you doing? Stop it,” she says. As she tries to get
away, her tits bob up and down like crazy. Totally amazing.
“Let go of me! Damn it!” she screams. I’m afraid somebody might
hear us, so I slap her face. I look around, but we’re alone. It’s late.
I’m still holding on to her, and she starts scratching me. Stupid cow!
This slut does it with everyone, but an old friend like me isn’t even allowed to touch her? I slap her again. She kicks me in the shin. My grip tightens.
“Let go of me, you idiot!”
I’m about to slap her again when she starts hitting me. We’re wres-
tling with each other. Even though she’s fucked up, she still knows how to throw a punch. I manage to grab her hair and pull her away from
the path, deeper into the bushes, where there’s no light at all. She tries to scream, but I slap her face again. At one point we stumble and end up on the ground. I’m on top of her with my hands around her wrists.
Face-to-face, I see her eyes glowing in the moonlight. She looks furious but also totally panicked. How cool can this get? I fumble around at my trousers, trying to open the stupid zipper. She’s onto what I’m planning and starts to beg.
“Please,” she says. “Please, no.” She goes on like that for a while, but I know she really wants it. She can’t fool me.
I’m so busy with the damn zipper that I don’t notice that someone
is coming. Two people, a man and a woman. They’re laughing and
quite noisy, but I’m still afraid they might hear us. I can see that, under me, she’s ready to open her mouth and scream, but at the last moment I cover her damn mouth with my hand. She wriggles like crazy. Shit.
It’s not easy covering her mouth when she thrashes around. I punch
her in the face to shut her up. Then my hands are suddenly around
her throat. I really don’t know why. Her skin is smooth and soft, and I remember that it always used to smell so good because she would dab
some of the perfume I bought her behind her ears.
vii
Maria C. Poets
She must have done this today, too, since she smells the way she
used to smell before. No, not like before. Back then she didn’t reek of alcohol, or of fear, or of other guys. It’s the smell of those things that’s too much for me. I’m wild now, blind with anger and throbbing. My
hands tighten on her neck, like I’m trying to wring it out, squeezing out the very last drop. The last drop of what? Of love? Of fear? Fear is reflected in her eyes. They’re little glittering diamonds of fear, drilling into me—and I can’t stop. I’m pressing and pressing and pressing. Oh, man, that’s cool. Mind-blowing!
viii
Chapter 1
It had rained during the night. The ground was still damp, and thick drops glistened on the leaves in the rays of early sunshine. Birds conducted loud conversations, though it was only a few minutes after six in the morning. A steady murmur of traffic noise wafted over from the nearby Autobahn. Trotting along the gravel path next to her colleague, Lina Svenson furtively rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, yearning for a cup of coffee. Max Berg looked very proper with his short black hair, clean jeans, a jacket, and perfectly polished shoes. It was not the first time Lina asked herself how the hell he managed to pull it off.
The white-and-red police tape was fluttering about twenty yards
ahead of them. The uniformed policeman recognized Max and let
them pass. They approached the scene of the crime, where several figures in disposable overalls were carefully searching the ground. Small numbered tags marked the spots where the forensics team had found
something. A technician was taking pictures. The body, barely hid-
den by a few stinging nettles, lay about five yards away from the path.
The body was the reason Lina had been so rudely awakened at such
an ungodly hour. Karl Sotny raised his head when they came closer.
Lina had worked with the coroner several times since she joined the
Maria C. Poets
Hamburg Major Crimes Division. She was glad to see him here today.
He was one of the few colleagues who had never made stupid remarks
about Lina’s height, age, or style—her five-foot body and punk haircut.
Max stopped short and Lina almost ran into him. Sotny came out
of the muddy underbrush and welcomed them with a nod. A strand of