“Do you speak English?”
“Yes,” one of the girls answered.
“Have you seen two eleven-year-old little boys? One smoking?”
The four quickly glanced at each other.
“No, sorry.”
“Are you sure? Because they didn’t come home.”
“Yes, sorry, we don’t know. What are their names?”
“Niels, my son, he’s Dutch, and Mats, he’s German.”
“We will have a look here.”
“Okay, thanks.” Petra turned around and called out, “False alarm!”
Hans continued straight in the direction of the rear exit. Petra followed him.
“I’ll go left, and you go right!” Hans yelled.
“Okay!”
Next to the road on her right was a grass field with tents pitched on it. A lot of vacationers were still sitting outside in front of their tents, as there was still enough light. But this wasn’t the case on the road that Hans had chosen. Because the bungalows located along that road backed up to Lake Garda, there was not a lot of light.
Even though she hadn’t made a point about it, Petra was grateful she was on this side of the road. Not that she was afraid of the dark, but she wasn’t exactly fearless either. The light coming from the grass field was just enough for her to see clearly. While she slowed her pace somewhat to make sure she didn’t accidentally miss any details, the guilt began to set in.
This whole situation could have been avoided. Back at home, Niels had asked her if he could bring his cellphone along, which she had found absurd. A cellphone on a campground in Italy was ridiculous. You could easily lose something like that, and if you made a phone call, it would cost a fortune in roaming charges. She had her reservations about a kid his age having a cell phone to begin with, and in the end they had made very clear agreements about it. Now she was sorry she couldn’t reach him.
She focused on the groups of young people sitting between all the tents. Maybe there was a chance they were sitting there with them. Quickly she walked onto the field and asked the young people there if they had seen two eleven-year-old boys. Nobody had seen anything. They had been there all night. Petra walked back to the path, where on the opposite side she noticed bushes that blocked the campground from the road. It looked spooky and threatening. She felt her fear rise. “Niels, are you there?” She waited a few seconds. “Mats?”
It remained eerily quiet.
12
Hans checked in between the bungalows to see if maybe the boys were hiding out there. Suddenly he thought he heard a noise and stopped dead in his tracks. The shrieking came from the lake and was most likely coming from a group of teenagers, sitting on the bleachers.
On his walk Hans tried to shake off the disappointment that he had not found Mats and Niels at Mats’s tent. He had really hoped to find them there. He would have loved to believe Mats’s brother and assume that they would simply show up at any minute, but something told him that something must have happened. Niels was almost an hour late now—that was not like him at all. And no matter how big the campground was, it wouldn’t take him longer than fifteen minutes to get to their mobile home from any corner, especially by bike. So even if he had been just a little bit late, it wouldn’t be an hour. His deep concern slowly began to turn into sheer panic.
“Niels, are you there?!”
Nothing. While he continued to walk, he quickly glanced at his watch. He needed to be back in less than two minutes to meet up with Petra at the spot they had agreed to meet. But as far as he could see, he wasn’t even close to the end of this path yet.
“Niels, are you there?”
He froze when he thought he could hear his son’s voice.
“Niels?”
He held his breath. There was a rustling noise coming from the bushes. He didn’t waste a minute and walked straight into the bushes. His heart was racing. It could be an animal he frightened away, but he had to be sure.
Suddenly he could see a dark figure in between the bushes. It was the silhouette of a grown man. Hans took a few more steps so he could see him clearly. Suddenly he saw legs on the ground by his feet. Boy’s legs.
“Non l’ho fatto!” The man walked back slowly with his arms raised.
“Stay right there!”
The man turned away from him and began to move through the bushes with great difficulty, waving his arms around wildly.
Hans didn’t know what to do. He needed to know if the boy on the ground was still alive, if it was Niels …
“Dad?”
Hans instantly turned toward the sound.
“Niels, where are you?!”
“Here, Daddy.” Niels was sitting on the ground a little farther down.
“What happened? Are you all right!?”
Niels had crawled in his direction slowly. Hans quickly took his son in his arms and looked at him closely. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“There was nothing I could do about it,” Niels whispered in his ear.
Before he could speak to him and reassure him, he swallowed his breath for a moment. The boy, who was lying still on the ground, was not asleep. Stiff as a board and with his eyes wide open, he was just lying there next to them. Mats.
“Oh, my God,” he mumbled. Slowly he pushed Niels away from him, leaned forward, and pressed his two fingertips to the artery on the lifeless boy’s neck. No heartbeat. His own heart was now racing insanely in his chest.
He made a decision; he put his hands over Niels’s ears, pulled him close, took a deep breath, and screamed his wife’s name as loud as he possibly could.
13
Petra flew across the intersection where she and Hans had each gone their own way earlier. After about a hundred yards she slowed down.
“Where are you!?”
Hans’s scream had frightened her to death. Something was obviously wrong. But what exactly? Her uncertainty was just as crippling as her fear.
“I’m over here. In the bushes.”
She kept up the same pace and remained completely focused on the bushes. “Is Niels with you?”
