Hidden Depths

by Ally Rose

  ‘Funny sort of mother she’d be. Felix, you did the right thing.’

  ‘Tante, surely you can’t mean that? You can’t condone murder.’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘I took the law into my own hands,’ Felix stated. ‘I killed the Musketeers after the fall of the Stasi regime, so what excuse do I have now, living in a democracy?’

  ‘If you hadn’t acted, they would have gone unpunished and continued torturing others with their sordid lives. Felix, you had been traumatised! You’d been through a lot and you were only 17 when you committed these crimes – still a minor, in legal terms.’

  ‘That’s what I told myself,’ Felix admitted. ‘Can you believe it, neither the Musketeers nor their go-between showed any remorse?’

  ‘Well, you get what you deserve out of life and they got what was coming to them. Their downfall was self-inflicted.’

  ‘Will you tell Onkel Klaus?’

  ‘Will you tell Martha?’

  They both shook their heads.

  ‘Do you think the police will catch me?’

  ‘No, course not, but let’s go over it, to settle your mind, and mine. Did you leave any clues?’

  ‘I tried not to but I left my Herbertz knife at the scene of the crime when I was with Lotte Holler and it had my fingerprints on it, although the police don’t have my fingerprints on file. Tante, they’ll be looking for someone who has a boat or a connection to a lake, I’m sure of it.’

  ‘Don’t worry, with all the lakes around here they’ll be looking for a needle in a haystack. But no wonder you didn’t want Onkel Bernd’s knife!’ Ingrid ventured. ‘How many of them saw your face?’

  ‘Two of the Musketeers saw my face.’

  ‘They don’t count any more. But what about this coma woman?’

  ‘No. I kept my balaclava on,’ Felix told her.

  ‘Good. She’s the only one who can help the police now but it’s a long time ago and hopefully nothing will be fresh in her mind after 12 years in a coma.’

  ‘I was a coward. I couldn’t show her my face.’

  Ingrid shook her head. ‘You’re not a coward. It’s good that she won’t recognise you.’

  Felix grew agitated and started rubbing his hands.

  ‘For God’s sake, leave your hands alone!’ Ingrid pleaded.

  Felix put his hands on his head and began to cry in frustration.

  Ingrid was concerned. ‘It’s all right, everything will be all right,’ she said softly.

  ‘Do you know why I couldn’t tell Lotte Holler who I was? Because Felix Waltz died a long time ago, and as Felix Baum, I’m alive again.’

  ‘Felix, you have to calm down,’ Ingrid begged him. ‘Think of Peonie, Martha and the new baby. Please, focus on them.’

  There’s usually just one person in life to whom we can show our weaknesses, someone who offers the nearest thing to unconditional love. Ingrid had become that person for Felix. He could cry in her arms like a little boy and feel safe.

  ‘OK, you’re right. I’m a husband and a father and my family needs me to stay strong. Tante, you’ve been a second mother to me,’ he told her.

  ‘Felix, your mother would have wanted me to look out for you and whatever happens, we’re your family and we’ll stick by you,’ vowed Ingrid.

  Chapter Twenty-six: A Betrayed Wife

  INA SELGE WAS AN attractive woman approaching 50. Her husband Harald Plaumann went missing about the same time as the paedophile ring was broken and once the police searches for him had ground to an inconclusive halt, Harald became persona non grata in her family. He may not have been found guilty but there was guilt by association, and Ina quickly reverted to her maiden name, changed her children’s surnames and applied for a divorce in his absence.

  Ina had not remarried but enjoyed a relationship with an old flame called Dieter. They were happy together, yet both preferred living separately in the Schonefeld area south of Berlin. When her children were younger, Ina felt they needed the stability of the same school and friends, especially after the press first got wind of the story and labelled her guilty just for being his wife. She moved to the other side of town where she’d lived ever since and her family and friends protected her and the children, closing ranks against outsiders.

  It was a modern and immaculately kept home. Photos of her children adorned the walls. Her son, Peter, now 20, was away at university and her daughter Marie, just turned 16, was away on a school ski trip. Ina ran an online shopping service and worked from home. At 9.30 a.m. her doorbell rang. When she opened her door, Stefan Glockner and Hanne Drais were standing there, sheltered from the gusty winds.

