Hidden Depths (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-
five: Confessions

I
NGRID AND
A
NGELE TOOK
turns to look after Peonie whilst Martha continued working in Berlin. She planned to give up her job before their second baby was due in the middle of September. This week it was Ingrid's turn. Peonie would be tired from her morning at the village kindergarten and hopefully fast asleep at some point in the afternoon, Klaus was up at the golf club and didn't plan to return for lunch and Axel was at school. Ingrid was hoping for an opportune moment to catch Felix alone and have a long, overdue talk with her nephew.

Felix tried to find time to see Peonie during his working day and often came for lunch at his Tante's cottage. Before he went back to work at the boathouse he would put Peonie to bed in the spare bedroom for her afternoon nap. As he came back into the living room, a television news bulletin shattered his peace with some breaking news.

A male reporter was reporting live from Muggelsee where in the background a haulage truck was pulling a car out of the water. Felix turned white. Ingrid came in from the kitchen and saw not only Felix's ashen face but how he was frozen to the spot, as he had been when Susanne had died. She was suddenly afraid for him and time seemed suspended as they listened to the television report.

‘Here on the banks of Muggelsee, three cars have been pulled out of the water. Each car contains a body. With me is the investigating officer, Chief Detective Inspector Oskar Kruger.'

At the south jetty of Muggelsee, Kruger was dressed in forensic clothing, in stark contrast to the smart reporter in his suit.

Kruger was succinct and to the point. ‘Three bodies in their cars have been recovered at various points around the lake. The names of the victims are known to us but we can't release this information until the relatives have been informed.'

The reporter asked. ‘Were the three men on a missing list?'

Kruger thought about the paedophile list. ‘I believe so,' he replied.

‘What led you to carry out a search of this lake?' the reporter asked.

‘We received information relating to another case that led us here. We had to close the boating lanes but they will reopen in due course after police scuba divers have concluded their underwater search,' Kruger explained.

‘Does the evidence you've found so far indicate murder?'

Kruger looked annoyed at this question. ‘Well, it's not suicide.'

Ingrid switched off the television with the remote control.

‘Hey! I was watching that,' Felix said, raising his voice.

‘Don't you dare get angry at me, my lad.'

Felix grabbed his coat, ready to leave.

‘No!' Ingrid barked. ‘You are not leaving until we've talked.'

‘Shush, you'll wake Peonie.'

‘Felix, it's me. You can tell me anything.'

Felix looked in her eyes, knowing she was telling the truth. How long could he carry this burden alone? But wasn't telling her a selfish act? Ingrid would then have to deal with the nightmares and her safety too would be compromised. But Tante knows anyway, Felix told himself, and there's no hiding it from her. He would only be confirming her worst fears. He slumped into a chair.

‘Young man, it's time you told me what's going on.'

‘What can I say?'

‘The truth, Felix. Please, tell me the truth.'

‘I've tried to carry this burden alone, and I'm going to be a father again. God! I really want another child but this is such bad timing.'

‘Felix, I know you. You haven't been yourself these last few weeks and you've started obsessively washing your hands again. Don't fob me off with, “It's just my eczema”. I'm sure Martha is getting suspicious, too.'

‘Both you and my dear wife worry too much,' he told her, in a final attempt to stave off her questions.

‘Felix! On your birthday I watched you go outside and throw up behind a tree.'

‘You did?'

‘Yes, I was worried. It was after the news report about The Lady of the Lake waking up from her coma, wasn't it? And at your birthday party, you really didn't like Onkel Bernd giving you a Herbertz knife. Why? And seeing how you've reacted to the news coming from Muggelsee today, I have the feeling they're all somehow connected…'

Felix was tired of lying and tired of keeping secrets. If he couldn't tell his beloved Tante, who else could he tell? Ingrid was the woman who reminded him of his mother in many ways, the woman who had given him a home and loved him as if he was her own son. It was true, he had been washing his hands excessively of late because his nerves were getting the better of him. He'd been finding it hard to relax, worried every time he turned on the news and he was drinking, albeit surreptitiously, more than usual.

‘If I tell you, then you'll be collaborating with me,' he said.

‘I don't give a damn!'

‘Tante, you promised. No questions.'

‘Felix! You're in trouble. Please.'

Felix could not resist his beloved Tante a moment longer. ‘I'll put your life in danger, as an accessory to murder.'

Ingrid's face dropped a million miles. ‘I knew it. I just knew it.' She took Felix in her arms as they sobbed together. Once their tears had abated, they both found the courage to speak.

