Free The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr Page A

arrogant. Clever, too. Always plainclothes. Good suits. Buys his hats at Habig. Rolex wristwatch. Drives a black Opel Kapitän, which means I’ve never been able to follow him. We always meet in public places. And never the same place twice.”
    I nodded slowly. I don’t mind trouble. It’s an occupational hazard, but already this case was starting to look as if it might be more than the usual amount of trouble, which, in Nazi Germany, is always dangerous.
    â€œAs far as I can remember,” I said, “II-H is run by two revolting bastards, Josef Meisinger and Eberhard Schiele. The chances are that they’re getting a large piece of everything this man Hennig’s extorting from you. I’d be very surprised if they weren’t. But Meisinger does have a superior he reports to. A man I know called Arthur Nebe, who’s not entirely without principles. It may be that he takes a dim view of these sordid activities. I suppose we might persuade him to get them to lay off.”
    â€œI hope so.”
    â€œBut wait, you said they were now blackmailing you to keep quiet. If it’s not too embarrassing, maybe you’d like to explain why. I’m not entirely clear about that.”
    â€œActually, it’s not embarrassing at all. Otto Schmidt spent time in prison. While he was there Schmidt informed some other people in the Gestapo that he had been blackmailing me for some years and the idiots managed to confuse me with the commander in chief of the army—Blomberg’s number two, Colonel General Freiherr Werner von Fritsch. That’s Fritsch with a
t
, you understand. He’s an officer of the old school and very definitely not a Nazi, so perhaps they are looking for an excuse to get rid of him. In other words, it would seem they have deliberately mistaken him for me in an attempt to smear his name and force his resignation from the army. And I am now being blackmailed to keep my mouth shut regarding what I know about this.”
    â€œBy Hennig.”
    â€œBy Hennig.”
    â€œAnd who’s the officer in the Gestapo who’s trying to pin this on General von Fritsch?”
    â€œA commissar by the name of Franz Josef Huber. And a Detective Inspector Fritz Fehling.”
    â€œBut it doesn’t make any sense,” I objected. “They’re already trying to get rid of von Blomberg. Surely von Fritsch is best placed to succeed von Blomberg. Why get rid of him, too?”
    â€œSense? None of this makes sense. As far as I can see, dumb and unswerving loyalty to Hitler is all that matters to the Nazis. The question as it affects me is this: How far up the chain of command does this go? That is what I need to know. Does this knowledge that von Fritsch is entirely innocent extend all the way up the chain to Göring and to Hitler?”
    â€œAnd if it did? What then, sir?”
    â€œJust this. A military court has been appointed to hear General von Fritsch’s case on March tenth in the Preussenhaus. It will be chaired by Göring, Raeder, and Brauchitsch, and the charges will relate to Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code,which makes homosexuality illegal. Before then I need to decide whether, as a point of honor, I should insist on giving evidence and tell the court that it was me and not the general who was the subject of the Gestapo’s blackmail. In other words, how much am I risking by taking on the Gestapo?”
    â€œOff the top of my head I’d say that it’s never a good idea to go toe to toe with the Gestapo. The concentration camps are full of people who thought they can be reasoned with. How ill are you, sir? What I mean is, can you travel? Have you considered leaving the country? There’s no dishonor in running away from the Nazis. Many others have already done so.”
    â€œI might have done that,” he admitted, “if it wasn’t for my elderly mother. I might just find the strength to travel somewhere. But