‘And I suppose when Ingrid found out who her father was,’ Tayte said, ‘she later took the job as his private nurse to be closer to him without anyone suspecting he was her father?’
‘Exactly that, yes.’
Tayte sat back, wondering where to take the conversation next. Trudi seemed to have volunteered plenty of information, perhaps just to get this over with as she had earlier said, but he couldn’t see how it helped him with the bigger questions he still hoped to find the answers to before he and Jean had to leave Munich—apart from the knowledge that Volker Strobel had potentially sown more seeds for his family tree than Tayte cared to think about. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence he glanced at Jean, who gave a slight shake of her head as if to say she didn’t know what to ask next either. So Tayte asked the obvious question in the hope that something might come of it.
‘Can you tell us anything else about Volker Strobel?’
‘So you can find him and ask him whether he’s your grandfather?’
‘Something like that, I guess.’
Trudi shook her head. ‘I can’t help you, Mr Tayte. I’ve had no communication with Volker since before the war ended, which of course is now more than seventy years ago.’ She looked suddenly upset. ‘Why is it that people wish to make me relive these things that happened so long ago when I would sooner forget? This is why I refuse to give interviews about my husband. It’s painful to me. Do you understand? By coming here as you have, you’re hurting me.’
Tayte couldn’t have felt any more uncomfortable than he did right then. He could see that Trudi’s eyes had glazed over and he knew it was time to go. If Trudi did know anything about Volker Strobel that might prove useful in locating him then it was clear she wasn’t going to tell him and Jean about it.
‘I’m really sorry to have upset you, Mrs Strobel,’ he said. He got up to leave and Jean stood with him. ‘We’ll leave you in peace.’
‘And you’ll keep what you know to yourselves?’
‘A deal’s a deal,’ Tayte said. ‘You have our word that we won’t tell another soul.’
‘Another soul?’
‘We mentioned it to someone when we found out, but I’ll make sure he keeps it to himself.’
‘And how will you do that?’
Beyond asking Tobias Kaufmann not to tell anyone, Tayte didn’t know. He supposed Tobias had already shared the information with his father.
‘I’m sorry,’ Tayte said again, making for the door.
As Tayte and Jean walked back along the drive towards the main gate, Tayte checked his watch and noted that it was almost six o’clock, their visit with Trudi Strobel having lasted less than an hour. He took out his phone and called the taxi firm he’d been using, thinking that he’d take Jean into the city centre to find somewhere nice for their last evening meal in Munich.
‘That was awkward,’ Tayte said to Jean once he’d booked the taxi.
‘I don’t think she liked me at all,’ Jean said.
‘Maybe she’s got a problem with other women in general.’
‘You mean she’s psychologically scarred after having shared her husband with Ava Bauer, whom she could never live up to, and a host of prostitutes?’
Tayte snorted a laugh. ‘Yeah, something like that.’
They reached the gates and Tayte watched them close slowly behind them. ‘She really opened up to us back there, didn’t she? About her personal life, I mean.’
‘Yes, I didn’t expect that,’ Jean said.
‘Me neither. It makes me think that if she did have anything to say about Volker Strobel, she probably would have said it. She can’t have much affection left for the man.’
‘I’m surprised she had any at all after the way he treated her. If she knew where he was, I’m sure she’d have given him up long ago.’
‘Maybe,’ Tayte said, but with a degree of doubt.
‘You don’t think so?’
‘I don’t know. Something just doesn’t seem quite right to me. I mean why tell us all that intimate stuff about her husband at all? It’s like she wanted us to think she hated him. She practically spelled out the reasons. I could be entirely wrong here, but it strikes me as a good way to put us off the idea that she might still care for Volker. Then there’s the maintenance money. It all seems to wrap up very nicely. She had a child with Langner, as we suspected, and he paid her off for the child and for her discretion, which explains her wealth.’
‘Put like that, it does seem as if she’s left us with nowhere to go—no story to pursue.’
‘Precisely,’ Tayte said. ‘But does it explain her wealth?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, we know that Ingrid was born a few years after Langner left prison. And Trudi told us that Langner left her for the last time just after Ingrid was born. It didn’t click at the time, but do you recall the conversation at the hospital where the chauffeur, Christoph, told us Langner started out with nothing, and that it took several years for him to even make a proper living from his business?’