I got really frustrated at the morning meeting: everyone was being so negative, and although I was desperate to tell everyone about my visit to Dmitri, I had to wait ages before it was my turn.
Klaus had nothing useful to report, Martin’s neighbours hadn’t noticed anything—nobody had even seen me, despite the fact I’d called round nearly every day last week.
Erika and Laura said that Martin’s solicitor was sorting out a visiting order so that we could go and see him, and they had brought a pile of paperwork, but they were concentrating on the one file lying open before them.
“The police seem to think that Martin shot Hanna Krause by mistake, that he was aiming for Kaminsky,” said Laura. “Their theory is that he was at the rally, he shot Hanna during the storm, and then passed the firearm to an accomplice. They haven’t found any gun, neither at the scene, nor at his flat.”
“So, have I got this straight?” Klaus reached over to take the file from Erika. “They are saying that Martin was in the middle of the rally, he took out a gun and shot Krause, nobody tried to stop him, nobody tried to hold him, not one of the tens of thousands of people there even saw him do it?”
“Bollocks, absolute bollocks! They’re trying to frame him!” I blurted out, but nobody responded. Klaus was skimming the file and Erika was looking through the pile before her.
“The police have also said …” she paused while she pulled out a piece of paper. “They said they can show the whole thing was planned. The ministry hasn’t seen that evidence yet so Antje hasn’t been able to tell us what it is. She’s not convinced by the case against Martin but can’t come out publicly until we have something concrete to prove the cops are making it all up.”
“What about publicity and protests?” I asked.
“It’s a bit delicate, don’t you think?” Laura said. “This could seriously damage the image of the GDR—an officer of the RS being accused of terrorism. Whether or not Martin is released he’ll be associated with this assassination attempt.”
“But it’s going to come out sooner or later anyway. We’ve got to do everything we can to get Martin out! Or are you worried that he may have done it? Seriously, none of you can believe that our Martin shot someone?”
“Of course we don’t think Martin did it but we can’t openly support him until we have hard evidence,” answered Erika. “We’re in the same boat as Antje.”
“So you’re more interested in being good RS officers than in saving Martin? Fuck RS! It’s being wound up anyway, what have we got to lose? Or maybe you’re looking forward to being transferred to the police? Do you think all this might damage your chances in department K1?”
“Karo, that’s not how it is, as you well know!” Laura retorted. “We’re doing everything we can to help Martin, and if you want to be part of that effort then you’d better pipe down and stop making ridiculous accusations.”
“OK, but I don’t want to rule out protests in support of Martin. I want that to be an option.”
“Fine. Shall we work out what to do next?”
“We still don’t know what Martin was up to these last few weeks, we need to find that out first.” said Klaus.
“Hang on. I’ve got something useful: Dmitri said that Martin was investigating a plot to shoot Kaminsky, he was working with that cop Steinlein, the one who got beaten up by the fash in March. And I saw them together, on Stralau, they were driving from the far end of the peninsular towards town. It was the night before the rally.”
There was a suitable silence while everyone digested the news.
“OK, we should check that out—the whole Steinlein angle is our priority. We have to try to talk to him,” said Erika.
“We need to be discreet about it. Steinlein won’t want to be seen talking to us,” said Laura. “I’ll approach him when he’s off duty.”
“We’ll do a bit of digging, if we can find out what Steinlein and Martin were doing together it may help you prepare your approach,” agreed Erika. “Karo, do you want to do that with me?”
I nodded, but Laura had already chipped in with her next point: “I’m meeting Martin’s solicitor this morning. I’ll ask about the new evidence and try to have the remand order revoked.”
“And what about publicity, and getting some protests happening?” I knew I wasn’t making myself popular by banging on about this but I didn’t want it to be forgotten.
“I think we should hold off for the moment, if for no other reason than to protect Martin. He may still be released before his arrest becomes public knowledge,” said Laura. “How about we put it on the agenda to discuss tomorrow?”
Everyone agreed to that, except me.
“OK,” I caved in. “But if that arsehole Kaminsky starts making political capital out of Martin’s arrest then I’m going to make it my main mission to organise some demos.”