Heinrich Bellmann hadn’t brought his daughter but his lawyer. He appeared in Homicide at ten on the dot, closely followed by Gräf and Mertens, both of whom looked as if they had spent the night in the car. The pair appeared through the glass door unshaven and with rumpled suits, while Bellmann looked spick and span as he took his seat on the wooden bench outside Gennat’s office. Trudchen Steiner requested that he wait a little longer.
Gennat had coffee brought for Gräf and Mertens in the outer office, but continued to keep Bellmann in suspense. ‘How was your night in Weissensee?’ he asked.
‘The man was home all night,’ Gräf said, blowing on the hot coffee. ‘His lawyer left around eight. The daughter stayed in the house.’
‘She lives there too,’ Gennat said. ‘The man made no attempt to escape?’
‘Difficult to say.’ Gräf shrugged his shoulders. ‘He sneaked a look through the window a few times, but probably sensed we wouldn’t let him get away so easily.’
‘You must have been conspicuous.’
‘We didn’t have to toot the horn. He saw us anyway,’ Gräf said. ‘Why didn’t you have him remanded in custody if you thought he might try to escape?’
‘Because I wanted to see what he would do, and because we don’t have anything to justify holding him.’
‘Still not?’ Gräf gestured towards the chaos of document files and boxes that had spread across the main Homicide office.
‘Not what we were looking for, but enough to give him a good grilling.’ Gennat went through the connecting door into his private office. ‘We’ll get going in half an hour. Send Böhm and Rath in,’ he said, and closed the door.
They were still working away feverishly in Homicide. Although they had found a few things that would create difficulties for Bellmann, they still hadn’t found anything halfway sufficient for a murder charge. That morning they had started again at eight, even though Rath had got home at just before twelve the previous evening.
They had even postponed the daily briefing to the afternoon. One half of Homicide was following up on the few leads they had on the cinema killings, while the other continued to sift through contracts, fee statements and insurance documents, looking for the decisive find. At half past eight Buddha made himself comfortable behind his desk to feed on fresh insights from his colleagues, think and eat cake.
He was still doing so at half past ten when Rath and Böhm joined him. Gennat made no move to admit Bellmann, but instead spoke to the inspectors about what they had learned so far. Rath had come across the name Borussia several times in the manual records. The shady film company Marlow had told him about, and in which Bellmann clearly had a stake, seemed to be a lucrative business. After that he had rummaged through the crates with the film reels until he found a few labelled Borussia, which they had then proceeded to watch after all. No one knew that they were doing Johann Marlow a favour in the process.
Rath and Böhm each had to have a slice of cake, and only then did Gennat signal to Trudchen Steiner that Heinrich Bellmann and his lawyer could enter. After waiting for three-quarters of an hour the producer was rather flushed.
‘This is an outrage,’ he said, before even sitting down, ignoring his lawyer, who tugged incessantly on his sleeve. ‘How dare you? Do you even know who you are dealing with?’
You couldn’t take that kind of attitude with Gennat.
‘I think I do,’ he said, leafing calmly through the file. ‘Heinrich Antonius Bellmann, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Why have you kept me waiting so long? I’ve been sitting outside for an hour. Do you think I can afford to waste my time?’
‘I’m not interested in what you can and can’t afford.’
‘You had my office searched, and my private residence! Can you tell me why?’
‘We’ll come to that.’
‘My client has the right to know what you are accusing him of,’ said the lawyer.
Straightaway Gennat took the wind out of the man’s sails. ‘What makes you think we’re accusing him of anything? Now take a seat, so that we can talk things through sensibly.’
The lawyer had to positively drag Bellmann to his chair before sitting down beside him. The producer cast suspicious glances at Rath and Böhm as the pair stirred their coffees.
‘What’s all this about?’ he asked Gennat, gesturing towards Rath. ‘Up until now I haven’t complained about the way your colleague here hampered my shoot, but that can change.’
‘I’m afraid police work can sometimes be inconvenient,’ Gennat said. ‘If it has been in any way disadvantageous or caused you a financial loss, then I apologise.’ He closed the folder and fired off his first question as casually as he might remark on the weather. ‘Was that the case with Betty Winter’s death?’
‘Pardon me?’
‘Did you incur a financial loss as a result of her death?’
