leaning back in the chair, had his legs crossed, and jiggled his toes. He wore jeans and a light-colored striped shirt. His ash-blond hair hung 183
Maria C. Poets
into his face. His left sock had a small hole in it. Lina had taken out her notepad and was looking around the room. Other than the leather
couch, the chair, a shelf with some books and CDs, and a flatscreen
TV, the room was empty. No curtains or venetian blinds. No carpets
on the parquet floor. No pillows or blankets on the couch. On one wall there were two photos of a very tan Franziska Leyhausen laughing into the camera. Both pictures were taken outside and Franziska’s long dark brown hair fluttered in the wind.
“How well did you know Herr Birkner?” Max asked.
Vogler shrugged. “He was my boss.”
“Did you see each other outside work? Did you invite each other
over, go for drinks after work, or do things like that?” Max pressed.
“No.”
“But you knew each other from school, didn’t you?” Lina asked.
Was she mistaken, or did Vogler hesitate for a tiny moment? “Yes,
but we weren’t close.”
“Nevertheless, you applied for a job at his firm?”
“Pure accident. I was looking for a job and was calling several
software firms. I only found out that Philip was the owner of Inoware when I came for the job interview.”
“Did you also know the girl who was murdered back then, Julia
Munz?” Lina asked, digging deeper.
Daniel Vogler sighed. “Yes, but also only from afar. We were in the
same class for a year or two.”
“What about Herr Jensen?” Max asked. “How well do you know
him?”
“Not any better. I’m not very sociable. I like to be left alone.”
“No private conversations? Nothing he shared with you one time
or another?”
With knit brow Vogler said, “What do you mean by that? Maybe
that he messed up the software for Wesseling & Kröger on purpose?”
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He laughed a hollow laugh. “He was stupid, but not that stupid. If he was involved, he wouldn’t have told me, that’s for sure.”
Lina looked up from her pad. “So you’re saying you consider Herr
Jensen capable of such sabotage?”
Daniel Vogler grimaced mockingly. “You don’t have to be especially
intelligent to do that. Even he could have done it—or he just messed up and someone else seized the opportunity.” He put both feet on the floor and bent forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “I know that this sounds inconsiderate, but that’s always been my problem. I just tell it like it is. He might not want to hear it, but Frank Jensen is no more than a mediocre programmer. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised that he messed up. The project was way over his head.”
“But it would have been a piece of cake for you?” Max asked.
“Yes,” he replied. There was no doubt, at least not in his mind.
“Do you think your former colleague would have been capable of
creating the mistake on purpose?”
“No idea. I never thought about it.”
“How did Birkner and Jensen get along?” Max asked.
“Quite well, I think.”
“When it became known that there was a mistake in the soft-
ware—what happened then?”
“Philip freaked out. He gave Frank hell in front of the entire team.
Frank spent half the day in the john because he couldn’t stop puking.
He was whining that it wasn’t him, but Philip didn’t believe him and threw him out—even before he officially went bust.”
Lina pensively fidgeted with her pencil. “Is it true that other than Herr Jensen, Herr Birkner, and you, nobody had access to the source
code?”
Daniel Vogler laughed. “Have you ever heard of hackers? A good
hacker could have done all kinds of things without anyone being the
wiser.”
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Lina looked around the spacious room. While the furnishings were
not very comfortable, it was obvious that the apartment couldn’t have been cheap.
“How about you? Did anyone ever suspect you of manipulating
the code?” Max asked.
“Sure, of course,” Vogler replied with a shrug. “Frank accused me,
but Philip didn’t take him seriously. Besides, I wasn’t even at work when it all happened. I was on vacation.”
“So one can determine the exact time when the code was manipu-
lated?” Max asked, surprised.
“Of course,” Vogler declared with a condescending look. “Each
access to the data was recorded. And the log showed that it was Frank who messed with the program code.”
What was it about hackers? Hadn’t Vogler just said himself that
nobody would have noticed if a good hacker had played around with
the data? Looking around the room again, Lina focused on the two