“Yes, just keep coming toward me. I’m moving toward the road.”
She trotted along the edge of the road next to the bushes. She tried to look deep into the forest of branches obstructing her view.
“I can’t see anything. Where are you guys?”
Because there was no reaction she just kept on walking.
“Here!”
Startled, she looked up. Hans was down just a little farther, he was waving at her. Quickly, she bridged the distance.
“Where is Niels?” she asked, fear building in her voice.
“Over here. Come with me.” Hans turned around and created a path for them. The man he had seen had disappeared in the meantime.
Petra dropped down next to Niels and put her arms around him.
“Oh, my God. What’s wrong with Mats?”
Hans kept walking. “Stay with Niels. I’m going after the bastard who was just here.”
He stretched out his arms in order to protect himself from the braches and moved fast. After a few yards, he noticed that the bushes were getting thicker. But he didn’t let the sweeping and snapping branches stop him, even if they were cutting and scraping into his skin. Suddenly a large, solid fence appeared behind all the layers of branches. The fence was about two yards high and ran behind the whole perimeter of the campground. He looked to the left and to the right, but couldn’t see the man anymore. He must have climbed over this fence somehow, but that would be nearly impossible. Besides, the man had moved rather slowly. Was he hiding in the bushes again maybe? He kicked the fence hard, out of pure frustration. A few yards farther he heard the fence tap against something, as if it was loose. He walked toward it, pulled it back, and slipped off the property through the opening.
As he stood on the path, he could see the man walking about fifty yards ahead of him. He zigzagged across the path as if he was drunk. He had long hair, down
past his shoulders, and wore a long coat, which was a rather odd sight on such a hot night. Hans turned and ran after the man.
A group of teenagers were walking on the path widely spread apart, blocking the homeless man’s way. The man stopped and raised his hands to the sky. “Sono innocente!”
Instead of moving out of the way, two of the teens walked toward him in a very threatening manner. When they got close to him, they shoved him aside harshly. The man wobbled, but remained standing. You could see it took all of his strength. The teenagers laughed at him.
This is my chance, Hans thought. “Hold him, stop him!”
His scream startled the homeless man, who looked around in a panic. Because the teenagers didn’t appear to be letting him through and Hans blocked his way back, he saw no other choice than to run toward some construction scaffolding right by the lake.
“Hold him!” Hans yelled again.
The homeless man hobbled along with great difficulty toward the end of the scaffolding. The teenagers looked on with some surprise, but also seemed to be very amused by the whole spectacle. They didn’t move an inch, which forced Hans to keep on running.
By the time the homeless man reached the end of the scaffolding, he tripped. Because of his speed he continued moving forward, but eventually lost his balance. At full speed, he hit his head against a pole. Without making a sound he fell into the water.
Hans also ran across scaffolding and stopped at the place where he thought the homeless man must have fallen in the water. He motioned to the teenagers with broad arm movements, indicating he needed their help. No one moved. What should he do? Jump in or leave the man to his own devices? It wasn’t very deep, but he had to look very closely before he could see a leg underneath the scaffolding. Suddenly Mats’s face flashed before him. Murdered by that monster down in the water. Should he even try to save this bastard’s life, was it even worth it?
He hesitated for a moment, but then his conscious and common sense took over. He couldn’t take the law into his own hands, no matter how tempting it was. The man would receive the proper punishment. Besides, he needed to be questioned. Otherwise Mats’s parents would never know why their son had to die. He jumped into the dark water. Far enough not to touch the homeless man’s body. The water came up to his waist, which would make it easy to pull the man back on to the shore. He turned back toward the scaffolding and saw the man’s foot sticking out. He grabbed it and pulled him out from under the scaffolding. Because he was face down in the water, Hans couldn’t see his face right away. When he turned him around and got his head above water, what he saw was the face of a dead man, for the second time that evening.
14
“Is it going to take much longer, Mom?”
Petra pulled Niels even closer against her. She understood his impatience and thought he had held up remarkably well so far. He had been through something horrible, so it wasn’t strange that he wanted to leave.
She looked at her watch. It had been well over an hour now since the moment when Hans had returned to her while she waited in the bushes. This time he was accompanied by two police officers. After being reunited, they were put in a police car and taken to the police station in Verona. There they were met by the two detectives: Filippo Tardelli and Carlo Martuccia. Tardelli was the eldest of the two and seemed like a mentor to the much younger Martuccia, whom she estimated to be around thirty years old. They were very nice. A little later Karin Goudsbloem introduced herself. She was a Dutch citizen living in Verona and worked as an interpreter for the police.
They asked her and Niels to take a seat in a room with four chairs and a table. Hans went to another room with the detectives for questioning. Even though Martuccia spoke English, Karin joined them.
Half an hour later the door opened and Karin entered. Hans followed right behind her.
“All done,” said the Dutch woman, seemingly relieved. “Now they need to question you two, and we should be finished.”
“And after that?” Petra wanted to know.
