Snow White Must Die (Bodenstein & Kirchhoff, #4)(70)

Tobias stared mutely into space. With an effort he tried to get his feeling of confusion under control. He clenched and unclenched his fists. What the hell had happened during the hours when he had blacked out?

“They’re going to arrest you,” said Nadia again, though now sounding more controlled. She wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. “You know they will. And then you won’t have a chance.”

She was right, he knew that. Events were repeating themselves in a downright eerie way. Eleven years ago it was Laura’s necklace that was found in the milk room and used as circumstantial evidence to prove his guilt. He felt panic prickling at his spine, and he sank down onto a kitchen chair. No doubt he was the ideal perpetrator. Based on the fact that Amelie’s cell phone was found in his pants pocket they would tie a noose and put it around his neck as soon as he turned himself in. Suddenly the old wound burst open again; like poisonous pus the self-doubt crept through his veins, his body, through every convolution of his brain. Murderer, murderer, murderer! They had said it to him for so long, until he became convinced he had really done it. He looked at Nadia.

“Okay,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I won’t go there. But … what if I really did do it?”

* * *



“Not a word to the press or anyone else about the cell phone,” Bodenstein ordered. All the officers taking part in the house search had gathered under the entrance gate. The rain was pouring down and the temperature had dropped twenty degrees in the past twenty-four hours. The first snowflakes were mixed in with the rain.

“But why?” Behnke protested. “The guy goes and disappears and we stand here like a bunch of idiots!”

“I don’t want to start a witch hunt,” Bodenstein countered. “The mood in the village has been stirred up enough. I’m ordering a total information blackout until I’ve spoken with Tobias Sartorius. Is that clear?”

The men and women nodded; only Behnke crossed his arms in exasperation and shook his head. The humiliation from earlier smoldered inside him like a burning fuse, and Bodenstein knew that. On top of everything else, Behnke had understood exactly what his assignment to secure evidence meant: this degrading treatment was a punishment. Bodenstein had made it clear to him in private how bitterly disappointed he was by Behnke’s breach of trust. In the past twelve years Bodenstein had always generously ironed out any problems that Behnke had provoked because of his explosive temperament. But now, he had explicitly told him, it had to stop. This violation of regulations could not be excused by family problems. Bodenstein hoped that Behnke would follow his orders; otherwise it would no longer be possible to protect him from the threat of suspension.

Oliver turned away and swiftly followed Pia to the car.

“Put out an APB on Tobias Sartorius.” He turned on the engine but didn’t drive off. “Damn, I was so sure that we wouldn’t find any trace of the girl at their farm.”

“You believe he did it, don’t you?” Pia grabbed her phone and called Ostermann. The wipers scraped across the windshield, and the heater fan was on full blast. Bodenstein bit his lip pensively. To be honest, he wasn’t really paying attention. Every time he tried to concentrate on the case, the image of a naked Cosima rolling in the sheets with a strange man leaped into his mind. Had she met the guy yesterday too? When he got home late at night she was already in bed asleep. He had taken the opportunity to check her cell phone, and found that all her call lists and text messages had been deleted. This time he hadn’t felt a single pang of conscience, even when he went through her coat and purse. He had almost given up his suspicions when he discovered in her wallet, stuck between the credit cards, two condoms.

“Oliver!” Pia’s voice startled him out of his reverie. “Kai found a passage in Amelie’s diary where she writes that her neighbor has started waiting for her, to drive her to the bus stop.”

“Yeah, so?”

“The neighbor is Claudius Terlinden.”

Oliver didn’t know where Pia was going with this. He couldn’t think. His mind just couldn’t seem to process the information.

“We have to talk to him,” said Pia with a hint of impatience in her voice. “We don’t know enough yet about the girl’s circle of friends and acquaintances to establish Tobias Sartorius as the only possible perpetrator.”

“Yes, you’re right.” He shifted into reverse and lurched into the street.

“Watch out for the bus!” Pia screamed, but too late. Brakes squealed, metal crashed into metal, and the car was shaken by a violent impact. Oliver’s head was slammed hard against the side window.

“Oh great.” Pia undid her seatbelt and climbed out. Dazed, Oliver looked back over his shoulder and saw through the rain-glazed window the contours of a large vehicle. Something warm was running down his face; he touched his cheek and stared in confusion at the blood on his hand. Only then did he realize what had happened. The thought of getting out in the rain and talking with an angry bus driver in the middle of the street made him sick. Everything made him sick. The door opened.

“Man, you’re bleeding!” Pia’s voice sounded at first shocked, but all of a sudden she burst out in snorting laughter. Behind her on the rainy street a crowd had gathered. Almost every one of their colleagues involved in the house search obviously wanted to inspect the damage to the BMW and the bus.