Dietrich Wurmtoter

Dietrich Wurmtoter, who asks Paul Carpenter to call him Rick, is introduced through Paul’s impression of him as the tennis champion. On Paul’s first day, he turns a chance encounter into a lunch invitation, presents himself as an experienced traveller, and fills the meal with stories. When he next appears in the supplied scenes, he bursts into Paul’s ransacked office looking dishevelled and sheepish. The contrast makes Dietrich a vivid but still partly elusive presence: sociable and self-assured in one encounter, unexpectedly flustered in the next.

Introduction and Appearance

Paul recognizes Dietrich’s voice before turning around, but thinks of its owner as the tennis champion rather than knowing his name. Dietrich is dressed in a pale grey Armani suit over a white polo neck, with a claw pendant at his throat. The distinctive necklace remains part of his appearance when he reappears later, although then it hangs sideways from his jacket collar.

Dietrich addresses Paul by name and invites him to lunch at a small Uzbek restaurant around the corner. His manner is immediately familiar: he proposes the meal as a welcome to the new employee, then asks how Paul is settling in. Only after they have sat down does he give his name, saying that everyone calls him Rick. The introduction thus makes him both a colleague offering hospitality and a character whose identity Paul initially registers through an impression rather than a name.

Lunch and Travel Stories

The restaurant is crowded, and a waiter guides the two men through the crush to a tucked-away table. Dietrich orders kovurma palov, describing the dish as an imitation of what one might eat in Samarkand, and pours Paul tea. Paul is short of money and wary of the encounter, but accepts the invitation; the meal provides an immediate, concrete gesture of welcome on his first day.

Over lunch, Dietrich eats with striking speed and precision, while Paul struggles to follow the conversation and the pace of the meal. Asked about travelling, Paul mentions a camping holiday in the Loire valley. Dietrich responds with an account of roughing it in Borneo, where, he says, the boatmen guiding his party down a river were captured and held for ransom by a neighbouring tribe. He describes the five travellers as left with only his knife, a ball of string, and two boxes of matches. The tale runs on through several servings of rice; Paul loses track of it, and coffee arrives before Dietrich finishes. His anecdotes establish travel as a subject on which he readily holds forth, though the scene gives Paul’s distracted perspective rather than independent confirmation of the adventures.

Return to Paul’s Office

The lunch ends under a practical deadline: Dietrich checks his watch, notices it is five minutes to two, and says they should return to the office. A waiter appears with his coat, and Dietrich slips into it with an ease Paul likens to a samurai sheathing a sword. As he does so, Paul glimpses a bulge beneath his left arm, but cannot tell what it is; the narration leaves the possibility unresolved.

Later, after Paul has not seen him since that first day, Dietrich suddenly bursts into Paul’s office. Papers are scattered across the floor and two filing-cabinet drawers stand open; Paul has paused, unsure whether there has been a burglary, when Dietrich enters. His hair is ruffled, his claw pendant sits crookedly, and he looks sheepish as he greets Paul and remarks that he is in early. Paul answers automatically that traffic has delayed him. The scene offers no explanation for the disordered room or Dietrich’s appearance, preserving the gap between the polished lunch companion and the hurried, unsettled figure who returns.