‘With these hands of mine,' Felix began, ‘I've loved my wife and daughter – and I've also killed three men and nearly killed a woman. I can't quite believe I am a murderer, that I was capable of it. At the time I thought I was going mad but it all seemed so clear to me, I just had to do it. I'm sorry I've let you down.'

‘Why didn't you talk to me or Onkel Klaus?'

‘It was part of being a man, something I had to do on my own.'

‘So, the coma lady and the three bodies discovered today at Muggelsee, they're all connected to you?' Ingrid asked, horrified but somehow not surprised.

Felix nodded. ‘The three men were wardens at Torgau. They all abused Susi and me and the coma victim was their go-between and collaborator.'

‘I see. Did you kill these men in the autumn of 1992?'

Felix nodded and lowered his head in shame.

‘I remember exactly when it was. You came home with bruises and rope burns around your neck. I told you my secret then, about my shame regarding Sofie, and you half told me your secrets. Felix, I've waited a long time for you to confide in me and I won't judge you, just as you didn't judge me about Sofie,' Ingrid promised.

Felix looked Ingrid in the eye. ‘OK, Tante, I'm ready. I'll tell you the whole truth. One of them, Horst, turned up at the golf club at the end of the summer. He recognised me, said he would come after Axel. I didn't plan to kill him, just to frighten him away, but then he told me he'd contacted his paedophile friends. I couldn't have that so I attacked him, tied him to the car door and drove his car into the lake at Muggelsee.'

‘Did you use Klaus's gun?' Ingrid asked.

‘Only to gain control. I never wanted to shoot anyone but I hit him over the head with the gun, stunning him.'

‘Then you drove him into the water and swam to safety.'

‘Yes, Tante. How can you keep this a secret?'

‘The truth has versions. My version is that I've been your collaborator for a long time,' Ingrid confessed. ‘Did anyone see you?'

‘If they did, no one has turned me in so far. I wore a disguise – that old wig you bought for me, and a balaclava.'

‘That's good. How did you know where to find the others?'

‘Horst kept a diary, with all the names and addresses of his sick friends.'

Ingrid was concerned. ‘Where's this diary?'

‘It's hidden in a safe place.'

‘Felix! It's evidence, get rid of it!'

‘No. You never know when I may have to use it again.'

Ingrid realised at that moment that if it was necessary, Felix would repeat his crimes. ‘Surely you won't have to. Anyway, after Horst, who was next?'

‘I stalked a second man using the same methods, and he ended up at the bottom of Muggelsee without too much trouble, but the third man… That's when I got the rope burns around my neck. I nearly drowned in the car with him.'

Ingrid began to cry.

Felix felt ashamed. ‘Look what I've done to you. I should go away.'

‘No! That's what Sofie did and it broke my heart. I'm not crying because I'm ashamed of you,' Ingrid said, wiping away her tears. ‘I'm crying because I nearly lost you at the bottom of some lake. We would never have known.'

‘Just as you never knew when Sofie died.'

‘Yes,' Ingrid said, softly.

‘Shall I go on?'

Ingrid nodded, trying to compose herself.

‘The last one, their go-between, Lotte Holler, the one the press call the Lady of the Lake, she used to take Susi and me from our beds and lead us to the three men, Horst, Gunther and Harald. They called themselves the three Musketeers. One for all and all for one, that was their sick motto.'

Ingrid was outraged. ‘The bastards! You should have killed that woman too.'

‘Tante, I couldn't go through with it.'

‘Was it because she was a woman?'

‘No. Lotte Holler would have ended up at the bottom of the lake just like the others, which is where they all deserved to be so I could keep my family safe from the paedophiles, but she told me she was pregnant and I couldn't go through with it. I know she lost her baby but at least I didn't knowingly kill her baby.'

‘Funny sort of mother she'd be. Felix, you did the right thing.'

‘Tante, surely you can't mean that? You can't condone murder.'

‘Of course not.'

‘I took the law into my own hands,' Felix stated. ‘I killed the Musketeers after the fall of the Stasi regime, so what excuse do I have now, living in a democracy?'

‘If you hadn't acted, they would have gone unpunished and continued torturing others with their sordid lives. Felix, you had been traumatised! You'd been through a lot and you were only 17 when you committed these crimes – still a minor, in legal terms.'

‘That's what I told myself,' Felix admitted. ‘Can you believe it, neither the Musketeers nor their go-between showed any remorse?'

‘Well, you get what you deserve out of life and they got what was coming to them. Their downfall was self-inflicted.'

‘Will you tell Onkel Klaus?'

‘Will you tell Martha?'

They both shook their heads.

