“Bedlam,” he repeated. “If ye dinna have family who have been there, ye may be the first. If we survive this.”
Eighteen
“There isevery possibility that Herr Wagner’s proposal to the others who will be participating may very well send someone to take care of the ‘matter’ before the auction takes place,” Brodie continued as we went to the hotel front desk.
He was handed a message.
By that I assumed he meant that we might expect a ‘visitor in the night.’ To eliminate the competition.
“What is it?” I asked at the change of expression on his face that I had seen countless times. It was his ‘police inspector’ expression which might have meant anything.
He thanked the desk manager, then took my arm.
“There is a man waiting for us in the hotel café.”
There had hardly been enough time for Herr Wagner to contact his client in the matter we had discussed, and it did seem unlikely that if he had someone sent to eliminate the competition, as it were, he would hardly select a hotel coffee shop to do the deed.
“Until we know what this is about yer to wait here,” Brodie told me just inside the entrance to the café.
I agreed as I looked around for who the man might be who had left that note at the hotel front desk.
There were several couples seated at tables with their morning coffee and breakfast, a single gentleman who was dressed quite formally in a coat and trousers, and another man, somewhat young, seated by himself who wore the usual clothes of someone who had traveled a distance with a short coat, trousers, and cap, and a worn satchel on the floor.
As Brodie crossed the floor, the man stood and greetings were exchanged. He was almost as tall as Brodie, but quite robust with wide shoulders beneath the coat, a butcher by profession, Schmidt had told us. Brodie turned and motioned for me to join them.
“This is Karl Schneider,” he made the introduction.
The man appeared to be no more than twenty-five or thirty years old with pleasant features, brown hair and brown eyes. He nodded, greeting us in heavily accented English with a broad smile.
“I am here,” he announced, which was somewhat amusing. “I am most pleased to meet you. My sister sent a telegram. You will take me to England, after some business that brought you here.Ja?”
Brodie nodded. “Aye, if you can help us with a certain matter.”
Schneider nodded. “I will help in any way, Herr Brodie, if it means that I can go to your country.”
I knew precisely what Brodie was doing...not precisely, but with a fairly good idea as we returned to our suite with Karl Schneider. Quid pro quo.
If Herr Schneider would help us, we would help him leave Frankfurt. If we survived.
Over the next few hours, Brodie explained as much as he could. At the same time, I watched as he exchanged commentswith Schneider, putting him at ease at the same time drawing on his expertise from working with the MET, encountering all sorts in his investigations there, and from the streets.
“People are no different one place to another,” he had once explained the difference between those he knew in Edinburgh and London, and those we had encountered in Paris in a previous inquiry case.
“The same purpose drives most people—a roof over the head, food in the stomach, a safe place, survival in places that are not safe. It is like the hound,”he had provided an example.
“He does what he needs to survive on the streets, aside from the food ye give him. Ye have seen the disgusting things he returns with from time to time. He prefers the alcove at the office when the weather sets in and will defend it to the death. It is much the same with a good many men and women.
“And I have found there is often more honesty with the criminal sort than others. At least ye know exactly what they are about.”
While it seemed most likely that Karl Schneider was not the criminal sort, considering the ease with which they spoke now, and the fact that Brodie had brought him to our room, it was also very obvious that the man was determined to do whatever was necessary to make certain he was able to go to his family in London.
“Herr Schmidt spoke of some things that prevented ye from traveling there before now,” Brodie commented. “I would know what those things are if we are to assist ye.”
Schneider hesitated. “You are with the London Police?”
“Not for some time,” Brodie assured him. “I handle private inquiry cases now, the reason we were sent, so as not to involve the German authorities.”
“You work together?” Schneider asked.