  ‘Ina Selge?’ Glockner asked, showing his police identification.

  Ina looked at his ID. ‘Yes?’

  ‘I’m Detective Glockner and this is my colleague, Hanne Drais. May we come in?’

  Ina opened the door and beckoned them in. ‘It’s not my children, is it? She was worried now. ‘There’s not been any bad news about my children?’

  ‘No. Not at all,’ Hanne said, reassuringly.

  ‘Have you by any chance seen the emerging news from Muggelsee?’ Stefan asked.

  Ina nodded. ‘They’ve pulled three bodies out of the lake.’

  ‘It’s about your ex-husband,’ Glockner began. ‘Dental records have confirmed that one of the bodies is that of Harald Plaumann.’

  Ina slumped into a chair. ‘I see.’

  ‘I’m sorry. Is there anyone you’d like to be here with you?’ Hanne asked.

  ‘No, I’m fine. As next of kin, will I have to make a formal identification?’

  ‘That won’t be necessary. We’re treating his death as a homicide,’ Glockner stated. ‘In fact, all three men pulled out of Muggelsee yesterday were murdered.’

  ‘I didn’t think Harald had killed himself,’ Ina said. ‘He was far too vain. I believe he left me and the children because he’d been found out and fled the country.’

  Hanne thought Ina’s bitterness towards her husband was justified. ‘We’ve some of your late husband’s personal belongings – a sports watch and a silver crucifix.’

  ‘The crucifix was a present from his mother and he hung it on the driver’s mirror so she’d notice it from time to time and he wouldn’t have to wear it,’ Ina explained. ‘But I don’t want any of Harald’s keepsakes.’

  ‘I understand,’ Hanne replied.

  ‘How was he murdered?’ Ina asked.

  Glockner gave her the facts. ‘He was taken to Muggelsee by force and after a struggle his car was driven into the water where he drowned.’

  Ina showed no emotion. ‘He was my husband and the father of my children and we had 10 happy years together, or so I thought,’ Ina told them. ‘But Harald was living a lie.’

  ‘Is it OK if we go over the evidence that you gave in 1992?’ Stefan asked.

  ‘Of course. I’ve only kept one thing – the message Harald sent to me on an old mobile phone the night he disappeared, because it had vital information that helped the police. I’ll go and get it. Can I get you both a drink?’

  ‘A pot of coffee would be nice, thank you,’ Hanne suggested.

  In due course, Ina returned with refreshments and her old mobile, a Nokia 101, the lightest and innovative mobile phone of its time and massively produced in 1992. ‘I’ll have to charge the battery so you can read the text but it won’t take long,’ she said, and after they’d drunk their coffee, Ina passed the mobile so Hanne could read the text message.

  ‘Darling Ina,

  I have to get away as news is about to break and the police will come after me for what I did as a warden at Torgau. I sexually abused the kids. Tell no one. I’ve got to lie low. I’m sorry. Kiss my children for me.

  Your loving husband, Harald

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Hanne told Ina. ‘Receiving that must have ripped your world apart.’

  Ina nodded, tears in her eyes. ‘I didn’t want to believe it at first but when he didn’t return and the police
turned up looking for him, the only thing that mattered to me was finding out if Harald had touched our children. Can you imagine? I had to ask them and put them through something like that! I’m angry at myself for not seeing past his façade, and for not protecting my children but we had a very lucky escape. Harald never touched his own children.’

  Delighted to hear this, Hanne passed the mobile to Glockner, who stayed uncharacteristically quiet while reading the text.

  ‘And now, after hating him for living a lie and turning our whole family life into a lie, and doing that to other people’s children, all I feel nothing for him,’ added Ina.

  Glockner suddenly spoke up. ‘Harald sent you this text at 9.15 p.m. on the night of 16thNovember 1992. We didn’t find his mobile at the scene of the crime which leads us to question whether Harald actually sent the text himself or it was sent by the man who killed him.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter who sent it. Harald was found guilty in his absence when some abused kids from Torgau gave evidence against him as part of a trial of another paedophile warden from Torgau,’ said Ina. ‘The truth is clear for all to see, my ex-husband was a paedophile and this young man who killed Harald was most likely abused at Torgau too.’

