Murder in A-Major by Morley Torgov

Author:Morley Torgov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn

Chapter Twenty-One

So, Preiss, this is how you kept your promise, is it?” It was the morning after Franz Liszt's acquisition of the Beethoven manuscript was reported in the Berliner Kunstzeitung, and Robert Schumann had just stormed into my office and hurled his copy of the newspaper across my desk.

“My promise, Maestro?” I said, knowing perfectly well what he was referring to.

“You allowed that devil Adelmann to get away with it, didn't you? Was it carelessness, or am I to believe that you, too, have joined the ring of conspirators?”

Calmly, I said, “Let me explain, please. I had a meeting with Georg Adelmann—”

“Ah, so you do recall the promise you made me, after all—”

“Please, allow me to finish. I met with Adelmann and yes, he has the Beethoven manuscript…or rather, had it.”

“And you got him to admit he'd stolen it, then?”

I took a deep breath. “Not quite, I'm afraid.”

“I thought you were the cleverest detective in this part of Germany. Don't tell me you actually saw the manuscript but failed to confiscate it from him!”

I took another deep breath. “Correct on both counts. I saw it, and I did not confiscate it.”

“But why? Why?”

Schumann had been standing all this time, leaning somewhat menacingly over my desk, as though he were ready to pounce at any moment. “I think, Maestro, you had better be seated,” I said.

“Don't treat me like a child or like one of your moronic criminals, Preiss. I don't need to sit.”

I rose from my chair and spoke sharply now. “You will be seated, sir, or this meeting is over. Sit!”

I watched Schumann slowly lower himself into a chair on the other side of my desk. There was, suddenly, something child-like and pathetic about the way he did this, and for a second or two I felt remorse at having shouted him into submission. In a steady voice I began again. “I have to tell you, Dr. Schumann, that when the subject of the Beethoven manuscript came up, Adelmann, without the slightest reluctance, went to a cabinet in his study and produced it. This was not the conduct one would expect of a thief. Indeed, he had a ready explanation as to how he came to possess it. Do you wish me to go on, sir?”

I imagined that Schumann would demur. Contrary to my expectation, he gave me a contemptuous smile. “Go on, Preiss,” he said without hesitation. “What did that overstuffed rodent tell you?”

“I warn you, sir…what follows is neither pleasant to say, nor will it be pleasant to hear.” I hesitated to go on, hoping Schumann would volunteer the explanation and spare me the embarrassment. No such luck.

“I told you to go on,” he said. “What more do you want, a fanfare?”

“I must be blunt, then,” I said. “Adelmann insists that you gave him the manuscript in return for his pledge.”

“Pledge? What pledge?”

“Not to disclose certain sexual activities you apparently engaged in…in your younger years.”

Schumann let out a forced laugh. “Certain sexual activities, you say? Well, thank God I wasn't born a eunuch, if that's what Adelmann's alluding to.

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