Bad Wolf: A Novel (Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein)

by Neuhaus, Nele

  Corinna didn’t seem to pay any attention. All energy seemed to have drained from her body. She pressed her lips together and looked infinitely sad.

  “Michaela died a few years ago,” she said. “Only Ralf, Nicky, Sarah, and I attended her funeral. Since then, no one has ever mentioned her name.”

  Emma stared at her friend in shock.

  “Believe me, Emma, it’s better that way.” Corinna put her hand on Emma’s briefly, then got up and went to the stove to put the pasta in the pot. “Don’t tear open old wounds. Michaela really brought a lot of trouble down on Josef and Renate.”

  Torben, Corinna’s youngest, stormed through the open French door into the dining room, flung his backpack into a corner, and ran into the kitchen without noticing Emma.

  “I’m really really hungry,” he announced.

  “Wash your hands and take your backpack upstairs. We’re eating in ten minutes.” Corinna stroked his hair absentmindedly, then looked out at the terrace. “Thanks for picking him up, Helmut. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

  Only now did Emma notice the caretaker, Helmut Grasser, standing in the doorway. She stood up.

  “Hello, Mr. Grasser,” she said.

  “Hello, Mrs. Finkbeiner.” He smiled. “How are you doing in this heat?”

  “So far so good.” Emma also managed a smile. She’d hoped to be able to talk to Corinna some more about her suspicions regarding Florian and Louisa, but that wouldn’t be possible if Torben and the caretaker were going to join them at the table.

  “I guess I’ll be going,” she said, and Corinna made no attempt to stop her. Her expression was somber, her usual exuberance extinguished. She took the lid off the pan with the simmering meat sauce and stirred it. Was Corinna upset with her because she’d asked about Florian’s twin sister?

  “Thanks for your candor.” Emma didn’t dare give her friend the usual hug. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you, Emma.” Her smile seemed forced. “Don’t hold it against Florian.”

  * * *

  Bodenstein had squeezed into the passenger seat of Meike Herzmann’s Mini, because he didn’t trust her not to try and ditch them. Pia got in the unmarked car and followed them into the city. Meanwhile, Kai had applied for an arrest warrant for Bernd Prinzler and a search warrant for his property. Pia still could hardly believe what Meike Herzmann had done. Her cell rang just as she was passing the tower at the fairgrounds, and she answered it.

  “Frey here. Hello, Ms. Kirchhoff. I was just informed that you’re making progress in the investigation,” said the head state attorney. Pia was astounded by how good the communication within the Frankfurt state attorney’s office seemed to be.

  “Yes, we have the address of a suspect in both the Hanna Herzmann case and the new homicide,” she replied.

  “The new homicide?”

  Aha. So their grapevine wasn’t that good after all.

  Pia explained to him briefly about the torturous death that Leonie Verges had suffered, and she also reported that Prinzler had been seen in the vicinity of her house.

  “Bernd Prinzler is a member of the Frankfurt Road Kings,” she said. “We know that he was in contact with Ms. Herzmann, and we found his prints in the house of the deceased Ms. Verges. His vehicle was seen several times by the neighbors in Liederbach. We also found out that Prinzler knows Kilian Rothemund—he’s the man we’re searching for, to charge him with rape and aggravated assault in the Herzmann case.”

  “The two do know each other, at any rate,” said the state attorney. “The law office in which Rothemund was a partner represented Prinzler and his gang for years.”

  “We received information that Rothemund has fled to Amsterdam. He was recognized on the train, but unfortunately our Dutch colleagues failed to apprehend him at the train station. We also learned that he violated his probation.”

  “How?”

  “Neighbors at the trailer park have often seen underage girls entering his trailer. For that, he could go back to prison.”

  “That’s absolutely unbelievable.”

  “I know. For now, we consider it likely that Rothemund may have something to do with the case of the girl found in the river. There is definitely a connection between the attack on Ms. Herzmann and the murder of Leonie Verges, at any rate. So that’s it. My boss will be on Germany’s Most Wanted tomorrow night, and we hope that afterward somebody will call in who saw something or even knows where Rothemund might be.”

  “That’s a real possibility,” the state attorney agreed.

