Time Heals No Wounds (28 page)

A peephole
, thought Merle.
So what? Go ahead and watch me, I don’t care. I don’t care about anything anymore!
Her fingers stroked the splinters of wood chips she had saved from the broken tray.
The next time you look in here, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll see . . .

The sneakers reappeared and a hand pushed two items into her room. Merle’s face was devoid of emotion. She simply stared straight ahead.
What is that?
She already recognized the tray of food and the bottle of water. It seemed to be fries. But what was the elongated object next to the food? She looked closer. A flashlight! She would finally have light! Merle felt life course through her once more.

She looked back toward the door and saw a brief movement behind the little peephole. If he would at least talk to her! She could barely remember how another human voice sounded. Her pleading eyes stared at the door as if she were trying to hypnotize the man on the other side. And when a voice finally spoke to her, Merle wasn’t sure if she had only heard the softly spoken words in her head or if they had been said aloud.

“It’ll be over soon, Merle. You don’t have to wait much longer for the end.”

S
ATURDAY AT
N
OON

“This doesn’t count as the dinner you still owe me, right?” asked Maria as she stirred her latte in a small café near the medical examiner’s office.

“No, of course I didn’t forget, but right now there’s just too much going on. Maybe next week?”

“So you want to solve the case by next week? I’ve heard a buddy of yours is the prime suspect and managed to evade arrest.”

Maria’s question hit a sore spot. Hannes could imagine what kind of impression his colleagues had of him now. The rookie who puked when he saw his first body and then lived for a week with the Ternheims’ murderer.

“It seems all they do down at the station is gossip,” he said. “Unfortunately, it looks as if Ben is at least in some way involved.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing . . .”

“Imagine that there’s sufficient evidence to suspect that a friend of yours is guilty of killing someone. Wouldn’t you search for explanations as to why she couldn’t have done it?”

“And do you have any explanations?”

“No. But I also don’t have any explanations as to why he would do it. Of course, there’s no disputing the fingerprints on the tattoo machine, but why everything else?”

“These are things I don’t have to think about, fortunately.”

“Well, what did Mr. Ternheim’s corpse tell you?”

Maria put her glass down and leaned back in her chair. “First, I can tell you the death occurred at about nine last night. The sedative is the same one we found in his sister’s blood, but at a much higher dose. It’s Letharmol, which is used to treat anxiety as well as relieve pain.”

“How easy is it to get this stuff?”

“You need a prescription.”

“How’s it taken?”

“Either in tablet form or as drops. It’s extremely fast and in higher concentrations can cause serious side effects like muscle failure and cardiac arrest.”

“So what was the cause of death?”

“Asphyxiation. He likely suffered a lot. And he was pumped so full of Letharmol that he was completely helpless, his muscles paralyzed.”

“And how long would it take to tattoo his arm like that?”

Maria shrugged. “I don’t think whoever did the tattoo knew what he or she was doing. So it’s hard to say. As a beginner, it’d probably take at least half an hour.”

“Damn, that’s long! Whoever did this must have nerves of steel. Someone could have walked into the room at any time.”

“That’s true. But maybe it was done by a professional who wants to throw us off by screwing up the tattoo.”

“How do you know so much about tattoos?”

“I have three. Here, for example.” She pulled her shirt up a bit so he could see her tanned, flat stomach. Curled around her belly button was a little dragon with two small flames shooting out of its mouth. “Don’t you want to know where the other two are?” she asked. “One on the shoulder and another on the ankle. What do you think?”

He didn’t know how to respond and laughed.

Hannes found some time for practice and headed to the boathouse after his meeting with Maria. This time he properly returned the patrol car and walked to his apartment. He didn’t know if it was snake-free, but he had no choice. Anna had said she would bring Socks by at seven, so he only had an hour to sort out his thoughts.

He kept thinking of the young woman who was being held captive in a room somewhere. How did Ternheim get her photo, and what did Merle von Hohenstein have to do with him? Hannes had given the photo to Marcel after returning to the city, but his reaction had been lukewarm: “I can’t see anything that would be of much help. The room’s empty. It could be anywhere.” Hannes had remembered Mrs. Olsen’s statement about often seeing a young woman in the area. Marcel had promised to show her Merle’s photos to see if there was a possible match.

