Snow White Must Die (Bodenstein & Kirchhoff, #4)(110)
“So,” she said with a hint of gallows humor. “I guess that’s what you get from wishing. When I was a kid I always wished for a bunk bed. Now I finally have it.”
* * *
Beate Schneeberger led Oliver and Pia into the dining room and offered them seats at the massive table, right next to the huge tile stove radiating a pleasant warmth. From the many tiny rooms of the former farmhouse they had made a single huge room, and only the load-bearing beams remained. The result seemed modern and yet was surprisingly cozy.
“Please wait until my husband gets here,” said Mrs. Schneeberger. “I’ll make us some tea.”
She went into the kitchen, which was also open on all sides. Oliver and Pia exchanged a glance. Unlike the Wagners, whose lives had fallen apart when their daughter disappeared, the Schneebergers seemed to have managed to survive the pain and start over. And then they had the twin girls.
Not five minutes later a big, gaunt, white-haired man in a checked shirt and blue work pants entered the dining room. Albert Schneeberger shook hands with Kirchhoff first, then Bodenstein. He too had a calm and serious demeanor. They waited until Mrs. Schneeberger had served the tea, then Bodenstein cautiously told them all the details. Albert Schneeberger stood behind his wife’s chair, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. Their sadness was palpable, but also the relief at finally learning the fate of their child.
“Do you know who did it?” asked Beate Schneeberger.
“No, we’re not sure yet,” said Bodenstein. “We only know that it could not have been Tobias Sartorius.”
“Then he was convicted unjustly?”
“Yes, it looks that way.”
For a while they said nothing. Albert Schneeberger looked thoughtfully out the big picture windows at his daughters, who were peaceably grooming the horse.
“I never should have let Terlinden talk me into moving to Altenhain,” he said suddenly. “We had an apartment in Frankfurt but were looking for a house in the country, because in the city Stefanie had fallen in with the wrong crowd.”
“How did you know Claudius Terlinden?”
“I actually knew Wilhelm, his older brother. We had studied together and later became business partners. After his death I got to know Claudius. My firm was one of his suppliers. Something developed between us that I falsely assumed was friendship. Terlinden rented us the house near his on the same street.” Albert Schneeberger heaved a deep sigh and sat down next to his wife. “I knew that he was very interested in my company. Our know-how and patents were an ideal match for his concept and very important to him. At that time he was working on forming a corporation and going public. Eventually he made me an offer. There were several interested parties. Terlinden had a lot of competition at the time.”
He paused and sipped his tea.
“Then our daughter disappeared.” His voice sounded matter-of-fact, but they couldn’t help noticing how difficult it was for him to recall those horrible events. “Terlinden and his wife were very sympathetic and attentive. Real friends, as we thought at first. I was hardly in a position to worry about my business. We did everything we could to search for Stefanie, got involved with various organizations, the radio, the TV. When Terlinden made me a new offer, I took it. The company didn’t matter to me; I could only think of Stefanie. I always hoped that she would turn up someday.”
He cleared his throat, struggling to maintain his composure. His wife put her hand on his and squeezed it gently.
After a while Schneeberger went on. “We had agreed that Terlinden would not change the structure of the company and would keep all the employees on. But what happened was the direct opposite. Terlinden found a loophole in the contracts. He went to the stock exchange, broke up my company, sold everything he didn’t need, and laid off eighty of a hundred and thirty employees. I was in no position to defend myself. It was … horrible. All those people that I knew so well, were suddenly unemployed. None of it would have happened if I’d been able to think straight back then.”
He rubbed his hand over his face.
“Beate and I decided to leave Altenhain. It had become intolerable to live next door to that … that man. The way he put pressure on the people in his company and in the village and manipulated them, and all under the pretense of his benevolence.”
“Do you think that Terlinden did something to your daughter so he could get at your company?” Kirchhoff asked.
“Since they found Stefanie’s … corpse on his property, it seems quite possible.” Schneeberger’s voice faltered, and he pressed his lips together. “To be honest, my wife and I could never really imagine that Tobias would do anything to our daughter. But there was all that circumstantial evidence and all that testimony from witnesses. In the end we no longer knew what to believe. At first we suspected Thies. He used to follow Stefanie around like a shadow…”
He shrugged helplessly.
“I don’t know whether Terlinden would have gone that far,” he said then. “But he exploited our situation without batting an eye. The man is an evil speculator and a liar with no conscience. He will literally trample on corpses to get whatever he wants.”
* * *
Oliver’s cell phone rang. He had turned over the wheel to Pia so he took the call without looking at the display. When he unexpectedly heard Cosima’s voice, he gave a start.