Hidden Depths

by Ally Rose

Audrey tried the pulling the door open but realised it was locked and bolted from the other side. She saw her rucksack on the armchair and searched frantically for her mobile phone. It was missing. Her watch was there, the one Traudl had given her for her birthday in March: the time was 3 p.m. The last thing Audrey remembered was arriving at Herr Lankwitz’s flat in Berlin that morning. Where had the time gone in between?

  She opened the chest of drawers and found female clothes and lingerie. She rummaged through the skirts, jumpers and negligees. Everything was a size 10 – her own size. Surely that must be a coincidence? A chill shivered up her spine. Hoping that her mobile had fallen under her bed, she saw an old, dusty shoe box and pulled it out. Inside was a stuffed, human foot. Audrey screamed, dropping the box, and the foot tumbled out. Grimacing, she kicked the foot and the box back under her bed. Why was she here? She felt a sudden terror. Had she been abducted?

  At that moment there was a knock. Audrey sat upright, anxiously waiting for the door to be unbolted and unlocked from the other side. Herr Lankwitz came in and flashed his captive prey a smile.

  A handsome man of almost 40, with dark, wavy hair and long eyelashes, he was of average height but had a strong, athletic build. Audrey, on the other hand, was a petite teenager just 5ft 2ins tall.

  ‘Ah! You’re awake,’ he said to her.

  ‘Herr Lankwitz?’

  ‘Please, call me Bruno. I am Bruno Witzig.’

  ‘Where am I? What’s going on?’

  ‘Audrey, thank you for accepting my invitation to come and stay.’

  What could he mean? she thought. She hadn’t said she’d stay with him. And where on earth was she? Had he told her mother he’d taken her away? The thoughts raced through her brain and were replaced by fear. He could only mean her harm…

  ‘Invitation?’ she repeated.

  Witzig smiled. ‘Well, abduction or kidnapping is another way of putting it.’

  Audrey began to cry.

  ‘Now, now, don’t go spoiling that pretty face of yours with tears. Give me a smile. That smile of yours is so gorgeous that the moment I saw it I just knew I had to take the risk. You had to be mine.’

  On impulse, she made a dash for the door, trying to push her kidnapper out of the way, but he blocked her exit and pushed her hard, back onto the bed.

  ‘Let me go!’ cried Audrey. ‘You know my mother works with the police.’

  Witzig was taken aback. He had no idea Audrey’s mother worked with the police. ‘You’re kidding! You told me your mother worked in Kadewe.’

  ‘I always say that, to protect her identity. You’ll never get away with this!’

  Witzig shook his head. ‘Well, it’s too late now. Besides, I have before.’

  ‘You’re crazy!’

  ‘You’re 16, it’s legal now. Are you a virgin?’

  ‘You’re sick!’ cried Audrey, refusing to answer his question.

  ‘Maybe I am crazy and sick, but you will grow to like me. When you feel like being nice to me, I’ll take you outside for some fresh air.’

  ‘Never!’ Audrey snarled.

  ‘Never say never. It’ll be nicer that way, if you decide to be nice to me, then I won’t have to force you.’

  Audrey’s heart was beating so loudly she was surprised it wasn’t audible. She needed time to think and work out a strategy to escape. Don’t cry, she told herself, you don’t want him to know you’re afraid. Then she remembered something her mother told her: when there’s nothing else you can do, show your strength. She took a deep breath.

  ‘They’ll all be looking for me,’ Audrey announced confidently.

  ‘Let them,’ said Witzig. ‘I’ll not go down without a fight. There’s only been one person who managed to find me here and he was a boy from Torgau. Have you heard of a place called Torgau?’

  Audrey nodded. ‘My mother’s involved in a case about a boy from Torgau.’

  Witzig raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? Well, I worked there, though it was a long time ago. One crazy, blue-eyed, orphaned wonderkid from Torgau was on a mission to kill paedophiles, and there were many who fucked with him, literally, including myself.

  ‘By the time he found me a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he’d already killed and disposed of roughly half a dozen of my ex-colleagues,’ Witzig told her, bending down to pull out the foot and the shoe box from under the bed. ‘Let me introduce you to David. Size nine feet,’ he said.

  Audrey recoiled. She could see Witzig’s eyes were glittering and animated and she realised how extremely dangerous he was.

  Witzig continued. ‘He came at me with a fancy knife. There was a struggle. He stepped on my toes, and I kept his foot as a souvenir. David is in the lake, hidden in the depths.’

