Hunter's Rain by Julian Jay Savarin Read Free Book Online

“This is not an official visit. I’ve got some time off, and I thought…”
    “Why not see your friends in Berlin. Excellent! I know you’ll be in good hands with Müller, here. Remember that very first meeting?”
    “I do,” she remarked sweetly, glancing at Müller who was determinedly hanging on to his neutral expression.
    “Well, then,” Kaltendorf said, as if he had just presented a gift. “I’ll leave you two to it. Just looking in,” he added to Müller.
    “On the way here, I spoke with Pappenheim, sir,” Müller began. “He said you wanted to see us in your office.”
    Kaltendorf was affability itself. “No hurry. You attend to Miss Bloomfield. Enjoy your stay, Miss Bloomfield.”
    “Thank you, Director. I will.”
    Kaltendorf gave a little nod, and went out. He closed the door quietly behind him.
    They waited until the sound of Kaltendorf’s footsteps had faded for a good few seconds, before speaking.
    “Did I just miss something?” Carey Bloomfield asked. “Or was he really coming in here to bawl you out?”
    “He was coming in here to bawl me out.”
    “Suddenly he’s sweetness and light because of me?”
    “It would seem like it.”
    “Saved your butt again, Müller.”
    He gave her a tiny smile. “It would seem like it.”
    “What about mine?”
    “Do you want a personal answer? Or a professional one?”
    “Oh ho! Müller being risque ! Be careful, Müller. You’re straying off the narrow path. The professional one will do for now.”
    “If you mean that police impersonator, next time he won’t be dressed as one. And yes, I’ll do my best to save your butt.”
    “That’s a relief. Pappi has given me a background picture of what’s been happening,” she went on before he could make comment, “since I last saw you. All of that true?”
    “It’s true.”
    She studied him closely. “Can’t leave you alone for a minute. You’re always in trouble, Müller.”
    “My curse.”
    “Pappi said they’re trying to get to you by hitting people close to you. Am I close to you, Müller?”
    “I…”
    The direct phone to Pappenheim rang.
    “Saved by the bell again,” Carey Bloomfield said.
    “Behave,” Müller said as he went to the phone and picked it up. “Yes, Pappi.”
    “We’re in the Rogues Gallery…”
    “We?”
    “The Goth and I. You should come. Oh. And our guest. She’s in this now.”
    “On our way. The Great White just visited,” Müller added.
    “I can’t wait.”
    “He was sweetness itself.”
    “Are you on something?”
    “It’s the truth. He saw Miss Bloomfield, and turned into a puppy. And we’re not to go to the headmaster’s study just yet.”
    “Oh the small mercies. Looks like she’s good for you, after all.”
    “I can hear something in there, but I’ll ignore it.”
    Pappenheim chuckled. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”
    “Thank you for the witticism, Pappi.”
    “Ah, those big words,” Pappenheim said. “How I love them.”
    “Pappi’s in the Rogues Gallery with the Goth,” Müller said to Carey Bloomfield as he put the phone down. “Something there he thinks we should see.”
    “The Goth,” she said. “Hedi Meyer. Tall, ethereal. Fragile-looking…as if. Loves to dress in any colour, as long as it’s black; paints her fingernails in a way that would make the Surrealists weep for joy; can disarm tiny electronically-primed bombs attached to people…and has a fancy for you.”
    “All correct…except that last part.”
    “You wish,” she said.
    He gave her a tolerant smile. “Get your coat. After the gallery, we’re going out. The weather does not look as if it wants to stop its end-of-the-world show today.”
    “Too early for lunch, and I’ve had coffee and cake with Pappi. So where to?”
    “Hunting out another part of the mystery, to which the man who wanted to shoot you today, belongs.”
    “I’d like to shoot him . Lowlife bastard.”
    “Did you bring your cannon?”
    “You heard me, Müller. This,