The New Detective by Peter Steiner

Author:Peter Steiner [Steiner, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2023-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

SOUP

Doctor Schäuble and his fellow ‘investigators’ had failed to find the missing lab tech, because they hadn’t looked for him. ‘As far as they’re concerned, we’re just part of the equipment,’ another technician told Willi. ‘Samuel Raschermann is a first-rate tech. And now, thanks to them, he’s finished in the research field. You can probably find him at the Red Banner Kitchen in Schwabing.’

The soup kitchen was in a narrow dark room down an alley. A tattered red banner hung from a pole above the door. Two burly men stood guard at the entrance to the alley. Even though it was not yet nine in the morning, people – mostly women and children – were already lined up outside. They looked at Willi suspiciously as he walked past and went inside.

Maria Helig ran the place. She lived on a small inheritance, most of which she used to keep the Red Banner operation going. After Samuel was fired, she had given him a place to sleep in a vacant servant’s room under the eaves in her building. She was always doing good; the kitchen workers called her Holy Mary. ‘Heilige Maria instead of Maria Helig, get it?’ It was the kind of joke a bunch of Catholic Marxists found amusing.

Maria was washing dishes in a large sink. The sleeves of her shirt were pulled up above her elbows. Her arms were red from the hours they spent in hot water. Her forehead and upper lip were wet with sweat, a strand of hair had slipped out of her bandana, and she brushed it out of her face with the back of a soapy hand. She directed Willi to Samuel cutting up vegetables.

Samuel braced the vegetables against his right forearm and peeled and chopped them with his left, as though peeling and chopping one handed was the most natural thing in the world.

Willi said he wanted to talk to Samuel about the missing drugs.

‘It was me who reported them missing,’ said Samuel. ‘I didn’t take them.’

‘I know that,’ said Willi.

‘So what do you want from me?’

‘I just have a few questions,’ said Willi.

‘Why?’

‘Because you were there and you reported it,’ said Willi. ‘Would you rather go elsewhere to talk about it?’

Samuel looked Willi up and down. ‘No, here is fine.’ He kept peeling and chopping. ‘Do you mind if I keep working?’

Willi didn’t mind. ‘How’d you discover the drugs were missing?’ he said.

‘First, I noticed some narcotics weren’t where they were supposed to be.’

‘Where were they supposed to be?’

‘In a locked cabinet. I had put them in and locked it when I logged them in.’

‘And who had a key to the cabinet?’

‘I did. And several doctors have keys, and I assume some of the assistants do too.’

‘So the controls are pretty lax?’

‘Very,’ said Samuel. ‘And I reported the lax controls too, more than once. To Gerhard Erzberger, the guy in charge. And to a couple of doctors.’

‘To Schäuble, the director?’ said Willi.

‘No, not to him,’ said Samuel. ‘But I’m sure he knew.’

‘Did they ever tighten up the controls?’

‘Not that I could tell.

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