‘What do you think?’ Bellmann turned to his lawyer, who gave his client a nod. ‘Betty was my most important actress,’ he said.
‘Is that why you took out such a substantial insurance policy on her?’ Gennat reopened the file, leafing through it until he found the appropriate passage. ‘Five hundred thousand marks in the event of her death, accident and sabotage expressly included.’
‘You have to protect yourself. I still haven’t received any money!’
‘You pledged it as collateral to fund your advertising campaign for Liebesgewitter.’
‘That’s hardly a crime.’
‘Perhaps not, but it does give a pretty clear indication of how much you gained from the death of your star.’
‘What good are short-term gains against the loss of an irreplaceable actress?’
‘Her successor is already filming.’
‘You mean Eva Kröger? A promising talent, for sure, but what is she against an experienced actress on the verge of greatness?’
‘Your first talkie with Winter wasn’t exactly a hit.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean? At least you could understand what she was saying! Unlike all those lisping, stuttering, screen beauties from God knows where.’
Gennat shrugged. ‘I’m in no position to judge her abilities. I’m just looking at the figures.’
‘You need to be patient with sound film, it takes a while before you make your money back.’
‘These foreign versions you’re filming seem rather expensive to me.’
‘In future we’ll only film one additional language version alongside the original. In English.’
‘It’s lucky that Frau Kröger speaks English so well then. Being able to employ a single actress for two language versions must save you an enormous amount of money?’
‘You can’t blame me for limiting costs. Do you have any idea how expensive a sound film can be?’
‘How you save on costs is your business. It only concerns the police when people are killed because of it.’
Bellmann turned to his lawyer.
‘I refuse to tolerate any suggestion that my client is in any way linked to the murder of Betty Winter.’
‘No one’s suggesting anything of the kind,’ Gennat said. ‘All I’ve done is mention two things that are indisputable: that Betty Winter was killed intentionally and that her death has brought more advantages than disadvantages to your client.’
‘According to the cui bono principle that makes him a prime suspect!’
‘You’re the lawyer, not me,’ Gennat said.
The man blushed and fell silent. As good as he might have been for contractual disputes, Rath thought, he was unsuited to criminal defence.
‘What about Manfred Oppenberg and how he benefited from all this?’ Bellmann asked. ‘He’s the one who smuggled Herr Krempin into my studio.’
Bellmann’s hypocrisy was getting on Rath’s nerves. He tried a shot in the dark.
‘On the morning of the twenty-eighth of February you discovered that Felix Krempin intended to sabotage your shoot. Why didn’t you tell the police?’
Bellmann looked as if he’d been dealt a blow to the solar plexus. He gasped for air. Bullseye. Rath had him on the ropes and refused to stop there.
‘Because then you wouldn’t have been able to accuse your rival Manfred Oppenberg of ordering a murder? Because you knew from the start that Krempin never planned to kill Betty Winter, you just wanted to make it look as though he had.’
‘How do you know…? Have you arrested Krempin? Is he serving you up these lies, or is it your old friend Oppenberg?’
‘Felix Krempin is dead,’ Gennat said.
Bellmann’s surprise seemed genuine.
‘If he took his own life, and there is evidence to suggest he did, then it’ll be on your conscience,’ Rath said, even though, of all the officers in the room, he was the least convinced by Krempin’s suicide. ‘You threw him out, and he went underground because he was forced to read about your suspicions in the press.’
‘But that’s…’ Bellmann began to stutter. ‘I can’t help what the press write.’
‘That’s something you’ll have to square with your conscience,’ Gennat said. ‘Alongside Betty Winter’s death.’
‘That’s nothing to do with me! I barely understand it myself. He disconnected the wire.’
‘You’re talking about Krempin?’
‘Who else?’
‘Then you knew about his plans?’
‘Yes, but…’ Bellmann seemed outraged, before checking himself and lowering his voice. ‘It’s true, I knew what he was planning, but surely you don’t believe what your colleague here is accusing me of!’
‘How was it then?’
‘I told him what I knew about him, and that he should take his things and scram. Before he left the studio he went onto the bridge and deactivated the device.’
‘Did you see him do it?’ Rath asked. ‘How do you know?’
