A Slow Death (Max Drescher Book 1) by James Craig

Author:James Craig [Craig, James]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Organized Crime, Noir, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Historical, Crime Fiction, Thrillers, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense
Amazon: B013CENYHG
Publisher: Fahrenheit Press
Published: 2015-09-09T12:00:00+00:00

27

The funeral service for Peter Behle was held at the Catholic church of Fei Bonifatius in Kreuzberg. It was already well underway when they slipped into a pew at the back. Scanning the room, Max found himself cheered by the size of the turnout but dismayed by the fact that he could not find a single familiar face amongst the crowd of a hundred or so family and friends. He wondered how many of the people gathered here to celebrate Peter’s memory actually knew about his double life? Peter had always kept his love life hermetically sealed from the rest of his existence. He had been terrified of his parents finding out and Max had always been kept well away from any social gatherings.

I respected his wishes in life, Max suddenly thought, so why not in death? He gently nudged Clara on the shoulder. ‘Let’s go,’ he whispered.

Clara turned to look at him and frowned. ‘But we’ve only just got here.’

Taking her arm, Max gently lifted her to her feet. ‘C’mon, we need to get out of here.’

Walking down the busy Hasenheide, Max bought two coffees from a kiosk and led Clara into the eponymous Volkspark nearby. Finding a bench under a massive oak tree, they had barely sat down when there was a screech of tyres and the crash of metal on metal, followed almost instantly by the bellowing of multiple car horns. Looking up, Max saw that a slate grey Trabant had gone into the back of a giant Mercedes about twenty yards down the street. The East German vehicle looked like it had disintegrated but that did not stop the Merc driver jumping from his car and berating the shocked Trabi driver mercilessly.

‘Don’t you want to go and sort that out?’ Clara asked.

‘What,’ Max asked in mock indignation, ‘do I look like a traffic cop?’ Already he could hear the faint sound of sirens heading towards them. ‘It’ll get sorted out soon enough.’

‘I just hope that the guy in the Trabant doesn’t get beaten up first.’

‘Serves him right for driving that piece of crap if he does,’ Max harrumphed.

‘They won’t be around for long,’ Clara sighed. ‘Just another symbol of East Germany's failed experiment in communism.’

‘Quite.’ Max watched a police car roll up. ‘The government was subsidising each and every bloody car to the tune of fifteen hundred deutschmarks.’ He shook his head. ‘Crazy.’

‘It kept sixty-five thousand people in work,’ Carla pointed out.

‘It was still crazy.’

‘God knows what all those people will do now.’ Clara shivered against the chill as she drank from the paper cup. Dressed in a business suit and a pearl blouse, she was perfectly turned out for the occasion but lacked an overcoat. Slipping off his raincoat, Max draped it over her shoulders.

‘Thanks,’ she smiled.

‘Sorry for dragging you out of there.’

‘That’s okay.’ She reached over and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek, like a mother soothing a fractious child. ‘Was it all too much?’

Leaning forward, Max took a mouthful of coffee. ‘Nah,’ he shook his head.

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