Stasi Child by David Young Read Free Book Online Page B

entire file at the weekend, and now here she was, starting her day doing the exact same thing again. They had to be seen to be doing something – and perhaps there was a detail she’d missed. The trouble was that all these girls were missing from the Hauptstadt and neighbouring Bezirke , and none of them seemed to match with the girl whose mutilated face she’d last seen on the mortuary table of Charité Hospital. And, if the official explanation for the case was correct, the girl wouldn’t be found in the missing files of the Republic in any case, because she’d come, allegedly, from the West to the East. Müller sighed, and banged the olive-green folder shut.
    ‘Werner!’ she shouted through the side office door. ‘Come here a moment.’
    Through the dividing window, she watched her deputy stretch at his desk in the main office, pick up a file of his own and then lope towards her, as though deadlines were something to which Unterleutnant Werner Tilsner didn’t have to adhere. All very well for him, the handsome bastard, thought Müller. But he wouldn’t have Stasi Oberstleutnant Jäger or police Oberst Reiniger breathing down his neck and wanting answers every five minutes.
    ‘What can I do for you, Comrade Müller?’
    Müller felt herself blush at Tilsner’s sham subservience. ‘ Karin . Just call me Karin when it’s us two. Or boss if you insist. I’ve told you that enough times.’
    ‘Of course, Comrade Karin.’
    ‘And you can cut that out too. What’s that you’re holding?’ Müller pointed at the forest-green file embossed with gold lettering that Tilsner carried in his left hand.
    ‘Missing girls.’
    Müller frowned, and tapped her own differently shaded green file. ‘But I’ve already got that file here.’
    Tilsner placed his file on Müller’s desk, and rotated so she could read the writing on it. The gold-embossed emblem of an eagle – flexing its wings like some unlikely avian bodybuilder – told her all she needed to know. It was from the West.
    ‘How did you get this?’
    ‘I didn’t. Oberst Reiniger got it for me.’ Müller tried to hide her annoyance – why had Reiniger given it directly to Tilsner? It should have come to her. Tilsner was unfazed. ‘He’s on the Inter-Berlin police liaison committee or something. It’s his pet project. Willy Brandt started it – part of his reaching out to the East –’ Tilsner rolled his eyes, and smirked.
    Müller began leafing through the file. Other than a few more colour photos and better-quality paper, it was remarkably similar to its DDR equivalent. ‘Is this just for West Berlin?’ she asked.
    Tilsner walked round Müller’s desk and drew up a chair next to her. She felt his thigh touch hers. She didn’t move her leg away, and found to her annoyance that she could feel the heat rising in her face. ‘No,’ he replied, with a slight smirk. ‘The whole of the Federal Republic.’
    Müller placed the two files side by side and squeezed each in turn between her thumb and forefinger. Then turned and looked questioningly at her deputy. He shrugged. ‘ Republikflüchtlinge . That’s why the file for one city is as big as the other for a whole country. Although I’m surprised there are so many. I thought there was some sort of agreement where the younger ones got returned to their parents or guardians back here.’
    ‘Presumably only if that’s what the parents want. Anyway, the Federal Republic is not a country – it’s a fascist anachronism.’
    ‘Yes, yes, whatever,’ said Tilsner, leafing through the West German file. ‘The question is: is she here?’ He tapped the open western folder. ‘Or here?’ He pointed at the olive-green eastern file. Then he turned and eyeballed Müller. ‘Or do we have no record of her at all?’
    ‘We’ll just have to go through them all systematically,’ said Müller. ‘Let’s cross-check her physical details with the entries in each file.’
    ‘I need something to help me along