  ‘We think so,’ Hanne admitted. ‘And if the man who killed your husband and the others sent you the text, he was telling us about his motives and why he murdered them.’

  Ina furrowed her brow. ‘Then you have a very clever killer, because he helped you catch a paedophile ring.’

  Hanne agreed. ‘Yes. He can be viewed either as a vigilante hero or a psychotic villain.’

  ‘Were the other men found at Muggelsee sick bastards too?’ Ina asked.

  ‘Yes, they were his ex-colleagues at Torgau and they suffered the same fate, death by homicidal drowning,’ Glockner said.

  ‘So, a serial killer. I can’t say I blame him, getting his revenge,’ Ina announced. ‘He did me a big favour too.’

  ‘He’s not a hero in my book, he’s a killer and he needs to be caught,’ Glockner stated grimly.

  Hanne didn’t offer an opinion about Marine Boy and instead said, ‘We need a profile of Harald – who he was and who he mixed with – clues to help us catch the Muggelsee killer.’

  Ina thought for a moment then reluctantly recalled some details. ‘His life with the children and me was obviously a cover for his other life. I imagine Harald got up to all sorts when he went on trips with his Torgau pals and I never suspected a thing, but it all made sense once he’d disappeared.’

  Hanne was intrigued. ‘Trips? What sort of trips and with whom?’

  ‘His friends, Horst and Gunther. Horst had a motor home and they travelled all over the country in it. They were fishing and hunting trips, so they said, but now I’m sure they hunted kids to abuse. I’ve never heard from those two again and I’m wondering if they are linked to Harald’s disappearance?’ Ina asked.

  Hanne and Stefan looked at one another and wondered what Kruger would say and if it were prudent to tell Ina that Horst and Gunther were the other two bodies recovered from Muggelsee. They decided she merited hearing the truth.

  Glockner broke the news. ‘We’d like you to hear it from us, before the media gets hold of any information. The other two bodies pulled from Muggelsee were Harald’s friends, Horst Gwisdek and Gunther Schukrafft.’

  Chapter Twenty-seven: Recompense

  LOTTE HOLLER HAD BEEN unwell. She had caught a bad dose of flu and Julia worried it would turn into pneumonia. Dr Roth quarantined his patient and the hospital staff, including Julia, wore protective masks when attending to her.

  Julia’s sons had yet to meet their Tante Lotte and their inaugural meeting was tentatively on hold. The interviews with criminal psychologist Hanne Drais were also postponed until Lotte recovered.

  After a few weeks of lying in bed, reading and watching television, Lotte gradually recovered her strength. She was eager to get back into the gym to exercise and swim in the hydrotherapy pool. She enjoyed her daily regime of physiotherapy but not the long, psychological rehabilitation. She didn’t need the ‘psychobabble talks’, as she called them, with the hospital’s team of psychologists. She found the sessions laborious but endured them because she knew it was expected of her and worried that if she didn’t comply she wouldn’t be allowed to begin her life outside the hospital walls.

  The days grew longer and the scent of spring was just around the corner. Lotte began to walk without a Zimmer frame or walking stick, albeit slowly, and those who visited her were no longer required to wear protective masks.

  Much to Lotte’s chagrin, Julia and Dr Roth decided the television from Lotte’s room should be removed until she had fully recovered from the ‘flu that had devastated her vulnerable immune system. Protecting her from journalists eager for news of her progress, and thus avoiding any disturbing information such as the three bodies discovered at Muggelsee, was paramount. They also decided to keep the daily newspapers out of sight, so she didn’t have access to them.

  One morning before Dr Roth’s rounds, Martin, Lotte’s favourite nurse, came in to check her blood pressure pushing a refreshments trolley.

  ‘Sleep well?’ Martin asked.

  Lotte nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. I’m a bit bored without television and newspapers, but it’s Dr Roth’s orders.’

  Martin’s hospital beeper sent a message and he stopped to read it. ‘Got to pop out but I’ll be back shortly,’ he said, leaving his trolley. He’d forgotten he’d left a newspaper on the bottom shelf, and Lotte took a sneaky look. Though the Musketeers had been discovered over a month ago, the Muggelsee killings were still being written about and she was furious to read that her former colleagues, the Three Musketeers, had been murdered and nobody had told her. Lotte’s temper rose quickly. She threw her shoes across the room and screamed. ‘Scheisse !’