‘Do you think the police will catch me?'

‘No, course not, but let's go over it, to settle your mind, and mine. Did you leave any clues?'

‘I tried not to but I left my Herbertz knife at the scene of the crime when I was with Lotte Holler and it had my fingerprints on it, although the police don't have my fingerprints on file. Tante, they'll be looking for someone who has a boat or a connection to a lake, I'm sure of it.'

‘Don't worry, with all the lakes around here they'll be looking for a needle in a haystack. But no wonder you didn't want Onkel Bernd's knife!' Ingrid ventured. ‘How many of them saw your face?'

‘Two of the Musketeers saw my face.'

‘They don't count any more. But what about this coma woman?'

‘No. I kept my balaclava on,' Felix told her.

‘Good. She's the only one who can help the police now but it's a long time ago and hopefully nothing will be fresh in her mind after 12 years in a coma.'

‘I was a coward. I couldn't show her my face.'

Ingrid shook her head. ‘You're not a coward. It's good that she won't recognise you.'

Felix grew agitated and started rubbing his hands.

‘For God's sake, leave your hands alone!' Ingrid pleaded.

Felix put his hands on his head and began to cry in frustration.

Ingrid was concerned. ‘It's all right, everything will be all right,' she said softly.

‘Do you know why I couldn't tell Lotte Holler who I was? Because Felix Waltz died a long time ago, and as Felix Baum, I'm alive again.'

‘Felix, you have to calm down,' Ingrid begged him. ‘Think of Peonie, Martha and the new baby. Please, focus on them.'

There's usually just one person in life to whom we can show our weaknesses, someone who offers the nearest thing to unconditional love. Ingrid had become that person for Felix. He could cry in her arms like a little boy and feel safe.

‘OK, you're right. I'm a husband and a father and my family needs me to stay strong. Tante, you've been a second mother to me,' he told her.

‘Felix, your mother would have wanted me to look out for you and whatever happens, we're your family and we'll stick by you,' vowed Ingrid.

Chapter Twenty-s
ix: A Betrayed Wife

I
NA
S
ELGE WAS AN
attractive woman approaching 50. Her husband Harald Plaumann went missing about the same time as the paedophile ring was broken and once the police searches for him had ground to an inconclusive halt, Harald became
persona non grata
in her family. He may not have been found guilty but there was guilt by association, and Ina quickly reverted to her maiden name, changed her children's surnames and applied for a divorce in his absence.

Ina had not remarried but enjoyed a relationship with an old flame called Dieter. They were happy together, yet both preferred living separately in the Schonefeld area south of Berlin. When her children were younger, Ina felt they needed the stability of the same school and friends, especially after the press first got wind of the story and labelled her guilty just for being his wife. She moved to the other side of town where she'd lived ever since and her family and friends protected her and the children, closing ranks against outsiders.

It was a modern and immaculately kept home. Photos of her children adorned the walls. Her son, Peter, now 20, was away at university and her daughter Marie, just turned 16, was away on a school ski trip. Ina ran an online shopping service and worked from home. At 9.30 a.m. her doorbell rang. When she opened her door, Stefan Glockner and Hanne Drais were standing there, sheltered from the gusty winds.

‘Ina Selge?' Glockner asked, showing his police identification.

Ina looked at his ID. ‘Yes?'

‘I'm Detective Glockner and this is my colleague, Hanne Drais. May we come in?'

Ina opened the door and beckoned them in. ‘It's not my children, is it? She was worried now. ‘There's not been any bad news about my children?'

‘No. Not at all,' Hanne said, reassuringly.

‘Have you by any chance seen the emerging news from Muggelsee?' Stefan asked.

Ina nodded. ‘They've pulled three bodies out of the lake.'

‘It's about your ex-husband,' Glockner began. ‘Dental records have confirmed that one of the bodies is that of Harald Plaumann.'

Ina slumped into a chair. ‘I see.'

‘I'm sorry. Is there anyone you'd like to be here with you?' Hanne asked.

‘No, I'm fine. As next of kin, will I have to make a formal identification?'

‘That won't be necessary. We're treating his death as a homicide,' Glockner stated. ‘In fact, all three men pulled out of Muggelsee yesterday were murdered.'

‘I didn't think Harald had killed himself,' Ina said. ‘He was far too vain. I believe he left me and the children because he'd been found out and fled the country.'

Hanne thought Ina's bitterness towards her husband was justified. ‘We've some of your late husband's personal belongings – a sports watch and a silver crucifix.'

