Postmark Berlin by Anne Emery

Author:Anne Emery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2020-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

When Brennan got back to the parish house, he went up to his room and turned on one of his most beloved CDs, Kiri Te Kanawa singing Mozart. She had just reached the “Veritas Domini” when the phone rang.

“Brennan! It is Fried Habler calling. I am in Toronto.”

“Ah, Fried. Guten Tag.”

“Guten Tag, Brennan. I did not know whether it is you I should be calling or the police. But I do not like to involve myself in police business. Must be a hangover — a holdover? — from growing up in the East German state. You can pass this information along to the authorities, if you think that is best.”

“What is it, Fried?”

“When Edelgard told me about her enthusiasm for seeing Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, I made arrangements for her to have a very good seat, in the second row on the aisle. I told my colleague, Johannes Distel, that she would be there two nights in a row. When I spoke to Edelgard — Meika — here in Nova Scotia, she told me she likes to see a performance twice, once for the overall excitement of it and then again to concentrate more on the details of the music. So, I got that seat for her. But she did not use it. She was not there. I know this because Distel called me about another matter, in fact about his hopes to succeed me at U of T and Dal when my term is up. We talked about that, about Tristan in Toronto, and about Don Giovanni, and that is when he mentioned to me that nobody turned up for that seat. On either night. The reason I think there is something not quite right about this is that I was one of the speakers at a Dalhousie University alumni event a couple of days after she returned from Europe. I had not seen her since she came back — in fact, I never saw her again at all — but I noticed her husband there. He is a graduate of Dalhousie. So, I approached him and asked him how his wife enjoyed the opera in Vienna, and he told me she enjoyed it very much. He thanked me for arranging the tickets. But, well, as I say . . .”

“She told him she enjoyed it, but in fact she wasn’t there at all.”

“Correct. Her plan was to go from Vienna to Milan for Traviata at La Scala. Unfortunately, I have no way of finding out whether she went to Milan or not.”

“I appreciate your letting me know, Fried.”

“I realize that you may feel compelled to inform the police about this. If so, do not hesitate to give them my name.”

“Thank you. One way or the other, I’ll have to pass this along. Who knows what they’ll do about it, now that they have Lieutenant-Colonel MacNair charged with the killing.”

Brennan wasn’t sure what to do with the news. Go to the police? Or go

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