  Later that morning, Julia arrived with a fresh bouquet of flowers. She kissed and hugged her sister warmly and asked. ‘Good morning. Sleep well?’

  Lotte was livid. ‘Don’t you good morning me! I’ve heard about the Muggelsee murders! I told you that sick bastard had done it. Why didn’t you tell me? Get that policewoman, what’s her name? Hanne, Hanne, Drais. I want to talk to her.’

  Julia tried to placate her sister. ‘Jonas and I felt it best that we didn’t tell you straight away because you’ve been so ill. And we were right, look how it’s upset you.’

  ‘Oh, it’s Jonas and I, now, is it?’ Lotte said cynically. ‘How dare you? I’ll decide for myself. I don’t want to live in a cocoon and lose touch with the outside world.’

  Julia didn’t enjoy seeing her sister in a state. ‘Lotte, please try and calm down.’

  ‘Julia, I’ve got to get out of this place before he finds out I’m in here! That Torgau boy will come after me.’

  Julia thought her sister was showing signs of paranoia. ‘Don’t be silly. The wards are policed and we’ll ask for police protection once you leave hospital.’

  Lotte cried. ‘But I’m afraid!’

  Julia held her sister’s hand. ‘I know – but it will be all right and with your help the police have found your ex-colleagues, just as you said they would.’

  ‘At the bottom of Muggelsee. You see what he’s capable of?’

  ‘He won’t get near you, I promise. Lotte, Jonas has just told me some good news about the compensation you’re entitled to as a victim of crime. You remember I said after ten years of you being in a coma, I put in a claim – there’s a government rehabilitation scheme for victims of crimes or serious traffic accidents that helps their families too. Well, your claim is being finalised as we speak. It’s calculated from the projected earnings of the victim’s lifetime and the victim’s quality of life, post accident or trauma. Our solicitor has managed to get it inflation-linked. The rehabilitation scheme has advanced us some money and is ready to release the rest in due course.’

  Lotte sat upright. ‘How much?’

  ‘Enough to pay for a year’s rent on a
house overlooking the lake at Wannsee,’ Julia told her, excitedly. ‘You always wanted to live in Wannsee.’

  The news appeased Lotte’s mood a bit. ‘That’s the kind of news I like to wake up to,’ she said in a more cheerful tone.

  ‘Hopefully you can leave hospital before the end of March,’ Julia informed her.

  ‘Is that what you’re saying, or Dr Roth?’

  Julia felt Lotte was envious of her relationship with Jonas. ‘I just happen to agree with him because he knows what’s best for you.’

  Lotte was adamant. ‘I decide what’s best for me! If I don’t get out of here I’ll go mad. I’ll discharge myself.’

  Julia wasn’t going to argue with her sister. ‘Try and relax. Why don’t we go for a walk in the hospital gardens?’

  ‘You and the boys, you will come and live with me, won’t you?’

  ‘Lotte, I can’t just change their schools, they’re happy there. I know it’d be better for them to live in a nice suburb like Wannsee rather than in a rough area like Wedding, but that’s where their school is and where all their friends are.’ Lotte’s voice faltered. ‘I can’t be alone in a big house. We’ll make it nice for them and they can have a boat to go out on the lake – anything they want.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ Julia replied firmly, not wanting to be manipulated by her sister.

  Lotte could see the reticence in Julia’s face. ‘Please Julia… for me?’

  ‘Lotte, we’ll come at weekends at first, you haven’t even met the boys yet. And you need to get better, you need peace and quiet, you’re not used to a pair of rowdy boys, and they have to get used to you.’ Julia was adamant that it would be her decision and the needs of her boys would come first and foremost.

  Calming down a little, Lotte realised what her sister was saying made sense. ‘You know what happened to you in the last 12 years? You grew up and became a mother.’

  Julia smiled at the compliment. ‘Aren’t parents supposed to be grown up? Besides, you’ll see me most days and have professional carers with you for the foreseeable future.’