Smiley’s People by John le Carré

‘Is Herr Kretzschmar in the house tonight?’ he asked the waiter.

Herr Kretzschmar was a man of commitments, the waiter explained. Herr Kretzschmar was obliged to divide his time between several establishments.

‘If he comes, have the goodness to let me know.’

‘He will be here at eleven exactly, sir.’

At the bar, naked couples had begun dancing. He endured another half-hour of this before returning to the front office by way of the cubicles, some of which were now occupied. The smart young man asked whom he might announce.

‘Tell him it’s a special request,’ Smiley said.

The smart young man pressed a button and spoke extremely quietly, much as he had spoken to Smiley.

The upstairs office was clean as a doctor’s surgery with a polished plastic desk and a lot more machinery. A closed-circuit television supplied a daylight version of the scene downstairs. The same observation window that Smiley had already noticed looked down into the séparées. Herr Kretzschmar was what the Germans call a serious person. He was fiftyish, groomed and thickset, with a dark suit and pale tie. His hair was straw blond like a good Saxon’s, his bland face neither welcomed nor rejected. He shook Smiley’s hand briskly and motioned him to a chair. He seemed well accustomed to dealing with special requests.

‘Please,’ Herr Kretzschmar said, and the preliminaries were over.

There was nowhere to go but forward.

‘I understand you were once business partner to an acquaintance of mine named Otto Leipzig,’ Smiley said, sounding a little too loud to himself. ‘I happen to be visiting Hamburg and I wondered whether you could tell me where he is. His address does not appear to be listed anywhere.’

Herr Kretzschmar’s coffee was in a silver pot with a paper napkin round the handle to protect his fingers when he poured. He drank and put his cup down carefully, to avoid collision.

‘Who are you, please?’ Herr Kretzschmar asked. The Saxon twang made his voice fiat. A small frown enhanced his air of respectability.

‘Otto called me Max,’ Smiley said.

Herr Kretzschmar did not respond to this information but he took his time before putting his next question. His gaze, Smiley noticed again, was strangely innocent. Otto never had a house in his life, Toby had said. For crash meetings, Kretzschmar played key-holder.

‘And your business with Herr Leipzig, if I may ask?’

‘I represent a large company,’ Smiley said. ‘Among other interests, we own a literary and photographic agency for freelance reporters.’

‘So?’

‘In the distant past, my parent company has been pleased to accept occasional offerings from Herr Leipzig – through intermediaries – and pass them out to our customers for processing and syndication.’

‘So?’ Herr Kretzschmar repeated. His head lifted slightly, but his expression had not altered.

‘Recently the business relationship between my parent company and Herr Leipzig was revived.’ He paused lightly. ‘Initially by means of the telephone,’ he said, but Herr Kretzschmar might never have heard of the telephone. ‘Through intermediaries again, he sent us a sample of his work which we were pleased to place for him. I came here to discuss terms and to commission further work. Assuming of course that Herr Leipzig is in a position to provide it.’

‘Of what nature was this work, please – that Herr Leipzig sent you – please, Herr Max?’

‘It was a negative photograph of erotic content. My firm always insists on negatives. Herr Leipzig knew this, naturally.’ Smiley pointed carefully across the room. ‘I rather think it must have been taken from that window. A peculiarity of the photograph is that Herr Leipzig himself was modelling in it. One therefore assumes that a friend or business partner may have operated the camera.’

Herr Kretzschmar’s blue gaze remained as direct and innocent as before. His face, though strangely unmarked, struck Smiley as courageous, but he didn’t know why.

You’re messing around with a creep like Leipzig, then you better have a creep like me to look after you, Toby had said.

‘There is another aspect,’ Smiley said.

‘Yes?’

‘Unhappily the gentleman who was acting as intermediary on this occasion met with a serious accident shortly after the negative was put into our care. The usual line of communication with Herr Leipzig was therefore severed.’

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