A SMALL TOWN IN GERMANY by John le Carré

‘What kind of button?’

‘Just a button. Like the one the dolly found down at the Bahnhof. Bloody wooden button with holes in it.’ He was still indignant. ‘You can’t pay bloody bills with a button. Can you? Thought it was a joke at first. Had a bit of a laugh. “What happened to the rest of her?” I said. Thought he was joking, see. He wasn’t.’

‘Go on.’

‘ “Here you are,” he said. “Keep the change,” and gets up cool as anything. “Come on, Mickie, this place stinks.” Then they go for him. Jesus. Fantastic. Never thought he had it in him. Three down and one to go and then somebody cracks him with a bottle. All the blows; East End stuff. He could really mix it. Then they got him. They bent him over the bar backwards and just worked him over. Never seen anything like it. No one said a word. No how d’you do, nothing. System. Next thing we knew was, we were out in the street. Leo was on his hands and knees and they came out and gave him a few more for luck, and I was coughing my guts out on the pavement.’

‘Pissed?’

‘Sober as a bloody judge, old boy. They’d kicked me in the stomach, you see.’

‘You?’

His head shook dreadfully as it sank to meet the glass: ‘Tried to bail him out,’ he muttered. ‘Tried to mix it with the other chaps while he got away. Trouble is,’ he explained, taking a deep draught of whisky, ‘I’m not the fellow I used to be. Praschko had hoofed it by then.’ He giggled. ‘He was half-way out of the door by the time the button hit the plate. He seemed to know the form. Don’t blame him.’

Turner might have been asking after an old friend. ‘Praschko came often, did he? Back in those days?’

‘First time I met him, old boy. And the last. Parted brass rags after that. Don’t blame him. MP and all that. Bad for business.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Jesus. Trod gently, old boy.’ He shuddered. ‘Home posting loomed large. Bloody flea pit in Bushey or somewhere. With Mary. No thanks.’

‘How did it end?’

‘I reckon Praschko got on to Siebkron. Coppers dumped us at the Embassy. Guard got us a cab and we sloped off to my place and called a doctor. Then Ewan Waldebere turned up, he was Minister Political. Then Ludwig Siebkron in a dirty great Mercedes. Christ knows what didn’t happen. Siebkron grilled him. Sat in my drawing-room and grilled him no end. Didn’t care for it, I must say. All the same, pretty serious when you think of it. Bloody diplomat tearing the arse off night clubs, assaulting citizenry. Lot of fences to mend.’

The waiter brought some kidneys cooked in vinegar and wine.

‘God,’ said Crabbe. ‘Look at that. Delicious. Lovely after snails.’

‘What did Leo tell Siebkron?’

‘Nix. Nothing. You don’t know Leo. Close isn’t the word. Waldebere, me, Siebkron: not a syllable to any of us. Mind you, they’d really gone for him. Waldebere faked him some leave; new teeth, stitches, Christ knows what. Told everybody he’d done it swimming in Yugoslavia. Diving into shallow water. Bashed his face in. Some water: Christ.’

‘Why do you think it happened?’

‘No idea, old boy. Wouldn’t go out with him after that. Not safe.’

‘No opinions?’

‘Sorry,’ said Crabbe. His face sank beneath the surface, misted with meaningless wrinkles.

‘Ever seen this key?’

‘Nope.’ He grinned affectionately. ‘One of Leo’s, was it? Screw anything in the old days, Leo would. Steadier now.’

‘Any names attached to that?’

He continued staring at the key.

‘Try Myra Meadowes.’

‘Why?’

‘She’s willing. She’s had one baby already. In London. They say half the drivers go through her every week.’

‘Did he ever mention a woman called Aickman? Someone he was going to marry?’

Crabbe assumed an expression of puzzled recollection. ‘Aickman,’ he said. ‘Funny. That was one of the old lot. From Berlin. He did talk about her. When they worked with the Russkies. That’s it. She was another of those inbetweeners. Berlin, Hamburg, all that game. Stitched those bloody cushions for him. Care and attention.’

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *