“Anno!” Elsa shouted, and turned to look around the apartment. “Anno, answer me!” She looked in her room to see if he fell asleep there watching her television. Her room was empty, and exactly as she left it earlier.
She grabbed her phone and called his cell number. An answering ring came from inside his room. She walked back in and saw it sitting on the nightstand. Picking it up, she checked his messages. There were a few to his best friend, Erik, which ended two hours ago. She texted Erik.
This is Elsa. Is Anno with you?
She waited.
The longest minute of her life later, he answered.
No. Is this a joke, Anno? What R U up to?
No, Erik. This really is Elsa. Anno isn’t home. Did he say he was going somewhere with anyone?
Elsa reached for straws. Anno was either always with Erik at his house or here at home. He didn’t hang out with anyone else.
No. Sorry, Elsa. He said he was going to bed. Are you sure? Can I help?
She could tell his friend was worried.
No. I’ll handle it. Go back to bed. When I find him, I’ll let you know...after I kick his ass.
Her optimism didn’t go beyond that text. She really was worried. She grabbed her keys and went back downstairs to look around outside. The light over the entryway door flickered, offering very little illumination by which to see. She called out to him, trying to keep her voice low so as not to disturb the other residents.
“Anno!” She walked around the courtyard. “Johann Martin Kreiss! You better answer me. So help me, when I find you, you’re in so much trouble!” Her voice cracked as emotions threatened to overtake her. Silence greeted her pleas. Fearful, she dialed the police.
Within the half hour, an unmarked Volkswagon Jetta driven by two Kriminalpolizei had arrived and began taking her information. Kriminalkommissar Joseph Heinz, a seasoned veteran detective with graying hair at his temples, tried assuring her that teenagers often go off without permission to do things their parents or guardians would otherwise disapprove of. Elsa knew better. She knew Anno would not do this to her. He would not leave the door unlocked or go anywhere without her knowing where he was. She told the Kripos such.
His partner, a rather quiet, observant woman who introduced herself as Birgitta Mahler, patted her on the back and asked, “Is there anyone you can call? You shouldn’t be alone. It would help to have someone to wait with you while we search for your brother.”
Elsa thought of Sarah. “Yes. My friend. I’ll call her now.”
“Good,” she said. “And try not to worry. We have his photo and have put out word. Someone will notice him somewhere or else he’ll just come home on his own.” She rejoined her partner and they left with the assurance they would check back in with her in one hour.
Elsa dialed Sarah’s number.
“Elsa, are you still up?” Sarah’s sleepy voice answered on the second ring.
“So sorry to call you this late, but Sarah, Anno is missing!” Elsa’s voice broke as the tears began to fall.
“What? What do you mean missing?” Sarah, now fully awake, sat up in bed immediately.
“I came home, and he wasn’t here. I checked with his friend, Erik, and he wasn’t there, either. I looked everywhere, Sarah. I called the police and they came, but now I have to wait, and I’m so worried. Where could he be?” Elsa became almost incoherent as she sobbed.
“I’m coming over right now. Just hold on, okay?” Sarah was already jumping out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans.
“You don’t have to...” Elsa hiccupped.
“Of course I do. You’re my friends and I love you guys. I’ll be right there. Just wait inside.” Sarah hung up and ran to the bathroom to throw on a bra and T-shirt. Slipping her feet into running shoes, she grabbed her purse, a jacket, and her room key. As she rode down the elevator, she pinned up her hair. The night clerk at the desk looked up from reading his book and watched as the blonde American jogged out of the hotel and turned left.
Sarah sprinted like a marathon runner the few blocks up to Elsa’s apartment building without even thinking how crazy it was she was running down a street in Berlin in the middle of the night—alone. When she got to the entryway, she stopped. She didn’t know the code to get in. She looked at the list of last names of the residents on the panel but didn’t know Elsa’s last name. She texted her instead.
I’m here. Buzz me in!
The buzzer sounded and Sarah opened the door, running inside to the lifts. On the fourth floor, she jogged down to the end and hooked left, stopping to knock on Elsa’s door. It opened before she could finish raising her hand. Elsa, with a tear-stained face, rushed at her, engulfing Sarah in a hug. She cried.
“Where could he be, Sarah? Where?” Elsa was falling apart. Her brother was everything to her; all she had left since the death of their parents.
“Sssh. I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. Let’s go sit down and then you can tell me what the police said.” Sarah kept her arm around her friend as they made their way to the couch.
“They didn’t say much, just that he would probably come home by himself. But Anno doesn’t go off like this without telling me. Especially in the middle of the night. He knows better. And he didn’t take his phone with him. He never goes anywhere without it.” Elsa’s anxiety was affecting Sarah, who teared up while listening.
“Did you tell the police he left his phone?” Sarah’s face was incredulous. How could the police think nothing was wrong when a teenage boy was missing without his phone?
“I, I...don’t know! Oh, Sarah, I can’t think straight.” She blew her nose.
“It’s okay. We just need to think.” Sarah stood up and walked to Anno’s room. She went inside and looked around. Elsa followed her, observing her friend searching the room.
“What are you looking for?” Sarah was on her hands and knees, looking under the bed.
She sat up and looked around. “What’s that smell? It’s like a hospital in here.” Sarah sniffed, then sniffed again while looking in corners and all around.
Elsa inhaled, but her nose was plugged from crying. “I can’t smell anything. What does it smell like?” She walked up behind her friend, looking over her shoulder.
“Kind of chemical-like.” Sarah lifted the covers on the bed and leaned down to sniff. She reached for the pillow and lifted it up, finding a white cloth lying folded over. She picked it up. It was a washcloth. She sniffed it.
“This is it. Is it one of yours?” Sarah held it up to Elsa’s nose. She sniffed, managing to get some air through her nasal cavity and detected the chemical scent which Sarah had referenced.
“Ugh! No. What’s that smell?” Elsa’s nose wrinkled.
Sarah thought she recognized the odor as one of many she smelled while her mother was in the hospital. “I’m not sure, but we should call the police and show them this, and make sure they know Anno left his phone here.”
“You think someone took him, don’t you?” Understanding dawned on Elsa, and then she realized that her brother may have been abducted. Tears flooded her green eyes again, smearing mascara down her cheeks. “Sarah. Oh, mein Got! What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to hold it together because Anno needs you. And until we know there’s something to worry about, we should keep cool heads, okay? Keep it together, Elsa.” Sarah took her by the hand and led the way back to the living room where she calmly talked Elsa through calling the police again. It took about thirty minutes for the detectives to come back. KriminalKommissar Heinz, in particular, did not seem pleased. But that might just be his normal countenance. Sarah gave them the information on what they found and pointed out that Anno’s phone was still in the apartment. They both looked at the washcloth, sniffed it, and immediately pulled out gloves and a plastic bag to put the cloth into.
“You should’ve shown us this before, Fraulein Kreiss.” Heinz gave Elsa a stern look. Elsa’s face registered the slight in his address, but before she could r
eply, her friend spoke up.
“She didn’t know this when you first came. I’m the one who found it.” Sarah stood and faced the detective.
“And who are you? How did you know where to find this?” He started treating Sarah like a suspect and she was not the least bit pleased with his attitude.
“I’m Sarah Brown, friend of Elsa and Anno. I didn’t know where to find it. I simply did what most rational people would do and looked around his room. Elsa was with me and we found it together. You should have done this the first time you were here!” Sarah’s temper blazed to the surface.
“Calm down, Miss Brown,” said Mahler. She had a look of understanding on her face as if she endured her partner’s prickly personality often and knew how it grated on others. “Did you say earlier the front door was also unlocked?” She made notes in a small notebook.
“Yes.” Elsa found her voice. “Yes, it was not locked, and the hall light was off. Anno always leaves the hall light on for me.”
The female officer walked to the entry hall and found the small credenza with the lamp sitting upon it. She reached with her gloved hand to turn the switch. Nothing happened. She found the light bulb, an old Tungsten, and gave it a twist, tightening it. It lit up.
