He must have lost consciousness for a moment, because the next thing he remembered was the feeling of the cold metal of handcuffs being clipped onto his wrists. For a moment, Christian was almost unaware of what was going on around him, but then he remembered, and began to shout:
“A child is being kept prisoner here.”
Two policemen tried to lead him outside. Derek Dagger was standing there, talking to a policeman. They obviously thought that Christian was insane. But then, he had an idea. He allowed them to lead him towards the door, without putting up any resistance. He had just one chance, and it had to work out!
Chapter 54
Brawl at 22 Meadow Road
The Bulletin, December 13
There was a brawl at 22 Meadow Road yesterday. 32-year-old Christian Shaffner forced his way into his neighbor’s apartment, injuring her slightly. Eventually, Shaffner was overpowered by another neighbor. The police have not released any details about his motives. The perpetrator himself had called the police shortly before the incident, however, only due to the fact that he wanted to report the death by suicide, of another young woman, who also lived in the building. A police spokesman confirmed that there were no indications that anybody else had been involved in her death.
Chapter 55
In the police cruiser, Christian came to his senses again. What the hell had he done? But he was working on a plan, and he prayed that it was going to turn out the way he hoped?
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Christian Shaffner
My attack on Angelica Kline was by no means in the heat of the moment. In fact, it was well planned. Even on the drive home from my visit with Hanna Carstens, I was convinced that the only way I was going to be able to put an end to this drama, would be by exercising violence.
Derek Dagger is powerful; he knows how to intimidate all the other residents in the building to such an extent that nobody offers him any resistance. Particularly Angelica and Sebastian Kline.
I really don’t understand how they ever became so dependent on him. How could it have gone that far? Why didn’t anybody have the courage to fight back? Why didn’t someone try to change the situation? Why didn’t anyone go to the police?
I experienced the despondency, cowardliness and cynicism of the residents of the Dark House first hand. And it seems, they were always like that.
One example of this submissive behavior is Hanna Carstens. She said that Maria Kline had triggered the series of incidents in the Dark house. In my opinion, that is a grotesque distortion of the facts, which makes victims to perpetrators and perpetrators to victims.
It was clear to me, that another emergency call to the police from the Dark House would be a waste of time. All the previous “false alarms” had made that much obvious to me.
I regret what happened; I regret the fact that I hit Angelica Kline. But it was the only solution I could come up with. Maria Kline is being held captive in that apartment, and there is absolutely no doubt about it! Nobody has seen the child even once, in five long years, and that’s because she is being held captive by Angelica Kline and Derek Dagger. I have no idea why, but it almost certainly has something to do with Claire Dagger’s disappearance. If she really disappeared… Did he kill her? I have no trouble believing he would do something like that.
I believe that Claire Dagger is still in the Dark House. I’m sure he hid her body in the wall in that dreadful, dark basement. Everybody in the house must have realized what had happened, but nobody will admit it.
But, why did she have to die – if that’s what happened? I really don’t know. I also don’t know why everybody is so secretive about it. But, I’m sure there is somebody who could tell us all about it! Maria Kline!
Part Six
Chapter 56
Four Die in Family Drama
Daily Dispatch, December 15
There has been a tragic family drama at 22 Meadow Road, where just last week, police were called out to a brawl. Within the framework of yet another intervention by the police, one of the residents stabbed several other residents, wounding them fatally. The youngest victim was just ten years old. No further details have been released as yet. It is speculated, that the motive for the crimes was jealousy.
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
Imagine you are driving down the highway at 180 km/h. Suddenly you see another vehicle approaching you at the same speed. By the time you begin thinking about an appropriate evasive maneuver, it’s already too late. There’s no way to avoid the collision. That’s how it was with Angelica Kline, born Smith, and me.
Her father, Frederick Smith, was my father too. She’s my half-sister.
My mother passed away several years ago. After she divorced my father, I only had contact with him for a short time after that. But soon, I had nothing more to do with him. I didn’t even know whether he was still alive, or where he lived. My mother had remarried, and I didn’t get along with my stepfather. We were well-off and I lacked for nothing. But, when I was a bit older, I decided that I wanted to find out who my father was, and where he lived.
It wasn’t very difficult. He lived quite close by, and it would have been easy for me to make contact with him. He had also remarried, and had taken on his second wife’s name. My mother kept my father’s name until she remarried, then both of us took on her husband’s name, Dagger. That’s why Frederick Smith never made a connection between me and my mother.
I put off making contact with him, after I’d tracked him down. Basically, I expected him to make the first move. After all, he was my father. I expected him to search for me. But he never tried, and that hurt me deeply.
Of course, I knew that I had a sister, But I’d had no contact with over the years either. Finally, I got in touch with her. I wanted to get to know her!
