The Defeated Aristocrat by Katherine John Page B

ground floor into consulting rooms I had no choice. But now my medical practice is established I’ve been looking elsewhere.’
    ‘You can stop.’
    ‘Looking or paying?’
    ‘Both. As soon as the estate is back in my name I’ll sign this house over to you.’
    ‘Thank you.’ Martin offered Wolf his cigar box. ‘It’s good to see you, Werlfi, and not just because of the house.’ His eyes were damp behind his spectacles. He changed the subject. ‘We’ve good cause to be grateful to Johanna Behn. If it hadn’t been for her, Lotte and I wouldn’t have known Franz had tried to take control of the estate.’
    ‘I’ll call on her this morning.’
    ‘And go to the bank. It might be as well to freeze the estate accounts if you can.’
    ‘I’ll take Johanna’s advice on the best course to take.’
    ‘If I didn’t have patients I’d accompany you. You should go shopping as well. That suit you’re wearing looks like a hand-me-down from a fat uncle and your shirt is yellow with age.’
    ‘Martha dug them up. They’ve been in a trunk since I left.’
    ‘I recommend the new tailor in Baumgarten’s.’
    ‘Last time I was there they weren’t taking promises or buttons as payment.’
    ‘I’d forgotten that saying of Papa’s.’ Martin pulled out his wallet and handed him a couple of high denomination bills.
    ‘I won’t take your money.’
    ‘I’m doing well and I’ve just heard that my landlord is waving my rent. Besides, it was the von Mau estate that financed my university fees. Pay me back when you can, you’ll need to buy things for Heini.’ Martin fell serious. ‘Ludwiga and I tried to take him when Gretel married Franz. They wouldn’t let us, but we would have spirited him away somehow if Martha hadn’t promised to keep an eye on him.’
    ‘I won’t let the boy go back to Gretel.’
    ‘He needs looking after, Wolf, and he will be here. Karin and Christa will enjoy having a cousin to mother and the twins will enjoy teaching him to fence and … ’
    ‘Fight?’ Wolf mocked. ‘I’d rather he stayed away from all his uncles except you.’
    ‘The twins are young. The war didn’t help. This is the most serious argument they’ve had.’
    ‘One’s enough.’
    ‘Heini will love having you around. Every time he saw me before Gretel told him you were dead, he asked about you. What I thought you were doing and what you were like. It will be good for Lotte too. She, like Ludwiga and I adore the boy.’
    ‘Thank God one Mau was prepared to assume the family obligations and offer Lotte, her girls and the twins a home. My homecoming would have been very different if it wasn’t for you.’
    Martin changed the subject again and Wolf remembered how his twin had always been embarrassed by praise.
    ‘A word of warning, Wolf, be very careful and tell Peter to be cautious as well.’
    ‘Peter – why should he be cautious about Franz?’
    ‘I wasn’t talking about Franz. A doctor hears and sees odd things. These murders …’
    ‘Murders! I thought Anton was the only victim.’
    ‘One of Anton’s friends, Nils Dresdner who’d also taken a position with the police, was killed last night. According to Georg Hafen in exactly the same brutal way,’ Martin explained.
    ‘Dresdner … I don’t know the name. Does Georg Hafen think the murders are connected?’
    ‘Both victims were ex-soldiers, like Peter.’
    ‘The city’s swarming with ex-soldiers.’
    ‘Not all become police officers like the victims – and Peter. Warn Peter. That’s all I’m saying.’
    ‘These odd things you see and hear, they wouldn’t identify a murderer by any chance?’
    Martin hesitated. Wolf sensed he was debating just how much he should tell him.
    ‘Well?’ Wolf pressed.
    ‘I was called out in the early hours to certify the death of Dresdner because the police doctor was unavailable. He couldn’t be identified until we managed to prise the mask from his face.’
    ‘What kind of mask?’
    ‘A Branks