The big car was now half off the road, with its nose almost touching a large sign.
The sign carried the standard No Parking symbol, a P crossed by a diagonal red bar as well as (for special emphasis) the legend’ Parking Absolutely Forbidden at Any Time.” Muxer was unconcerned. Few policemen would even consider issuing a citation to an Opel Admiral.
None would be foolhardy enough to even look twice at this Opel Admiral.
Muller’s vehicle carried not only Berlin license plates, but also, in the spot where common citizens and lesser officials carried the stamp signifying the payment of taxes, his plates bore a small, inconspicuous stamp signifying that taxes had been waived for this vehicle as it was in the service of the Schutzstaffel-Sicherheitsdienst.
He pulled the keys from the ignition, pulled on the parking brake, stepped out of the car, and moved quickly around the rear to open the door for Gisella. By the time he got there, she had her door open and was swinging her feet out, carefully, because the car was so close to the edge. Her coat had opened and her skirt was hiked up, and a flash of white flesh was visible above the silk stockings he had brought her from Berlin.
He felt his heart jump.
Goddamnit, she’s beautiful!
“I can make it,” Gisella said. Standing up and supporting herself on the car, she made her way to where he stood. She held in her hand a tissue-wrapped bottle. The proprietor of the Kurhotel had been more than pleased to present Herr Standartenfuhrer with one of his two bottles of Courvoisier.
“Wait,” Muller said, “there’s more.” Gisella raised her eyebrows and looked at him curiously.
He opened the trunk of the car and took from it a large cardboard box.
“What’s that?” Gisella asked.
“A few little things I picked up for you in Berlin,” he said.
She looked at him with a warm sparkle in her eyes. “Thank you, sir,” she said, and her voice caught. “Thank you very much.” She likes me!
As they entered the foyer of the old house, a door opened a crack and an eye peered out.
Peis’s resident snoop, Muller decided.
He followed Gisella up the stairs and waited for the answer to the knock at her door.
Although he had examined his dossier carefully, Professor Friedrich Dyer was not what Muller had imagined. He expected an academic type, an absentminded professor in mussed and baggy clothes.
Dyer was tall and erect with a full head of curly hair. There was a Hungarian somewhere in the bloodline, Muller decided. Perhaps that explained his rebellion.
“Heil Hitler!” Professor Dyer said, raising his arm.
“Heil Hitler,” Muller mumbled. He stepped inside the apartment, and Gisella closed the door after them.
“Father,” Gisella said, “this is Standartenfuhrer Muller.”
“How do you do, Herr Standartenfuhrer?” Dyer said formally, neither coldly nor warmly. But his eyes, Muller saw, showed both contempt and shame.
Because his daughter * with an SS-SD officer? Or because he’s meeting the man in whose bed his daughter spent the night?
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Herr Professor Doktor,” Muller said. “As soon as your charming daughter relieves me of this burden, I will offer my hand.” Gisella giggled. Her father nodded his head, just perceptibly, but did not smile.
“What’s in there, Johnny?” Gisella asked.
“It should go, I think, in the refrigerator,” he said.
Gisella stepped up to him and opened the flaps of the carton.
“My God!” she said. “Where did you find all that?”
“Is there a refrigerator?”
“There’s an icebox,” she said.
“I’ll have Peis bring you a refrigerator,” he said without thinking.
“No,” Gisella said quickly.
“We manage quite nicely with our old icebox,” Dyer said. “Thank you just the same,” he added, clearly not meaning it.
“Professor, I am here as a friend,” Muller said.
“I’m sure,” Dyer said, very carefully. He smiled. But the smile was artificial, and his eyes were wary. And contemptuous.
Muller had a sudden insight, I could work on Dyer for the next twelve hours without making a crack in his hostility.
“Would you come here a moment, Herr Professor Doktor?” Muller asked, taking Dyer’s arm and leading him into the kitchen. He went to the small FEG Volksradio and turned it on, raising the volume. Then he turned on the water in the sink.