Dead Woods - maria c. poets Page 0,85

Poets

intercom was hesitant, but when she heard who wanted to speak with

her, she clicked the door open.

Their apartment was on the third floor. Frau Birkner was waiting

for them in the doorway. Lina could hear television voices in the background—it seemed to be a talk show—but otherwise the apartment

was quiet.

“Who’s here?” Lukas Birkner shouted.

“The woman from Major Crimes and someone else,” his wife

responded.

Max introduced himself politely and showed his badge. “May we

come in? We would like to ask your husband some questions about his

brother’s school years.”

The woman let them in reluctantly and went to the living room

ahead of them. Light pine furniture, a seating set with burgundy upholstery, friendly curtains without net liners, and flowers on the windowsills. A toy bulldozer lay on one of the chairs and a children’s book on the sofa. Frau Birkner collected them and self-consciously held them in her hands. “The children are with my sister,” she said softly, “so Lukas can . . .”

Without paying attention to her, her husband got up from the sofa

and turned the television off with the remote control.

“Did you find my brother’s murderer?” he asked by way of a

greeting.

“No, not yet, Herr Birkner,” Max answered calmly. “We are right

now looking for old schoolmates of your brother and hope you might

help us along.”

Lina and Max sat down on the two chairs, while the Birkners let

themselves sink onto the couch.

“Is it true that your brother was in the same clique as Julia Munz,

who was later killed?” Max asked.

“Philip had nothing to do with her death,” Birkner snapped at

them. He put a hand on his wife’s knee, but it wasn’t a tender gesture.

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Max chose his words carefully. “I didn’t imply that he did, Herr

Birkner. We are currently simply interested in students with whom

your brother had contact then, who his friends were, and possibly who he might have quarreled with.”

“Philip had no arguments with anyone,” Birkner replied as fast as

before. “He was liked by everyone.”

Lina saw that Sonja Birkner frowned briefly. Her husband didn’t

notice.

Without responding to the remark, Max asked patiently, “Did you

also belong to your brother’s clique?”

“Of course I did. Philip and I were very close and often did things

together with the clique.”

“Who else belonged to it?”

“Christian Bischoff, Maike Haubach, Miriam Haase.” He thought

for a moment. “Björn joined us on occasion. Björn Boysen, Miriam’s

friend. But that was the nucleus; others joined in every now and then.”

“Was Daniel Vogler one of the people who occasionally joined in?”

“Daniel Vogler? That guy?” Lukas laughed briefly and smacked

his hand on his wife’s knee, as if someone had made a bad joke. “Julia would never have tolerated that guy in the clique.”

Max tilted his head. “Why not?”

Birkner shrugged. “He just didn’t fit in with us. You know, we par-

tied all the time. Something was always happening; we had tons of fun.

Daniel, he was such a geek. He constantly sat in front of his computer instead of spending the afternoon with friends.” He grimaced. “Julia lived on the same street as he did, so it was inevitable that they sometimes walked to school together in the morning. She tried sometimes

to have a conversation with him, but he simply wasn’t able to open his mouth. As I said, a nerd.”

Sonja Birkner got up abruptly, mumbled an excuse, and left the

room.

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Lina followed her with her eyes, but Lukas Birkner didn’t seem

to notice his wife’s reaction. Max nodded slowly, as if he understood completely what Birkner had just described.

“Did you know that Herr Vogler was employed by your brother’s

company?”

It was the first time Lukas Birkner seemed rattled. “At Inoware?

No, Philip never told me that. But sure, he never thought about any-

thing other than computers, our little math genius.”

“Math genius?” Max asked.

“Yes. Daniel skipped two grades. He was some kind of super brai-

niac. You know, a champion in math and physics, but a loser when it

came to sports.” He rolled his eyes. “He was in my class for a couple of years. You can’t imagine how our teachers constantly portrayed him as a shining example, especially after he won one of those math competi-tions. Just awful.” He shrugged. “And he landed in my brother’s firm?

How funny is that?” But Lina could see that it gnawed at him, not to have known about it. He, his brother’s confidant.

“Can you remember the names of some students who were friends

with Daniel Vogler?” Max asked.

“No idea. I don’t think he had any friends.” Lukas Birkner shrugged.

“He liked to stay by himself. He isolated himself most of the time.”

“The party, the one after which Julia