Part 23 (1/2)
Gorfmann frowned, surprised. He had only reported a stolen car-hardly earth-shattering enough to warrant a personal visit, he would have thought. He sighed at the fastidiousness of plodding officialdom.
”Very well. Show him into the visitor room there, would you. I'll be over in a few minutes.”
”Very good.”
Gorfmann turned toward Kurt, who was entering numbers from a list into a keyboard. ”Take over here, please, Kurt. I have to go and see someone at the main gate. And remember what I told you about the synchronizing calibration. It is most important for it to be accurate.”
”Sure.”
”Is it about your car?” Hilda asked.
”Probably, but that is a personal matter. You have your work to worry about. Kindly attend to it.”
Gorfmann hung his lab coat by the door at the back of the room and left.
Kurt and Hilda made faces and exchanged shrugs. ”Snotty today, even for him,” Kurt observed.
”Well, he has just lost a brand-new car,” Hilda said.
”What did he need a car like that for anyway?” Kurt asked. ”Planning on moving to Hollywood or somewhere, is he?”
”Oh, he's a big celebrity now, didn't you know?” Josef said from the back. ”Science guru of the trendy set. Big hit at the dinner in town last night.”
”I wonder if we could transfer him back to another century,” Kurt mused distantly. ”How about the Dark Ages? I figure they could have used some help then.”
”Perhaps somebody already did,” Josef said. ”That could be what turned them off science for a thousand years.”
Gorfmann entered the visitor room and closed the door behind him. A man wearing a tan raincoat and Tyrolean hat, and holding a thin leather doc.u.ment case under one arm, turned away from examining the exhibits in the display case on the far wall. He was of medium height and build, with a swarthy face, big nose, and thick black mustache. He nodded his head to indicate the caption FUSION PHYSICS over a section of the display. ”It says there that if all the energy you could get from the fusion fuel in the oceans is represented by the distance across the Atlantic, then on the same scale Arabia's oil reserves measure six thousandths of an inch,” he said.
”That sounds about right,” Gorfmann agreed.
”Amazing, isn't it? And yet you still read things that say we're about to run out of it.”
”You shouldn't believe everything you read.”
”Is that the kind of work you do here?”
”Some sections of the Inst.i.tute are involved in related areas. I myself am concerned with more fundamental aspects of physics. Inspector, look, I am extremely busy. We are about to begin an experimental run. Could we get to the point, please?”
”Of course.” Wenkle's manner became more brisk. He removed his hat and sat down near the end of the table, which took up most of the room, motioning with a hand for Gorfmann to take the head chair, across the corner. Gorfmann did so. Wenkle put the doc.u.ment case down next to his hat and took out a manila folder, from which he produced several forms clipped together, and some handwritten notes.
”I take it this is to do with my car,” Gorfmann said after Wenkle had perused the papers in silence for a few seconds.
”Er, yes . . . Dr. Gorfmann.”
”Well, have you found it?”
Wenkle studied his notes for a moment longer. ”First could we go over some of the information you gave when you reported the loss? The vehicle was left on these premises, is that correct?”
”Yes, but is this really necessary? You have just said that I've already given you this information.”
”We do like to double-check our facts, if you wouldn't mind, sir. It will only take a few minutes.”
”Very well. Let's get on with it.”
”Now, let's see, you left the car here at the Inst.i.tute, and went down into Innsbruck yesterday evening.
How did you get there?”
”I drove down with a colleague-Dr. Hoetzer, from the plasma laboratory. We had some technical matters to discuss. It seemed opportune to use the time.”
”I see. And at what time did you leave?”
”At six o'clock.”
”Approximately.”
”No. Precisely.”
”Ah . . . I noticed when I arrived that the staff parking seems to be inside this gate. Is that where you left your car?”
”No. There is also a small parking area for senior personnel at the front of the Keep, where the offices are. It has its own driveway, leading directly out to the road.”
”So the thief wouldn't have had to go past the security post here at the main gate?”
”That is correct.”
”What was the purpose of your trip?”
”I was a speaker at a fund-raising banquet given by the Celebrity Club at the Hotel Ibis. Is that sufficient?”
”More than adequate.” Wenkle added some comments to his notes and turned the page. ”And you left the hotel in Innsbruck with Dr. Hoetzer at? . . .”
”Oh, I'd say about ten.”
”Precisely?” Wenkle's tongue poked at his cheek for the merest fraction of a second.
Sniff. ”Approximately.”
”And what time did you arrive back here?”
”Let me see . . . We left the ballroom at around ten, a few minutes to collect coats and get Hoetzer's wagon from the garage . . . Oh, it must have been around ten-thirty, ten forty-five at the outside. I found that my car was gone, and I reported it. Now, if you're completely satisfied, Inspector . . .” Gorfmann half rose, bracing his hands on the edge of the table to indicate that he was ready to leave.
Wenkle, however, s.h.i.+fted another form to the top of the papers in front of him and studied it, giving no sign that he was finished. Gorfmann held his pose for a few more seconds, then conceded with a sigh and sat down again. Finally Wenkle said, ”Yes, we do have some information, Dr. Gorfmann. Your car was found this morning, at the bottom of a two-hundred-meter cliff less than a kilometer away, on the steep stretch of road between here, and the Weiderwa.s.ser bridge. From the impact point where it struck the rocks, it was evidently traveling at considerable speed, and the skid marks where it went off the road indicate that it was out of control.”