Bad Wolf (42 page)

“Maybe Florian will be back by then,” said Corinna.

“No, he won’t,” Emma sobbed. And then the whole story came tumbling out of her. How she had found the empty condom packet in his pants pocket and how when she asked him to explain, he hadn’t answered. He had neither admitted nor denied that he’d betrayed her, and after that she’d asked him to move out.

For a moment, Corinna and Sarah were speechless.

“But the worst thing is that … that … the doctor at the hospital thinks that Louisa may have been … abused.” Tears of despair flowed down Emma’s face and couldn’t be stopped, as if a dam had broken inside her. “She had bruises on the inside of her thighs and in … her vagina. And it wasn’t caused by falling off a pony. Florian blew his top when the doctor mentioned this, and since then he hasn’t contacted me. I can’t let him take Louisa every other weekend if I have to worry that he might do something like that to her.”

She told Corinna and Sarah about Louisa’s changed behavior, about her terrible tantrums, about her aggressive behavior at the kindergarten, about the periods of frightening lethargy, and about the stuffed wolf she had cut up.

“I talked to a therapist from the Frankfurt Girls House and did some research on the Internet,” Emma said in a trembling voice. “These types of behavior are typical signs that a young child like Louisa would exhibit in the event of sexual abuse. It’s a personality shift, a type of mental defense mechanism, because the child no longer feels safe in her own family.”

She blew her nose and looked at the shocked faces of her friends. “Do you understand now why I’m so scared of leaving Louisa alone? And I have no idea how it’s going to go once the baby is here and I can’t give Louisa my undivided attention.”

“What does Florian say to all this?” Corinna asked. “Did you tell him straight out that you suspect him of the abuse?”

“No! When could I have done that? The last time I saw him was when he took Louisa to the hospital.”

“You want me to talk to him?” Corinna asked. “He’s still my brother, after all.”

“Sure. Maybe.” Emma shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know anything anymore.”

“Just try to calm down,” advised Sarah, stroking Emma’s arm in sympathy. “Take care of Louisa but don’t stress yourself out. A hospital stay is a very traumatic experience for a child her age. And even though you were with her a lot, she was suddenly surrounded by strangers. It’ll take her a few days to get settled in again. Everything will be all right.”

“I’m going up to see her.” Emma sighed and got up. “Thanks for your presents. And thanks for listening.” She hugged first Sarah, then Corinna and walked them to the door. After they’d both left, Emma took a deep breath before she went up to Louisa’s room.

Louisa was sitting on the floor in a corner and didn’t look up when Emma came in. She’d put a fairy-tale CD on her player and was listening to her favorite song about Cinderella. Quiet, almost apathetic, the girl sat there with her thumb in her mouth.

“Would you like a cookie? Or an apple?” Emma asked softly, sitting down facing her on the carpet.

Louisa shook her head mutely without looking at her mother.

“Should we call Grandma and Grandpa so they can say hello to you?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want to cuddle a little?”

She shook her head again.

Emma looked at her daughter, baffled and worried. She wished so much she could help her, reassure her that she was safe and had nothing to fear, but Sarah had probably been right that she shouldn’t push her.

“Can I stay here and listen to Cinderella with you?”

Louisa shrugged. Her gaze wandered around the room.

For a while, they sat in silence and listened to the narrator’s voice.

Suddenly, Louisa took her thumb out of her mouth.

“I want my Papa to come and get me.”

*   *   *

The whole K-11 team sat tensely in front of the TV in Nicola Engel’s office. Although it had been a long day for all of them, they were wide awake and excited about Bodenstein’s appearance on
Germany’s Most Wanted.
An average of seven million viewers watched the program, maybe a few less during vacation time, but it was an opportunity to reach a broad public.

