Time Heals No Wounds (24 page)

“I know my rights and refuse to answer any questions.”

Fritz sighed. Apparently, he was dealing with a battle-hardened activist. “You’re hereby banned from the premises and will leave the building immediately! The two gentlemen you’ve just met will escort you out. No more violence.”

“Mr. Ternheim, we should talk in private,” Fritz said as the control room emptied. “It’s quite possible there may be more people here involved in this, and they might have even more surprises in store for you. Maybe you should consider canceling the event.”

Ternheim shook his head. “This evening needs to end on a high note, and there are a number of prominent guests who have come especially for this gala.”

“Whatever you say. It’s your decision. Nevertheless, we should talk briefly about the incident. Obviously Lagussa’s high on the list of an anti-Nazi group. Perhaps the death of your sister has something to do with it.”

“All right. Do you have your phone on you? I can contact you later. Let me discuss what to do next with Ms. Stahl and then calm a couple of guests down. Later, we can talk in private.”

Two hours later, Fritz strolled between the high tops on the terrace. The official program was over and the band was playing light dance music. Guests had already begun leaving, and the incident was still the main topic of conversation.

Fritz saw Anna scanning the outdoor area in search of something. He waved to attract her attention and then made his way over.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Janssen! Have you enjoyed the evening?”

“Certainly. I hope you won’t get in trouble because the event didn’t go as smoothly as planned?”

“At the moment, Mr. Ternheim is taking out all his anger on the poor guy in charge of the audiovisuals, even though he didn’t really make a mistake. But I’m no fool. Tomorrow, it’ll probably be my turn.”

“It’s good that I ran into you. Mr. Ternheim and I wanted to talk in private this evening. He hasn’t called. Do you know where I can find him?”

“Strange, I haven’t seen him since our conversation in the control room.”

“He was going to call me, but so far . . .”

Anna looked worried. “I’ve tried several times to reach him, but he isn’t picking up. Maybe he’s stuck in a conversation with an important guest.”

“He must be around here somewhere. I’ll see if I can find him. But I don’t want to stick around much longer. Tomorrow’s looking to be another long day.”

“If I see him, I’ll remind him he was supposed to get back to you,” she promised and headed toward the stage.

Fritz decided to take a stroll around the grounds. He felt weary to his bones. He nibbled from the buffet and popped a strawberry in his mouth. He saw Anna again, and she looked tense.

“Did you find Mr. Ternheim?” she asked.

“No, and he hasn’t contacted me either.”

“I’m really worried now! None of my colleagues has seen him, and some guests have asked about him. And he can’t be reached by phone. It just goes straight to voice mail.”

“Maybe he left?”

“He wouldn’t do that, not with this guest list! Besides, his car’s still in the parking lot. You know, this may sound a little paranoid, but what if more of these activists infiltrated the event and—”

“You mean he might have been kidnapped?” Fritz asked. “Honestly, Ms. Stahl, I can’t imagine that. This group wants to draw attention to Lagussa’s past, and tonight, they succeeded. But I don’t think they’re the type of people who would kidnap someone. But I can talk to my colleague who has . . . well, certain contacts in this group.”

“I’m probably just imagining things,” she said. “But his disappearance is strange. He knows how important the host is on nights like these.”

F
RIDAY
N
IGHT

After a grueling session out on the water, Hannes peeled off his soaking clothes, hopped into the shower, and put on a tracksuit. Even if he overdid it, he still wanted to visit the gym for an hour in order to catch up on his routine. He was just about to push his gym bag back into the locker when his phone rang.

“Hi, Fritz, what’s up?”

“Listen, what did Ben and his colleagues actually have planned? They caused a scandal at the beginning of the gala, but I’m afraid they might have had something else up their sleeves too.”

“Why, what happened?”

Hannes grinned as Fritz gave his version of the events. Ben wasn’t lying when he said the newspapers would report in detail on the story.

“What makes you think something else is going to happen?”

“Because the activist in the control room was not alone, and Mr. Ternheim has disappeared.”

Hannes laughed. “Are you suggesting Ben kidnapped him?”

“What do I know? It’s just . . . Wait a minute, hold on . . . Yes, what is it?” Fritz seemed to have put down his cell phone; Hannes could hear muffled voices. Then he heard Fritz say, “Damn it, what are you saying?”

Hannes sat down on a bench and waited.

“Hannes? Get here now! Mr. Ternheim was just found. He’s dead!”

“You’re kidding me! What . . . Where . . . ?”

“Get here as fast as you can. I’ll call for backup.”

“All right, I’ll change and—”

“No, get here now!”

When Hannes arrived at the old casino, there were already several emergency vehicles parked in the circular driveway in front of the building. A worried Hannes wrinkled his forehead. Things could get quite unpleasant for Ben. Apparently, it had been a bad idea after all to stage his protest against Lagussa. He quickly headed for the building. A senior colleague who had also been on the beach on Sunday recognized him and raised the police tape. “I’m warning you, he doesn’t look any better than his sister did on that damn beach.”

