Dead Woods - maria c. poets Page 0,23

received several blows to the head, but with different objects. Two of the knocks were probably done with a thick club—

they did no damage. Just scratches. At least three blows were done with a hard, blunt object, maybe a steel pipe or something similar, and one of them was deadly.” Hanno expertly skipped over the medical termi-nology that was not directly relevant. “He has one more injury, a tear of a small artery in the left scrotum that caused significant swelling.” He grimaced. “Not life threatening, but extremely painful.”

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“In other words, someone gave him a mighty kick in the balls,”

clarified Sebastian.

“Who was kicked in the balls?” Lina asked from the door. “You?”

“Philip Birkner,” Hanno said before briefly reiterating to Lina

what he had told his colleagues.

“Anything else?” Max asked.

“Nothing else. Birkner was in the best of health, seems to have

worked out regularly and watched his diet. No illnesses. All internal organs and lab results that Sotny has evaluated so far are negative.

However, he had a blood alcohol level of .18 at the time of death.”

“That squares with what the servers at the Waldschänke told us,”

Lina said.

“He had eaten a salami pizza, most of which he vomited, though.

It’s about four to five hours between the meal and Birkner’s death.”

Hanno looked at Lina. “Do you know when he ate the pizza? Did they

mention anything at the Waldschänke?”

Lina only had to think for a moment. “His food arrived shortly

before the band began to play, around a quarter to eight. That means he died between a quarter to twelve and a quarter to one.” She cleared her throat. “Did the unknown woman from the Waldschänke come

forward?”

Hanno shook his head and Sebastian shrugged. No response, even

though local television and newspapers had reported about the case

exhaustively since the previous night.

“She either didn’t hear about it or she’s the one who did it,” con-

cluded Sebastian.

“You mean the woman from the joint could have beaten Birkner

to death?” Hanno said, looking interested.

“Why not? Maybe he gave her the brush-off once and she was out

for revenge. She throws herself at him at the concert, lures him into the woods, kicks him in the balls, and then hits him—first with a club and then with something harder.” Sebastian looked at Lina with a sneer. “I 58

Dead Woods

hear there are women like that, who greatly dislike it if one doesn’t pay them sufficient attention.”

“Apparently there’re also women who successfully foil rapists,”

Lina said without avoiding Sebastian’s gaze. Everyone present had seen Sebastian hit on Lina two years ago, when she first joined the team.

He only stopped when Lina tore him to pieces at a self-defense course they both had to attend. He was limping for three days afterward. Ever since, he had been her dogged enemy.

Before Sebastian could respond, Max said quietly, “But how does

that account for the multiple tracks? And don’t forget, the woman had a lot to drink, too.”

Sebastian was about to say something, but Hanno interrupted.

“Max, what about Tanja Fischer?”

Shaking his head, Max said, “Unable to reach her, by phone or in

person. I went to her apartment again this morning—talked to a neighbor. She said that Frau Fischer is often gone for several days. Business trips, most likely.” Max scanned his notes. “She describes Tanja Fischer as slender and of medium height, early to midthirties, wears glasses.”

“Hm,” responded Hanno. “That would fit the description of the

woman in the Waldschänke, no?” he asked Lina.

“Yes, but it’s also true for approximately thirty percent of Hamburg’s women,” she replied.

Hanno sighed. “We’ll have to keep looking. Sebastian, what’s the

news from the subway stations?”

“We just received the tapes from the surveillance cameras,”

Sebastian said. One could hear that he was still upset. “I’ll look at them right away.”

“Good.” Hanno looked at Max and Lina. “And what about this

Jensen? Why did you bring him in? Did he confess?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but he can’t remember what he was

doing Thursday night. And he accused Philip Birkner of ruining him.”

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Max summarized what had happened at Jensen’s house. After hesitat-

ing a moment, he told them about Jensen’s attempted escape.

Hanno frowned. “So you left a suspect unattended?”

“Hanno, the man had a tremendous hangover and could hardly

keep his eyes open. And the bathroom was on the second floor.” Max

drew a deep breath. “I simply wanted to give him a chance to pull himself together before we brought him in.”

Hanno shook his head. “You are way too soft for this job,” he said,

and it was only partly a joke.

“Better too soft than too hard,” Max said quietly.

A short