Since there was so little information about the girl from the river, it had made little sense to create a reenactment, but a presentation of the Hanna Herzmann case had been prepared on film. Bodenstein was first up, and they could have heard a pin drop in the commissioner’s office when he came on the screen. Pia couldn’t really concentrate on her boss’s performance, even though his eloquent matter-of-fact style was the equal of the moderator’s, and the opposite of that of most of his colleagues from other districts, who seemed wooden and awkward from nervousness. Ever since her conversation with Lutz Altmüller, a wild confusion had reigned inside Pia’s head. Sometimes she thought she could clearly see a red thread, a connection, and then fragments of information would dissolve into an unholy mess. At least two people sitting in the room with her could have brought some clarity to her thoughts: Nicola Engel had been the leader of a branch of K-11 in Frankfurt at the time the mole and two of the Road Kings had been shot during a raid in the red-light district. And Kathrin was at least familiar with the name Erik Lessing.

Pia, Christian, and Cem had spent all afternoon going through Leonie Verges’s patient records, looking for a tip—but in vain. They had found tragic and depressing case histories of abused, traumatized, and mentally ill women, but nothing that would establish any connection to Rothemund, Prinzler, or Hanna Herzmann.

On the TV, the photo of Kilian Rothemund faded in. He was really a good-looking man, and his bright blue eyes gave him a striking presence. It would really be a stroke of bad luck if no one had spotted him anywhere. What if he were really the innocent victim of some evil conspiracy? Pia tried to imagine how she would react if she learned that a close friend with whom she’d had a minor disagreement was supposedly a pedophile. How would she respond if he assured her that he was innocent? Would she believe him despite the differences they’d had? She stared pensively at the screen, where the number to call to provide a tip had now appeared: 0800/ 22 44 98 98.

“I’m going downstairs to have a smoke,” said Kathrin, and got up.

“Wait, I’ll come with you.” Pia grabbed her backpack and got up, too. Kai had his phone within reach if any calls were forwarded regarding the cases that Bodenstein had presented. She followed Kathrin down the stairs to the basement, past the seldom-used waiting room, and outdoors.

“The boss could have been an actor,” Kathrin remarked, lighting a cigarette. “I don’t think I’d be able to get a word out if I had to face the camera.”

“I hope it gets results.” Pia lit a cigarette, too, and leaned against the wall. Although she’d gotten up shortly after three this morning, she didn’t feel tired at all. She was electrified by the idea that they might be only millimeters from the breakthrough they’d all been waiting for, something that could give their investigation a decisive turnaround.

For a moment, she smoked in silence. From one of the neighboring backyards behind the tall chain-link fence, she could hear laughter and voices. The seductive aroma of grilled meat wafted over to her.

“Kathrin,” said Pia. “I have to ask you something.”

“Shoot.” Her younger colleague gave her a curious look.

“Recently, when Frank was here, he mentioned a name. Erik Lessing. Where do you know him from?”

“Why do you want to know?” Her curiosity changed to suspicion.

“Because it may have a connection to our current cases.”

Kathrin took a deep breath and blinked as the smoke stung her eye. Then she exhaled.

“When Frank really began to bully me, I’d just begun dating someone,” she said. “I was at a seminar in Wiesbaden, and the seminar leader and I … well … we got closer.”

Pia nodded. She remembered the change in Kathrin that had occurred. She had suddenly begun wearing fashionable new glasses, she’d updated her hairstyle, and she’d radically altered what she chose to wear.

“I went out with him for quite a while, but not officially, because he was married. He said he wanted to get a divorce, but somehow it never happened. It took me a while before I realized he just needed a lover to soothe his bruised ego.” Kathrin sighed. “Typical. Anyway, it turned out that he knew Frank. They were together in some sort of special unit. The guy had a huge inferiority complex, so he kept telling me about all the heroic things he’d done. And one day he told me about this raid where an undercover agent got shot.”

Pia could hardly believe her ears.

“Nobody knew about this raid on a brothel on Elbestrasse; not even the SAU was involved. A few uniforms stormed the place, and it looked like it was just by chance that Erik Lessing and two of the bikers happened to be inside making a collection at just that moment. There was a shoot-out in the back courtyard of the brothel. And now hold on to your hat.…”

She paused, but Pia had an idea what was coming.

“It was Frank who shot the three victims—with a weapon that wasn’t from the police armory. It was later found in a car belonging to one of the bikers, but he had an airtight alibi for the time of the shootings. His lawyer got the charge dropped before any indictment could be handed down. The whole case was swept under the rug. Frank was sent first to the loony bin, then transferred to Hofheim. The whole story has been kept hushed up until today.”

