We managed to get Nägelsbach to the car, to the hospital, and into the operating room. Within two hours Philipp had removed the bullet and sewn him up. He sat down next to me, took off his scrub cap and mask, and grinned at me brightly. “I’ve got something for you.”

I took the bullet. “The police will want that,” I said.

“No, this is the one the police will be wanting.” He was holding another bullet between his thumb and index finger.

I looked at him nonplussed.

“He must have caught a shot years ago, and I guess it would have been too dangerous back then to remove the bullet. But the old bullet wandered and ended up not far from the new one.” He looked around. “Have the police been here yet?”

I shook my head.

“It was Welker who shot Samarin, wasn’t it?”

“It seems Samarin had a gun, which Welker had taken from him,” I said. “Did Welker pay Samarin a visit in the storeroom?”

“Perhaps while you were asleep,” Philipp said. “He didn’t tell us he was going, and I didn’t keep an eye out. Wouldn’t Samarin have noticed Welker coming in? Wouldn’t he have said something?”

“I’m sure he noticed. But as for saying something… No, it wouldn’t have been his style to tell us that Welker had taken his gun away.”

“Everything was going so well until that idiot-”

“Are you talking about me?” Welker said, suddenly appearing in front of us. “You didn’t see what happened. Gregor and his men were whispering among themselves, then they reached for their weapons, and just at the moment when-”

“That’s nonsense! Samarin was in a straitjacket-he could hardly have attacked anyone! And why didn’t you aim at his men? Why shoot him in the back?” Philipp asked.

“I…” Welker fought back his tears. “I realized it wasn’t going to work. Samarin had lost the battle, but not the war. I knew he’d stay on my case, and then I’d be back at square one.” The tears he was fighting back were tears of anger. “Damn it, don’t you see? That man was terrorizing me, month after month! He had my bank under his thumb, he murdered my wife, he threatened my children! No, I’m not sorry for what I did! I’m at my wit’s end, but I’m not sorry!”

“What did the police say?”

“I didn’t wait for them.”

“You just up and left?”

He sat down next to us. “I found a taxi at the Collini-Center and got the children out of there. It had been a day from hell for them. I wasn’t about to expose them to the ordeal of the investigation.” He laid his hand on my arm. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure if you were serious about the police. It’s not my field-I know nothing about legal matters. Was everything we did kosher? What you and your friends did? How’s the policeman, by the way?”

“He’ll be back on his feet soon enough.”

“Particularly in his case I was wondering what the consequences might be. Retired police officer runs amok-won’t there be a disciplinary hearing? Loss of pension? I didn’t want to bear that responsibility on my own, which is why I’m bringing all this up. I don’t know if we can take the initiative together without consulting him. When do you think we could talk to him?”

“In a few days,” Philipp said, shaking his head. “You don’t seriously think we can stay out of all this. There are four of us, and then there are Füruzan, her colleague the night nurse, and Frau Nägelsbach who are in the know-not to mention that someone might have seen our car, or seen Gerhard and me with Nägelsbach when he was wounded. As for Samarin working in your bank, the police will find that out in no time at all. What will you tell them?”

“The truth. That he was involved with the Russian Mafia, that he tried to use my bank for his money-laundering schemes, that he has a number of deaths on his conscience, and that things ended up spinning out of control for him.”

Philipp had called Frau Nägelsbach after operating on her husband. Now she was standing before us, eyeing us. “Who shot my husband?”

“Samarin’s men.”

“Why?”

“Samarin was shot.”

“By whom?”

“We’ve just been weighing what we can and should contribute to the police investigation,” Welker said, looking at Frau Nägelsbach entreatingly. “And if your husband would be pleased if the police… and the public…”

She read in his face that he was the one who had shot Samarin. She looked at him and shook her head.

“Take me to my husband,” she said to Philipp. “I want to be with him when he wakes up.”

They left. Welker stayed. “I’ll wait for your friend. I want Nägelsbach to have whatever he needs-the best of everything, whatever the expense. You must believe me: I am terribly sorry he was shot.” He looked at me as if he really were terribly sorry.

I nodded.

Outside the hospital I hoped to find a taxi at the stand. But it was still too early in the morning.

A man came up to me. At first I didn’t recognize him. It was Karl-Heinz Ulbrich. “Come along, I’ll drive you home.”

I was too sick and too tired to turn his offer down. He took me to his car-no longer a beige Fiesta, but a light green Polo. He opened the door for me and I got in. The streets were empty, but he didn’t exceed the speed limit.

“You don’t look too good.”

What could I say?

He laughed. “Not that I’m surprised, after all you’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours.”

Again I said nothing.

“The water tower meeting-that was impressive. But in the park you had more luck than brains.”

“You really aren’t my son. You might be my deceased wife’s son, but I’m not your father. When you… when you were conceived, I was in Poland, far away from my wife.”

He wasn’t swayed. “I imagine you already know that the men in the blue Mercedes are Russians. They’re from Moscow, and have been in Germany for two or three years, first in Berlin, then in Frankfurt, and now here. I spoke to them in Russian, but their German isn’t bad.”

“They really trained you to be a pro in shadowing.”

“Shadowing was always my specialty. Do you see now that we’d make a great team?”

“The two of us a team? From what I can tell, you’re working not with me but against me.”

He was hurt. “It’s not like you’re letting me work with you. Anyway, it’s always good to know as much as possible.”

I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “It’s got nothing to do with you. It’s just that I’m not a team player. I’ve never been one, never wanted to be one, and in my old age have no intention of becoming one.” Then I felt there was no reason not to tell him the whole truth. “Not to mention that the days of small detective agencies are numbered. The only reason I’ve been able to stay above water is that I know everything so well here-the area, the people, their way of life-and because I know to whom I can turn for help, and when. But nowadays that’s not enough. The few cases I still get barely pay for my office. If there were two of us, we wouldn’t be generating any more work.”

He drove along the Luisenpark. The police had gone by now. The lawn, the bushes, and the trees were serene in the gray of dawn.

“Couldn’t you… I don’t know whether you’re not my father or just don’t want to be. I’d like to see a picture of my mother and find out what kind of person she was. And if you’re not my father, then who might be? You must have some notion. I know you want me to leave you alone, but you can’t just pretend I don’t exist, that we don’t exist!”

“We?”

“You don’t have to keep asking the same question. You know what I’m talking about. To you we’re a nuisance. You’d be happiest if we’d all stayed in the East and you would neither see us nor hear another word from us.” He was hurt again. What sensitive little fellows the Stasi recruited!

“That’s not true. I just got back from Cottbus and found it to be a pretty little town. I’m simply not your father. Regardless of where you’re from, I’m not your father. Where are you from?”