Henrich’s apartment was a single room that ran the length of the building. It had a sloped ceiling on both sides. He had hung blankets from one side, making a bedroom area. In the other was a sink and a hot plate, forming a small kitchen. The room was spotless, and warm. It smelled faintly of old wool and mildew. It had no windows, a fact for which Fritz was grateful.
He let Frau Dachs choose her own chair. She picked a rocking chair near the kitchen. He grabbed a straight-backed chair from the table and sat across from her. He had to talk to her quickly. When Henrich returned they would have to take Frau Dachs somewhere else, somewhere safe. By that point, Fritz wanted to know what information he had.
‘Forgive my directness,’ he said, ‘but what is the information they would kill you for?’
Frau Dachs put her small hands on the arms of the rocker, as if bracing herself for what she had to say. ‘I watched Adolf Hitler kill Angela Raubal.’
Fritz moved his head back so quickly a dozen bruised muscles screamed. ‘You watched –?’
The woman nodded. ‘You have to understand. It never went that far before. We thought it another fight.’
‘You weren’t alone?’ Fritz was still reeling from her first sentence. He had expected to wheedle information from her, to discover that she hadn’t known anything at all, or that she only thought something had happened. He hadn’t expected her directness.
‘My daughter was there. And Frau Winter. Herr Hoffman came up later. He was the one who decided what to do.’
Fritz’s mouth was dry. ‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘Tell me everything.’
Frau Dachs’s fingers clutched the edge of the chair. She sat as straight as her damaged back would let her. ‘We had just finished serving lunch. My daughter was cutting bread in case that man wanted a second serving as he usually did –’
‘That man was Hitler?’ Fritz asked.
Frau Dachs nodded. She didn’t take her gaze off Fritz. ‘I do not believe a tyrant should be given the dignity of a name, do you?’
Her hatred was fierce, and startling. No wonder they hadn’t let anyone talk with her.
‘Your daughter was cutting bread,’ Fritz said.
‘Yes, and Frau Winter was telling Marlena she was an idiot. Now, Marlena is not smart, but she married a bit of money, and she didn’t need to listen to that. I told her so, but she never listened to me as well. The moment I could no longer provide for myself was the moment she stopped listening to me.’ Frau Dachs’s tone took a bitterness that sounded ingrained. ‘I wish she had. We would still be living in our own home instead of following that man around. But Marlena wanted to live on Prinzregentenplaz. She likes to pretend she is rich.’
Frau Dachs shook her head. ‘Sometimes I wonder how I ever begot that girl.’
Fritz would never have called Frau Reichert a girl. He was leaning forward, his back aching, his cracked elbow resting against the chair’s wooden arm. The pain was keeping him alert.
‘Suddenly, Frau Winter raised her hand for silence. That man and Geli were fighting again. Frau Winter loved to listen. I think it gave her a kind of power. They had been fighting for days. He thought she had a lover in Vienna. She didn’t. She went for her music teacher. She thought she could be as famous as her uncle by singing in the cabarets. Silly girl. Geli had gone to Vienna a few days before, but she had got as far as Berchtesgaden when that man called her and demanded that she come home.’
‘Hitler’s home in Oberstrassburg?’ Fritz said. ‘She was visiting her mother?’
Frau Dachs nodded. ‘Her mother had no idea what to do with Geli. None of us did. And that man spoiled her.’
‘I thought you said he beat her,’ Fritz said.
Frau Dachs tilted her head. The look she gave Fritz was withering. ‘They are not mutually exclusive, young man.’
‘No, I suppose not,’ Fritz said.
‘So, Geli was telling that man that she was going to Vienna, she didn’t care what he said. And he was telling her that she couldn’t go. She was yelling that she hated being trapped in the apartment, she hated Munich, and she hated his friends. He said she had everything and she should be grateful. She said that she did not have her freedom. She was as trapped as Hansi, her canary.’
Frau Dachs’s skin was pale, with two red dots on her cheeks. Although her voice was even, she was not calm. ‘And then Geli said she hated being trapped. That man said that if she left, he would make sure she never had anything again. And she said that was fine because she hated him. Then we heard a slap and the sound of breaking dishes. Marlena started to go out, but Frau Winter held her arm.’
Frau Dachs lower lip was shaking. She swallowed before continuing.
‘Geli started screaming that he had hurt her. He said he would hurt her worse. We heard more breaking glass and then she started screaming about Hansi. That’s when I left the kitchen. I came into the dining hall in time to see him wring the little bird’s neck and throw it at Geli. She picked up a knife. She was screaming that he was crazy and that he had killed the only thing she loved. He took out his riding crop and slapped it against his boot and said in that voice he used with her, “Go to your room”. She stood in front of him for a minute, blood running down her face, then she turned and ran down the hall. She was still carrying the knife. He followed her. I picked up Hansi and put him in his cage. His little eyes were open, and the bones in his tiny neck were shattered.’
‘You didn’t go after Geli?’
