Interrogation II

"He wasn't lying. Hart didn't tell him about what happened." The Lagerführer said to the small board of men. Rickenbach had pestered Werner about alibis but had been afraid to ask much more because he didn't want his superior to miss the details. No one in the room possessed a mind and a memory like the Lagerführer did, he was one of those exeptionally smart people that hover between philosopher and mathimatician. "I think it's time we tell him what he's being tried for." He said slowly, turning to Werner. "He's answered everything he can without us posing questions that are more concrete to the circumstance." 

The men behind him nodded like chickens; bobbing their heads in unison. Werner was becoming increasingly nervous. What if he reacted wrong? What if his calmness turned to noncholance and he moved up in their suspect list? "Dr. Ziegler was found dead yesterday morning. We assume it was murder, if so, you know more about it than us. The possibility of suicide lingers, but I'm leaning towards manslaughter." Werner's eyes had grown twice the size in suprise as his eyelids retreated into the back of his head. He was flabbergasted, he'd never expected Dr. Ziegler to be dead! If murder would have cristallized in his mind as a probable possibility he would have expected Wojciechowski to be the first one gone. 

"What?" He said, almost spitting. His reaction was believable. After shock he was hit by confusion, than horror and then, lastly a sort of empathy. He hadn't liked Dr. Ziegler much at all, but he knew what it felt like to be dying and he felt sorry for him in that aspect. 

"Did you murder Dr. Ziegler or were you involved in his murder?" The Lagerführer asked. Werner shook his head. "I want a verbal answer, Werner." 

"No, I wasn't." He said, still dumbfounded. The Lagerführer stepped back, presenting the stage to Rickenbach who continued the questioning. 

"You have no witnesses for your alibi, you had arguments with Dr. Ziegler, important ones, and you are friends with an officer suspected of being a soveit spy. Furthermore there is certianly a relationship between you and Wojciechowski, I remind you of the time you blurted out that 'he cures cancer'. A possible motive for Dr. Ziegler's murder could have been an attempt to save Wojciechowski from a medical death, or an involvation in a plot conducted by Wojciechowski himself to murder the doctor for personal reasons." What Rickenbach said made sense, but it wasn't true. Werner had been peacefully sleeping when the old doctor had been stabbed. 

"I didn't murder Dr. Ziegler." Werner said in his defense. "The motives you listed are hardly backed up. I was working under his supervision and in close contact with him. I admit, we weren't friends-."

"So you didn't like Dr. Ziegler?"

"No-."

"He didn't like Dr. Ziegler." Rickenbach repeated, interrupting the poor boy on the time-out-chair. 

"I respected him!" Werner angrily added. He could tell that his honesty was being used against him, but he still guessed it to be the best approach. 

"You respected him but held arguments with him and diagnosed him as a bad doctor?" Rickenbach pried. Werner was at loss for words, Rickenbach nodded his head. "Your story doesn't make sense, Werner."

"Yes it does." Werner hissed, becoming increasingly agitated. "It's normal, espeicially in science, for people to disagree-."

"The next question I have for you, Werner, concerns Wojciechowski." Rickenbach said, plowing through Werner's sentence. "Do you think, if you say you are innocent, that he could have been responsible for the murder?"

"No." 

"Why not?" 

"He's locked in his cell unless we take him out." Werner replied flatly. "If he was involved someone from the staff would have had to be involved as well." In the brief moment when Werner had become protective of Wojciechowski he'd forgotten that he was a suspect; they'd hope for this, and purposefully hadn't cuffed him to the chair. 

"Someone like you." Rickenbach said. Werner looked taken aback. 

"No-."

"Do you have acsess to his cell or have acsess to something that allows you to acsess it?" 

"Yes-."

"Werner could potentially be Wojciechowskis assitant in the murder if he didn't execute it himself." Rickenbach said, someone in the back was taking notes. The Lagerführer looked pleased at how Rickenbach was handling the situation. 

"I think this is enough for today, it's getting late. Gentlemen, I leave him to you." The Lagerführer said and smiled at those present. He'd spent the time meditating; he now felt better about the whole Nikolai affair. He strode out as confidently as one would expect a man like Hitler too, leaving his subordinates in his wake. Werner was not permitted to go to his dorm and he was not permitted to use the phone. There was no way to contact Nikolai and tell him anything. He was put on the ground floor in a little room that, to Werner's relief had a window, but it lacked heating of any kind. He was given a pair of pjamas and a blanket to sleep on. He was a suspect but not yet a criminal. 

He lay down on the slab of wood that should serve as a bed. The mattress was more nonexistent than there, but he was gratefull for it's polstering anyway. He closed his eyes but sleep refused to take him. Dr. Ziegler was dead, probably murdered. Werner could not fathom why Wojciechowski would do it, but who else would? His mind went as far as thinking it all might be set up by the nazis themselves to have an excuse to arrest Nikolai - but that was unlikely. He wondered if tomorrow would be as mentally draining as today; probably worse. His mind wandered to Marie, and with her he finally found sleep.