Hannes walked into his apartment and was greeted by that slightly musty smell that comes when a place has gone without fresh air for days. He opened all the windows. Fruit flies swarmed around a rotten apple on the kitchen table.

He sat down with his laptop and a pitcher of ice-cold mineral water on the tiny balcony. He trusted that Ben was no murderer, and he couldn’t for the life of him see a motive for killing the Ternheims. Although Ben fought neo-Nazis, the siblings showed no such leanings. Their father and grandfather were to blame for the company’s link to the Nazi regime, so why would Ben wipe out the next generation? Was there a connection he didn’t know about?

He decided to search the forum that Ben had showed him. He had retrieved the paper with the log-in information, so he had no problems opening the page. He immediately clicked on the link to the archives and scanned the contents, file by file.

He stopped when he came across the photos of concentration camp prisoners. One of the prisoners was holding out his skinny arm, and Hannes could see a series of numbers tattooed on his forearm. As he was well aware, prisoners at Auschwitz had their respective numbers tattooed on their forearms. He quickly counted six digits. If the two murders were actually related to Lagussa’s Nazi past, then the tattooed numbers were definitely a message. Only what was the message?

He went back to the forum’s home page and scrolled through the various topics. Lagussa was just one of many headings. One entry interested him in particular:
Where is a list of concentration camp prisoners and their numbers?
, a user called “tapeworm” had asked.

Several people had replied to this question, and a member named “Ralfa64” recommended a website where you could search for concentration camp prisoners according to various criteria, including names or numbers. Hannes clicked on the link, which opened a search page. He quickly entered the five numbers they could decipher on the Ternheim siblings into a field marked “Prisoner number.” He was unsure what to choose as the sixth number, so he entered zero. No matches. He got the same result when he tried a one and then a two. After typing three and clicking search, a name appeared. Stunned, he fell back in his chair.

“What do you mean, you found a Maria?” said Fritz over the phone.

“Old Ternheim had muttered something about a Maria and a Josef. But he wasn’t talking about the Bible! I found some website where you can search for former concentration camp prisoners. I entered the numbers tattooed on the Ternheims’ forearms and added a three for the sixth number. And I got a hit! Now hold tight: the number belonged to a Maria Löwenstein.”

Hannes heard only breathing on the other end.

“Did you hear me? The painter recognized the numbers. He must have known it had something to do with Maria Löwenstein. We’ve solved the mystery of the tattoos! The murders are actually connected somehow to Lagussa’s Nazi past. Maybe the murderer tried to extort the two Ternheims, but they refused.”

“A stroke of genius,” Fritz said. “Did you find out anything about Maria Löwenstein or a connection between her and the Ternheims?”

“No, I haven’t started researching.”

“The question now, of course, is who is this Josef? Maybe her husband?”

“Hold on, I can search for that right now.” He tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder and entered Josef Löwenstein into the search.

“Nope, nothing. If he was her husband, then he wasn’t in the concentration camp.”

“Or he was at another concentration camp. Or he isn’t in the database. Try to find out what you can about the prisoner. Maybe you’ll stumble across a Josef Löwenstein.”

“Okay, will do. Gotten anywhere searching for Ben?”

“No, we visited the home of Frank Richter, who was caught in the control room. We wanted to question him since he might have been involved with the murders. But we didn’t find him or Ben. Maybe Richter has gone underground now too. We will definitely keep an eye on the apartment and expand the manhunt to include Richter. We’ve just checked the addresses of two other activists who’ve been arrested with Ben at demonstrations. The two allegedly claim they haven’t seen him for weeks, and there was no evidence of him in their apartments.”

“What about Ms. Ternheim’s car?”

“Nothing yet. The guys from forensics are trying to save her phone’s SIM card, but they probably won’t get anywhere. The acid really penetrated the device.”

“All right, I’ll get back to you when and if I find out anything else about Maria Löwenstein or Josef.”

“Do that. And if you run into Jesus while you’re at it, say hi for me.” Fritz hung up.

Hannes’s theory initially seemed to lead nowhere. Although he was able to find information on a total of six different Josef Löwensteins, all of them deported to concentration camps, he was unable to connect a single one of them to Maria Löwenstein.

His phone rang.

