The Interrogation

Inspector Escherich interviews the terrified Enno Kluge and quickly concludes, from his weakness and ignorance of the card's contents, that he has nothing to do with the postcards. Needing a result to placate his superiors, Escherich manipulates Kluge with feigned kindness, promising to smooth over his troubles at the factory, and tricks the desperate man into signing a false confession claiming a stranger on the Frankfurter Allee paid him to drop the card. Kluge, more afraid of losing this new ally than of the fiction itself, agrees, believing it costs him nothing since the invented man can never be found. Escherich then lets him go, but only after quietly arranging for two shadowers to follow him from the moment he leaves the station, certain Kluge will eventually lead him to the real 'Hobgoblin.' Schröder, baffled by his superior's game, is sent to fetch the tailing officers while Escherich enjoys Kluge's gratitude for a freedom that comes wrapped in surveillance.

A virtuoso interrogation built entirely on psychological control — false sympathy, a manufactured confession, surveillance disguised as mercy, gratitude engineered out of terror. Escherich is dangerous precisely because he needs no violence, only patience and an instinct for exploiting a frightened man's need to please.