“Johann, we have a few more pieces of information, but we don’t seem to be making much progress,” said Maggie.
“I have gone through all my parents’ things and there is nothing that indicates an extra source of money, but somehow my father always managed to pay the bills. There seems to be a disconnect. He seemed to have spent more money than he made. My first question is whether he was getting help from my Aunt Käthe,” said Johann.
“There may be something there,” said Silke. “If he was spending more money than he made, there has to be a trail of the additional funds. I like the idea of your aunt. That would have been my first choice too.”
“Johann, it doesn’t appear that your parents lived too far above their means. That could have been done to avoid attention,” said Maggie.
“I agree, that is the second place that journalists look. People who live way above their means,” said Silke.
“So my parents were getting money from somewhere, but not too much money?” asked Johann.
“Yes, I think that is where we’re at,” said Maggie.
“Silke are there any other links we could look for?” asked Johann.
“I think we are on the right track.”
“We have the police looking for Günter Eckersley,” Maggie added. “We have heard nothing yet. We also have police officers checking on other people he worked with at the East German Police.”
“Both of those are good leads,” said Silke.
“So we have some good points. I suggest we break for tonight and meet two nights from now,” said Maggie.
After their goodbyes, Johann walked down the stairs to the back door where the unmarked police car picked him up. Kurt was right on their tail.
Maggie drove back to her office. She wanted to see if anyone had reported a sighting of Günter Eckersley and to see what the background search had unearthed about his police connections.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was a rainy afternoon with overcast skies when Johann arrived at the family mausoleum for the burial of his father and mother. Both his parent’s ashes would be interred this afternoon. The family crypt was prepared and everything looked ready for the small ceremony.
The crowd grew as the time drew near. Most visitors looked to be his parent’s generation. He was the only young person there. The ceremony was just about to start when Maggie showed up. She was dressed to fit in with the crowd, with a dark overcoat, her hair up, with gloves and flats. Her outfit went well with her dishwater blonde hair. Johann believed she was probably not the only police officer in the group.
The minister asked Johann to say a few words before starting the ceremony.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining me for this solemn ceremony to say farewell to my parents. I am also glad to see many familiar faces. My parents would be happy to know all of you came in such weather.”
The minister took Hans von Manntoell’s urn from the attendant, prayed over the urn and placed it in the crypt vault. He took Helga von Manntoell’s urn, prayed over it and put it into the crypt vault. The minister then said a prayer for the group. In closing, the minister led the group in the Lord’s Prayer and blessed those in attendance.
During the ceremony Maggie and a squad of police officers in plain clothes worked the crowd that attended the funeral. They identified a few suspicious-looking people, took pictures, and made a list of the license plates of all attendees.
When the ceremony was completed, everyone stood in line to see Johann and share their condolences with him. The men all shook his hand and most of the women hugged him. It appeared nearly fifty people came.
Kurt Howler could not resist attending the funeral to taunt the police. For his safety, he took the Metro and three cabs to get there. It would be hard for anyone to have tracked him. Kurt couldn’t help but smile at his handiwork. Unfortunately, if anyone noticed, it could be his undoing.
With only a few people still milling around at the mausoleum, Johann walked into the forest adjacent to the cemetery. He had a lot on his mind as he strolled in the rain. Maggie had a police officer tailing him, but Johann didn’t notice. The rain was light with a chill in the air. He stood near a large oak tree. When everyone was gone from the mausoleum, he walked slowly back to his parents’ vaults. The cemetery workers stood back. He walked into the crypt and said goodbye to his father first.
He placed his hands on the vault door and prayed for his father’s salvation. He then put his hands on his mother’s vault door and prayed for her. Tears poured down his face.
The crypt contained the legacy of his entire family. He was the last one. Right there, he decided to return to his family home. He walked to the street and caught a taxi back to his hotel room to check out. Within the hour, he was packed and in a cab on the way to the flat. He took his suitcases to his room and adjusted the radiators to fill the home with warmth. He shut the new door that was put in his parent’s bedroom. He planned to have the flat repaired. For now, most of the flat could be used. He turned on the radio and lay in his bed. It had been a very stressful day and he drifted off.
At about 6:00 pm the phone woke him. It was Maggie.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Tired, but I am okay.”
“Well, I hope it is livable.”
“It is pretty comfortable here.”
“Good. We covered the ceremony. It will take a day or two to get the photographs.”
“Did you see anything suspicious?”
“Yes, I did. The pictures will also help. A forensic technician will go over them with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Well, I hope there is something there.”
“Just wanted to check on you. I am still waiting for the uniform division to pick up Günter Eckersley.”
“Thank you for calling, are we on for tomorrow night?”
“Yes, do you need a car to pick you up?”
“No, I will be there at 10:00.”