“Hannes, it’s Marcel. Isabelle and I were just at the farm. Mrs. Olsen is certain that the woman she saw walking along the road was Merle von Hohenstein. But that was all she could tell us.”

“Then maybe she’s still in the area. What are you going to do now?”

“We’ll ask around and distribute pictures of her. We’ll also visit the old painter again. We have to get him to talk!”

“Good luck,” Hannes said. “I suspect questioning the other residents will get us nowhere. But keep us up to date if you find anything else out!”

Hannes heard excited barking on the street, then the buzzer rang. Hannes opened his door. Socks came running up the stairs and jumped in his arms, almost knocking him over, and tried to lick his face. Anna reached the landing.

“Hey, I saw a small Italian restaurant around the corner. What do you say about getting some pizza? We’ll need to stop by Ben’s place first, though. I think I left my purse there.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Socks sniffed around the apartment, and Hannes brought the laptop inside. Anna peered over his shoulder. “What are you up to?”

“Digging into the past. But I wasn’t getting very far. Let’s go.”

On their way to the pizzeria, he told Anna about his day, even though he felt guilty sharing the details of their investigation. But the pressing need to speak to someone not involved in the case was overpowering, and it felt good.

“I’m glad to have police protection, and Socks took care of me too. He’s a happy guy.”

“I’m just glad he’s not lying depressed in the corner because Ben’s gone.”

“Yeah, but after what you told me, he’s probably used to Ben being away.”

As they approached Ben’s place to retrieve Anna’s purse before heading to the restaurant, they saw a small group of people standing in front of the gate. They were talking with the two policemen assigned to guard the residence.

“Hi, Hannes!” Kalle shouted. “Did you bring any food with you?”

Hannes was confused and then noticed Ines and Elke. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?” said Elke with a laugh. “You weren’t the only one invited!”

He slapped his forehead. “I had totally forgotten!” He turned to Anna to explain. “Ben wanted to host a small party at his place tonight.”

“So why are you here if you forgot about the party?” Ines asked.

“I, uh, stayed with Ben a few nights and left some stuff here,” said Hannes. “Oh, Anna, this is Ines, Elke, and Kalle. I met them all on Monday night, including Ben.”

“Found yourself another girlfriend, eh?” Kalle whispered loud enough that Anna could hear.

“We got to know each other over the course of the investigation,” Anna said. “No girlfriend.”

“That’s not what you told your neighbor the other night,” Hannes joked.

“See what can go wrong in just two days?” she said and winked.

“And does this friendly guy belong to you?” asked Kalle, pointing to Socks.

“No, Socks is Ben’s dog, we were just watching him.”

“Where’s Ben hiding?” Ines asked. “We’re curious about his little house, but your cop buddies won’t let us in.”

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t know . . .”

“Huh?” asked Elke. “Did Ben get into a fight with neo-Nazis?”

All eyes were on Hannes, who was already sweating. He took a deep breath and said, “Ben’s on the run.” He then gave a quick rundown of the situation. Everyone was shocked.

“And there’s no possibility of a mistake?” Ines asked.

“The fingerprints matched.”

“What if someone framed him?” asked Elke. “Ben isn’t the type to commit murder!”

“So what do we do now? We brought wine and champagne, but something to eat would be nice,” said Ines.

“There’s a small park around the corner,” said Kalle. “This is no time for a party, but we can at least have a small picnic.”

“Uh, I think I should head home now,” Anna said.

“Nonsense, you have to eat something! The park’s a perfect place to enjoy the evening. Where are you heading, anyway?” Hannes asked.

“Tina’s back from the wedding, so I’ll have a safe roof over my head,” she teased.

“Still, you should join us,” he said.

“All right. We were going to get some pizza, anyway. We can have it in the park. But I still have to look for my purse.”

After finding Anna’s purse, Hannes and Anna went to buy the pizza, then the whole group met up at the park and sat down together in a circle. Ben was the topic of conversation for a long time. Elke was unable to come to terms with what appeared to be an open-and-shut case. Hannes sat in silence for most of the time as the topic made him feel uncomfortable. Elke seemed to notice he was taking this all to heart and made a point of paying attention to him that evening. Anna got along well with Ines, especially once they both realized Anna had spent several weeks traveling through Africa as part of her trip around the world.