Chapter 68
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
The basement was plunged into darkness instantly, because the trip switch broke the circuit. When I pulled the cable out of the water again, and hid it behind the panel, I heard a sound. I was afraid that Claire might not be dead, but at the same time, I hoped she wasn’t.
But it wasn’t Claire, whom I had heard. Somebody ran lightly up the basement stairs and closed the door behind her, leaving me alone in the dark, with Claire’s dead body. I decided to use that opportunity. I picked up Claire’s lifeless body, and carried her up the stairs. Luckily for me, it was quite dark, because the lights were all out. But, when I reached the ground floor, I heard a child screaming. It was Maria Kline.
“Mommy, Mommy,” she screamed.
“My God, Maria, What’s wrong?” Angelica asked agitatedly.
“Claire has fallen down!”
Maria told the story the way she had interpreted it, but in her fantasy, the electric cable that Derek had thrown into the water beside his wife, became a hammer, with which he had hit her on the head. Derek knew that the only chance he had to make them believe his side of the story, would be tell everyone his fabricated version. He couldn’t go up the stairs now. The only place that he still had access to, where nobody else would see him, was the basement. He returned to the basement door, opened it, and simply threw Claire’s body down the stairs. Then he closed the door again, very quickly, so that he didn’t have to hear the sound of her lifeless body tumbling down the hard stone stairs. Then he went upstairs, to Angelica’s apartment.
Maria Kline was in tears. Derek tried to take her in his arms, but she darted away.
“My wife has had a fall,” he said placatingly. “I have already called an ambulance.”
“Do you need any help?” enquired a voice from somewhere upstairs.
“No thank you. The ambulance will be here any minute.”
Derek went down into the basement again, and waited for all the other residents to go back into their apartments. He knew that nobody would go down into the basement in the dark. He would have to use the time that was available! As he went down the cold stone stairs, he realized, with annoyance, that he should have taken a flashlight with him. Then he remembered that he had one in his basement compartment.
It was like a horror film. Dagger stepped over his wife’s body and went to his compartment, to search for the flashlight. When he switched it on, its beam fell on some builder’s tools lying in a corner. Then he had an idea! If he was quick enough, he could save a lot of time. First of all, he hid Claire’s body in a cupboard in his basement compartment, then, he switched the electricity on again.
The following night, he went back into the basement, and began to mix large volumes of cement by hand. Then he reopened the wall, which had not set completely, after the recent wiring job that the electrician had done down there. He carried Claire’s body across to the hole in the wall, and cemented her into the gap behind the wall. The whole time, he avoided looking at her face.
Maria Kline hadn’t said that he had killed his wife, but her illustration of the event wasn’t that far from the truth.
The next day, Dagger sent Angelica a text message. He needed to see her immediately. He received a somewhat evasive reply, but took it as a yes. That afternoon, he rang Angelica’s doorbell, and she let him in reluctantly.
“How is Maria?” he asked, in place of a greeting. He bit his lip nervously.
“She’s okay. She slept in our bed last night.”
“Can I see her?” Angelica looked at him uncomprehendingly.
“My daughter is absolutely distraught. I don’t think she wants to see you right now.”
“I need to see her briefly. I don’t want her spreading any wild stories around here!”
“Is it just a wild story?” Angelica asked suddenly. “Or did you really kill Claire?”
Dagger tried to answer, but he couldn’t get a word out. Angelica covered her face with her hands and turned away from him.
“I can’t believe it!” she sobbed. “What kind of person are you? A murderer! That’s what you are!” She tried to hit him, but he held both her arms in an iron grip and forced her to sit down.
“Shut up!” he commanded her sharply, sitting down opposite her. “We all have something to hide. We can’t do anything irrational now. We need to plan carefully”
“Why we?” she said, laughing. But her laugh was filled with doubt. “I’m going to the police now! I’m going to tell them what I know. I don’t care what happens to me!”
She jumped up, as though she was about to go to the police in her pajamas, but he held her back, and pressed her up against the wall. She screamed when her head hit the hard wall.
She had a cut on her head, and it was bleeding, but Derek Dagger didn’t care. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down into a chair, so roughly, that she hit her head on the wall a second time.
“Nobody’s going to the police, least of all you, if you love your children,” Dagger screamed at her.
“Leave the children out of it!” she cried, trying to wipe the blood from her forehead with her hand.
“Just one word, and I’ll spill the beans,” Dagger threatened. “I’ll tell them everything: our relationship, your affair with Kyle Benton, everything! And then you’ll never see Tanya and Maria again. I was such a fool for not realizing that Tanya was our daughter sooner!”
“Where is Claire?” Angelica whined.
“That’s got nothing to do with you. She’s gone, and that’s all you need to know,” he lied. “Our problem is Maria.” The color drained from Angelica’s face when he said her daughter’s name. “Send her to school as usual tomorrow. Perhaps she will have forgotten everything by then.”
“And, what about the others?”
“Which others?”
“The neighbors! They’re sure to ask where Claire is.”