Hannes nodded and gulped. Two deaths in one week. Was he really cut out for this?

When he got to the scene, he saw Anna, who was leaning against a column, her face pale. She stood up and walked over. He felt uncomfortable wearing such inappropriate clothing while she was standing across from him in her elegant dress.

“What’s going on?” she whispered. “I . . .” Her voice cracked and she began to sob. He stood in front of her with his arms hanging by his side.

“She discovered the body,” a colleague whispered to him in a sympathetic voice.

Hannes continued to stand there like a statue before finally taking Anna into his arms and leading her to a small bench. She hid her face in her hands and could not hold back the tears. He decided against comforting her with words and stroked her back instead. Slowly, her body relaxed, and she leaned against him.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

She nodded, and he rested his hand on her shoulder.

She raised her head and looked at him with moist eyes. “We hadn’t seen him for hours. So I thought I’d look up here. I remembered that Mr. Ternheim had insisted on a room where he could talk in private with key guests. That’s why we rented the conference room as well.”

Anna seemed to stare past Hannes and fell silent. He moved a little to get her attention. She blinked and turned toward him, and her eyes filled with tears again.

“The door was closed . . . I knocked. When no response came, I opened it . . . and saw him lying right there,” she said, her voice choked.

“Hannes!”

When he looked up, Old Fritz was standing in front of him.

“Please come with me. I want to show you something.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Hannes said to Anna, squeezing her arm. He got up and followed Fritz across the hall. Anna remained on the bench, staring at the floor.

“Will she be all right?” Fritz asked.

“I think so. The sight was too much for her. She’s devastated.”

“Not surprised. Take a look for yourself.”

Maria came to meet them at the doorway, wearing white latex gloves. With a languid flick of the hand, she brushed a strand of hair behind her ears. “Be careful, Hannes, it’s not a pretty sight.”

He wondered if he had a reputation for being queasy after the incident on the beach. As a precaution, he kept some distance from the center of the room, where a figure lay surrounded by several colleagues from forensics. When one of the colleagues stood, Hannes flinched.

Ternheim’s face had gone blue; the fixed eyes stared at the ceiling. The body was twisted slightly, and the sleeves of his suit and shirt were pushed up on his left arm. Even from a distance, it was possible to see that the skin was branded on the forearm with black numbers. Hannes immediately thought of Helene Ternheim’s forearm.

He cautiously stepped closer and kept his eyes fixed on the dead man’s arm. This time, the tattoo wasn’t so clumsy: there were no red marks. Six numbers stood out on the pale skin. Four of the numbers were clearly recognizable, while the other two were slightly blurred. Again, it didn’t appear to be the work of a professional. Slowly his gaze traveled up the body, and his breath faltered. What he couldn’t see from the doorway leaped at him from up close. The mouth was wide open and seemed to be stuffed with something.

“Heavy stuff, right?” said Fritz, rubbing his scar.

“What’s he got in his mouth?”

“Banknotes and they're not just in his mouth. Forensics tells me they were crammed all the way down his throat. He suffocated to death. Slowly.”

Goose bumps ran down Hannes’s arms, and he turned away from the gruesome sight. “But . . . why didn’t he resist? His hands aren’t tied. Was he knocked out?”

Fritz shook his head. He had a sallow complexion but otherwise appeared in control. “The medical examiner guesses a strong sedative was used. He must have been given a high dosage so he was unable to defend himself.”

Hannes glanced at the body again. “The tattoo. Are they the same numbers that were on his sister’s arm?”

“We don’t know yet. We haven’t compared them, especially since it was so hard to make out what was on her arm. But we found something else over in the corner.”

They rounded a large conference table, and Fritz pointed to a small object on the floor. It reminded Hannes of a small hairdryer but was significantly narrower and had a metal tip.

“What is that?” Hannes asked.

“A tattoo machine, and according to our medical examiner, a fairly new one.”

“How could anyone be so stupid to leave this here?” Hannes asked.

“Maybe he—or she—was in a hurry and was afraid of getting caught? But you’re definitely right: that was a major mistake. Our forensics team found fingerprints on it.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Did we find a match?”

“We don’t work that fast!” Fritz stepped aside as a colleague from forensics came by and carefully placed the tattoo machine in a plastic bag.

“We’ll be done shortly, Fritz,” he said. “The body will be brought to the medical examiner’s. Maria’s already on the way there and will conduct an autopsy. We couldn’t find his cell phone.”

“Thanks! Hannes, please see to it that Ms. Stahl gets home safely. But under no circumstances should she stay in her own apartment. If she received that death threat from the same person responsible for this, then we have to keep a careful eye on her.”

“Sure,” Hannes said. “What should I do after that?”

“Get some sleep! Tomorrow some clues will hopefully turn up. Try not to sleep in this time. Meet me in my office at nine.”

Hannes left without protest. Anna was still as he had left her and looked at him with big eyes. His stomach was in knots, and when he saw the distraught look on her face, he was overcome with sympathy.

