Jan’s reply didn’t sound too promising. ‘Not as much as I’d hoped to,’ she said. ‘I’ve found some basic records for Ava Bauer, but . . .’ She trailed off as she opened the door to the small meeting room, which was just as it had been when Tayte left it the day before. ‘Well, here we are,’ Jan added. ‘You’ll soon see.’
They sat down with their drinks and Jan slid a folder between them. ‘I found three records for the Ava Bauer we’re interested in,’ she said, opening the folder. She laid out the records. ‘You’ve already seen her marriage certificate, and I couldn’t find anything else to suggest she ever remarried. This is a copy of her birth certificate. It tells us she was born here in Munich in 1917, to Adelina and Gerhard Bauer.’
Tayte recalled Ava’s parent’s names from the marriage certificate he’d seen the day before. From his jacket pocket he took out the piece of paper he’d written their details on, glad that he hadn’t put it in his briefcase. ‘Musiklehrer?’ he said, picking up on one of the many German words written on the certificate. ‘Did her father teach music?’
‘Very good,’ Jan said. ‘See, you’re picking up the lingo already.’
Tayte saw a name he recognised then. ‘Schr?der,’ he said, more to himself than to Jan.
‘That was Adelina Bauer’s maiden name,’ Jan said, highlighting the entry for Ava’s mother with her finger.
Tayte unfolded his piece of paper, knowing that Schr?der was one of the names he’d written down the day before. ‘Heinz Schr?der was one of the witnesses on Ava’s and Johann’s marriage certificate,’ he said, knowing now that Heinz was another family member on Ava’s mother’s side.
Jan brought the copy of Ava’s and Johann’s marriage certificate into view. ‘Yes, here he is,’ she said. ‘You’re quite right.’
Tayte drew a line under his name. So far he’d seen Ava’s birth and marriage certificates, but there was one other record Jan had found for him. ‘Is that Ava’s death certificate?’ he asked, supposing that if it was, it would soon enlighten him as to why Johann Langner’s son, Rudi, had never known the woman his adoptive father had married during the war. Jan’s answer was unexpected.
‘No, I couldn’t find a record of death for Ava,’ she said. ‘I did manage to obtain a copy of her christening record, though.’ She slid it towards Tayte. ‘Apart from telling us the religion of her parents, the only other information it gives us that we don’t already have is the names of her godparents, who I’ve already confirmed are her maternal grandparents.’
Tayte added their names to his list: Gottfried and Krista Schr?der. ‘So there’s no record of death for Ava?’ Tayte asked, seeking clarification.
Jan shook her head. ‘It doesn’t mean there isn’t one, of course. Just that her death wasn’t recorded here in Munich. I even contacted a few colleagues in neighbouring offices to see if they could find anything.’ She shook her head again. ‘We’d need to know where she died, really. Assuming she has died, of course.’
Tayte thought Ava might even have emigrated after the war. Many people did. In the absence of being able to locate a death certificate for her, he decided he would have to keep an open mind for now about whether Ava was still alive or not. It was a possibility, although she would be almost a hundred years old. If she was alive, he thought it all the more curious that she and Johann had not remained together after the war. From everything Langner had told him, Tayte was of the impression that he’d been besotted with Ava, and yet his son, Rudi, had never so much as met her.
Tayte thought back to his first day in Munich, when he and Jean had gone to see Johann Langner at the hospital. He thought about Langner’s parting words again, and now more than ever he considered that the answer to these questions could very well be related to the ‘terrible thing’ Langner had told them Volker Strobel had done. But while Tayte knew he could begin a long quest to find out precisely where and when Ava died, and whether she was still alive, that wasn’t why he was there. He had to stay focused. He was looking for a child—his father.
‘Did you look for any dependants?’ he asked. ‘I’m particularly keen to find out whether Ava had any children.’
Jan nodded. ‘Yes, I did.’ Her nod turned into a shake of her head. ‘I couldn’t find any.’