straight in the eye. “As I said already, Philip was after sex. And when he no longer got it from me to the extent he wanted it, he surely must have turned to other women.” She shrugged. “It was like that before, too, when we were first together.” She blushed as if she had spilled the beans. “Well, when I thought we had a stable relationship. He cheated on me once or twice then, maybe more. He didn’t even deny it.” She
pressed her lips together until they were nothing but a thin line.
Lina let it go. It was enough for her to know that Philip hadn’t
been one to say no to a one-night stand and had no problem finding
women for it. Who knows what stories he used to tell them . . . or what the women chose to hear.
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Maria C. Poets
“One more question, Frau Fischer: If you can’t imagine that Frank
Jensen doctored the software at Inoware, who’s your suspect?”
Tanja Fischer hesitated for a moment. She was well aware of the
possible ramifications of her answer. “Daniel Vogler,” she finally said but added quickly, “I mean, who else is there? Philip wasn’t going to ruin his own company and if it wasn’t Frank, only Daniel remains.
They were the only computer scientists at the company who had access to the database.”
“And you think he’s capable of industrial espionage on such scale—
as opposed to Frank Jensen? Why?” Lina asked.
Tanja Fischer frowned. “That’s a good question. I didn’t like him.
He’s very full of himself and thinks he knows more than you. He
doesn’t seem to care what other people think of him, and he can be
rather brusque.” She shrugged. “Quite a nerd, really. Superintelligent, a computer freak—and an absolute catastrophe when it comes to social interactions.”
Driving back to police headquarters, Lina pondered what she had
just found out. Tanja Fischer had confirmed her suspicion that Philip Birkner was by no means the nice boy next door, adored by everyone. Instead, he seemed to have been a man who used his considerable charm to get what he wanted, and who would drop anyone without
a second thought when he didn’t need that person anymore. He was
a man whom women found attractive, and he didn’t seem to care if a
woman was already in a relationship. Maybe somebody was upset with
Philip for coming on to his wife. Could it be a murder out of jealousy?
It wouldn’t be the first one in the history of mankind.
Waiting at a traffic light, Lina took a bite of the sandwich she had bought on the way. Her thoughts wandered to the matter of the data
theft. Why had Philip Birkner immediately accused Frank Jensen?
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Dead Woods
Had he even considered that it could also have been this other col-
league, Daniel Vogler? Jensen had hinted that it could have been
Birkner himself, but Lina, like Tanja Fischer, thought this unlikely.
Who would ruin his own company, which was apparently set to
become a gold mine, by trying to make money through industrial
espionage—especially when there was a rich girlfriend in the back-
ground? Lina shook her head. No, that was nonsense.
Sitting in a traffic jam in Eppendorf, she remembered that Lukas
Birkner’s office was somewhere in the neighborhood. She looked for
the address in her notebook, made two right turns, and parked soon
afterward on a small side street. Maybe she could find out more from him about his brother’s friends, especially his girlfriends.
There was light in the small store that served as Lukas Birkner’s
office. A simple sign saying “Insurance Agency” and Birkner’s name
was stuck to the window, together with the logo of a large insurance conglomerate. The first room served as the reception area, one door led to a back office, and a second one to another office facing the street.
Everything looked gloomy and shabby, maybe due to the dark office
furniture or the shabby gray carpeting that still showed the impression of desks that used to stand there years ago. A well-groomed woman
sat in front of a computer in the first room. Lina guessed her to be in her early thirties. She was pale and had dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn’t had enough sleep lately. Her gray pullover and black skirt suggested she might have known Philip Birkner and was honoring his
memory.
When Lina entered, she looked up and said, “I’m sorry. We’re
closed.”
Lina introduced herself and asked to talk to Lukas Birkner.
“My husband just left to see a client,” the woman said and sighed.
“He insisted on being taken care of despite what happened to Philip.”