Pia put out her cigarette.

“How did your friend happen to know about it?”

“Frank told him once when he was drunk.”

“When was this exactly?”

“1996. Sometime in March, if I remember correctly.”

“Do the boss and Engel know that you know the story?”

“The boss wanted to talk to me about it, that day when I mentioned the name Erik Lessing, but so far he hasn’t.” Kathrin shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m only keeping it to use against Frank, in case he tries to mess with me again.”

*   *   *

Hanna woke up when the night nurse came into the room. The nurses and orderlies who worked in the daytime respected her wish to be left alone and spoke to her only when necessary. Lena, the night nurse, was an energetic, vivacious blonde who ignored Hanna’s silence and babbled away without embarrassment like a Club Med fitness instructor. All that was missing was for Lena to rip off the bedcovers, clap her hands, and force her patient to do sit-ups with all the drainage and infusion tubes still inserted.

“Ooh, that’s the new iPhone,” she said cheerfully after she’d checked Hanna’s temperature and blood pressure. “Wow, that’s great. Really cool. I’d love to have one. Bet it’s pretty expensive, right? My friend has one, and now he spends all his time downloading apps.”

Hanna closed her eyes and let the nurse ramble on. Meike had gotten her a new smartphone and loaded all her data onto it so that Hanna could read her e-mails again. Finally, she knew what day it was. Her sense of time had totally slipped away.

“You were the topic on
Germany’s Most Wanted
tonight,” Lena told her. “We watched it in the nurses’ lounge. It’s so gruesome the way they always reenact the crime.”

Hanna stiffened and opened her eyes again.

“What did they reenact?” she croaked suspiciously.

Why hadn’t anyone told her about this? Irina, Jan, Meike, or at least her agent must have known something about it.

“Well, the way you were discovered in the trunk of your car.” Lena propped her left hand on her hip. “And before that, a scene in your garage. Oh yeah, it was just starting when the TV studio cut away to your car.”

Good God!

“Did they mention my name?” Hanna asked.

“No. They just kept saying ‘The TV host Johanna H.’”

That wasn’t very reassuring. What good was a news blackout if her name was bandied about on one of the most watched shows on German TV? Tomorrow, the press would be crawling all over her.

“They think that the attack on you had something to do with the murder of that psychotherapist,” Lena went on with the sensitivity of a tank as she stepped into the bathroom.

“What are you talking about? Who was murdered?” Hanna whispered hoarsely.

The night nurse came back, but she hadn’t heard Hanna’s question.

“Isn’t it horrible?” she yammered. “The thought of being bound and gagged and then left to slowly die of thirst … No, really. There are some really cruel people in the world. I mean, I see plenty of stuff here, but…”

Her words dropped into Hanna’s consciousness like stones into water. Shock waves of comprehension drove out the comforting fog in her head. All of a sudden, as if a curtain had been pulled aside, the memory returned without warning. She gasped in horror and felt her body convulse.

The police who weren’t police. The thunderstorm. She was locked in the trunk of the car. She remembered her fear, her panicked attempts to get free. She heard the crack as her bones broke, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. The terrible pain, the fear of death, the sudden certainty that she was going to die. She heard panting and laughing, saw the flashing red light of a camera through a veil of tears, smelled sharp male sweat.
Don’t stick your nose into things that are none of your business, you slut! If you do, you’ll be dead. We’ll find you wherever you go, and your daughter, too. Your fans will love it when they see the little video from today.

The terror of that night returned with a force that took her breath away. She tried to remain calm, but the memories that had been slumbering somewhere in the depths of her mind broke over her with the power of a volcanic eruption and hurled her into a pitch-black abyss of horror.

“What’s wrong? Do you feel ill?” Only now did the night nurse notice that something wasn’t right.

“Try to calm down.” She leaned over Hanna, put her hands on her patient’s shoulders, and pressed Hanna back onto the bed. “Don’t forget to breathe in and breathe out.”

Hanna turned her head away, wanting to defend herself, but she had no strength. She heard a shrill, terrified howling, and it took her a few seconds to realize that this horrendous sound was coming out of her own mouth.