“Well, if you leave the Waldschänke, cross the street and go right.
It’s the path that follows the street for a while.”
Antje Niemann stubbed out her cigarette in an ashtray and pulled
her daughter closer.
“What did she look like? Could you describe the woman?”
“Hm, let me see. On the small side, dark hair, sturdy. She didn’t
pay much attention to how she looked. She didn’t wear any makeup or
anything. And her hair was messed up. She just used a regular rubber band to hold it back.” Then her face lit up. “Now I remember. I’ve seen her before. Yes.”
“You know the woman?”
“No, I don’t know her from Adam, but she’s been at the
Waldschänke before. Wait. The concert was yesterday. It must have
been on Wednesday or Tuesday, noonish. She had a caffe latte and a
sandwich,” Frau Niemann said. She picked up a half-empty bottle of
apple juice spritzer and poured some into a glass that had been used before. “She looked like one of those tree-hugging chicks, in hiking boots, rustic clothes, and a knapsack—you know what I mean. She
wasn’t particularly special.” Antje Niemann shrugged, as if she could not imagine why a man looking like the one in the photo would be
interested in such a woman.
30
Dead Woods
“Was the woman alone on Tuesday or Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
“Did you talk with her?”
“No, just took her order and maybe said, ‘Enjoy’ or something
when I brought the stuff to her. She paid right away. She did leave a tip. I liked that.”
“Did you see her arrive that day? Did she walk? Or did she come
on a bike? In a car?”
Antje Niemann shook her head. “We’re always very busy at noon,
so there’s no time to spy on our guests.”
Contrary to yesterday, Lina thought.
31
Chapter 4
Police headquarters on Bruno-Georges-Platz was a giant, round struc-
ture with ten wings that jutted out so that from above the building
looked like a stiff-legged sun. Max Berg took the elevator to the sixth floor, where the homicide division of the State Criminal Police was
located. Six investigative teams worked in Major Crimes, each with
five members, dealing with all murders and unsolved deaths in met-
ropolitan Hamburg. Max shared an office with Lina and right next to
them, reachable through a connecting door, was the realm of Chief
Inspector Hanno Peters. The next room was shared by Chief Inspectors Alexander Osterfeld and Sebastian Muhl.
Max had just entered his office and removed his jacket when the
phone rang. He saw on the display that it was forensics and picked up the receiver while still standing.
“What have you got for me?” he asked.
“We just noticed something really strange,” Reiner Hartmann
said. “Stefan and Susanne are still out there and just called. Right at the scene of the crime, someone replanted a plant. It seems it was done after the victim had puked on it.”
Dead Woods
Taken aback, Max sat down slowly. “What do you mean ‘replanted
a plant’?”
“I mean that someone dug it up and replanted it away from its
original spot, and did it carefully, by the way. Someone seems to have made an effort. Stefan thinks that the plant was rinsed off before it was replanted.”
“Wait a second—stop! You really want to tell me that someone
runs through the woods in the middle of the night and washes plants?
And then replants them?”
“Sorry. I only tell you what we find. It’s your job to figure out the reasons.”
Max closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “What kind of plant
is it?”
There was a pause. “Well, the two are no experts on green stuff, but we’ll look into it.”
Berg was laughing. “You mean CSI can’t afford a book on the clas-
sification of plants?”
“We have two of those,” Hartmann said, defending his team, “but
we don’t haul them to every crime scene.” He pretended to be insulted.
“Pray forgive me, oh lord of trackers.”
Hartmann was laughing.
Max had just put down the phone when Hanno came to the door.
He looked at Lina’s desk, as he always did. On Lina’s desk, contrary to Max’s, creative chaos reigned, as she called it: scraps of paper, pencils, candy wrappers, and paper cups lay scattered about; papers and folders were stacked in several piles on the table, the windowsill, and even on the floor. Nevertheless, she always found what she was looking for immediately, to the great surprise of her colleagues. For a while, obey-ing Hanno’s order, she had grudgingly brought order to her desk. It
had taken her twice as long to find things during those three weeks.
Hanno finally gave in and allowed her peculiar system.