  Chapter Forty-six: Caputh

  HANNE AND FELIX WERE feeling ill at ease, but for different reasons. What could they say to one another? The situation would have been ludicrous, even funny, if it hadn’t been so serious… Felix, a murderer, helping Hanne, a criminal psychologist, attempt to rescue her abducted daughter from a suspected paedophile. These two strangers, who once shared a brief moment in each others lives at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, had been brought together again by a series of bizarre coincidences and were now involved in a race against time.

  Instinct told them both that Bruno ‘Witzig’ Lankwitz meant to harm the missing Audrey. He had blatantly lied to Hanne about her daughter’s whereabouts, clearly not expecting them to harness modern technology to trace them to the same place, the village of Caputh. For any parent this was a truly frightening scenario but for Hanne, with her encyclopaedic knowledge of paedophiles and their devious, twisted minds, it really was her worst nightmare.

  Felix knew the country lanes like the back of his hand and it wasn’t too long before they were on the main motorway towards Potsdam. He drove as fast as safety would allow whilst Hanne kept looking impatiently at the mobile phone attached to the portable charger. After about 20 minutes, it was semi-charged. ‘I’ve got enough battery now to ring Stefan,’ she cried.

  ‘Who’s Stefan? Your partner?’

  ‘No, I’m gay. Stefan Glockner is my police colleague in Berlin.’

  Felix liked her forthright approach. ‘Have you rung Audrey’s father?’ he asked.

  ‘He’s cooking for some wedding party somewhere in Rostock and his mobile’s turned off. I’ll try him later,’ Hanne replied.

  She called Glockner’s number and tapped her hand on the dashboard, waiting and praying for him to answer.

  Glockner was at the barbers getting his haircut. He answered, sounding surprised. ‘Hello, Drais. Can’t get enough of me, eh?’ he began, bantering with her as usual. ‘What are you doing calling me on a Saturday?’

  Hanne had never been so relieved to hear his voice. ‘Stefan! Audrey’s been abducted. I’m on my way to Caputh, near Potsdam. Help me!’

  ‘Fuck!’ Stefan yelled. ‘Hanne, it’ll be OK. Text me the address and I’ll be there as quickly as I can. Are you going alone?’

  Hanne looked across at Felix but couldn’t bring herself to tell Glockner the truth. ‘I’ve got help. Stefan, please hurry,’ she urged him.

  ‘Hanne, don’t do anything stupid,’ Glockner told her and hung up.

  Hanne texted him the Caputh address. She was in a car with a confessed murderer. How stupid was that? It was the most imprudent thing she had ever done, but the most ridiculous thing of all was that she felt she could trust Marine Boy. In this nightmare situation she was now facing to get to her daughter in time, Felix was the one person she felt who might make all the difference.

  ‘I couldn’t bring myself to tell Stefan I was with you,’ Hanne confessed.

  Felix seemed to understand. ‘I’ll give myself up later, you have my word. Right now it’s not about me. We need to focus on your daughter.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Hanne said, sincerely. ‘I saw your little daughter in the back of your Tante’s car, so innocent and lovely. What’s her name?’


  ‘Peonie. She’s two-and-a-half. I’m biased but yes, she’s lovely, when she’s not screaming! She’s looking forward to having a brother. My wife’s five months pregnant and they’ve told us it’s a boy.’

  ‘One of each, that’s nice. Audrey is my only child but she was – is – the best thing that ever happened to me.’ Hanne felt tears prick her eyes. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without her.’

  ‘Don’t go upsetting yourself. I’ve been racking my brains trying to remember what Witzig was like at Torgau,’ Felix recalled.

  ‘Anything would be helpful.’

  Felix’s memories of Torgau were still vivid. ‘I seem to recall that he liked older boys and girls but was more interested in girls,’ he told her.

  Hanne’s head spun as she tried to tap into her scientifically trained mind. ‘Let’s think about his profile.’

  ‘OK. I think when people have secrets to hide they pretend to be something they’re not – I know I did. Because it’s not who you are, it’s who people think you are,’ Felix said emphatically.

  Hanne agreed. ‘Witzig could be a groomer. He waited till Audrey was of age so he wouldn’t be accused of paedophilia before he made his move.’

  ‘The cunning bastard! Yeah, I remember at Torgau Witzig only chose the most beautiful girls, as if he was collecting them like trophies.’