“I’ll take you home, okay?”

She nodded. He helped her to her feet; she seemed completely numb. “I just want to go to bed.”

They walked out to his car. When Hannes got in and started the engine, she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.

“It’s good you’re staying with your friend,” he said. “You shouldn’t go back to your place.”

Anna opened her eyes. “Tina’s at a wedding and won’t be back until tomorrow.”

He shifted in his seat. He didn’t want Anna staying alone in her friend’s apartment. He weighed the options until he had worked up enough courage to propose an alternative.

“If you want, you can sleep where I’m staying tonight. I’m sure Ben won’t mind another guest. I can sleep on the couch in the living room and you can have the guest room.”

Anna looked relieved. “That would be really nice,” she said. “Tina’s apartment is quite large and I don’t want to be there alone.”

“I can understand that. Let’s pick up some of your stuff and head to Ben’s.”

As Hannes opened the door to Ben’s cottage, Socks ran toward them and jumped around. The house was completely dark; evidently, Ben wasn’t back yet.

“Do you have any alcohol?” Anna asked. “I could use something before bed.”

“There should be beer here,” he said and went to rifle through the fridge. When he returned to the front door with two beer bottles, he found Anna snuggling with Socks on the patio.

They sat in silence for a while, lost in thought. The garden radiated a peaceful serenity and seemed to have a calming effect on Anna.

“I’ve never seen a dead person before,” she said. “It’s a strange feeling when you’ve just seen these people alive, and then suddenly they’re lying there lifeless and . . . there’s nothing left in them.”

Hannes nodded. “I just don’t understand why . . . Now Mr. Ternheim too,” he said. “I was almost certain he had something to do with his sister’s death.”

“Well, that’s definitely been sorted out,” Anna said. “Don’t you have any other suspects?”

“Not really. But maybe we overlooked something. What do you think?”

She shrugged and held Socks tighter. “I have absolutely no idea. I especially don’t get the tattoos. What are they supposed to mean?”

Hannes almost told her that Ms. Ternheim’s forearm also bore the black numbers, but he didn’t.

“Do the tattooed numbers mean anything to you?” he asked.

“No, why?”

He explained his suspicions.

“You’re right! The photos I saw in Ms. Ternheim’s office had concentration camp prisoners with numbers tattooed on them. And that was the reason for tonight’s protest! Maybe they didn’t stop with their little film screening.”

Once again, Hannes’s thoughts returned to Ben. He seemed to lack any sense of respect and had staged his protest as planned. He would have to ask Ben some extremely uncomfortable questions in the next few days.

“I don’t think so,” he said and was surprised at his certainty. “But you’re right about one thing. Someone’s definitely targeting Lagussa. Would any competitors resort to this?”

“You seem to have a pretty poor opinion of the pharmaceutical industry. We’re not the mafia!”

Anna insisted, despite his protests, on sleeping on the couch in the living room and let him have the guest room. As she closed the door behind her, it was already well past midnight and Ben was nowhere to be found. As a precaution, Hannes wrote a note explaining Anna’s presence and hung it on the door. He left the patio lights on so Ben would see the warning. Then he quietly closed the door to the guest room and undressed down to his new underwear.

Exhausted, he turned on his side and shut his eyes. He heard footsteps on the patio. Then the door opened and someone quietly entered the hall. A little later, water running in the bathroom and the sound of a closing door confirmed that Ben had made it home.

He couldn’t even think of sleep. For a long time, Hannes tossed and turned. Then he heard a noise at the door. The knob turned, and a faint light streamed into the room.

“Hannes? Are you awake?” Anna whispered.

He sat up in bed. “I’m awake. Having trouble sleeping too?”

He could hear the sound of bare feet getting closer, and then Anna sat down on the bed. “No, I fell asleep immediately, but then I had a bad dream.”

“I’m not surprised. Anything I can do?”

“No. Well. It’s just . . . I don’t want to be alone. I have this constant fear that someone will come and . . . and do something to me. Can I sleep with you? Don’t take this the wrong way. And if you’d prefer not to, that’s perfectly fine. Then I’ll get Socks to join me on the sofa.”

“Uh, sure. No, that’s fine, no problem!” He found it difficult to keep his voice under control. “Socks is probably in Ben’s room, anyway.”

He slid to the side and lifted the blanket. Anna quickly slipped into bed.

“Thanks, you really did save me today,” she said.

Despite the long day, her hair smelled fresh. Hannes struggled to control his breathing. What was she expecting? Was this an invitation? Then he noticed Anna had fallen asleep. This new sleeping arrangement was not very conducive to his efforts to get some rest. Anna muttered something in her sleep and shifted. Her breath hit his cheek, and her hand rested on his bare chest. She winced and moaned softly without changing position. Obviously she was still plagued by bad dreams. He put his arm around her. Anna instantly calmed down and began to breathe deeply again. Hannes slowly began to relax and enjoy the situation. It had been a long time since a woman had curled up next to him.