  Pia had to step on the gas because Meike ran a yellow light at the intersection of Friedrich-Ebert-Park and Mainzer Landstrasse. A red light flashed.

  “Shit!” Pia exclaimed.

  “Excuse me?” Frey said.

  “Sorry. But I was just caught in a speed trap. Red light and phone at my ear.”

  “That could be expensive.” The state attorney sounded amused. “Thanks for the information, Ms. Kirchhoff. How’s it going with Lilly, by the way?”

  “Everything’s fine, thanks.” Pia smiled. “Except for the fact that she got a tick that had to be removed in a dramatic operation.”

  Frey laughed.

  “I’m sorry that I’ve had so little time for her,” said Pia. “But with luck, we’ll probably clear up these cases soon.”

  “I hope so, too. If I can do anything for you, don’t hesitate to ask.”

  Pia assured him she would, and ended the call. Only then did she recall what Rothemund’s ex-wife and Kai Ostermann had told her. Chief State Attorney Frey and Rothemund had once been the best of friends; then Frey had not only leveled accusations at his old pal but had mercilessly set the media hounds after him. Pia pondered whether to call him back and ask him about that, but she rejected the idea at once. It was none of her business what had happened between the old friends in the past.

  A few minutes later, she pulled up in front of the house on Schulstrasse in Sachsenhausen and waited for Bodenstein, who was impounding Hanna’s computer from her daughter’s apartment. Pia was annoyed with Meike Herzmann, but she was even more annoyed with herself. Yesterday, when she and Bodenstein were at Herzmann Productions, she’d thought about the computer, but then she’d been distracted by Lilly’s call about the tick and forgotten to ask about it. That was no mere oversight; It was a serious mistake that she should not have made.

  * * *

  Pia was actually supposed to drive with Cem and Kathrin straight from forensics to Langensebold to arrest Bernd Prinzler, but Dr. Nicola Engel had called them back. Even though, after more than fourteen years, Prinzler had a clean record, he still belonged to the inner circle of the Frankfurt Road Kings and was known to be dangerous and capable of violence. The commissioner had arranged for a “tactical action” in cooperation with a squad from the Special Assignment Unit. Bodenstein thought that was excessive, but Engel remained firm. She was afraid that Prinzler would not respond to a polite ring of the doorbell. The action had to be decisive and carried out with the element of surprise. Engel was organizing the operation herself, so Pia got to go home early for a change. She’d stopped by the supermarket in Liederbach on her way home and bought things for dinner. Over the past month, Christoph had been responsible for making dinner more and more often. He had a passionate love of food and was a much better cook than Pia, who usually didn’t feel like standing in front of the stove after work. But today she did. She turned on the electric grill on the terrace, cut zucchini and eggplant into thin slices, and placed them on the grill. While the veggies sizzled, she mixed up a marinade of olive oil, salt, pepper, and crushed garlic.

  The results of the autopsy of Leonie Verges had confirmed Henning’s initial theory. The woman had died of multiple organ failure due to complete dehydration: a torturous death. If they’d discovered her two hours earlier, they might have been able to save her. It was a gruesome way to die, and Pia didn’t want to imagine what the woman must have gone through in the last hours of her life. Had she
still hoped for help, or was she aware that she was going to die? But why did she have to die? And why like that? The camera, which had been aimed directly at the chair, and those appalling messages on the answering machine, which Leonie must have heard, displayed an extraordinary level of sadism. Not characteristic of someone like Bernd Prinzler, who’d previously been known for assault and the use of firearms. But Pia had been with Kripo too long to believe that criminals followed any logical patterns.

  Hanna Herzmann had been a patient of Leonie Verges; this connection was clear. Had Leonie introduced Hanna to Kilian Rothemund, or vice versa? Rothemund and Prinzler, she knew from before; that was also clear. Pia hoped that Hanna would soon be able to remember something. She was the only one who might be able to shed some light on this complicated case.

  Deep in thought, Pia placed the grilled zucchini strips in the marinade and put a layer of eggplant slices on the grill. She plucked a handful of sage leaves from the plant that stood on the kitchen window shelf along with the fresh basil, lemon balm, and rosemary. Lilly loved Pia’s special recipe—spaghetti with sage, Parma ham, capers, and garlic—and Christoph always bravely ate it, too.