“Leave that to me,” he said. “I’ll think of something.” After a brief pause, in which she mustered up her strength again, she asked sadly:
“Derek, what if Maria doesn’t forget? What if she says something at school?” Derek Dagger thought for a moment.
“Then, she’ll have to stay here!”
Chapter 69
The next day, Angelica Kline called Derek Dagger in a state of panic.
“I’ve just spoken to Maria’s teacher. She says that Maria said some strange things in class today.”
“What did she say?” he asked.
“What do you think she said? It appears that she’s unable to speak about anything else at the moment.”
“That’s not good! Perhaps we should keep her at home for a few weeks. We can tell them that she’s ill.”
“Derek! Don’t do this to me! Why should others suffer for your deeds?” But he’d already hung up.
So, Angelica Kline wrote to the school, excusing her daughter from classes for the next two weeks. But nothing changed. Soon, the police were standing on Angelica’s doorstep. Derek stood inside his apartment, watching through the peephole. He saw how Angelica made every effort to avoid telling the truth, in order to protect him, and thereby, also her children. The police came a few more times, but each time, she managed to get rid of them without giving the game away.
“It’s just a matter of time before Child Welfare turns up here,” she said to Derek a few days later. Her voice sounded tired.
“We’ll take her out of school completely, and deregister her with the authorities. Then, nobody will look for her anymore.”
Angelica accepted her fate, and Maria’s, without a word. But the police came again. They’d received an anonymous tip, accusing him of having something to do with his wife’s disappearance. They took him away for questioning.
Chapter 70
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
At the time, I told everyone that Claire and I had separate
d. I said that her illness wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d tried to make me believe. I wasn’t sure whether she had a lover. I also told everybody that she had simply walked out on me one night, and I had no idea where she had gone. The building was searched several times, and at some point, the police even stood in front of the wall behind which I’d hidden her body. But they never thought to look further. Finally, the police rang my doorbell for perhaps the fifth time, but this time, they’d come to say that they’d found the body of a woman who had drowned, who matched Claire’s description. They wanted me to identify the body. I told them that it was indeed my wife, and finally, they left me alone.
That evening, Derek Dagger went to Angelica’s apartment. He didn’t ring the doorbell. He simply let himself in.
“Where’s Maria?” he asked bluntly.
“How did you get in here…?” Angelica asked, standing up from the sofa. Derek Dagger shoved her backwards.
“Where is she?” he asked threateningly, and began searching the apartment. “I have no desire to play hide and seek. Where is she?”
“She’s with Eileen.”
“Well, that’s over now! Go and fetch her.”
“But…”
“I said: Go and fetch her!” he yelled. She stood up and went to the door, and he followed her all the way to Eileen’s apartment. She rang the bell, and when Eileen opened the door, she said: “I’m here to fetch Maria.”
“So soon?” Eileen asked, surprised.
“Please don’t ask questions,” Angelica pleaded. “I want to take her with me now.” Soon, Maria appeared. Tanya was also there.
“Eileen,” Angelica began, “you won’t be seeing Maria for a long time.” She could barely get the words out, and the tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as she spoke.
“Why not? What’s wrong, Angelica?” Eileen asked nervously, sensing the seriousness of the situation.
“I’ll be taking care of her myself from now on.” Maria looked at her mother, an anxious expression on her little face.
“Maria, you must go now,” Eileen said quietly.
“But, I want to stay here a bit longer,” Maria said stubbornly. Eileen felt her own tears coming.
“Your mommy will take good care of you, I promise,” Eileen said.
“And you?” Maria was also crying now.
“I’ll be okay.” Angelica tried to pick her daughter up, but she clung to Eileen’s legs.
Then Derek Dagger said to Eileen: “Let me give you some advice. If you keep your mouth shut, your parents won’t find out what you do for a living.”
Eileen looked at Dagger, and then said to Maria: “You can’t stay with me. You must go with your mommy now!”
Eileen stood in her doorway, waving goodbye to Maria. She was still standing there long after Angelica Kline and Derek Dagger had disappeared into the Kline’s apartment with the little girl.
Chapter 71
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
When I think back on it now, it was amazingly easy to intimidate Eileen. I was quite sure that she wouldn’t say a word to anyone. It would probably have been harder with Hanna Carstens. It wouldn’t have been as simple to put her under pressure as it was with Eileen. And besides, it was clear to me that everyone in the building was convinced that I had something to do with Claire’s disappearance. But nobody did anything about it. I had everyone and everything under my control.
Angelica Kline passed out in her apartment. Derek Dagger didn’t appear to care too much, but he held her legs in the air until she came to again.
“Come with me,” he commanded, jerking her to her feet by the arm. “She has to stay here from now on. We don’t have any other choice.” He shoved both of them into Maria’s bedroom, at the very moment that Sebastian Kline entered the apartment.
“You can come here too,” said Dagger mockingly.
“What’s going on here?” Sebastian asked.
“Your daughter is going to be confined to this room for the next few months,” he said, pointing at the room.
“What gives you the right? And what are you doing in our apartment anyway?” Sebastian said angrily.