‘I don’t go onto the lighting bridges. Krempin went up there on his own, but what else could he have been doing? He knew that I’d have called him to account for the damage otherwise. Besides, the thunder machine was working in the morning as usual. It wasn’t until midday… You know, the spotlight…’
‘I still don’t understand why you let him go,’ Rath said. ‘Why not report him straightaway? Was it because you already knew that you wanted to lay the blame at his door for something much worse? Namely murder. In the process, you killed two birds with one stone. On the one hand, by directing the worst kind of suspicion imaginable onto your rival. On the other, by getting rid of the increasingly troublesome Betty Winter. Then there’s the insurance money.’
‘What are you saying? I’m no murderer!’
The lawyer took his client reassuringly by the arm. ‘Best not to say anything now, Herr Bellmann, not before…’
‘Oh, pipe down!’ Bellmann shook off the man’s hand. ‘Do you think I’m going to sit here and be accused of murder?’
‘I just mean… The other thing we spoke about,’ the lawyer whispered.
‘That’s got nothing to do with it. Really, I don’t know why I brought you here in the first place.’
The lawyer fell silent and gazed out of the window, offended.
Gennat’s confidence-inspiring voice filled the room once more. ‘Tell me in your own time what really happened on the twenty-eighth of February. You wouldn’t believe how many people have sat in your place, grateful to unburden themselves at last.’
‘There isn’t much to unburden myself of,’ Bellmann said. ‘I’d known there was something fishy about this Peter Glaser for a long time, and had him placed under surveillance.’
‘But waited until he had built his wire construction before exposing him?’ Rath said.
‘I had to have something on him to prove what Oppenberg was capable of.’
‘And on the morning of the twenty-eighth you had reached that point,’ Gennat said.
‘As I said, I had him placed under surveillance, and they told me he was on the lighting bridges far more often than necessary.’
‘So, a few of your people were in on it. That means they knew about Krempin?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who?’
‘Just a few lighting technicians.’
‘I need all their names.’
‘I can give them to you.’
Gennat shook his head. ‘And not one of them told us that Glaser’s real name was Krempin.’
‘I have loyal workers, Inspector.’
‘Superintendent.’
‘Superintendent.’
Gennat turned to Rath and Böhm. ‘What do you say, gentlemen? Shall we believe the man?’
‘You have to, Superintendent!’ Bellmann sprang to his feet. ‘It can’t have been me. I wasn’t on the lighting bridge for the entire morning in question. In fact, I’ve never been up there at all. You can ask anyone, I was down below the whole time.’
‘You said you didn’t realise Betty Winter had died.’
‘I was with the sound engineer in the projection room, I’ve told you that already. When we heard the bang and her screams, we came out right away.’
‘Perhaps it was one of your employees, acting on your behalf? They’re very loyal, as you say.’
‘You overestimate how far their loyalty stretches.’ Bellmann sat back down. ‘My staff are all good, upstanding people. They wouldn’t commit murder, not even for me.’
‘We’ll see about that once we’ve questioned them. We’ll be checking your alibi at the same time.’
‘Feel free, you’ll see that I’m telling the truth!
‘The question remains why you didn’t report Krempin.’
‘You don’t have to report everything; things like that can be settled man-to-man.’
‘That sounds out of character coming from you. Given that you have brought legal proceedings against your rival Manfred Oppenberg on thirty-seven occasions in the last five years. You let the thirty-eighth opportunity slide?’
‘People change, Superintendent.’
‘You haven’t changed one iota! You just knew that you could do more damage to Oppenberg if you exploited the sabotage attempt for the press. Which you then proceeded to do.’
‘I couldn’t have known Betty Winter would die!’
‘You took advantage of her death all the same, to blacken your rival’s name even though you knew it couldn’t have been him, and to publicise your new film in a truly macabre fashion.’
‘I owe it to Betty that I give her final film the publicity it deserves. That she deserves!’
‘My heart bleeds,’ Böhm grunted.
Bellmann gave the bulldog a vexed look, as if he expected the bulky DCI to launch himself at him at any moment.
‘Herr Bellmann,’ Gennat said. ‘Even if neither you nor your employees are responsible for the murder of Betty Winter, you have obstructed and misled the police in their investigations. You will have to answer for that.’
‘My client…’ the lawyer began, before being interrupted by Gennat.
‘For the time being that’s it from our side. You’re free to go.’
‘I can go back to my studio?’