“I think they will just bring you to your holiday address.” She made an apologetic gesture right away. “I’m not entirely sure. But I think so.”
Petra got up. Because Niels remained seated, she gently pulled him up. “Come on, sweetie. We need to go and have a little chat and then we can go home.”
“I want Daddy to come.”
Hans walked up to his son and rubbed his head. “I know you’re a big boy, and I am proud of you. Just do me a favor and go with your mother. I already went, and they are very nice people.”
Visibly reluctant, Niels got up and let Petra guide him to the adjoining room.
“Please have a seat,” Carlo Martuccia said in English when they entered the room. Tardelli gave a friendly nod. Martuccia pointed to the chairs in front of the desk. As soon as they sat down he began to speak Italian to Karin.
“Niels, this gentleman’s name is Carlo Martuccia,” she said a few moments later. “He works for the police, and he would like to help you. He also wants to ask you a few questions. The other man is named Filippo Tardelli, and he may also ask you some questions. But he will do so in Italian, because his English isn’t very good. Mister Martuccia will also ask most of the questions in Italian, which I will then translate.”
Niels kept his head down, clearly feeling uncomfortable.
Martuccia said something else to Karin, which she immediately translated.
“Would you mind telling us what you and Mats did tonight?”
Suddenly Niels became very skittish. He pressed his face against Petra’s chest, shook his head and quietly began to cry.
“No … no.”
Martuccia asked another question.
“Is there something else that you want to tell us maybe?” Karin asked Niels with a warm smile. He pressed his face even closer to Petra, and the quiet cries quickly changed into full-on sobs.
Karin looked at Martuccia, who gave an understanding nod. Besides the sound of Niels’s crying, the room was silent. Martuccia exchanged a glance with his colleague and looked at his watch. He focused on Petra.
“The doctor should arrive here any moment. We would like Niels to undergo a brief physical examination. As soon as that is done, you can return to the campground.”
“Just a little while longer, sweetie,” Petra whispered. “The doctor is going to have a quick look at you, and then we can go back to the campground.” She gave him an encouraging tap on the shoulder.
Niels nodded slowly. He stopped crying and was visibly relieved.
15
Accompanied by Karin, Hans entered the office of Carlo Martuccia the next morning at nine o’clock. Petra and Niels waited for them in another office. They had been picked up by two plainclothes detectives, and when they arrived at the police station, Karin had explained to them that the detectives only wanted to speak to Hans. They needed some more information about what happened the night before.
Carlo Martuccia and Filippo Tardelli exchanged some pleasantries when Hans sat down across from them.
“Following your statement yesterday, we still have a few questions,” Martuccia began in English. Hans understood these people had to do their job, but what else could he tell them that he had not already told them? What could he possibly add?
Martuccia tapped a file on the desk with his nail. “The medical report shows no evidence or any traces that your son suffered any sexual abuse or physical injury. Obviously, this is just the preliminary report. During the course of our investigation we may find new facts. Certainly because Niels hasn’t been able to tell us anything himself.”
Hans let out a big sigh of relief.
“Has Niels told you or your wife anything we don’t know yet?” Martuccia asked.
Hans shook his head. “We had a very restless night, but we did manage to sleep a few hours, which I thought was already an accomplishment after such a hellish night. Niels is completely wrecked. He hasn’t told us anything, but we also haven’t pushed him.”
“I’d like to go back to the beginning. The moment you heard something in the bushes.”
“Sure, but can I answer that in Dutch please?”
Karin nodded and said something to Martuccia, who responded with prego.
“I heard a rustling noise. I immediately went into the bushes while I called out to Niels, and I came upon that terrible scene. First, I saw the silhouette of a man bent over. When I got close he held his arms up. He said something in Italian, he sounded scared. As if I’d caught him. Then I saw the young boy’s legs on the ground. I walked toward them and called Niels. When he responded I didn’t see him right away, but he was hunched over a few yards farther. I pulled him into my arms right away. That’s when I noticed that the boy on the ground was Mats. He had his eyes wide open. I felt his neck for his pulse, but I couldn’t find one. Then I called out for Petra to watch over Niels, and I ran after that bastard.”
“Why did your son not respond to you when you called him, why did he not get up and run to you?”
Hans shrugged his shoulders. “Because he was frightened to death—it seems pretty obvious to me. Besides, that man was still there by the time I got there. Maybe he kept quiet so he wouldn’t become the next victim.” Hans was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “What kind of question is that? He probably just saw his friend being murdered. He saw the man who did it. Of course he was afraid to move. If he did move there was a chance that the bastard would have hurt him too.”
“That is your reasoning,” Karin translated Tardelli’s response.
Hans raised his hand. “No, that is the reasoning of an eleven-year-old boy, frightened for his life.”
“It’s an interpretation,” Tardelli answered. “Let’s just keep it at that for now.”
Hans looked at the detective with surprise. “What do you mean, exactly? It’s as clear as a bell. Obviously, Mats was murdered by the homeless man, who drowned. What’s so unclear about that?”
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