Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Thirty-Six
20th July 1959
Tempelhof, Berlin
“Then he walks up to me and says that he already has a girlfriend, but his mother had said that he had to introduce himself” Kiki said, “Why did he even bother?”
Berg found Kiki’s personal life, or lack thereof, amusing and Kiki could see that play across her face even if she didn’t say it aloud. As much as Kiki disliked admitting to it, things had grown increasingly comical over the prior months. Living on the Humboldt Campus had plenty of drawbacks, among those were the young men who only saw the superficial aspects of her title and family for starters. Kiki had recently confided in Berg that she sometimes regretted asking Benjamin to stop seeing her. She had told Kiki that the relationship she’d had with Ben had progressed to a point that she might not have been ready for. The decision to end it had been Kiki doing what she had felt at the time was right for her, second guessing herself now was pointless.
“It was so that he could tell his mother that he did, and she would stop getting after him to meet a nice girl” Berg said mildly, “As opposed to whoever his actual girlfriend is.”
“A nice girl who comes from Royalty and presumably receives money from her family” Kiki said flatly. It was the whole “nice” part when accompanied by people’s assumptions that was getting on Kiki’s nerves. The absurd truth was that the money that Kiki received from the family trust went almost entirely towards living expenses and every last pfennig had to be accounted for. The only money she really had that she was able to spend freely was from the weekly pay she received as an Obersoldat in the Medical Service. Even that didn’t go very far because if Kiki did something fun like going out with her friends, she would be inevitably stuck with the bill sometime during the night because everyone assumed that she was rich. And because she was so nice, she always just ate the cost without complaining.
“I’m just glad that is the only area where you need to learn to tell people no” Berg replied, “Something will be working in the future. Fortunately, you will be spending the Summer Holiday with your friend Marcella, apparently she has no trouble in that regard at least.”
Kiki didn’t respond to that, going back to her meal was safer. Especially after she had made the mistake of telling Berg about what had happened a couple of weeks earlier.
Zella had recently gotten a bit of a slap in the face from people who she thought she was friends with. The Moondogs had put out a single that was a minor hit in their native UK and it had gotten some radio airplay in Germany. She walks in Sunlight sounded like the typical poppy song that record companies demanded, except when one actually listened to the lyrics beyond the chorus a different picture emerged. It was actually quite scathing, the girl the song was about skipped through life with her head in the clouds, well insulated from the harsher realities that ordinary people endured. It also implied that Zella was a tease. Yet one more example of the dozens of infuriating contradictions that had to be negotiated.
This time, Zella was hoping that her father wouldn’t find out. Because she was planning on dealing with the Moondogs in her own way the next time they came back through Berlin. Kiki knew full well that getting a talk from Markgraf von Holz might have seemed harsh, particularly when he showed the even a small amount of the power he possessed. However, Zella was far more vindictive, had more patience than her father and was every bit as good at making plans. One day the Moondogs would get a reminder about this, at the worst possible moment for them.
Potsdam
“You did well, starting the investigation and then referring it to us” Sven said to Kat as she sat down in the chair opposite his desk.
It didn’t feel that way to Kat, she felt like she had failed. Having examined every bit of available evidence, they had not been able to determine the identity of the killer. That evidence was also nightmarish in nature. The Pathologist in Breslau that determined that after killing through strangulation, the perpetrator had mutilated the corpse while having intercourse with it, postmortem. Kat could have lived her whole life without hearing that. If that wasn’t enough, the Pathologist suspected that the Killer was engaging in cannibalism as well. Beyond that, she had whole lot of nothing in the case of Martyna Dunajski. There were also apparently six other girls whose cases she had been unable to bring herself to examine too closely yet.
“Also, I wouldn’t be quite so harsh in my assessment of the police in rural Upper Silesia” Sven said, “The best and brightest don’t get assigned to places like that, so they are in over their heads. There is a reason why the Federal Police exist and this mess you discovered is exactly that.”
Crimes committed across jurisdictional lines. In this case, the States of Silesia and Bohemia as well as the Polish Protectorate, had to be investigated without getting caught up in provincial politics. Kat remembered that much. She was also aware that her own role was a bit murky. The Emperor had appointed her to the role she currently played, but because she was effectively outside the chain of command of the Federal Police even if they did see her as one of their own, it was very possible that her actions would be seen as suspect. That was why one of the first things she had done was bring in Sven Werth even if the investigation had not reached a conclusion.
“I’m aware of that” Kat replied, “They are just infuriating though.”
“Especially when someone like you comes to town” Sven said, “You tend to be about as subtle as a Panzer Regiment.”
“I just wanted to get this monster” Kat replied.
“We will” Sven said, “We now know he’s out there and justice will eventually be served.”
Kat had always liked Sven’s certainty in that regard, but she was also aware that it wasn’t always true.