Meanwhile, my personal situation had changed. My mother fell ill, and spent months in hospitals and convalescent homes. I was also married to my wife, Claire.
Angelica was surprised to hear from me, but she was very happy that I’d gotten in touch. We had both been too little to really remember the time we’d spent together, but each of us knew of the other’s existence. We remembered the stories our father had read to us, and we remembered baking cookies together and playing “hairdresser”.
When I saw Angelica for the first time after all those years, I was overwhelmed. She was such a beautiful woman. We fell in love immediately. And it was just like the image of the two vehicles racing towards each other at high speed, head on.
Within no time, our relationship was no longer than of a brother and sister. We were lovers – passionate, sick, sexually driven. I lovingly called her “my Star.”
It was clear, from the very beginning, that our father could never find out about us. Nobody could ever find out about it. But, that was much harder than I had thought, because Angelica got pregnant soon after.
She pretended that she was doing an extended course, and we rented an apartment, which she moved into as soon as it became impossible to hide her pregnancy any longer. I helped her finically, but neither of us knew what was going to happen after the baby was born.
I actually suggested that she have an abortion, but Angelica wanted the baby.
A few months later, our daughter was born. We found out in the early weeks of her life, that she was mentally disabled. We were unable to prove, conclusively, that her disability had anything to do with the fact that we were closely related.
There was only one solution: we had to give our baby up for adoption. Neither of us was in a position to care for her, or to explain her existence. We were so in love, that we somehow managed to justify this decision.
Angelica got married to her boyfriend, Sebastian Kline, shortly after the birth of our baby. She didn’t tell him about our child either.
Her husband, Sebastian, was actually the least of our problems, because he was a mere shadow of his wife. He was such an incredibly weak person tha
t we hardly even cared whether he knew about our relationship or not. We were quite sure, that should our relationship ever come out into the open, it wouldn’t be due to any action taken by Sebastian Kline.
Where my wife, Claire, was concerned, it what a lot more complicated. She would have ended our relationship at the slightest hint of unfaithfulness. She’d made that much clear from the very beginning. Therefore, it was crucial that Claire never got wind of it, so that we were able to uphold the illusion of a perfect marriage.
After the adoption, Angelica mourned the loss of her daughter for quite some time. But in the end, she was able to find a way to ease her pain – she got pregnant again.
At the time, Angelica and Sebastian had been married for nine years, already. I was quite sure that Maria was Sebastian’s daughter. Claire didn’t want any children, so I pretended to be terribly disappointed at the thought of never becoming a father, and “submitted” to her wishes.
Looking back on it now, I can only say that for all those years, Angelica and I managed to pull it off and live out our relationship, with pathological genius, without arousing any suspicion. For a long time, I was terrified that our relationship would come out into the open, but it never did, and eventually, my fear subsided, and I believed that nobody would ever find out about us.
It was astounding how adept we both were, at living perfect double lives for so many years. We were even able to hide our affair from our spouses. Neither Angelica nor I ever said anything, in front of Sebastian or Claire, that gave them any reason to doubt us.
And, our happy double lives continued when we decided to move into the same building. Of course, we both knew that we were taking a big risk, so we had to plan everything very carefully indeed.
It was Angelica’s idea, and I found it really good. She was also the one who found the apartments, and a few weeks later, we both moved into the building at 22 Meadow Road with our families…
Chapter 57
The Daggers and the Klines lived on the same floor, across the hall from one another. The Daggers met Hanna Carstens the day they moved in, when she tripped over one of the packing boxes and almost fell down the stairs. Derek Dagger invited her into his apartment for a glass of water, but she didn’t stay long.
“Did you have to invite her in?” his wife scolded as soon as Hanna had left.
“Why not?” he asked. “It was a good opportunity to get to know her.”
“That may be, but this place is pure chaos!”
“Claire! We’re busy moving in! Do you expect all the furniture to move automatically into position and the dust to hoover itself away? I’m quite sure that she is gracious enough to ignore the apparent chaos.”
They continued unpacking boxes and putting things onto shelves and into cupboards, and Derek tried to think of a way for him to see Angelica.
Three long days dragged by, on which Claire did not move from his side. Derek was beginning to think that it might not have been such a good idea for him and Angelica to move into the same building. But on the fourth day, Claire had to go to the doctor.
“Do you want to come with me?” she asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want to come to the doctor with me?”
“Only if I really have to. I still have a shelf to mount.”
“No problem,” she said. Just before she left the apartment, she kissed him on the forehead and whispered: “I love you.”
When Derek heard the apartment door closing, he sat still for a moment. He heard Claire’s receding footsteps on the stairs, and the main door opening and closing. And only then did he dare to call Angelica.
“Can you come over?” he asked.
“No,” she said hesitantly, “I’m busy giving Maria a bath. But you can come over to me.”