“Does anyone else have a key to the flat,” she asked.
“Just me and Anno. And the landlady, Mrs. Schmidt,” Elsa offered.
“Do you have any dispute with your landlady?” She continued to make notes. Then the detective paused to check out the front door. She leaned down, noticing tiny scratches around the lock.
“No. None. I’ve never had any problem with her.” Elsa watched the detective as she looked up at her partner and gave the slightest nod of her head. Kriminalkommissar Heinz pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial button for dispatch.
“This is Heinz, badge number five, six, two, seven. Send a crime scene unit over to the address of my last call.” He hung up.
“Crime scene unit?” Elsa’s voice rose and tears began to fall in earnest.
The rest of the night crept by in agonizing confusion for Elsa and Sarah as they sat on the couch being questioned again by Heinz. He also woke Elsa’s landlady and questioned her. Two CSU officers dusted the front door, hall lamp, and Anno’s bedroom for fingerprints. His partner made the rounds with her neighbors, asking if anyone had seen or heard anything between the hours of midnight when Anno sent out his last text to Erik and around two-thirty in the morning when Elsa came home. No one had heard a thing. But Mrs. Schmidt offered that perhaps her surveillance camera picked something up.
“I have only the one camera in the main entrance. You can check it.” She looked worried. She’d known Elsa and Anno for many years and had watched the boy grow up.
“Secure the tape and review it. Report anything you find back to me immediately.” Heinz gave the order to his partner, who left with Frau Schmidt in tow.
He turned back to Elsa and Sarah. “You should try and get some rest. We’ll keep an officer outside your door for the rest of the night, and if we find anything of interest on the surveillance, we’ll let you know.” He got up to leave, then turned to Sarah. “You should not leave Berlin until this is resolved, Miss Brown.”
Sarah nodded her head, giving the detective a look. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving my friend at a time like this.” She thought about Anthony. He would have to understand. Elsa was more important right now.
“Sehr gut.” He nodded at Elsa. “Frau Kreiss.” The abrasive man now showed compassion and respect in light of the evidence found, evidence that added up to a crime that too often ended badly in his experience. Either the boy was already dead, or he’d wish he was because he would be sold into black market child sex trafficking. Those children were never found again. And this woman, a protective sister, albeit one with a less than appropriate career in his opinion—a dominatrix—was obviously distraught and worried as any mother would be for a son. It would take a miracle to find the boy, and the world seemed pathetically low on that particular commodity. He went downstairs to check on the progress with the tape, and then headed out the door calling his contact at the Bundeskriminalamt.
“Bjorn. Heinz here. I need you to check flight manifests coming into and going out of Berlin in the last twenty-four hours, and also for the next twenty-four. Check the rails too.”
“What am I looking for, Heinz?” Bjorn’s voice crackled over the mobile speaker.
“Known sex traffickers. And the sooner, the better. You know the drill.” The rasp in his voice tipped Bjorn off as to where Heinz’s mindset was at, and the level of his emotions.
“Don’t let yourself go there, Joseph.” Bjorn’s tone softened.
“Dammit, just get on it, already. Schnell!” Heinz ended the call and then pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. Lighting it up, he inhaled, taking the soothing smoke into his lungs. He exhaled as he leaned up against his car. Heinz knew he couldn’t lose another child. It would be too much. It would kill the last remaining part of himself that was human. Before he knew it, his cigarette had burned down almost to the filter. He refused to light up another one. He was trying to quit. Without anything else he could do while he waited, he paced around the building looking for clues—anything. Forty minutes dragged by as he poked around shrubbery and looked up at windows.
“Sir, we found something.” It was his partner. She’d walked up behind him, nearly giving him a heart attack. He spun with his firearm almost clear of the holster.
“Announce yourself next time. I could have shot you!” His irritation was evident, but his need to know what she found was stronger. “What is it? What did you find?”
“A man entered the building at eleven forty-seven p.m. Frau Schmidt says she’s never seen him before. There’s no footage of him leaving. He must’ve either exited out the back or he’s still in the building.” She said this in a matter of fact manner.