He planned to go back to the Berlin Document Center in the morning, but now he was going to call Käthe’s attorney. He was quickly connected to Herr Schneider.
“Hello, Herr von Manntoell, I got your message.”
“Hello, Herr Schneider.”
“I have checked the file and you are listed as an official of the estate. So I can answer your questions.”
“Thank you, how much is my aunt’s estate worth?”
“It is worth about $75,000.”
“Did my aunt make withdrawals over the years?”
“Actually no, the account has been steady for decades. She has lived off of her pension.”
“Well, thank you, Herr Schneider, that helps.”
“I hope your aunt improves. She is a kind person. I’ve been managing the estate since I took it over from my father who managed it for forty years.”
“Thank you for your kind words.”
Johann made notes from the call on index cards. His aunt wasn’t helping his parents, so his father was getting money from somewhere else. The question was where?
His father wasn’t spending a lot of money needlessly, but whenever he needed the money he came up with it. That meant the source had to be nearby where he had access to it. His search showed his parents owned only the flat. The only other property would be Käthe’s home, which was too far away.
His father went to the local pub weekly. That doesn’t seem like a place to hide anything, but Johann decided to go there for dinner and beer to poke around. There was also the church, but his parents were not very active. That didn’t seem like a good hiding place.
Johann took out a couple of cards and wrote the places his parents favored. Once the list was made, he put a star next to those with possibilities. The pub and his aunt’s house seemed to be the best spots. Johann walked down the street to the bar. The locals there were glad to see him. They bought him a meal and beer.
After an hour, he asked Helmet, the owner, if he could talk to him. Once Helmet took the seat acro
ss from Johann, he asked if his father had shared anything with him in private.
Helmet told Johann that his father was sorry for his serving in the Army during World War II. He also felt he had let Johann and his mother down by losing the estate and the family money. His father was determined to make a comfortable future life. What Helmet didn’t know about was the Berlin Society of Theosophy or any missing money.
Helmet hugged him tightly before Johann left. Each person in the crowd said goodbye and encouraged him to return soon. Johann walked out into the chilly night. The rain had stopped, but the air was moist. Johann made his way back to the flat.
Johann cleaned the knick knacks and documents off the dining room table and laid out the evidence he had gathered. He moved them around to see if there were some trends. He took a deck of 3X5 cards from his room and wrote notes on them. He found tacks in a desk drawer and stuck the cards on the dining room wall in sequence by topic.
His family’s source of extra money had to be the first priority. The second was where to find out more information about the Berlin Society of Theosophy. Working with Maggie and Silke had given him more confidence. He held his head a little higher.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The next morning, Johann jotted down a few notes to narrow his search and called a taxi to take him to the Berlin Document Center. Once there, he checked in and asked for documents relating to donations to the NAZI Party. The researcher showed him several drawers that contained the material he was looking for. From there, he hoped he could make a connection to his father’s estate.
His first choice was a series of documents that referred to farms and ranches that had been donated to the NAZI party. Attached to each was a deed showing the location and family name of the former owners.
His first success came two hours into the search. He found a ledger that listed the family estate boundary markings in specific areas in East Germany. His hands were shaking as he held the document. This was the first confirmation that his father had donated the estate to the NAZI Party. He wrote down the document control number on the paper.
Next, he tried to cross-reference the boundary markings with deed addresses. His search was rewarded with just that, a deed and address for the acres of land and home his family used to own. He also found the name of the agent that took possession of the property for the NAZI Party in another survey document.
With new energy, he searched the rest of the drawers. He finished the last drawer as the researcher came to tell him the center was closing and he would have to leave.
“Hello, it’s time to go.”
“Sorry, time got away from me.”
“I could tell; I haven’t heard a word from you since you came back here.”
“I have found several documents I have been searching for.”
“Here is the form to request copies of the papers you found from the U.S. Consulate here in Berlin.”
“Thank you, this has been a very gratifying day. I will get this filled out.”
“Goodbye, for now, I expect to see you again soon.”
“I think you will.”
Johann walked outside in the cold weather and was able to catch a taxi that drove him home. At his flat, he filled out the application for copies. He included the document control numbers he wanted copies of. The hours spent going over old property records at the Berlin Document Center tracing property donations to the NAZI Party had been a success. He sat in a chair to drink a beer and relax when the phone rang.
“Hello, Johann speaking.”
“Maggie here.”
“Hello, Maggie.”
“You sound like you are in a good mood Johann.”
“I am, I spent the day at the Berlin Document Center and found several documents with the boundary markings and address of my family’s estate. I was also able to determine the amount of pay that my father received.”
“Wow, that sounds like a productive day.”
“It was. I have a document that needs to be submitted to the U.S. Consulate to get copies of these papers from the Document Center.”
“Bring it tonight. I think I can take it from there to speed things up.”