‘The crucifix was a present from his mother and he hung it on the driver's mirror so she'd notice it from time to time and he wouldn't have to wear it,' Ina explained. ‘But I don't want any of Harald's keepsakes.'

‘I understand,' Hanne replied.

‘How was he murdered?' Ina asked.

Glockner gave her the facts. ‘He was taken to Muggelsee by force and after a struggle his car was driven into the water where he drowned.'

Ina showed no emotion. ‘He was my husband and the father of my children and we had 10 happy years together, or so I thought,' Ina told them. ‘But Harald was living a lie.'

‘Is it OK if we go over the evidence that you gave in 1992?' Stefan asked.

‘Of course. I've only kept one thing – the message Harald sent to me on an old mobile phone the night he disappeared, because it had vital information that helped the police. I'll go and get it. Can I get you both a drink?'

‘A pot of coffee would be nice, thank you,' Hanne suggested.

In due course, Ina returned with refreshments and her old mobile, a Nokia 101, the lightest and innovative mobile phone of its time and massively produced in 1992. ‘I'll have to charge the battery so you can read the text but it won't take long,' she said, and after they'd drunk their coffee, Ina passed the mobile so Hanne could read the text message.

‘
Darling Ina,

I have to get away as news is about to break and the police will come after me for what I did as a warden at Torgau. I sexually abused the kids. Tell no one. I've got to lie low. I'm sorry. Kiss my children for me.

Your loving husband, Harald

‘I'm sorry,' Hanne told Ina. ‘Receiving that must have ripped your world apart.'

Ina nodded, tears in her eyes. ‘I didn't want to believe it at first but when he didn't return and the police turned up looking for him, the only thing that mattered to me was finding out if Harald had touched our children. Can you imagine? I had to ask them and put them through something like that! I'm angry at myself for not seeing past his façade, and for not protecting my children but we had a very lucky escape. Harald never touched his own children.'

Delighted to hear this, Hanne passed the mobile to Glockner, who stayed uncharacteristically quiet while reading the text.

‘And now, after hating him for living a lie and turning our whole family life into a lie, and doing that to other people's children, all I feel nothing for him,' added Ina.

Glockner suddenly spoke up. ‘Harald sent you this text at 9.15 p.m. on the night of 16
^th
November 1992. We didn't find his mobile at the scene of the crime which leads us to question whether Harald actually sent the text himself or it was sent by the man who killed him.'

‘It doesn't matter who sent it. Harald was found guilty in his absence when some abused kids from Torgau gave evidence against him as part of a trial of another paedophile warden from Torgau,' said Ina. ‘The truth is clear for all to see, my ex-husband was a paedophile and this young man who killed Harald was most likely abused at Torgau too.'

‘We think so,' Hanne admitted. ‘And if the man who killed your husband and the others sent you the text, he was telling us about his motives and why he murdered them.'

Ina furrowed her brow. ‘Then you have a very clever killer, because he helped you catch a paedophile ring.'

Hanne agreed. ‘Yes. He can be viewed either as a vigilante hero or a psychotic villain.'

‘Were the other men found at Muggelsee sick bastards too?' Ina asked.

‘Yes, they were his ex-colleagues at Torgau and they suffered the same fate, death by homicidal drowning,' Glockner said.

‘So, a serial killer. I can't say I blame him, getting his revenge,' Ina announced. ‘He did me a big favour too.'

‘He's not a hero in my book, he's a killer and he needs to be caught,' Glockner stated grimly.

Hanne didn't offer an opinion about Marine Boy and instead said, ‘We need a profile of Harald – who he was and who he mixed with – clues to help us catch the Muggelsee killer.'

Ina thought for a moment then reluctantly recalled some details. ‘His life with the children and me was obviously a cover for his other life. I imagine Harald got up to all sorts when he went on trips with his Torgau pals and I never suspected a thing, but it all made sense once he'd disappeared.'

Hanne was intrigued. ‘Trips? What sort of trips and with whom?'

‘His friends, Horst and Gunther. Horst had a motor home and they travelled all over the country in it. They were fishing and hunting trips, so they said, but now I'm sure they hunted kids to abuse. I've never heard from those two again and I'm wondering if they are linked to Harald's disappearance?' Ina asked.

Hanne and Stefan looked at one another and wondered what Kruger would say and if it were prudent to tell Ina that Horst and Gunther were the other two bodies recovered from Muggelsee. They decided she merited hearing the truth.

Glockner broke the news. ‘We'd like you to hear it from us, before the media gets hold of any information. The other two bodies pulled from Muggelsee were Harald's friends, Horst Gwisdek and Gunther Schukrafft.'