Deadly Darkness by Kate Parker

Author:Kate Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JDP Press
Published: 2021-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I was already in our room getting dressed for dinner when Adam came upstairs. “How is your translating coming along?” I asked.

“I’ve learned that the personnel for the 1933 and 1935 expeditions were nearly identical. They were all German, except for Sir Rupert. The only difference I could see was the addition in 1935 of a German national, Matthias Tomperglich, as one of the geologists who replaced another German. Apparently, he was a respected mineralogist or mining expert. My translation on that is weak. He was the one who died.”

“Did you learn any of the details?” He may have fallen, but I pictured any death in the Arctic to be due to the cold.

“It was summer and apparently the higher temperatures weakened a stretch of glacier. It collapsed under Tomperglich’s weight, sending him to his death on the rocks below, very close to the sea. It turns out Tomperglich, Wolfenhaus, and Sir Rupert were the only ones in the area, and Sir Rupert had cross words with the dead man in the days preceding the man’s death.”

“Was it investigated by the police?”

“Not really. The Danish police sent investigators, who asked questions and saw the site, but they must have been stonewalled. Their report said the area was unsafe and no mining should be undertaken there. The Germans were not happy, but the Danes stood firm. No mining concessions were given.”

“So, all they really had to go by was Sir Rupert’s and Wolfenhaus’s story, and they both said the ice gave way. It was an accident.”

“It was ruled as one, but the Germans wouldn’t have Sir Rupert travel with them anymore.” Adam held up two ties.

I pointed to the one in his left hand, but my mind was on his words. “Was Wolfenhaus allowed to go on expedition with them again?”

“Yes.” Adam raised his eyebrows.

Two men were present at an accident. One was allowed to continue with his work, the other wasn’t hired again. And yet the two men remained friends.

Was it only an excuse not to use a British national on the German expeditions after 1935? Or was Sir Rupert dangerous to be around?

I wanted to speak to Wolfenhaus. “Was Friedrich von Marten in charge of both expeditions? Was he actually in the camp?” I asked Adam.

“In 1935, he was in charge but had left the day before the death.” Adam looked in the mirror as he looped one end of the tie through the knot.

“Was Sir Rupert not invited back, or was he told not to show up because he wouldn’t be allowed to travel with them?” There was a vast difference in emphasis. “And how many more expeditions did the Germans have that Sir Rupert wasn’t invited to join?”

“They had two more, in 1936 and 1937, in northern Norway, and I believe there’s one more going on currently. I saw something about it in the paper last week or the week before.”

“And how did the Germans feel about having Sir Rupert participate after the death?” That was what I was really interested in.

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