The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr Page A

also his bag of change. When we arrived he greeted me warmly and showed us to a quiet table in the back, where he brought us a couple of beers. At another table a man was dealing vigorously with the biggest piece of pig’s knuckle either of us had ever seen.
    â€˜Are you hungry?’ I asked her.
    â€˜Not now I’ve seen him,’ she said.
    â€˜Yes, I know what you mean. It does put you off rather, doesn’t it? You’d think he was trying to win the Iron Cross the way he’s battling that joint.’
    She smiled, and we were silent for a moment. Eventually she said, ‘Do you think there’s going to be a war?’
    I stared into the top of my beer as if expecting the answer to float to the surface. I shrugged and shook my head.
    â€˜I haven’t really been keeping that close an eye on things lately,’ I said, and explained about Bruno Stahlecker and my return to Kripo. ‘But shouldn’t I be asking you? As the expert on criminal psychology you should have a better appreciation of the Fuhrer’s mind than most people. Would you say his behaviour was compulsive or irresistible within the definition of Paragraph Fifty-one of the Criminal Code?’
    It was her turn to search for inspiration in a glass of beer.
    â€˜We don’t really know each other well enough for this kind of conversation, do we?’ she said.
    â€˜I suppose not.’
    â€˜I will say this, though,’ she said lowering her voice. ‘Have you ever read Mein Kampf?’
    â€˜That funny old book they give free to all newlyweds? It’s the best reason to stay single I can think of.’
    â€˜Well, I have read it. And one of the things I noticed was that there is one passage, as long as seven pages, in which Hitler makes repeated references to venereal disease and its effects. Indeed, he actually says that the elimination of venereal disease is The Task that faces the German nation.’
    â€˜My God, are you saying that he’s syphilitic?’
    â€˜I’m not saying anything. I’m just telling you what is written in the Führer’s great book.’
    â€˜But the book’s been around since the mid-twenties. If he’s had a hot tail since then his syphilis would have to be tertiary.’
    â€˜It might interest you to know,’ she said, ‘that many of Josef Kahn’s fellow inmates at the Herzeberge Asylum are those whose organic dementia is a direct result of their syphilis. Contradictory statements can be made and accepted. The mood varies between euphoria and apathy, and there is general emotional instability. The classic type is characterized by a demented euphoria, delusions of grandeur and bouts of extreme paranoia.’
    â€˜Christ, the only thing you left out was the crazy moustache,’ I said. I lit a cigarette and puffed at it dismally. ‘For God’s sake change the subject. Let’s talk about something cheerful, like our mass-murdering friend. Do you know, I’m beginning to see his point, I really am. I mean, these are tomorrow’s young mothers he’s killing. More childbearing machines to produce new Party recruits. Me, I’m all for these by-products of the asphalt civilization they’re always on about — the childless families with eugenically dud women, at least until we’ve got rid of this regime of rubber truncheons. What’s one more psychopath among so many?’
    â€˜You say more than you know,’ she said. ‘We’re all of us capable of cruelty. Every one of us is a latent criminal. Life is just a battle to maintain a civilized skin. Many sadistic killers find that it’s only occasionally that it comes off. Peter Kurten for example. He was apparently a man of such a kindly disposition that nobody who knew him could believe that he was capable of such horrific crimes as he committed.’
    She rummaged in her briefcase again and, having wiped the table, she laid a thin