Escherich and Kluge Take a Walk

Escherich leads Enno Kluge out past Borkhausen, who demands his five hundred marks; learning Borkhausen's son mugged him of the Haberle money, the inspector mockingly refuses payment, then has a constable take Anna Schönlein in for listening to enemy radio. Escherich treats Enno to a long dinner at a wine bar, paying with what would have been Borkhausen's reward, then walks him by S-Bahn to Schlachtensee in darkness, ostensibly to identify a contact. On a lakeside pier, he dangles Enno over the water to prove he isn't a murderer, then describes the torture the SS will inflict once they learn Enno signed a false statement, and offers him the pistol as mercy. Enno asks him to promise not to let him slide into the water, then secretly releases the safety catch and fires at the inspector's face, missing. Escherich seizes him; two shots ring out, and Enno's body falls into the lake as Escherich walks back to Berlin alone.

The chapter grants Enno a dignified final scene, letting him negotiate the terms of his own death — water, a promise, a handshake — then undercuts it with his botched, cowardly lunge at the pistol. Escherich's cold arithmetic closes Part II, leaving him a secret that will define his unravelling.