  ‘Audrey is beautiful,’ Hanne said, in a matter-of-fact way. It was true, after all. ‘But if her teacher made a pass at her, she’d reject him.’

  ‘That would hurt his ego,’ observed Felix.

  ‘Have you read a book called The Collector by John Fowles?’ Hanne asked.

  Felix shook his head. ‘What does he collect?’

  ‘Girls,’ Hanne replied. ‘The Collector keeps them prisoner in some remote place and hopes eventually the girl he’s obsessed with will fall in love with him.’

  ‘You mean Stockholm Syndrome, when the victim falls for her abusive captor?’

  Hanne nodded. ‘Something like that.’

  ‘And when she doesn’t fall in love with him?’ Felix asked.

  ‘He can’t let the girl go free because she knows too much, so he kills her and then he moves onto another girl.’ Hanne burst into tears as she said this.

  ‘Then he’s in it for the long term. He won’t touch or hurt her straight away,’ Felix said, trying to reassure her. ‘Not long now, we’re nearly there.’

  The small, picturesque village of Caputh, to the south of the city of Potsdam in the Brandenburg area, is surrounded by numerous lakes. Its most famous resident was Albert Einstein, who had kept a summerhouse in the village at number 7 Waldstrasse, now a long established museum and open to the public.

  Felix and Hanne were there within the hour. The GPS tracker eventually led them to Kleine Havel Weg, a gravelly road with fields on one side and houses on the other backing onto dark, leafy woods and a sandy pathway to the lake. Felix drove past number 25, parking beyond the house, which was set back 50 metres off the road.

  ‘That’s it, number 25. We don’t want to raise the alarm by being in view of the house,’ Felix said. ‘No sign of the police yet but there’s no time to lose. Hanne, stay here, I’m going in.’

  ‘I’m coming with you!’ Hanne replied.

  They both got out of the car. Felix collected his bag and put on his gloves. ‘No!

  Please let me handle this. Witzig’s got Torgau in his bones, just like me,’ Felix stated calmly.

  Hanne thought this situation had a twist of irony: she was the law enforcer and Felix was the law breaker, but somehow she knew he was right.

  ‘OK,’ Hanne said. ‘Please, just get my daughter out of there alive.’

  ‘I’ll do my utmost, you have my word. You stay here, just in case he tries to escape from the front of the house and wait for the police to arrive. I’ll go round the back.’

  Hanne took her Taser stun gun out of her pocket. ‘Felix… here, take this.’

  Realising the Taser had originally been intended for him if he’d acted up, he replied, ‘I have my own gun in my bag and I’ve got my knife as back up.’

  ‘Then I’ll use it if Witzig comes out,’ Hanne said.

  Felix took his binoculars and moved behind a tree to get a good look at the house. There was a car parked at the side.

  ‘Someone’s in,’ Felix told her and asked. ‘What colour is Witzig’s car?’

  Hanne shook her head. ‘No idea, I’ve never met him. I just assumed all of Audrey’s teachers were police checked, so I didn’t worry about it.’

  ‘There’s a purple mountain bike attached to the car,’ Felix told her.

  Hanne gasped. ‘Audrey’s bike!’

  ‘He couldn’t leave her bike outside his flat in Berlin, it would have been too suspicious,’ Felix said. ‘I need to know his precise whereabouts. Check the tracker on Audrey’s watch and call Witzig. If he answers, hang up.’

  Hanne followed his instructions. Witzig didn’t answer his phone but Audrey’s watch indicated they were both in the house, just 50 metres away.

  ‘They’re in!’ Hanne cried quietly.

  ‘Within touching distance. Don’t worry, I’ll get that bastard.’

  She squeezed his hand. ‘Felix, be careful.’

  Felix made his way carefully through the woods towards the house, running from tree to tree, hiding briefly and checking in all directions before moving forward. Eventually he ran out of the trees and into a sandy clearing. The glimmer of the sunshine on the lake behind the house was visible.

  Leaving his rucksack by a tree, Felix put his knife and some boat rope in one pocket and his gun in the other. He ducked to the ground and crawled, shuffling his body to the rear of the house. The house was eerily silent. He checked the windows for signs of life inside. Nothing. The back door leading to a kitchen was unlocked. He reached for his gun in his pocket but it wasn’t there. It just have fallen out somewhere between the copse and the house. Luckily, he felt the reassuring sharpness of his Herbertz knife in his other pocket and crept inside.

