Asche

Asche is a company representative whose presence at a government-contract meeting becomes part of Detective Burton’s effort to connect him with Everly and Hauck Exman. The conversation establishes a possible point of contact among the three, but stops short of proving that they met or explaining Asche’s own conduct there.

Identity and Background

Burton recalls that, four or five years earlier, companies bidding on a Treasury Department contract for special paper sent representatives to Washington. He names Everly, Asche, and Hauck Exman among the representatives present at the same time. The book supplies no further biographical detail about Asche in this exchange, and does not describe what he said or did at the meeting.

The Meeting and Burton’s Investigation

Burke Devore recognizes the contract as one concerned with import forms and anti-counterfeiting, but says that the company he worked for at the time did not bid. Burton’s account therefore places Asche in a group of representatives from other companies, not alongside Burke at the meeting. Burke infers that the three men met; Burton qualifies that inference, acknowledging that the investigators have been unable to prove it and suggesting that proof may not be necessary to their inquiry.

Burton’s remarks about Hauck Exman add context but do not establish Asche’s part in the case. Burton says that he spoke with Exman a couple of weeks earlier and found his manner troubling; he lacked evidence to arrest him, and believes the visit frightened Exman into running away. The conversation presents no equivalent encounter, accusation, or finding concerning Asche.

Connection to Burke Devore

The meeting’s significance for Burke is counterfactual as well as investigative. Since his former company did not bid, he was not among the representatives gathered in Washington. He wryly suggests that, had he been there, Hauck Exman might have shot him the previous month; Burton calls him lucky, and Burke agrees. The exchange places Asche within a possible chain of acquaintance surrounding the investigation while emphasizing how little the surviving account establishes about him personally.