Frau Dachs shook her head. ‘They had fought before. I thought it would end with Hansi’s death. After I put him away, I heard them yelling again. I went to the hall to get a broom – Marlena never goes anywhere where there is blood, and Frau Winter was too busy listening. I saw him outside her door. She was waving a knife at him. He had pulled back his coat to show his gun. She said she wasn’t afraid of him. He pushed her inside. I was getting frightened. I didn’t know if I should call for help or not. I finally decided that I had had enough. I went to his gun cabinet and took out a Walther. He left his guns loaded, fool that he is, and I took it. My hands were shaking, but I figured I could hit that man enough to get him away from her. I got to the door in time to see him grab her by the neck and put his own gun against her chest. I thought he was going to threaten her, but instead he shot her.’
The old woman’s hands dropped from the table. She looked down. ‘He shot her.’
Fritz’s heart was pounding. He could barely speak. But he forced himself to ask, ‘Then what, Frau Dachs?’
‘I clutched the gun. I thought he was going to kill all of us. But he held her for a moment, then he turned to me. He said, “Frau Dachs, I think I hurt my Geli.” I don’t think he even saw the gun in my hands. I set the gun down and I went to her. She was dead. By that time, Frau Winter had come in. She looked at that man, then at me, and told us not to move. She went for Herr Hoffman. When she came back, they had already decided they would make it look as if Geli did it herself. Frau Winter made that man change clothes – she took his and burned them – then she and Hoffman made him leave with the chauffeur –’
‘Did the chauffeur ever see the body?’
Frau Dachs shook her head. ‘Hoffman left it in Frau Winter’s hands. I told her I wouldn’t lie for him. She told me I would have to. If I didn’t, something would happen to me. Marlena was the one who suggested that I say nothing. Pretend I was too distraught.’
She smiled a little.
‘I was distraught. Poor child. I close my eyes and I see her bloody face.’
She touched her own face. ‘You think it can never go that far, that a woman would die. We all survive it. It is part of the game. But sometimes, sometimes there is one even crazier than we all expect.’
‘So Hitler left,’ Fritz said, unwilling to listen to the old woman philosophise.
‘With Herr Hoffman and the chauffeur, Herr Schreck.’
‘What time was that?’ Fritz asked.
Frau Dachs shook her head. ‘Two-thirty, maybe three. Later than they had planned.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Frau Winter called that Hess man, and when he arrived he called Herr Schwarz and Herr Amann. They took Geli, got her to Vienna like she always wanted, made it out to be suicide. No one was to say anything until the next morning. They had that much of a story, but no one knew why she died. They had forgotten that part until the constable showed up.’
Fritz sat up slowly, cautious of his bruises. The timing all made sense to him now. ‘So no one called Hitler. He came back the next morning as planned with an alibi, since Geli had shot herself in the middle of the night.’
Frau Dachs nodded. ‘He took his gun. Frau Winter put my gun into the poor girl’s hand and held it there. Geli was afraid of guns. Perhaps that was the hardest thing, to see them treating her like nothing.’
Fritz took a deep breath. ‘Frau Dachs, you saw me, you saw Henrich. You even stayed in the apartment after Hitler came back. You could have spoken to us while we were there. But you did not. Why not? Why did you wait until we came to you?’
She glanced down, her fingers clenched in a fist.
Fritz saw the fear, understood it. ‘We won’t arrest you, Frau Dachs, for staying silent. You’ve come forward now. We’ll protect you. I just want to know why you waited.’
She took a deep breath, as if saying this next were harder than telling the story. ‘Because I did not see a point.’
‘There is a point now?’
Frau Dachs nodded. ‘I overheard Frau Winter on the phone this morning. She is to make certain that man’s clothing is in order. He has a meeting with Hindenburg. She hopes by then he will be over this tragedy.’
‘With Hindenburg.’ Fritz frowned. He couldn’t concentrate as well as he liked. ‘What would the President want with him?’
‘Some of Hitler’s friends want Hindenburg to endorse Hitler for Chancellor.’
‘He’s not even a German citizen.’ Fritz said.
‘He is working with a man in Braunschweig to make him a councillor for that state.’ Frau Dachs clasped her hands in her lap, as if she were trying to control them.
‘Even if that works,’ Fritz said, ‘no one will ever elect him.’
She pinned him with that intense look. ‘No one ever thought the NSDAP would become so powerful in Germany. The second largest party in the Reichstag. If their support grows they will become the largest. Hindenburg will not be able to ignore them then.’
‘I am afraid I don’t see the connection,’ Fritz said. ‘Hitler has always been very active politically.’
‘I didn’t think of it much until Geli died,’ Frau Dachs said. ‘Then he was so devastated by his actions that I thought he might give it all up. Gregor Strasser is a better man.’ She shook her head. ‘But I was wrong. That man comes out of these things only stronger. They say he acted the same way after he got those people killed in the putsch. Grief, and guilt and then, suddenly, smarter, stronger. I know what it is like to live with a man like that. I began to think. He loved Geli, in his own way. He loved her. He used the same words to describe her as he uses about Bavaria. I stayed in my room for almost a week, and this morning, when I heard Frau Winter plan his meeting with Hindenburg, I knew.’
‘Knew?’ Fritz asked.
She nodded. ‘I knew. If a man treats the woman he loves that way, imagine. Imagine what he will do if he ever gets control of the country.’