  Witzig emerged from the cellar into the kitchen with a tray containing an empty plate, a glass and some plastic cutlery. Catching sight of the intruder, he grabbed a knife from a sideboard. The tray crashed to the floor, shattering the glass in the floor.

  Felix and Witzig faced each other with knives.

  ‘What the hell you doing in my house?’ Witzig bellowed.

  ‘Where’s Audrey?’ Felix shouted.

  ‘What are you talking about? You’re an intruder in my home. Who the hell are you?’

  ‘I’m with the police, my back-up team will be here any minute,’ lied Felix. ‘Give yourself up, Lankwitz.’

  Witzig thought for a second. Was this man with the police, was it game over? He took a quick check out the window. No sign of a police team. No, this man was on his own and had come to rescue Audrey who was hidden in a soundproofed room in his cellar. Witzig launched himself at Felix, who raised his arm to protect his chest. Witzig slashed into his upper arm and Felix dropped his knife. Wildly, Witzig stabbed again as Felix, adrenaline pumping, did his best to dodge the onslaught.

  Feinting sideways, he managed to land a punch on Witzig’s face, stunning him and causing him to drop his knife, too. Now both men were without their weapons. Felix grabbed Witzig’s arm and there was a brief struggle before he managed to twist it and snap it, hard. Witzig dropped like a stone, falling onto the broken glass on the floor. A bone protruded from his forearm but this didn’t stop Felix binding his opponent’s arms together with some boat rope in his pocket as Witzig writhed, screaming in agony.

  As Felix grabbed a towel to stem the blood pumping from his own arm he heard the sound of police sirens. He ran downstairs to the cellar, and unbolted the heavy door, turning the key in the lock. Inside, a frightened, ashen-faced but feisty Audrey was hiding behind the door, with a chair raised above her head, ready to strike.

  Felix felt the full weight of the chair crack against his back and stumbled. Audrey w
as confused, realising she’d hit the wrong man, but she could hear the police sirens.

  ‘Who are you? I want my mother!’ she cried.

  ‘Audrey, she’s here, it’s all over. Lankwitz has been dealt with,’ Felix told her, getting up from the floor. He ushered her upstairs to the kitchen where two police officers and Glockner rushed in, followed by Hanne.

  ‘Mutti!’ Audrey cried.

  The police saw Witzig screaming on the floor and Felix with a bloody arm, holding a young girl. Not knowing who was the guilty party, they pointed guns at both men.

  ‘No! Not him,’ Hanne cried, pointing at Felix. ‘He helped me.’

  Hanne grabbed Audrey. ‘Did he touch you?’ she asked, afraid of the answer.

  Trembling, Audrey shook her head. ‘No. He told me if I was nice to him, he wouldn’t have to force me.’

  Hanne was livid. She jumped on Witzig and began pummelling him with her fists. ‘I’ll fucking kill you, you sick bastard!’

  ‘Mutti!’ Audrey cried, shocked by her mother’s actions.

  Witzig groaned pathetically. ‘I never touched her!’

  Glockner pulled Hanne off Witzig. ‘Hanne! It’s over. It’s over.’

  Sealing off the house, the police waited for a forensic squad to arrive. Bruno ‘Witzig’ Lankwitz was taken away and Felix went to get his arm bandaged by the paramedics who’d arrived on the scene.

  ‘It’s only a shallow wound. I’ll be fine,’ Felix replied, bravely.

  ‘You were very brave. What’s your name?’ Glockner asked him.

  Hanne looked at Felix and quickly addressed him. ‘Jens, thank you so much.’

  Glockner accompanied Hanne and a shaken, shaking Audrey to their car parked out in the street. His mobile rang. It was Kruger.

  ‘Yes, boss. Yes, she’s here,’ Stefan said. ‘Hanne, Kruger wants to talk to you.’

  Glockner could hear Kruger shouting at the other end of the phone. ‘Is Audrey OK?’

  ‘She is now. Her teacher has been taken away. He worked at Torgau,’ Hanne told him.

  ‘What the fuck were you thinking? Drais, you’re the psycho officer, not the fucking cop!’ Kruger bellowed. ‘I’m on my way to Caputh but I’m stuck in traffic in Potsdam due to some sodding concert, so if you’re OK I think I’ll turn back to Berlin. We’ll need to arrange a de-brief but I guess you don’t want Audrey out of your sight right now. I’ll come to your flat on Monday, OK?’