girl and can very well handle the truth. So, be a nice guy and give me now the promised cigarette. I think, I feel then halfway reconciled with that terrible day."
Michael Herold knocked the required cigarette out of the pack and offers Elzbieta fire. She inhaled deeply and suddenly coughed then convulsively. "This taste is really obnoxious!"
“Menthol! So I'm trying to quit smoking!”
"You really understand it to give an girl courage!" Elzbieta stubbed her cigarette in the ashtray. The only subdued melancholy lingers again on her face, and she poked around with the cigarette butt in the plastic cup. "It is just typical for me! Everything I touch trickles like water through my fingers. Not one of my lousy plans succeeds more, and now punished me my own stupid jealousy."
"Leopold cheats you?"
"That would not be the first time! I know my husband only too well and he had again this hungry look. I really thought he fucks some of his cheap bitches."
Elzbieta laughed in vexation. "The signs were not to be overlooked, and when he allegedly wanted to meet a specific customer, I traced him to this damn English pub. You should have seen me there, I crouched all the time like an idiot behind the wheel of my car and my heart was in my throat. Over and over again, I imagine myself, how he was trying to impress his new bitch, and then it turned out quite differently. When Leo finally left the pub, he had no skinny blonde with big breasts in his arms. No, two guys followed him; absolutely sinister character!"
"Guys like our charming interlocutors?"
Elzbieta nodded mutely and touched with a confidential gesture Herolds arm. "Tell me Michael! Why do I keep right with my misgivings? That evening, I saw clearly the doom, and only a few hours later Leo grabbed his flight bag, and left our apartment. He left without saying goodbye, or turn around. He simply went away, and since then, I heard nothing more from him. Not a single sign of life; not one of his usual control calls!"
"That sounds not good. Your husband caught in his greed a bite, that was just too big for him. Now he's gone and Charley murdered." Michael looked seriously into Elzbietas brown eyes. "And now, this is the worst of all, you are the only available contact person for the mysterious thugs."
"I know nothing, absolutely nothing! I was not privy in Leo’s business."
"Ok, ok! But maybe you have noticed some tiny details! Names, addresses… and this English pub, can you remember where that was?"
"Well, that's a good question. I looked on the outward journey only on Leo’s taillights, and on my way back home, I drove after a long and weary journey through the Kloster-Street. But the pub itself, he looked like the stage scenery in one of these German Edgar Wallace thrillers. On the windows stick advertising posters for Guinness beer and dart and directly over the door hung a large sign. Carved from wood, and in his middle was a red bull's head."
"The" Bull Eyes Tavern "in the Seeburger-Street..." Michael Herold interrupted his unfinished sentence and looked unwillingly up. A shabbily dressed man approached quietly at the table and looked outrageous on the natural curvature at Elzbietas suit-jacket. "Herold, you old slanderer! Who is this pretty face?"
"Bube! Is there any reason, why you not crawling your lord and master in the ass? Herold looked disapprovingly to the greasy, shiny face from Kowalski's underling. Karl-Heinz Bubes entire appearance was again so wrinkled, as if he had spent the last three nights in the open. But Herold could not be fooled by this conscious image of the eternal loser. This man was a lone wolf, who always hunted a once tracked victim to the bitter end. Absolutely mercilessly and without the slightest regard for the normal human manners. Now he grabbed an empty chair at the back and placed him with a penetrating grin next to Elzbieta.
"Do not worry my beautiful one! We'll get along together! But your clever friend..." Karl-Heinz Bube dug a tin box from the depths of his cardigan, opened the lid, and tucked a short cigarillo between his lips.
"Clever Herold, really clever! You are only here, because my dear boss cannot kick your ass."Tube leaned confidentially over Ms Oblonsky. "Your clever friend here knows of course, that the chief inspector sits at that time always at the so-called round table. This is the weekly information meeting of all department heads and my boss annoys it terrible that he owes this Punch and Judy show only a single asshole from the town hall. You should have seen him, when the guy was rewarded with a high position in the Friesen-Street."
Karl-Heinz Bubes pale face almost disappeared behind the enveloping him tobacco cloud. Smug, sucked he on the stinking cigarillo, and leave Elzbieta not out of sight.
"Well, that's just life, injustice is everywhere. This reminds me of the way mate Scherpel from the police…"
"Overload our friendship bonus not too much, Karl-Heinz!" Disgusted, Herold distributed with a fleeting gesture the stinking smoke.
"But, mon ami! You know exactly how much I hate open invoices. Therefore, once again, for the record! Scherpel plays again the scapegoat for the media. His already battered department takes responsibility for the crown exhibition, while the public sees only the well-paid private security forces."
"I understand this correctly? Bergmeier with his low budget has hired private security guards?"
"So it is, my good man. Twenty former top killers of the GSG 9, all highly motivated, and thanks to the quadripartite agreement practical castrated."
Karl-Heinz spat a tobacco crumb on the ground and winked to Elzbieta. "The guy’s dances there merry go round without their shiny weapons and so, they are practically castrated!"
"What Karl Heinz will explain, is..." Michael Herold coughed discreetly, "Thanks to our friends of the allied forces, in West Berlin firearms are prohibited for private persons and this includes of course a commercial guard service."
"That's what I'm saying! For these impotent forces Bergmüller wasted our hard-earned tax dollars. A flagrant scandal is that!" Carelessly pressed Kowalski assistant the still smoldering cigarillo in the ashtray and mustered Elzbietas knee. "But what can you do? After all, we cannot change the world! It was nice to chat with you, and Herold, I see you next week on mayors David's Birthday at the Schützenhof."
Without looking back, Bube walked slowly to the buffet, and Elzbieta shook her head in disbelief. "What a disgusting guy! Is he also on your special payroll?"
"Karl-Heinz? That's just the unofficial mouthpiece from Kowalski's frustrations. Forget the pushy guy and take care about something more important! What about our special friends?"
"Do not take the big boys a bit too seriously?"
"Elzbieta, before Karl-Heinz has interrupted us, I have already explained it: Your husband has not met his obligations! And now the nasty people cannot rest. They surely tried it a second time and then it ends not after a slap in your face!"
With a firm grip Michael Herold spanned Elzbietas small wrists and looked imploringly into her eyes. "You cannot return at home! Visit your family in Poland or some of your girl friends."
"Okay, okay, I understand it now! That's no great problem. Can I stay for a while with a good girl friend of mine; even Leo did not know her address. I phone her quickly and then we break up immediately."
Elzbieta stand up, and smoothed instinctively her skirt. "What are you waiting for? You must drive me first in the city for shopping. Finally, I cannot hide without a fresh toothbrush and a cozy pajama!"
4. FISH AND CHIPS
Michael Herold had his car parked before the familiar facade of the "Bull Tavern Eyes" and yawned. The shopping trip with Elzbieta had lasted the entire afternoon, and now it thirsts him for a refreshing “red barrel”. The mild and sweet strong beer flowed only in a few Berlin pubs and Michael enjoyed it still in one of his familiar taverns. Poured to the brim, and contrary to the usual English practice, served ice cold.
"Cheers!" Michael opened the red-painted door and noticed immediately above the crowd, Bills tangled gray hair. The lanky host stood motionless behind his counter and