Snow White Must Die (Bodenstein & Kirchhoff, #4)(120)
* * *
The main road through Altenhain was blocked. In front of the Richters’ store stood two ambulances with lights flashing, and several patrol cars were parked nearby. Onlookers crowded up to the crime scene tape. Bodenstein found Kathrin Fachinger in the yard. She was sitting on the back steps, white in the face and unable to move. He briefly put his hand on her shoulder and made sure that she wasn’t wounded. Inside the house there was utter chaos. An emergency doctor and EMTs were looking after Lutz Richter, who lay in a pool of blood on the tile floor in the hall. Another medic was taking care of his wife.
“What happened?” Bodenstein asked. “Where’s the weapon?”
“Here.” A patrol officer handed him a plastic bag. “A gun that fires blanks. The husband is still alive, but the wife is in shock.”
“Where is J?rg Richter?”
“On the way to Hofheim.”
Bodenstein looked around. Through the etched glass of a closed door he could vaguely make out the orange and white of the EMTs’ uniforms. He opened the door and froze for a moment at the sight of the living room. It was stuffed full almost to the ceiling; on the walls hung hunting trophies and all sorts of militaria—sabers, antique rifles, helmets, and other weapons—piled on the sideboard, in the open cupboard, on the coffee table, several end tables, and on the floor were pewterware, cider pitchers, and so much junk that it briefly took his breath away. In one of the plush easy chairs Margot Richter was sitting with a stunned look on her face, an IV in her arm. Next to her stood a female EMT holding the drip bag.
“Is she lucid?” Bodenstein wanted to know. The medic nodded.
“Mrs. Richter.” Bodenstein squatted down in front of the woman, which wasn’t easy in the middle of all that junk. “What happened here? Why did your husband do that?”
“You can’t arrest my boy,” Mrs. Richter murmured. All energy and malice seemed to have drained from her body, and her eyes were sunk deep in their sockets. “He didn’t do anything.”
“Then who did?”
“My husband is the guilty one.” Her gaze wandered here and there, briefly brushing Bodenstein and then moving off into space. “J?rg wanted to pull the girl back out, but my husband said he should leave her there, it would be better that way. Then he went and dragged a plate over the tank and shoveled dirt on top of it.”
“Why did he do that?”
“So that we’d have peace again. Laura would have ruined the boys’ lives, when nothing really happened. It was all just in fun.”
Bodenstein couldn’t believe his ears.
“That little slut wanted to turn in her friends, go to the police. So it was all her own fault. She’d been teasing the boys the whole evening.” With no transition she switched from the past to the present day. “Everything was fine, but then J?rg just had to tell somebody what happened back then! What an idiot!”
“At least your son has a conscience,” Bodenstein retorted coolly, getting up. Any sympathy he may have had for the woman had been extinguished. “Absolutely nothing was fine—on the contrary! What your son did was no trivial offense. Rape and accessory to murder are capital crimes.”
“Bah!” Margot Richter made a scornful gesture and shook her head. “Nobody was talking about that old story anymore,” she said bitterly. “And then they got scared because Tobias showed up again. Nothing would have come of it if they’d only kept their traps shut, those … those weaklings!”
* * *
Nadia von Bredow merely nodded indifferently when Pia told her that her alibi for that Saturday evening had been checked and verified.
“Very good.” She cast a glance at her watch. “So I can go now.”
“No, not yet.” Pia shook her head. “We still have a few more questions.”
“All right then, shoot.” Nadia looked at Pia with her big bored eyes, as if trying to suppress a yawn. She didn’t seem in the least nervous, and Pia couldn’t shake the impression that she was playing a role. What was the real Nathalie like, hidden behind the beautiful, flawless fa?ade of the fictional character Nadia von Bredow? Did she still exist?
“Why did you tell J?rg Richter to ask Tobias over that evening and to make sure that he stayed as long as possible?”
“I was worried about Tobi,” Nadia replied smoothly. “He didn’t seem to take the attack on him in the barn seriously. I wanted to know that he was safe.”
“Really?” Pia opened the file and searched until she found what Ostermann had deciphered from Amelie’s diary. “Do you want to hear what Amelie wrote about you in her last diary entry?”
“I suppose you’re going to read it to me anyway.” Nadia rolled her eyes and crossed her long legs.
“That’s right.” Pia smiled. “‘I found it comical the way this blondie has been falling all over Tobias. And the way she looked at me! Sheer jealousy, as if she wanted to eat me alive. Thies totally panicked when I mentioned the name Nadia to him. There’s something not quite right about her…’”
Pia looked up.
“You didn’t like it that Amelie was so familiar with Tobias,” she said. “You used J?rg Richter to watch him and then saw to it that Amelie disappeared.”