Tayte highlighted Kurt Bauer’s place of residence. ‘I don’t suppose this address falls under the Munich Standesamt, does it?’
Jan adjusted her glasses and took a closer look. ‘No, Ingolstadt is to the north of Munich. I can call them.’
Tayte checked his watch again. He had no idea how much longer Jean would be at the hospital, but he supposed she must be waiting on her results by now. As for his research, he wanted to follow every lead open to him while he was there.
‘Would you mind?’ he said, starting to feel a little awkward because of all the running around Jan was doing on his behalf.
Jan didn’t seem to mind in the least. She sprang to her feet. ‘Wait there and I’ll see if I can rustle up another cup of coffee for you while I’m at it.’
Tayte didn’t know what he’d done to deserve such kindness and enthusiasm, but he was grateful. ‘Thank you,’ he said with a wide smile on his face. ‘I really do appreciate it.’
As Jan left the room and Tayte sat back with his thoughts, he took out his phone and pulled up Jean’s number. He thought he’d try to see how she was doing, to gauge how much time he had, but his call went to voicemail. He figured she was somewhere inside the hospital complex, where phones had to be switched off. As he cleared the call down, he saw Tobias Kaufmann’s number on his recent calls list and tried him again. This time Tobias picked up.
‘Tobias, it’s JT. I’ve tried you a few times already. I figured you must be—’
‘What a morning!’ Tobias said, cutting Tayte short. ‘The police have been back. I’ve had the fire service in, and the security people. It’s a disaster!’
‘I’m sure you must be very busy, so I won’t keep you,’ Tayte said. ‘I was just wondering what you were going to say last night. You told me you’d been following the money.’
‘Yes, I was going to show you something, but now I can’t find it. I have some interesting financial records for you to see, but the place is in such a state, I’m afraid they could be anywhere. That’s if they’re still readable. Everything’s wet from the sprinklers!’
‘I see. Well, perhaps I could drop by with Jean this afternoon. If you’ve not found them by then we could lend a hand.’
‘I could certainly use a few helping hands around here, that’s for sure,’ Tobias said. ‘Amir refuses to come in. Mind you, who can blame him after what happened? By the way, I have your briefcase.’
‘Great. I meant to ask you about that. Is it okay?’
‘It’s about the only thing in this place that is.’
In the background, Tayte could hear Tobias moving things around, presumably while holding his phone to his ear. There was a grating sound, followed by a thud and a curse. Tayte thought he’d better leave him to it.
‘We’ll come over just as soon as we can,’ he said, feeling more than a little sorry for the man.
‘Okay, I’ll see you.’
There was another clatter in Tayte’s ear, and he thought Tobias must have dropped the phone because a second later the call ended. He heaved a sigh as he turned back to the desk and the records in front of him. His thoughts turned to Ava again. He hoped he was right about her having had a child. He began to doubt himself, wondering whether his need to find his family hadn’t driven him to make rash decisions, led by nothing more than wishful thinking.
‘There has to be a child,’ he told himself, considering that he had biological parents and grandparents, just like everyone else. He had to come from somewhere—from someone. ‘And why not Ava Bauer?’
Keep digging, Jefferson . . .
Those familiar words echoed through Tayte’s mind, but they were not his words. They belonged to his old friend, Marcus Brown. Tayte could see his face now, uttering words of encouragement as he had always done in the past. ‘Keep digging. Never stop until you find what you’re looking for.’ It was something of a genealogist’s mantra between them, and Tayte planned to adhere to it.
‘There has to be a child,’ he told himself again.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Munich. 26 April 1945.