morning when she was just seemingly awake. She checked her watch.
Eight fifteen. Franziska Leyhausen was supposed to have been here at eight, but the doorman hadn’t called yet to announce her. Lina and
Alex were going to interrogate her once more today, this time in one of the rooms with video and audio equipment. Alex had already put
his head through the door and asked whether Lina had heard from the
witness. She hadn’t.
He popped in again, and when Lina told him she had neither
heard from nor seen Frau Leyhausen, he tried to reach her by phone.
“Good morning. This is Franziska Leyhausen’s phone. Please leave a
message or call my mobile phone at . . .”
Dead Woods
It just so happened that the cell phone, destroyed almost beyond
repair, lay in the forensics lab and thus could tell them nothing about the current whereabouts of the woman.
“I can’t believe it! She was supposed to be here twenty minutes
ago.” With a stern expression, he added, “That’s unacceptable.”
Lina looked at her colleague with tiny, tired eyes. “Leave me alone.
I was on time!” He was acting as if it was her fault when other people sleep in, when she herself had to struggle to get out of bed on time.
Alex calmed down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you at all. I’ll send a
patrol car for her.” He disappeared into his office and left Lina alone.
She put down the coffee cup, yawned, pulled the keyboard closer,
and signed in. She entered Franziska Leyhausen’s name, but didn’t get more information than last night. Thirty-four years old, single, one arrest three years ago in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in connection with an incident involving a train carrying nuclear waste. No charges and no sentence. Last year she got a ticket for doing thirty-seven kilometers an hour in a thirty-kilometer zone—on her bike.
Lina leaned back and wiped her face. She didn’t care what her
colleagues thought. She did not believe the biologist had anything to do with Philip Birkner’s death. Well, that wasn’t completely true. If she had not suggested the walk in the forest, if she hadn’t kicked him in the balls and then left him alone on the damp forest floor, Birkner most likely would still be alive today. But Lina could not imagine that Franziska Leyhausen was the one who beat Birkner to death.
She checked the time on the small clock on the computer. It was
8:27. The patrol car should report in soon.
Lina’s thoughts wandered to Katja Ansmann, who was still on her
list of suspects, especially because the chief of police himself was block-ing the investigation. The life insurance was at least one reason why Katja Ansmann might have wanted to see her domestic partner dead.
And who knows, maybe she was even involved with the data theft. She
puts Jensen or Vogler up to creating a gateway to the software, and she 177
Maria C. Poets
establishes contact with the rival company—what was it, Markman
Solutions—if it hadn’t existed before. When Philip Birkner figures it out two years later, she has him eliminated.
Invigorated, Lina typed Markman Solutions into the police
search interface. Bingo! The company was already under investigation for industrial espionage, which actually wasn’t that surprising. Lina scanned the sparse information that simply revealed that the victim-ized company, Wesseling & Kröger, had reported its competitor to the police two years ago and that the investigation was still ongoing. A Chief Inspector Marita Schön was listed as the contact person, and her extension was given. Lina picked up the phone and dialed.
“Schön,” said a high, clear voice. Lina had to smile about the
meaning of the name: “beautiful.” How nice to be able to greet everyone that way. She introduced herself, explained what she was looking for, and gave her colleague the file number for the case.
“Just a moment,” she heard and then the clatter of a keyboard.
“Here we are. Markman Solutions, alleged patent theft. What exactly
do you want to know?”
“Did anyone check whether Markman Solutions made payments
to the consulting firm Ansmann?”
“Whew!” Marita Schön exhaled audibly. “I’ve gone through piles
of material, but I’m nowhere near the end.” Lina heard some more
typing. “I’m basically the only one working on it, and it’s not my only case. It might take years. Oh, wait: Ansmann. What do you know?
They do show up as business partners. Hold on.” The receiver was put down and Lina could hear soft music in the background. It took quite a long time, and Lina impatiently tapped her pencil against her notepad. Finally Marita Schön was back. “I have copies of the bills in