“Good, I was hoping we were still on for this evening.”
“Yes, do you need a ride?”
“I would usually say no, but you have a car following me anyway so they may as well take me to the clinic.”
“It sounds like our guys are getting sloppy.”
“Actually, they keep driving the same car.”
“That’s funny. See you tonight.”
Johann went back to his beer, running the new information through his mind to try and understand what he had found. He walked over to the table and found his list of items he wanted to find, drawing a single line through the items he’d uncovered over the last few days.
He’d confirmed that his father was spending more money than he made from 1944 until his death in 1990. He knew his mother’s family was not the source of this additional money. That left him with no apparent source of this money, other than the available funds missing from the Berlin Society of Theosophy. He believed he had also confirmed that the only reason for his father’s death was someone’s attempt to get the extra assets, which could be a stockpile of cash.
Kurt heard Johann leave yesterday and hadn’t heard him return. He went next door to find the room cleaned and empty. He engaged in friendly conversation with the clerk and learned that Johann had checked out.
He immediately removed his devices from Johann’s former room. He followed a hunch and drove to the von Manntoell flat. He watched from his car for over an hour before he finally saw Johann walk by the window. Kurt drove over to the café where he got a hot coffee and used the pay phone to call Freda.
“Where are you, Kurt?”
“I am at the café near the von Manntoell flat.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Johann checked out of the hotel and has returned to the family flat.”
“What? why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. But I have laid eyes on him. My plan is if he goes to the meeting tonight I will install the bugs on his phone and send it to the farm house. It will ring there and I will have a tape machine record the conversation.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I wanted to let you know that the room you saw Johann enter at the clinic was Silke Mencken’s room.”
“Who? Is that the woman?”
“Yes, I have another contact listening in on the conversation. No need to go to the clinic. Once he leaves the flat, you can install the bug.”
“Kurt, have you noticed any police protection for Johann?”
“I think he is being driven to the meetings by a police officer. But as for protection no, I haven’t really been looking. Should I?”
“Yes, see what you can find out.”
“Got it, I’ll let you know.”
Kurt walked back to his car and drove away from the café. He turned around the corner and pulled up behind a van to watch the building without anyone watching him. He saw a couple of suspicious cars and waited to see what they did. At 9:50 pm Kurt saw Johann exit the building and one of the cars drove up to the door to pick him up.
“Aha I’ve got you,” Kurt said out loud. Kurt started his car and pulled out behind the unmarked police car. He followed the vehicle to the Oskar-Helene-Heim.
Once he was sure Johann went inside, he drove back to the flat. He parked a safe distance from the building and worked his way inside and up to the flat. He placed the bugs in Johann’s flat and telephone without any issues. He then returned to the clinic to follow Johann as he left.
In Silke Mencken’s clinic room, she met with Maggie and Johann to go over the latest information.
“Silke, I spoke to Maggie on the phone earlier today. I confirmed that my father has been spending more money than he made for 45 years. I can’t find any source for this money except the possibility that he had access to the funds miss
ing from the Berlin Society for Theosophy.”
“Wow, Johann confirming that was important,” said Silke.
“Maggie here is the request for copies of the documents at the Berlin Document Center,” said Johann.
“Great I will get this over to the U.S. Consulate tomorrow,” said Maggie.
“Silke, are there any other sources we could look for to explain my father’s extra money?” asked Johann.
“None that I can think of,” said Silke. “Maggie, have the police found Günter Eckersley?”
“We have heard nothing yet,” she said.
“How about people he worked with at the East German Police?”
“I expect to get the list tomorrow.”
“We have another issue, I am being released from the clinic tomorrow,” said Silke.
“That is good news, but it does complicate things. It was easier to protect you here in one room than it will be in your apartment with several rooms. I will make the arrangements,” said Maggie.
“I suggest we meet in my flat,” said Johann.
“That sounds good to me,” said Maggie.
“Me too,” said Silke.
“Let’s meet tomorrow night at 9:00 pm. I live at 51 Leichhardt Strasse in Dahlem Silke,” said Johann.
“I will have a policeman watching you, Silke so he can take you to Johann’s,” said Maggie.
“Am I in danger?” asked Silke.
“I don’t know, but just to be safe, I will have someone with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week until we get this solved,” said Maggie.
“They are watching me too, Silke. You won’t even notice them,” said Johann.
“Let’s break up for now,” said Maggie.
As Johann walked out of the clinic, Kurt saw him. Johann walked a few feet and an unmarked police car pulled up beside him. Johann got in and was driven home. Before Kurt headed home, he noticed that the car waited outside Johann’s flat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Johann von Manntoell returned to the Berlin Document Center searching for information on the Berlin Society of Theosophy.
“Good morning.”
“Herr von Manntoell, back so soon?”
A Walk Among the Dead Page 11