‘No, do tell,’ Tayte said with more than a hint of sarcasm, knowing that Strobel was about to tell him anyway.
‘The clever thing was that I didn’t try to hide behind the papers of a simple soldier from the Wehrmacht, as many other SS officers did, or as a former concentration camp prisoner, as I later came to learn that Max Koegel did when the camp at Flossenbürg was taken. No, I hid behind the papers of another SS officer. Who in their right mind would have done that?’
‘Yeah,’ Tayte scoffed. ‘You’d have to be mad, right?’
‘Yes, it was madness, and it was a gamble, but it saved my life. As you know, I faced trial for Johann’s alleged war crimes. I knew there was a chance I might still have been executed, but as Volker Strobel the death sentence was guaranteed. As it was, I served my time and later recovered the treasures I had stored for my future. I’ve avoided detection all these years because of one simple rule, Mr Tayte—eliminate all threats.’
Tayte was getting tired of this. ‘Look, Strobel. Talk all you want. I’m still not going to shoot you.’
Amusement danced across Strobel’s lips. ‘I would have been disappointed if you had pulled the trigger so soon,’ he said. ‘I have so much more to tell you, such as the time I hunted your father across the Karwendel Mountains.’
Chapter Forty-Five
‘You’d like me to tell you about your father, wouldn’t you?’ Strobel said.
The sense of amusement continued to hang on his face as he waited for Tayte to answer, but Tayte wasn’t so sure he wanted to hear what was coming next. He gave no reply. Instead, he knotted his hands together and clenched them tight to keep him from picking up the gun in his lap. He just stared at Strobel, noting the obvious satisfaction the man felt at seeing him fight his growing desire to end this. A moment later Strobel continued, as Tayte knew he would.
‘Like you, your father was equally determined to find out who he was,’ Strobel said, ‘and that, as you know, led him and your mother to me. They posed little threat at first. When they came to ask whether I was Karl’s biological father, I simply turned them away, saying I had no children, but it seems that turning Karl away only made him more determined to prove it. He kept digging, and people digging into my background worry me, Mr Tayte. Especially people related to Johann Langner. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he found something.’
Strobel gave a long sigh. ‘Thankfully, Johann’s parents were already dead, and I knew of no other friends or family who had survived the war, or who were close enough to take any interest in Johann afterwards. I did, however, become quite paranoid about Ava Bauer’s uncle, Heinz Schr?der, for a time. He knew Johann. What if he came forward to denounce me? As it turned out, I suspect that if he even knew of my trial then he chose to distance himself from it, and from Johann. I had thought myself in the clear, and I was, until your father learned that he’d been adopted, and of course in doing so he became a threat.’
‘So you eliminated him,’ Tayte said. ‘You eliminated the threat. I think I’ve already worked that part out.’
‘Doesn’t it matter to you that Karl was your father?’
It did matter, but Tayte wasn’t about to break down in front of this man if he could help it. He knew it was just what Strobel wanted, and all the while Tayte had the strength to keep his emotions in check, he would do so to spite him.
‘I had been keeping a close eye on your father since the first time he visited me,’ Strobel continued. ‘Much as I’ve been keeping an eye on you since your arrival in Munich. Some years later it became clear to me that Karl was close to discovering the very thing that could expose me.’
Strobel raised his left arm and tapped the area close to his armpit. ‘Blood type,’ he said. ‘It has been my greatest concern. For quick identification the majority of SS personnel had our blood type tattooed in black ink beneath our left armpits in case we fell in battle. I’ve long since had my tattoo removed, but of course our blood type was also recorded in our military records, which is where I imagine Karl made his first discovery. It was when I learned that he’d taken an interest in my blood type that I knew I had to act, but I couldn’t very well do so as the reputable Johann Langner. No, I had to call on Volker Strobel for that. I lured your father to a meeting place with the promise of some useful information.’
‘That sounds familiar,’ Tayte said, recalling how he had been lured in much the same manner when he was set up for murder.
Strobel laughed to himself. ‘Yes, and like you, your father came so willingly. But I’m afraid he came to his own slaughter.’