  In front of the house, the dogs began barking in a tone that signaled pure joy—Christoph and Lilly had arrived. Only seconds later, the girl dashed into the kitchen, her pigtails flying and her eyes shining. She hugged Pia, and the words bubbled out of her like a waterfall: trampoline, Grandpa, pony, leopards, baby giraffe.… Pia had to laugh.

  “Take it easy,” she said to calm the girl down. “At that speed, I can’t understand a word.”

  “But I have to hurry,” Lilly said breathlessly, as honest and serious as only a seven-year-old can be. “Since you’re finally here, I want to tell you about everything—absolutely everything.”

  “But we’ve got all evening.”

  “That’s what you always say,” Lilly replied. “And then your phone rings and you leave Grandpa and me alone.”

  Christoph came into the kitchen, followed by the dogs. He was holding a paper packet, which he put down on the counter before he gave Pia a kiss.

  “She’s got a point there.” He grinned, inspecting with a critical eye the ingredients that Pia had laid out, and raised his eyebrows. “Sage pasta?”

  “Oh, my favorite!” cried Lilly. “I could die for sage pasta! Grandpa bought lamb cutlets. Gross!”

  “We’ll try to find a compromise,” said Pia with a smile. “Pasta and lamb cutlets actually go together nicely. And before that, we’re having marinated zucchini and eggplant.”

  “And before that, we have the bathtub,” Christoph added.

  Lilly cocked her head critically.

  “Okay,” she said after a moment. “But only if Pia comes with me.”

  “It’s a deal.” Pia abandoned all thoughts of the case. Work would catch up with her again soon enough.

  * * *

  “Hi, Mama.”

  Meike stood at the foot of the bed. She had to force herself to look at her mother’s disfigured face under the faint light cast by the reading lamp located in the strip above the head of the bed. The swelling had gone down a bit, but the bruises looked worse than they had in the morning.

  At least now they’d moved Hanna from the ICU to a regular ward. In front of the door stood the uniformed cop that Inspector Bodenstein had ordered.

  “Hi, Meike,” Hanna murmured. “Get a chair and come sit by me.”

  Meike did as she was told. She felt miserable. All day, the policewoman’s words had been tormenting her. What if Leonie Verges’s death was her fault because she hadn’t told the police about that stupid note?

  There was no excuse or justification for what she’d done, even though she’d talked herself into keeping the note secret in order not to ruin Hanna’s research. In reality, she didn’t give a damn.

  Hanna stretched out her hand and heaved a sigh when Meike hesitantly took it.

  “What’s happened?” Hanna asked softly.

  Meike was struggling with what to say. This morning, she hadn’t said a word about Leonie Verges’s death, and she didn’t want to mention it now, either. Everything around her seemed to be breaking apart and dissolving. A person she had known and spoken to was now dead. She had been tortured to death while Meike thought only of herself, refusing to acknowledge any possible consequences for others. All her life, she’d felt like a victim, unfairly treated, unloved. She’d tried to gain the affection of others by sheer obstinacy; she had eaten until she was obese and then starved herself until she was anorexic; she had been nasty, unfair, and hurtful, all in a desperate attempt to win love and attention. She had often accused her mother of being egotistical, while she was actually the selfish one. She had only ever demanded but given nothing in return. She had not been a very lovable girl, and it was no surprise that she’d never had a best friend or any friend at all. Someone who didn’t like herself couldn’t expect to be liked by others. The only person in the world who had accepted Meike as she was, was her mother, of all people. Yet she had pictured Hanna as an enemy because she was jealous of her. Hanna represented everything she so urgently wanted to be but would never achieve: self-confident, beautiful, surrounded by men.

  “I know it’s not easy for you, either,” Hanna murmured, squeezing Meike’s hand lightly. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Tears came to Meike’s eyes. More than anything, she would have liked to put her head in Hanna’s lap and sob, because she was so ashamed of her mean and spiteful behavior. She thought about all the atrocious things she’d said and done to her mother and wished she had the guts to feel remorse and respond honestly.