‘No,’ Gennat said. ‘Things don’t happen that quickly around here. Superintendent Lanke from E Division would like to speak with you. On examination of your film reels, we uncovered pornographic material.’ The lawyer jumped to his feet and began to protest but Gennat continued. ‘It’s called accidental discovery. Surely I don’t have to explain that to a lawyer such as yourself? In such cases evidence is passed on to the relevant authority. E Division is not far from here, on this floor. An officer will show you and your client the way.’
Bellmann looked at his lawyer.
‘You see, Herr Bellmann,’ the lawyer said. ‘There was a reason you brought me after all.’
Trudchen Steiner arrived with fresh supplies of cake as soon as Bellmann and his lawyer disappeared.
‘Well, gentlemen,’ Gennat said, shovelling slices of cake on Böhm and Rath’s plates. ‘We’ve taken one step forward and two steps back.’ He made a thoughtful face. ‘I think we can safely rule this Krempin out. He’s no killer, not even through negligence. The only thing is, it wasn’t Heinrich Bellmann either.’
‘Can you be sure?’ Böhm asked. He was gazing at his cake as if longing for it to be transformed into a Bulette with mustard. ‘I don’t trust the man.’
‘If he was responsible for Betty Winter’s death, he wouldn’t have told us so much. He might have exploited her death, but he didn’t cause it.’
‘Somebody must have reattached the wire,’ Rath said, ‘and it must have been someone familiar with both the studio and the script. If not Bellmann himself, then someone from his company.’
‘I don’t think any of his employees would commit murder on his behalf,’ Böhm said. ‘That’s one of his few claims that I do believe, the sleazebag.’
‘Perhaps not on his behalf,’ Rath said, ‘but working under their own steam. Perhaps one of Bellmann’s employees had a score to settle with Betty Winter.’
Gennat nodded. ‘That means we must step up our search for further motives, something that was neglected last week, I’m afraid. The cui bono principle, as Bellmann’s lawyer so nicely put it: who stands to gain from her death?’
‘Bellmann’s daughter perhaps,’ Rath said. ‘I think she has her eye on Victor Meisner, perhaps she wanted to make him a widower so that she could console him.’
‘Then it could also have been Meisner,’ Böhm said. ‘Perhaps together with her. Love has turned many people into accomplices.’
‘I don’t think he benefits from her death,’ Rath said. ‘The only reason he still had a career was his wife. He was the one holding her back. It’d be more likely that she killed him.’
‘Whoever it was,’ Gennat said, ‘must have known about the construction up on the lighting bridges, and how to reactivate it in next to no time.’
‘Good luck trying to prove that!’
‘My dear Böhm, I’m afraid you don’t always get everything handed to you on a plate. Let Bellmann’s employees stew for the time being. Let’s see what they say and take it from there. Before we interrogate them, I want each individual reinvestigated. What relationship did they have to the deceased, what do their finances look like, etc, etc, etc? We need to know more about everyone we bring in, more than they know themselves.’
‘Perhaps there’s another death that can help us,’ Rath said.
Gennat looked at him curiously. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The Krempin case. What do you think of the idea that Felix Krempin knew who had tampered with his construction, or at least had an inkling? Perhaps he was blackmailing the killer and he pushed him off the Funkturm.’
‘One thing’s for certain, Rath,’ said Böhm. ‘If what happened at the Funkturm was murder, then Krempin knew his killer, or at least trusted him. Everything points to that. There’s no way you could throw someone off otherwise.’
Gennat nodded. ‘That sounds plausible, but we need to take care these theories don’t get out of control. What we desperately need are facts. If only we could find the man who went back up the Funkturm after Krempin’s fall. He might be able to solve a few riddles.’
He looked at the two officers. Both had finished their cake, even if Böhm was making a face as if he had just consumed a bottle of cod liver oil. ‘I think,’ Gennat said, ‘we should discuss the next steps with the whole group at two. Then we can allocate tasks.’
Rath and Böhm stood up and moved to the door.
‘Inspector, one more thing,’ Gennat said.
‘Yes, Sir?’
Gennat waited until Böhm had left the room.
‘Let me say this to you,’ he said. ‘Even if it worked today, in future please refrain from interrupting an interrogation that someone else is leading. If you intend to do anything like that again, arrange it with me beforehand.’