Snow White Must Die (Bodenstein & Kirchhoff, #4)(141)

“So who did you think kidnapped the girl and your son?” she asked.

“Nadia,” Claudius Terlinden replied dully. “On the night that Gregor killed Stefanie, I saw her in the barn, but I never told anyone.”

He sighed heavily.

“Later I had a talk with her about it,” he went on. “She was quite reasonable, and when I offered to use my contacts to get her into television, she promised me never to breathe a word about what happened that night. She left Altenhain as she had always planned to do, and made a marvelous career for herself. After that, order was restored. Everything was fine.” He rubbed his eyes. “Nothing would have happened if everyone had played by the rules.”

“People aren’t chess pieces,” Pia replied sharply.

“Yes they are,” Terlinden contradicted her. “Most people are happy to have somebody else take on the responsibility for their puny lives and make the decisions that they’re unable to make. Somebody has to keep an eye on the big picture and pull the strings if necessary. And that someone is me.” A smile appeared on his face, revealing a trace of pride.

“Wrong,” said Pia soberly. She now understood all the connections in the story. “It wasn’t you, but Daniela Lauterbach. You were only a pawn in her game, and she pushed you here and there at will.”

Terlinden’s smile vanished.

“You’d better hope that my boss catches her at the airport. Otherwise you’re the only one who’ll get the big headlines and you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.”

* * *



“Unbelievable.” Ostermann shook his head and looked at Pia. “If I understand things correctly, it means that Tobias’s mother legally owns half of Altenhain.”

“Precisely.” Pia nodded. Before them on the table lay the three-page last will and testament of Wilhelm Julius Terlinden, signed and notarized on April 25, 1985, in which he disinherited his wife Daniela Terlinden, née Kroner, and his brother Claudius Paul Terlinden. Amelie had handed the document in a thick envelope to an officer before she got into the ambulance that would take Tobias Sartorius to the hospital. The young man had been very lucky. The gun Daniela Lauterbach had used to shoot him hadn’t caused a fatal wound because of its low penetration power. Still, Tobias had lost a lot of blood, and even after the emergency operation he was not entirely out of danger.

“I don’t really understand completely why Wilhelm Terlinden’s will was in Hartmut Sartorius’s possession,” said Pia. “It was drafted only a couple of weeks before he died.”

“That’s probably when Wilhelm first learned that the two had been cheating on him for years.”

“Hmm.” Pia did her best to suppress a yawn. She had lost all sense of time and was dead tired, yet in high spirits. Tobias and his family had been the victims of evil intrigues and the greedy lust for money and power. But thanks to the will that Hartmut Sartorius had kept in his safe, Tobias and his mother could look forward to a relatively happy ending, at least financially.

“Go on, get out of here,” Ostermann told Pia. “The paperwork can wait till tomorrow.”

“Why didn’t Hartmut Sartorius ever make this will public?” asked Pia.

“He was probably afraid of the consequences, or maybe he had skeletons of his own in the closet. Somehow he’d gotten hold of this will—most likely not in a legal manner,” Ostermann replied. “Besides, in a village like that, other laws apply. I know all about it.”

“What do you mean?”

Ostermann grinned and stood up.

“Don’t tell me you want to hear my life story now, at three thirty in the morning.”

“Three thirty? My God…” Pia yawned and stretched. “Did you know that Frank’s wife left him? Or that Hasse was friends with the cultural minister?”

“Yes to the first one, no to the second,” said Ostermann, turning off his computer. “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know.” Pia shrugged. “But we seem to spend more time with our colleagues than with our partners, and yet we know nothing about each other. Why is that?”

Her cell rang with the special ringtone reserved for Christoph. He was waiting for her down in the parking lot. Pia got up with a groan and reached for her purse.

“I’m really having a tough time with this.”

“Now, don’t go getting all philosophical,” Ostermann said from the doorway. “Tomorrow I’ll tell you everything about me that you need to know.”

Pia gave him a weary grin.

“Everything? Really?”

“Sure.” Ostermann switched off the light. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

* * *



On the short ride from Hofheim to Unterliederbach, Pia’s eyes closed from exhaustion. She didn’t notice when Christoph got out to open the gate. When he shook her shoulder gently and kissed her cheek, she opened her eyes in confusion.

“You want me to carry you inside?” Christoph offered.

“Not a good idea.” Pia yawned and grinned. “Then I’d have to drag the feed sacks myself all next week because you gave yourself a hernia.”

She got out and staggered to the front door. The dogs greeted her with happy barking, demanding to be petted. After she hung up her jacket and pulled off her boots, she suddenly remembered the appointment with the zoning office.