  I scratched your car and slashed your tires, Mama, she thought. I snooped around in your computer and didn’t give the note that Kilian Rothemund wrote to you to the police, simply because I wanted to make myself seem interesting to Wolfgang. Maybe that’s why Leonie Verges had to die. I’m jealous and evil and disgusting, and I don’t deserve your patience and indulgence.

  She thought all of these things but didn’t say a word.

  “Could you get me a new iPhone? I still have a twin card in my desk at the office,” Hanna whispered. “Maybe you can sync it. My access code for MobileMe is written on a note under my desk blotter.”

  “Sure, no problem. I’ll do it tomorrow morning,” Meike managed to reply.

  “Thanks.” Hanna closed her eyes.

  Meike sat there for a long time, staring at her sleeping mother. Not until she’d left the hospital and was sitting in her car did it occur to Meike that she hadn’t even asked Hanna how she was feeling.

  Wednesday, June 30, 2010

  At exactly five o’clock in the morning, a helicopter appeared over the treetops. Simultaneously, there was movement at the edge of the forest around Bernd Prinzler’s property. Black-clad figures wearing masks broke through the underbrush and surrounded the fenced area. The rising sun was still hidden behind misty swaths of rain-damp air. Bodenstein, Pia, Cem Altunay, and Kathrin Fachinger followed the action from the woods, watching as ten armed commandos from the Special Assignment Unit rappelled from the helicopter hovering a few yards above the meadow near the residence. Bolt cutters sliced through the metal struts of the big gate like butter. Five of the high-powered vehicles with mirrored windows sped across the gravel forest road and turned at high speed into the enclosure. Barely three minutes after the helo’s arrival, the fortress had been stormed.

  “Not bad,” Cem remarked after checking his watch.

  “That’s what I call shooting cannons at sparrows,” Bodenstein grumbled. His stony expression did not reveal much, but Pia knew that he was angry about Nicola Engel’s criticism. On the way here from Hofheim, no one had said a word after Bodenstein and Commissioner Engel had gotten into a brief but intense verbal exchange as they passed the Offenbacher Kreuz. Last night, they had used satellite imagery to analyze the situation at the site behind the section of woods between Langensebold and Hüttengesäss and planned the action with an
SAU squad and a hundred riot police. Bodenstein had called the action altogether excessive and a total waste of taxpayer funds. Nicola Engel had reproached him sharply, chiding him for not making any progress in the past three weeks. She’d had to justify this failure to the Interior Ministry.

  Pia and Cem had merely exchanged glances and very wisely said nothing, because one false word in a situation of such high-explosive tension could have the effect of a fire accelerant.

  Startled by the sudden unrest and the noise, a herd of deer fled with graceful bounds through the woods. In the surrounding trees, the first birds were beginning their morning concert, utterly unimpressed by what was going on beneath them.

  “Why are so you pissed off about what Engel said?” Pia asked her boss. “If they screw up this raid, it’s not our problem.”

  “That’s not what I’m mad about,” replied Bodenstein. “Frankfurt and the State Criminal Police know very well where Prinzler lives. They’ve had him in their sights for a long time, but until yesterday they had no verifiable reason to search his house.”

  “What? They knew about this place?” Pia asked incredulously. “Why weren’t we told about that? When we visited Prinzler’s mother, our colleagues in Frankfurt must have known that we were looking for him.”

  “Because in their eyes, we’re just a couple of dumb provincial cops,” said Bodenstein, rubbing his unshaven chin. “But this time, I’m not going to let it drop. If it turns out that Prinzler killed Leonie Verges and we could have prevented it if communication with the Frankfurters hadn’t been so bad, heads will roll.”

  The police radio Pia was holding hissed and crackled.

  “We’re in,” she heard a distorted voice say. “One man, one woman, two kids. No resistance.”

  “Let’s go,” said Bodenstein.

  They headed down the hill, trudging through dry leaves, and then climbed over a ditch to enter the property through the gate the SAU had cut open in their assault. On the left side was a big barn with a barbecue area in front of it. Glancing behind a chain-link fence, they could see a vast number of car and motorcycle parts, sorted and piled up in orderly fashion. The house was farther back, surrounded by an idyllic, expansive yard with ancient trees and blooming bushes. There was a pool and a playground for the children. A regular paradise.