“If she’s never seen him before, how did he get in? Residents have a code for the door.” Heinz asked the pertinent question.
“He came in after another resident left.” She looked down at her note pad. “An Herr Schumaker from the second floor. I questioned him just now and he doesn’t remember the man passing him.”
“What the hell was this Schumaker doing out at that hour? Where was he going?”
“He said he was walking his dog.” She looked up, waiting.
“And he didn’t notice a stranger? The dog didn’t bark or anything?” Heinz was getting irritated again and his thoughts turned foul. People are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they fail to notice important things around them, like strangers entering secure buildings. It makes me angry thinking how easily criminals get away with the crimes they commit. Most often it’s because people ignore them, don’t want to get involved. Then a child goes missing and everyone wants to know what the police are doing about it. Well, what the hell are they doing about it? If they’d just pull their heads out of their arses—
“No report of the dog barking. There were enough seconds that passed after Herr Schumaker exited the door before the man entered to indicate that he was probably hiding off to the side and just waiting for someone to come out. He slid his foot in right before the door closed.”
“What did he look like? What’s the description?” Heinz walked quickly back toward the front of the building while his partner followed.
“Tall, around one hundred eighty-two centimeters. He was wearing a dark, possibly denim jacket. Long hair pulled back, shaved at the sides. There appeared to be a tattoo on the side of his head. Looked like a crude swastika. Probably a prison tat. The integrity of the video is not the best. It’s dark and grainy. Just a cheap camera to provide the most basic security surveillance.” She closed the notepad.
Just then his phone buzzed. “Ja. What do you have?” Heinz waited as Bjorn read what he discovered. He looked at his partner as he listened. “How do you know it was Aleksander Gruber?”
“The passport photo matched
Gruber’s criminal file photo. He’s traveling under the name Marcus Janssen, but the face recognition doesn’t lie.” Bjorn had more.
“Give it to me. What’s the description of this asshole, and his priors?” Heinz waited, knowing it wouldn’t be good.
“Height, one hundred eighty-one centimeters. Weight, eighty-three kilos. Wears a Mohawk. White Supremacist type. Several tattoos including swastikas on the sides of his head. Multiple piercings. His priors include breaking and entering, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, possession and distribution of narcotics, and sex trafficking. He just finished ten months for minor possession of cocaine in Amsterdam three months ago, which is where Marcus Janssen flew in from. He plea-bargained a shorter sentence by turning state’s evidence and testifying against his dealer. No record of a flight out yet. Still checking all the rail stations’ surveillance.”
Heinz nodded to his partner. “Bjorn, we need an all-points on this character. We have surveillance of a man matching that description entering the residence of the victim. I’ll have Mahler send over footage of what we have. Get that out with a mugshot to all agencies. I want this bastard caught.”
Heinz handed the phone over to his partner. “Get that video over to him ASAP and have him fax over the mugshot of Aleksander Gruber.”
“Ja vol.” She took the mobile and walked back toward the building, coordinating with Bjorn as she went.
Heinz waited at the car. He was seeing red, and ready to pound the suspect with his bare hands. It felt like the Schubert case all over again, chasing leads with very little time. He knew he would need to calm down enough to speak with Frau Kreiss. She wasn’t going to take any of this well. And he had no assurances to give her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
DAWN LIT THE SKY IN contrasting shades of purple, orange, and blue, which streaked through the sheer window covers and splashed on the opposite wall. Sarah arose after a mere hour and a half of sleep on Elsa’s couch. After Detective Heinz gave her the news that Anno was abducted by a known sex trafficker, she’d simply lost it, wailing uncontrollably until her body couldn’t take the stress anymore. Around five in the morning, she’d finally fallen asleep. Sarah held her until her breathing was deep and steady, and then she pulled the covers over her friend, and headed out to lie on the couch. She wanted to be able to hear either the phone or the door should anyone come by or call with news. No one called. No one came by. Each hour that they didn’t hear anything meant another hour Anno spent in extreme danger.
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