Dead Woods - maria c. poets Page 0,43
that a sweet little Aaron’s rod was soiled.”
“And what about the unknown woman from the Waldschänke?
What about her?” Max said, voicing his doubts.
“She was scared shitless and beat it,” Sebastian replied.
Hanno looked at Sebastian. “Well, you’re on that lead anyway. Get
the names of the youngsters from the station and bring them in.”
Sebastian’s grin was so obnoxious that Lina felt like slapping his
face. “Just to bring them down a peg or two. Even if they have nothing to do with it. A prophylactic measure.”
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Lina rolled her eyes and noticed that Max was frowning as well, but
neither of them said anything. After all, one couldn’t completely rule out that some adolescent punks had something to do with Birkner’s
death, even though she doubted it. She just hoped that Sebastian would follow proper procedure when dealing with them, but she wouldn’t bet on it.
“Now, then,” Hanno said. “We’re looking for at least three people,
one of whom executed the deadly blow. Leaving the juveniles aside
for a moment, we’ve encountered three people in the dead man’s sur-
roundings so far who might fit: Tanja Fischer, Katja Ansmann, and
Frank Jensen.”
“The last two know each other,” Lina said slowly. “Some tracks at
the crime scene could be tied to Katja Ansmann since she wears size
41 shoes, and the size 44 fits Frank Jensen. However, so far we haven’t found any shoes we can directly tie to the scene of the crime.”
“It’s easy to make shoes disappear in any old garbage can,” said
Alex.
“Has forensics told us more about the shoes yet, other than the
sizes?” Hanno asked. “What brand, how old they are . . .?”
Max scanned his notes. “The size 41 shoes are most likely sturdy
hiking boots, good quality. The soles are in good shape, so they’re either new or were recently resoled.”
“Brand?”
“Our colleagues are still working on that, comparing them with
their collection. The size 43 shoes are an old, shabby pair. The left heel’s more run-down, but the difference from the right isn’t large enough to suspect that the owner limps. Simple soles, little profile left, probably cheap mass production. It’ll take a while to find out who made them.”
“And the third prints?”
“Flat casual shoes with rubber soles, well worn. Equally well worn
at the heels, so one can assume the owner tends to shuffle a bit. The 109
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forensics guys found tiny leather scraps that might belong to these
shoes. Ruby-colored.”
“Ruby men’s shoes?” Sebastian frowned.
“Why not?” Max dropped the papers on the table in front of him.
“Frank Jensen could have worn ruby loafers and Katja Ansmann hik-
ing boots.”
“Expensive and of good quality,” Lina added. “If Katja Ansmann
were ever to wear anything less elegant than pumps, it would have to be some kind of high-tech shoes of superb quality. The latest ‘in’ thing.”
“And what about Jensen? Does he have a shuffling gait?” Hanno
asked.
Max and Lina looked at each other. “It’s possible. He wasn’t very
snappy when we took him along on Saturday, but that might have been
the result of his hangover.”
“But how does it all fit together?” Alex thought out loud when
everyone was quiet for a moment. “We could come up with plausible
motives for the domestic partner and the former employee, but not
for their working together, am I right? Jensen motivated by revenge, Ansmann by greed.”
“Maybe Ansmann hired Jensen,” suggested Sebastian. “Maybe she
knew the condition her partner’s former staff member was in, and the way you describe the woman, she’d never get her own hands dirty.”
“Hm,” responded Hanno, visibly doubtful. “What do you think?”
he asked Lina and Max, the only two present who knew both Katja
Ansmann and Frank Jensen. Both were pensive and slowly shook their
heads in sync, so that they resembled for a moment those nodding
dachshunds one occasionally sees on the rear window shelves of cars.
“But how does the unknown woman from the Waldschänke fit in
with all that?” Max said finally.
“Maybe that was Ansmann’s lover,” Alex speculated. “She picks up
Philip Birkner, lures him into the forest, and there Frank Jensen kills him.”
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Max laughed. “State councilor for economic affairs serves as decoy
in murder! Great headline.” He shook his head. “Sorry, but I simply
can’t see it.”
“She’s also too tall for that,” Lina added. “The descriptions for the woman in the Waldschänke—no matter how disparate they may be—
don’t match Evelyn Riemann at all.”
“It’s possible the unknown woman is one of the people hired by
Katja Ansmann to kill her partner,” Hanno suggested. “But why three
of them? One would’ve been enough.”
“Maybe Ansmann didn’t know about the other two.” Alex leaned
forward. “She hired Jensen since she knew he needed the money and
hated Birkner. And he