Angelica Kline tried to placate him. “Sebastian, calm down. I’ll explain everything to you later.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” hissed Dagger. “If you breathe just one word, I’ll kill you!”
Sebastian Kline became very angry when he saw Dagger abusing his wife verbally in that manner. He knew nothing about their secret relationship, so he didn’t understand the situation at all.
“I’m going to call the police,” he said suddenly, and ran towards the telephone, with Dagger hot on his heels.
“Sebastian, Derek! Stop it!” Angelica shouted, but it was too late. Dagger hit Sebastian across the face with the back of his hand, and even Maria, who had been sobbing loudly until then, fell silent. Sebastian crashed against the door case, and just that moment, Dagger gave the door a kick, so that it slammed shut on Sebastian’s arm. The sound of breaking bones and his sharp cry of pain set Maria off again. She began screaming in short, ear-piercing cries. Her whole body was shaking. Angelica ran to her, trying to protect her from what she knew was to come, but Dagger pushed her aside brutally, and grabbed her by the throat.
“Get in there!” he commanded, pointing at Maria. He was gasping for breath. Maria looked at her father, who lay on the carpet, his face distorted with agony. She looked at her mother, whose eyes were closed, because she couldn’t breathe. Then she went slowly into her bedroom.
Derek Dagger let go of Angelica, and she collapsed slowly onto the floor. He followed Maria into the room. The terrified child sat down on a little chair with her hands in her lap. She was weeping bitterly.
“Nobody is going to leave this room!” Dagger said, breaking the key off in the lockable window lever. Then, he left Maria’s room, slamming the door and locking it behind him. He jerked Angelica to her feet, and setting her on the sofa. Sebastian was also on his feet again, but he offered absolutely no resistance.
All three of them sat on the living room sofa, and neither Sebastian nor Angelica dared to move. Derek Dagger wasn’t carrying a weapon of any kind, but his mere presence and his physical strength were enough to keep the Klines under his control.
It was twelve hours before Maria finally stopped screaming, and for two full months, Derek Dagger kept the Klines permanently under close observation.
Maria’s ordeal lasted five years, two months, one week and one day.
Part Seven
Family Drama Continues
Daily Dispatch, December 19
The family drama in Meadow Road becomes more curious by the day. On Tuesday, the police found the decomposed body of a woman in the basement of the building. Evidently, she died five years ago. It is not yet clear whether she was also killed by Derek Dagger, who was responsible for the other murders in the building. A police spokesman said the body of the woman had been cemented into a wall in the basement. With the aid of DNA testing, the victim has been identified as Dagger’s wife, Claire, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances five years ago. Police stopped searching for her shortly after her disappearance, when Dagger identified a drowned woman, matching Claire’s description, as his wife. It is not yet clear who the drowning victim was.
Other residents of the building were not prepared to make any statements to the press.
Five-Year Ordeal
Daily Dispatch, December 20
The district attorney has pressed charges against Derek Dagger, on the suspicion of five charges of murder. Meanwhile, further details have come to light. Witnesses have stated that jealousy played a big role in the drama. One of the victims, Angelica Kline, was allegedly having affairs with both Dagger and one of the other victims, Kyle Benton. A witness hinted that some of the residents of the building had possibly been aware that Dagger had murdered his wife at the time of her disappearance. Angelica Kline’s daughter, who also
died in the drama, is purported to have witnessed the murder. For fear of his crime being exposed, Derek Dagger forced Maria’s parents to confine her to one room in their apartment for five years. During all that time, Derek Dagger was able to successfully fool both the police and his neighbors, regarding the whereabouts of his wife, Claire, and of little Maria Kline.
Extract from a police report. Call-out, 22 Meadow Road, December 13.
Based on the statements of Christian Shaffner, who was arrested on December 12, for disturbing the peace, unlawful entry and assault, one of the apartments at 22 Meadow Road was searched on December 13, in order to investigate the allegations he made. The tenant at the time, Angelica Kline, refused to allow us to enter, so we were forced to break down the door. Derek Dagger, whom Mr. Shaffner had claimed was also involved in the disappearance of Maria Kline, was not in the apartment at the time.
The apartment was in a neglected state. Ms. Kline offered no further resistance. While we were searching the apartment, Derek Dagger arrived on the scene, and threatened both Angelica Kline and the police officers with a knife. He demanded that the police leave the apartment immediately, or he would kill the woman. Meanwhile, another man had entered the apartment. He identified himself as Kyle Benton, another resident of the building. We made every effort to disarm Dagger, but he refused to release the knife. Instead, he stabbed Ms. Kline repeatedly, before overpowering and slightly wounding two officers.
Kyle Benton, who also attempted to stop Dagger, was seriously wounded in the neck. Thereafter, Dagger fled into an adjoining room, locking the door behind him. We managed to break the door open, and found two further victims, a ten-year-old girl, and an adult man. Both had been stabbed. Derek Dagger had attempted to commit suicide by slitting his wrists.
Extract from a police interrogation protocol. Witness: Derek Dagger
Everything I had been fighting for over the past years was taken from me in just a few minutes. The moment I saw the police, I knew that it was all over.
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