the background of these soldiers better than
anyone. I would like you to help me to understand
how men like that think, to understand what makes
them tick.’
‘Thank you for your confidence, Inspector, but
I’m a historian and know no more than anyone else
about individual motivation. As you perhaps know,
I was in the Resistance, in Milorg, and that doesn’t exactly qualify me to get into the head of someone
who volunteers for the Eastern Front.’
‘I think you know a great deal, anyway, herr
Juul.’
‘Is that right?’
‘I think you know what I mean. My research has
been very thorough.’
Juul sucked on his pipe and looked at Harry. In
the silence that followed Harry became aware that
someone was standing in the sitting-room
doorway. He turned and saw an elderly woman.
Her gentle, calm eyes were looking at Harry.
‘We’re just having a chat, Signe,’ Even Juul said.
She gave Harry a cheery nod, opened her mouth
as if to say something, but stopped when her eyes
met Even Juul’s. She nodded again, quietly closed
the door and was gone.
‘So you know?’ Juul asked.
‘Yes. She was a nurse on the Eastern Front,
wasn’t she?’
‘By Leningrad. From 1942 to the retreat in March
of 1944.’ He put down his pipe. ‘Why are you
hunting this man?’
‘To be honest, we don’t know that, either. But
there might be an assassination brewing.’
‘Hm.’
‘So what should we look for? An oddball? A man
who’s still a committed Nazi? A criminal?’
Juul shook his head.
‘Most of the men at the front served their sentence
and then slipped back into society. Many of them
made out surprisingly well, even after being
branded traitors. Not so surprising maybe. It often
turns out that the gifted ones are those who make
decisions in critical situations like war.’
‘So the person we’re looking for may well be one
of those who did alright for himself.’
‘Absolutely.’
‘A pillar of society?’
‘The door to positions of national importance in
finance and politics would probably have been
closed to him.’
‘But he could have been an independent
businessman, an entrepreneur. Definitely someone
who has earned enough money to buy a weapon for
half a million. Who could he possibly be after?’
‘Does this necessarily have anything to do with
his having fought at the front?’
‘I have a sneaking feeling it might.’
‘A motive for revenge then?’
‘Is that so unreasonable?’
‘No, not at all. Many men from the front see
themselves as the real patriots in the war. They
think that, given the way the world looked in 1940,
they acted in the best interests of the nation. They
consider the fact that we sentenced them as traitors
to be a total travesty of justice.’
‘So?’
Juul scratched behind his ear.
‘Well. The judges involved in bringing them to
justice are by and large dead now. And the same is
true of the politicians who laid the basis for the
trials. The revenge theory seems thin.’
Harry sighed. ‘You’re right. I’m only trying to
form a picture with the few pieces of the puzzle I
have.’
Juul glanced quickly at his watch. ‘I promise I’ll
give it some thought, but I really don’t know if I
can help you.’
‘Thanks anyway,’ Harry said, getting up. Then he
remembered something and pulled out a pile of
folded sheets of paper from his jacket pocket.
‘By the way, I took a copy of my report of the
interview with a witness in Johannesburg. If you
could have a look to see whether there’s anything
of significance in it?’
Juul said yes, but shook his head as if meaning no.
As Harry was putting on his shoes in the hall, he
pointed to the photograph of the man in the white
coat.
‘Is that you?’
‘In the first half of the previous century, yes,’ Juul
laughed. ‘It was taken in Germany before the war. I
was supposed to follow in my father’s and
grandfather’s footsteps and study medicine there.
When the war broke out I made my way home and
in fact got my hands on my first history books on
the boat. After that it was too late: I was hooked.’
‘So you gave up medicine?’
‘Depends on how you look at it. I wanted to try to
find an explanation of how one man and one
ideology could bewitch so many people. And
perhaps find an antidote, too.’ He laughed. ‘I was
very, very young.’
37
First Floor, Continental Hotel. 1
March 2000.