Snow White Must Die (Bodenstein & Kirchhoff, #4)(46)

A former teacher had characterized Tobias as a very good, ambitious pupil to whom everything came easily, but who could also apply himself to his studies with incredible discipline. Outspoken, self-confident to the point of arrogance, sometimes a hothead, and rather mature for his age. An only child who was practically worshipped by his parents. But also a boy who had a hard time dealing with competition and setbacks. Damn, where had she seen that? Pia leafed through the stacks of paper. She was looking for the transcript of the interview with Tobias’s teacher, who was also the teacher of the two girls at the time of their disappearance, but it was no longer there. Pia stopped abruptly, then rummaged on her desk for her notes from last week, and compared her list to the one she had made today.

“Well, that’s one thing,” she said.

“What’s going on?” Ostermann, eating a donut, looked over at her from his computer screen.

“The transcript from Gregor Lauterbach’s interview in the case of Stefanie Schneeberger and Tobias Sartorius is missing,” she replied, still shuffling paper. “How could that happen?”

“It must be in a different file.” Ostermann turned back to his work and his donut. He loved to eat those deep-fried rings, and Pia had been wondering for years why her colleague hadn’t become obese long ago. But Ostermann seemed to have a sensational metabolism since he could burn off the thousands of calories that he gobbled down each day. In his place she’d be literally rolling down the street by now.

“No,” said Pia, shaking her head. “It’s simply not here anymore!”

“Pia,” Ostermann said in a patient tone of voice, “we’re with the police. People can’t just walk in here and snatch transcripts out of a case file.”

“I know that. But the fact is, it’s gone. I read it last week.” Pia frowned. Who could be interested in that old case? Why would anyone want to steal unimportant interview transcripts? The telephone on her desk rang. She picked up and listened for a moment. In Wallau a delivery van had run off the road and burst into flames after rolling over several times. The driver was seriously injured, but in the wreckage of the vehicle the firemen had discovered at least two bodies burnt beyond recognition. With a sigh she closed the file and stowed her notes in a drawer. The prospect of crawling around in a muddy field didn’t thrill her.

* * *



The wind howled around the barn, whistled through the roof beams and shook the barn door as if demanding entry. It didn’t bother Tobias Sartorius. That afternoon he had spoken on the phone with a real estate agent and set up an appointment for him to look at the property next Wednesday. By then the barnyard, barn, and the old stables had to be in tiptop shape. He began flinging old tires one after another onto the bed of the trailer. They were stacked by the dozens in a corner of the barn; his father had used them to weigh down the tarps over the haystacks and rolls of straw out in the field. Now there were no more rolls of hay or straw, and car tires were nothing but rubbish.

All day long the shadow of a fleeting memory had been haunting him; it was driving Tobias crazy that he couldn’t recall what it was. In the garage last night, one of his friends had said something that triggered a sudden association in him, but the memory was submerged somewhere in the depths of his consciousness and refused to be lured to the surface, no matter how hard he tried. Breathless, he stopped for a moment to wipe his forearm across his sweaty brow. He felt a cold breeze and turned around when he caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. He gave a start.

Three figures in dark clothes and wearing menacing masks had entered the barn. One of them slid shut the heavy iron bolt on the door. They stood there mute, fixing their gaze on him through the eye slits of their ski masks. The baseball bats in their gloved hands betrayed their intentions. Adrenaline shot through Tobias’s body from the tips of his hair to his toes. He had no doubt that two of the men were the ones who had knocked down Amelie. They had come back to get their real target, which was him. He started backing away and thought feverishly how he could escape from the three men. There was no window in the barn, no back door. But there was a ladder that led up to the empty hayloft. It was his only chance. He forced himself not to look over at it, so as not to reveal his plan to the three men. Despite the panic rising inside him he managed to stay calm. He had to get to the ladder before they were on him.

They were still about twenty feet away when he took off. In seconds he was at the ladder, climbing as fast as he could. A blow from one of the bats struck his calf with full force. He felt no pain, but his left leg instantly went numb. With clenched teeth he kept climbing, but one of his pursuers was not much slower, grabbing his foot and pulling on it. Tobias held on to the rungs of the ladder and kicked at the man with his free foot. He heard a muffled cry of pain and felt the hand around his ankle let go. The ladder swayed and suddenly he grabbed at thin air and almost lost his hold. Three rungs were missing! He glanced down, feeling like a cat perched on a naked tree trunk with three bloodthirsty rottweilers at his heels. Somehow he reached the next rung and pulled himself up with all his might; the numb leg tingled and was no help at all. Finally he reached the hayloft. Two of the guys were climbing up after him, but the third had vanished.

Tobias looked around frantically in the dim light of the hayloft. The ladder was bolted to the wooden planks, so it was impossible to tip over. He hobbled as fast as he could to the lowest point of the roof and pressed his hand up against the roof tiles. One of them loosened, then a second one. He kept looking back over his shoulder. The head of his first pursuer appeared over the edge of the loft. Damn! The hole in the roof was much too small for him to squeeze through. When he had realized the senselessness of his efforts, he ran over to the hatch; the trailer full of car tires was parked underneath. With the courage of desperation he made the leap. One of the pursuers turned around on the ladder and climbed hurriedly back down like a big black spider. Tobias slid down to the ground, ducking into the shadows under the trailer. He tentatively felt his way along the ground, cursing his mania for cleaning up. There was nothing lying around that he could use as a weapon to defend himself. His heart hammered against his chest and he paused for a second, then bet everything on one card and took off running.