Free A Slow Death (Max Drescher Book 1) by James Craig

nodded. ‘The kids were playing up.’
    ‘Ah. That’s tough.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Michael rested his feet on a pile of old National Geographic magazines.  ‘I’m getting grief from all sides at the moment. The boys are particularly hyper at the moment. I think they might be going through another growing spurt.’
    ‘Maybe.’ Max didn’t a have clue.
    ‘And Sarah is pissed off because we never get any time alone together.’
    Max shrugged. ‘Women.’ It was another subject pretty much beyond his area of expertise.
    ‘She wants to go to the Pink Floyd concert at the Brandenburg Gate but we can’t get a babysitter.’ Michael looked at his partner enquiringly.
    Not a chance, thought Max. No way am I volunteering for that.
    ‘I don’t suppose –’
    ‘You don’t suppose right,’ Max grumped.
    ‘We haven’t been to see a band for years. It would just be for a few hours.’
    ‘A few hours? This is Pink Floyd we’re talking about. A few hours will barely get you through a couple of their songs. And the shorter ones at that.’ He waved an arm in the direction of the street. ‘Anyway, how can it be that you can’t find a babysitter in the whole of Berlin?’
    ‘It’s difficult,’ Michael sighed. ‘The regular girl we’d been using went off to London with her boyfriend and didn’t come back.’
    ‘London,’ Max snorted, ‘who would want to go there? It’s such a total dump.’
    Michael made a face. ‘Never been.’
    ‘I went there once, in the ‘70s. I remember going to a club in Charing Cross. It cost me a fortune and I ended up with a bad dose of the clap.’
    Michael grimaced. Too much information, boss.
    ‘The place was even more depressing than Berlin,’ Max continued, warming to his theme. ‘Undoubtedly the greyest place I’ve ever been to in my life. And the people, well rude and unfriendly doesn’t begin to cover it.’
    ‘Anyway,’ Michael interjected, trying to find his way back to the original point of the conversation, ‘the babysitter went to London and we haven’t been able to find a decent replacement yet. It doesn’t help that Sarah’s very picky. We’ve seen three or four possibles but she’s ruled them all out for one reason or another. She won’t leave the boys with just anyone.’
    ‘Rules me out, then,’ Max said cheerily. ‘There is no way that you can categorize me as a responsible adult.’
    ‘C’mon Max,’ Michael pleaded, ‘we’d both be very grateful.’
    The Kriminalinspektor let out a long breath. ‘Okay, okay, okay.’ He held up both hands in mock surrender. ‘Look, if you really can’t find a proper babysitter we can talk about it nearer the time. If it comes to that. But, for God’s sake, there must be someone you can get. Surely. Look harder.’
    ‘Okay. Thanks.’ Accepting that this was the best offer he was going to get, Michael returned to the matter in hand. He gestured towards Suzanne Suzuki, who was still hovering by the till, casting the occasional suspicious glance in their direction. ‘She says that she’s been living in Berlin for just over six years and has worked here in the bookshop for the last three. According to her, Beerfeldt bought the place just under a year ago, which came as a bit of a surprise to the staff. They all thought that the place was going bust.’
    Perking up a bit, Max pushed himself up in his chair. ‘What made them think that?’
    ‘Look at this place,’ Michael gestured with his hand, ‘it’s not exactly the KaDeWe, it is?’
    ‘No, I suppose not.’ Max was not much of a shopper, but even he knew that the Kaufhaus des Westens department store, a Berlin institution, was always packed.
    ‘Suzanne says she has been the one running the place for a couple of years now, including doing the books. According to her, the store has been losing more than a thousand deutschmarks a month the whole time that she’s been working here.’
    ‘Ouch. Looks like someone got taken for a ride.’
    Michael shook his