Ice Cold Read Free Page A

through there. Must’ve got through the fence. This garden, it’s old Frau Glas’s allotment,’ she said. ‘She’s not here just now, she’s over at her daughter’s.’
    So I went into the garden through the gap in the fence, along with Frau Schreiber. We just left our bikes lying in the snow.
    We found him behind the garden shed. Standingwith his back to us. Looked like he was cleaning his coat, rubbing it down with snow.
    He didn’t hear us coming, because when Frau Schreiber spoke to him – what was he doing here, then? – he jumped. Looked at us quite scared, but then he pulled himself together, seeing there was only the two of us, and women at that.
    ‘I’m not doing nothing here. Nothing.’
    He tried pushing past us. Shoving us aside with his shoulder, he wanted to push past. Try that on with Frau Schreiber and – well, he’d picked the wrong woman. She wasn’t having any of that. She stood right there, hands on her hips, legs planted wide apart, that’s how she stood. ‘You stop right where you are and tell me what you’re doing here!’ she barked at him.
    ‘I’m not doing nothing. Nothing.’
    The man was almost a head taller than Frau Schreiber. He gave her a push, Frau Schreiber fell over backwards in the snow, and he was off and away out of the garden plot.
    He was running now, running like the Devil was after him. In the direction of Schmied’s.
    I was out of the garden plot next moment too. Back to my bicycle as fast as I could go, and I caught up with him at Zeiler’s.
    He was out of breath, couldn’t hardly run anymore. I cycled along beside him for quite a way. I wasn’t afraid, just angrier, and the further I cycled the angrier I grew.
    He hissed at me, told me to clear off. What did I want, he said, he hadn’t done nothing. ‘Nothing! Nothing!’
    I went on sitting on my bike, I never took my eyes off him. I was cycling along beside him all the time, very slowly.
    ‘Don’t talk so daft!’ I said. ‘I saw what you did. You just turn around and come to the police with me! They’ll pick you up anyway! So don’t be daft, you come with me.’
    I was surprised at myself, I stayed so calm. I was trembling inside, but my voice was firm.
    ‘I don’t need you there. I’ll go to the police myself.’
    ‘But I want to come with you. I want to see you go to the police. I saw what you did to that girl!’
    ‘I know what I did. You let me be. I know what I’m doing. I’ll go to the police.’
    When he said that, gasping with the effort, at that very moment I heard Frau Schreiber calling. She was coming along on her bike quite a way behind us.
    So I turned around to her, and just for a moment I took my eyes off the man. And he saw at once Iwasn’t looking at him. He swerved like a hare and he ran for it before I could react. Past the Schmied property and over the meadows towards the next allotments. All of a sudden he could run again. Me, I shouted as loud as ever I could.
    ‘Stop! Stop! Help, he’s getting away!’
    I yelled at the top of my voice, and it brought Schmied running out of his place to see what the noise was. Why was I yelling like that? he asked. Was I out of my mind? he snapped.
    I just shouted, ‘He’s getting away! Stop that man, he knocked a girl over in the snow! You must stop him, for heaven’s sake, stop him! He mustn’t get away! He mustn’t get away!’
    And Schmied, he didn’t stop to ask questions, he went haring across the fields after the fellow.
    I just stood there with my bike. Just stood there in my slippers with my coat unbuttoned. Suddenly I was so cold, chilled to the bone, trembling all over.
    And all of a sudden I was scared too, scared to death. I don’t know which made me tremble most, my fear or the cold.
    Because he could have pulled me off my bike. Pulled me off my bike and knocked me down myself. If that man had just taken a proper look at me, he’d have seen what a little half-pint I am.

Munich, 28 February 1939
Interrogation