, which back then still ran on coal, not oil.” He slowly shook his head. “I’ve been trying to remember when I first realized that he hated me. I can’t recall. Back then it simply didn’t interest me, which is why I can’t remember.” He looked at me. “Isn’t that terrible?”

I nodded.

“I know that shooting him was even worse,” Welker continued. “But somehow it’s terrible in the same way. Do you know what I mean? What happened in our childhood bore fruit, as the Bible says. In his case, it was murdering my wife and everything else he did, and in my case, that I could only save myself from him the way I did.”

“He told me he liked your wife.”

“He liked Stephanie the way a servant might like the daughter of a master he hates. At the end of the day her place is on the other side, and when the chips are down, that’s all that matters. When Stephanie confronted him, the chips were down.”

The lights went on in the house and their glow fell on the lawn. It remained dark beneath the blackthorn. Someone put on a Hildegard Knef record: “One and One That Makes Two.” I wanted to take Brigitte in my arms and dance a waltz. “As for Stephanie,” he continued, “I don’t know where it was that they… Were they waiting for her up at the hut? I have no idea how they could have followed us without our noticing. We thought we were alone.” He pressed his hands against his eyes and sighed. “I still can’t rid myself of this nightmare. And yet all I want is to wake up and put it all behind me.”

I felt sorry for him. At the same time, I didn’t really want to hear what he was telling me. I wasn’t his friend. I had completed the case he had hired me for. I now had another case.

“What did you talk about with Schuler the evening you went to see him?” I asked.

“Schuler…” If I had hurt him by the abrupt change of topic, he showed no sign. “Gregor and I went to see him together. He told us about his work with the files and about the Strasbourg lead concerning the silent partner, which you later followed. Otherwise…”

“Did you ask him for the money? The money in the attaché case?”

“He talked about it, but back then I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about. Schuler said that a person becomes suspicious when he finds money in a cellar and starts wondering whom it might belong to, knowing that no good comes of evil, and had we forgotten that? He was looking at Gregor when he said it.”