‘No.’
‘After lunch I brought him back here. We were still arguing, see. All the way in the car. Then we sat at this table. Right here where we are now. “Maybe I’ll find new information,” he said. I told him: “If you find new information, forget it, because there won’t be a darn thing you can do: don’t waste your time. You’re too late. That’s the law.” ‘
‘He didn’t suggest by any chance that he already had that information?’
‘Has he?’ Praschko asked, very quickly indeed.
‘I cannot imagine it exists.’
Praschko nodded slowly, his eyes on Bradfield all the time.
‘So then what happened?’ said Turner.
‘That’s all. I said to him: “OK, so you prove manslaughter: you’re too late by years already. So you prove murder: you’re too late since last December. So get screwed.” That’s what I told him. So then he gets hold of my arm and he whispers to me, like a crazy priest: “No law will ever take account of what they did. You and I know that. They teach it in the churches: Christ was born of a virgin and went to Heaven in a cloud of light. Millions believe it. Listen, I play the music every Sunday, I hear them.” Is that true?’
‘He played the organ in Chapel,’ said Bradfield.
‘Jesus,’ said Praschko, lost in wonder. ‘Leo did that?’
‘He’s done it for years.’
‘So then he goes on: “But you and I, Praschko, in our own lifetime, we have seen the living witness of evil.” That’s what he says. “Not on a mountain top, not at night, but there, in the field where we all stood. We’re privileged people. And now it’s all happening again.” ‘
Turner wanted to interrupt, but Bradfield restrained him. ‘So then I got damned angry. I said to him, see: “Don’t come playing God to me. Don’t come screaming to me about the thousand year justice of Nuremberg that lasted four years. At least the Statute gave us twenty. And who imposed the Statute anyway? You British could have made us change it. When you handed over, you could have said to us: here, you bloody Germans, take over these cases, hear them in your own courts, pass sentence according to your penal code but first abolish the Statute. You were party to it then; be party to it now. It’s finished. It’s damn well, damn well finished.” That’s what I said to him. And he just went on looking at me, saying my name. “Praschko, Praschko.” ‘
Taking a handkerchief from his pocket, he dabbed his brow and wiped his mouth.
‘Don’t pay any attention to me,’ he said. ‘I get excited. You know what politicians are. I said to him, while he stared at me, I said, “This is my home: look. If I’ve got a heart left, it’s here, in this bordello. I used to wonder why. Why not Buckingham Palace? Why not the Coca-Cola Culture? But this is my country. And that’s what you should have found: a country. Not just a bloody Embassy.” He went on looking at me; I tell you I was going crazy myself. I said to him: “So suppose you do find that proof, tell me what it’s all about: to commit a crime at thirty, to be punished at sixty? What does that mean? We’re old men,” I said to him, “you and I. You know what Goethe told us: no man can watch a sunset for more than quarter of an hour.” He said to me: “It’s happening again. Look at the faces, Praschko, listen to the speeches. Somebody has to stop that bastard or you and me will be wearing the labels again.” ‘
Bradfield spoke first. ‘If he had found the proof, which we know he has not, what would he have done? If instead of still searching for it, he had already found it, what then?’
‘Oh Jesus; I tell you: he’d have gone crazy.’
‘Who’s Aickman?’ Turner said, ending the long silence.
‘What’s that, boy?’
‘Aickman. Who is she? Miss Aickman, Miss Etling and Miss Brandt… He was engaged to her once.’
‘She was just a woman he had in Berlin. Or was it Hamburg? Both maybe. Jesus, I forget everything. Thank God, eh?’