Free Thomas Ochiltree by Death Waltz in Vienna

detoxification.”
    Von Falkenburg did not hail a cab when he got out into the street, but began walking instead. He found that walking was when he could do his best thinking.
    He had a lot to think about, too. Röderer clearly had been receiving morphine somehow smuggled to him in jail – for otherwise, based on what Rubinstein had told him, Röderer, who must have been imprisoned several days, since his arrest and interrogation preceded von Falkenburg’s meeting with Major Becker, would have gone into withdrawal long before von Falkenburg’s visit to him. And that explained why Röderer had asked von Falkenburg if he had “brought it.” Judging from what Rubinstein had said, and from the fact that Röderer was already beginning withdrawal at the time of von Falkenburg’s visit, the supply must have been discontinued shortly after von Falkenburg had signed his confession.
    Von Falkenburg ran through the conclusions he had drawn the day before about Röderer. Since the man clearly could not have personally made the forgeries, he had to be merely a part of something much bigger – and a rather subordinate part, at that. He had never met von Falkenburg – the fact that he had not recognized him on sight proved that – so someone else must have convinced Röderer to accuse him.
    In exchange for a continuing supply of the drug even though he was in jail? Almost certainly. And perhaps, of a lenient sentence? Possibly, and in that case von Falkenburg’s mysterious enemies had to be more powerful and more highly placed than he had hitherto imagined.
    As long as it looked like there might be a chance of von Falkenburg going to trial, he reasoned, his enemies had kept Röderer in reserve. Von Falkenburg had failed to kill himself as they had hoped, something that only his chance mistake in loading his revolver had prevented. But once they had somehow learned of his written confession, Röderer was no longer needed. Why risk having him go to pieces and blurt out the truth under cross examination? So his morphine was cut off, and he behaved as could be expected, committing suicide almost on cue, so to speak.
    One thing, at any rate, was clear to von Falkenburg. His enemies knew about the confession. Could the colonel be one of them? Von Falkenburg dismissed the idea almost as soon as it occurred to him. To have simply played as an actor that scene of requesting von Falkenburg’s freely-given word relating to his innocence would have required a histrionic ability which went far beyond anything the colonel could be expected to possess.
    And Major Becker? It was tempting indeed to visualize Becker as his foe, but von Falkenburg knew that he should not allow his hatred of the man to cloud his judgment. His enemies were very subtle. If Becker really were part of the plot against him, it would be strange indeed for the man to cast himself so obviously in an adversarial role, with his sarcasm and gloating. Von Falkenburg was inclined to believe that Becker was simply the determined investigator rubbing his hands at the prospect of being about to land a big catch.
    Besides, it was very possible that the locus of the conspiracy lay outside of Military Intelligence. Perhaps Becker and his colleagues were simply being “fed” misinformation that originated elsewhere (probably the General Staff, since that is where the espionage supposedly occurred). Updates on the state of the investigation presumably flowed the other way, either in good faith, or because the liaison person in Military Intelligence was part of the plot against him.
    Enemies on the Staff…or in Military Intelligence…or in both places. A whole conspiracy, organized around the goal of destroying him. But what could the motive possibly be? Von Falkenburg could imagine that in his life he might have unwittingly made a mortal enemy, but
several
? And willing to go to this sort of trouble? The elaborateness and the complexity of the plot suggested something that went far