Summary

The fourth section of the novel begins as Frau Quangel is being interrogated by Inspector Laub, the officer who replaces Inspector Escherich on the Hobgoblin case. Anna has recuperated from the flu, but finds it difficult to endure the endless questions and repeated blows from the inspector's bony hand. She lets it slip that young Otto had been engaged to Trudel Baumann. The inspector grills Anna for hours about Trudel's knowledge of the cards and her involvement with the work. Anna insists she knew nothing and that she has not seen the girl in two years. Laub learns, however, where she has previously worked, that she is pregnant and that she has run into Otto and learned about the cards. He also learns that she helped Anna hide Frau Rosenthal in her apartment. Because she did not report either hiding the Jewish...