A little while later, he unlocked the door to Angelica’s apartment with the key she had secretly given him.
“I’ve missed you,” Angelica said, hugging him. By that time, Maria was already in bed.
“I’ve missed you too, my Star,” Derek said quietly, pressing himself close up against her. Then Maria began to cry.
“What’s wrong, little one?” Derek said, bending over her.
“You can pick her up if you like. Perhaps she’ll go back to sleep,” Angelica suggested. He picked her up and walked around the room with her.
“Such a pretty little girl. She looks a lot like you,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Angelica replied. After a while, Derek put Maria back into her bed, and he and Angelica went to the living room and sat down on the sofa.
“I have an idea. Why don’t we have a barbecue for the neighbors, so that we can get to know one another,” Angelica suggested.
“Good idea. But I don’t think we should invite that Eileen woman.”
“No, she’s the last one I need there.”
“But, how can we invite everybody else and exclude her?”
“We just won’t invite her!”
Maria was sleeping peacefully by that time and Angelica lit a cigarette. Then she climbed onto Derek’s lap.
Chapter 58
“Did you go out this afternoon?” Claire had just gotten back from the doctor’s, and was hanging up her coat in the hallway.
“Why do you ask?” It no longer took any effort for Derek Dagger to lie to his wife. In fact, over the years, he’d learned to do it perfectly.
“Your shoes weren’t here earlier.”
“Are you checking up on me?”
“No, of course not! I just noticed, that’s all.” Derek already knew that his wife was extremely suspicious.
“I almost went down into the cellar to repair the light switch down there, but I changed my mind. What do you think of having a barbecue for the neighbors, so that we can get to know them.”
“Why not? Perhaps the Kline’s would like to help us. Then it won’t cost as much,” Claire suggested.
Derek let out a silent sigh of relief! He’d gotten away with it this time round!
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
You cannot imagine how much effort we put into ensuring that nobody found out about our affair. Claire didn’t leave the apartment very often, and she always seemed to be busy cleaning. Angelica and I took to using no perfume, aftershave or deodorant on the days that we met. Claire might have smelt it and perhaps even figured out where it came from.
Angelica photographed me with a digital camera when we met, so that I looked exactly the same after our rendezvous as I had before. We also photographed the apartment, so that we could be sure that, when Claire got home, it looked just as it had before. It required a great deal of effort.
Meanwhile, Maria Kline was getting a little older, and she started asking questions. It became more and more difficult to explain why Derek spent so much time with her mother. Her actual father, Sebastian Kline, only played a very small role in her life.
One evening, Derek called Angelica, and spoke softly: “Do you have time this evening? Claire is meeting with a former colleague,” he said.
“Hanna asked me about Sebastian today,” she said, rather than answering his question. “And she also asked Maria about him.”
“And? What does it have to do with her?”
“Nothing, actually, but we have been spending quite a lot of time together, and it’s natural that she would ask!”
“But, where is the problem?”
“Derek, I don’t want to lose Maria too! I’ve already lost one child! You know that. Lately, Maria doesn’t seem to know who she belongs to.”
“She belongs to you. That’s obvious.”
“Yes, but who is her father?”
“That’s for you to decide.” There was silence on the other side of the phone. “Shall I come over to you, or would you rather come to me?” Derek asked.
“Don’t be upset with me, but I think I need to be alone this evening.” That was unusual. Angelica had never refused him before.
Although Claire had to go to the doctor again the next day, leaving Derek alone for a few hours, he didn’t call Angelica. He decided to wait for her to contact him. Until she came over and took him in her arms.
But Angelica didn’t call him, and she didn’t come over.
Chapter 59
“I need to speak with you,” Claire said one day, when she got back from the doctors.
Dagger mumbled an impatient reply. He was still furious because of Angelica’s unexpected rejection.
“Derek, listen to me!” she said sternly.
“What do you want?” he snapped.
“I’m ill.”
He looked up at her then, and noticed that she had been crying.
“I have MS,” she blurted out.
“Are you sure?” he asked. She’d been at the doctors often in the past weeks, but he hadn’t thought too much about it. He’d been so busy with his own problems that he hadn’t even realized that there was something going on with Claire.
“That’s Multiple Sclerosis. The doctor confirmed it today,” she answered.
“And what now? Is there some kind of therapy? What are your options?” Claire paced up and down the room. She was obviously shaken by the devastating news.
“I want you to make love to me. I want to feel you close to me. I want to feel that I’m alive!” Her voice was shaky.
“Claire,” he said quietly. “I’m here for you.”
“I want you to prove it to me,” she shouted, sobbing at the same time.
“Claire, please...”
“I’ve just been given a death sentence, Derek. Why are you doing this to me?” She barely had herself under control.
“I...” he began, but he couldn’t finish his sentence.
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