Don't Forget Me

by B C Schiller

  ‘The board has been,’ he whispered, grabbing Olivia’s arm.

  ‘What board?’

  ‘About the events at the clinic. They want my notes.’

  ‘What events?’ asked Olivia. ‘Who’s been here, Papa? You mentioned a man on the phone. Did you know him?’

  ‘Of course. It was somebody from the board of the clinic. I’ve been telling you all along.’ Carefully Leopold sat up and flattened the creases in his trousers, then rolled down his shirt sleeve. ‘What are you doing here in my office?’

  ‘It’s your flat, Papa.’ Olivia wanted to continue, but then she looked at Leopold’s shirt.

  ‘Stop! What’s that?’ Olivia gently took hold of her father’s arm and pointed to the tiny speck of blood on the white shirt. ‘Where did that come from? Let me take a look.’

  ‘Don’t you touch me!’ Leopold pulled his arm back, but Olivia held on tight.

  ‘I need to have a look at that.’ She pushed the sleeve up again and saw the needle mark. There was no question about it – someone had injected her father with something. ‘Who gave you this injection? Try to remember,’ she said, but her father stared blankly over her shoulder, then slowly collapsed. ‘Everything is spinning . . .’ he stammered.

  There were hurried steps outside and minutes later the emergency doctor Olivia had called from the taxi ran in.

  ‘Oh, thank goodness you’re here,’ Olivia said. ‘My father has just collapsed.’

  ‘What on earth happened here?’ the doctor asked, staring at the bruising on Olivia’s face and the surrounding mess, before kneeling at Leopold’s side. ‘Was it a robbery?’

  ‘I have no idea.’ Olivia shook her head. ‘My father has Alzheimer’s. He called me because someone was in the flat. He’s been injected with something.’ She pointed to the needle mark on Leopold’s arm.

  ‘I’ll take a closer look at it in a minute, but right now your father needs something to stabilise his condition. He’s completely disorientated.’

  ‘OK. I’ll see whether anything is missing.’

  ‘Have you called the police?’ the doctor asked. He checked Leopold’s eye response with a torch.

  ‘I was just about to,’ Olivia said and dialled for the emergency services. She described what had happened to the call handler at the other end and gave them the address.

  ‘Why should an intruder give your father an injection?’ the doctor wondered. ‘Are you sure it wasn’t your father who messed up the room? Did he have an episode, maybe?’

  ‘He’s never been aggressive before. His condition is well controlled,’ Olivia said.

  ‘It doesn’t look like that to me,’ the doctor countered. ‘I recommend placing your father in a specialist nursing home for Alzheimer’s patients, where his condition will be stabilised and he can be well cared for.’

  ‘Out of the question,’ Olivia said firmly. ‘I’m quite capable of looking after him.’

  ‘It was only a recommendation, but he needs a lot of rest right now. Everything else is your decision.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Olivia said. ‘It is, after all, my choice as to how my father is best looked after.’

  Together they helped Leopold up from the floor, Olivia wincing at the pain from her own bruised ribs.

  ‘I’ll take him through to the sitting room,’ the doctor said as he helped the old man into the corridor.

  A while later two policemen entered the flat. Olivia explained what had happened while the policemen took notes.

  ‘Anything missing?’ one of them asked.

  ‘Nothing we can see.’ Olivia shrugged helplessly.

  ‘Have a good look around and come to the station later to make a statement. Your father is ill?’ He exchanged a glance with his colleague.

  ‘He has Alzheimer’s,’ Olivia answered. She sensed the policemen didn’t believe there had been a burglary but suspected the chaos had been caused by her father. ‘Thank you for coming so quickly,’ she said.

  Olivia looked around, wondering. Had her father thrown the files on the floor himself? Or had someone else been in the flat looking for something? She started to put the files back on the shelves so she could try to get a clearer picture of the situation.

  Next to the desk she saw the old wooden box with the letters Manaus printed on it; lying beside it were pieces of a plant pot and the squashed orchid.

  ‘Surely Papa would never damage a plant that reminds him of Mama,’ she whispered. ‘Someone has been in here, but what were they looking for?’

  She noticed a DVD with a broken case lying in the corner and went to pick it up. Fitzcarraldo it said on the faded cover, although Olivia knew the DVD was always in the player.

  ‘Why does Papa have several copies of the same film?’ Olivia asked herself. She opened the box and pulled out the DVD. It was not an original, but a copy without a label. Puzzled, Olivia turned it in her hands. It was scratched and cracked. She was about to put it back in its case but then stopped – she needed to check what was on it first.

  ‘I’ve given your father something to stabilise his circulatory system.’ The doctor was back and leaning on the doorframe. ‘He’s asleep now.’

  ‘Do you have any idea what he might have been injected with?’ Olivia asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

  ‘That’s a matter for the police. I’ll send a blood sample to the laboratory. They’ll have the results by next week.’

  ‘Thank you for your help.’

  ‘That’s my job. But I do recommend sending your father to a nursing home, at least for tonight,’ he said, his expression serious.

  ‘Like I said, my father is staying right here. I’ll look after him,’ Olivia said.

  ‘Don’t take on too much. You don’t look exactly fit yourself,’ the doctor said, pointing to the bruise on Olivia’s temple.

  ‘It was only a bike accident. I’m fine.’

  Once the doctor had gone, Olivia slumped on the sofa. She felt drained and miserable, but she had to be strong now. She needed to know what was on that DVD.

  The effect of the painkillers was fading, and with every step she felt as though a red-hot poker was stabbing her between the ribs. She gritted her teeth and went over to the DVD player, replacing the original copy of Fitzcarraldo with the one from the broken case, then pressed play. Immediately she recognised the person in the film.

  It was Lisa. She was sitting on a chair in a neutral room, wearing a white nightgown.

  ‘Take that nightie off,’ came a distorted voice from someone off-screen.

  Then the film stopped, and all Olivia could see was a flickering white. The DVD was broken. Frustrated she stopped the player. ‘How on earth did that DVD come to be in my father’s possession?’ she wondered.

  33

  ‘I just had a brief glance into hell,’ Olivia said. Levi had called her but couldn’t get a word in first.

  ‘The hell that Lisa was in?’ asked Levi.

  ‘There’s a damaged DVD showing how Lisa was abused. I can’t tell you on the phone. Can you come to my father’s flat?’

  ‘Of course. Actually, I’m still in your flat right at the moment.’

  ‘What? You’re still there?’ Olivia tensed up. What in heaven’s name could Levi still be doing over there? ‘You only went to pick up the files.’

  ‘Someone had broken in,’ Levi said. ‘I surprised him.’

  ‘A burglar? Are you OK?’ Olivia exclaimed anxiously. A stranger had intruded on her very private space? She grew extremely agitated at the thought. And Levi being there and surprising the man!

  ‘I nearly caught the guy. He was after the files in the envelope but luckily I wrenched them off him.’

  ‘Hey, hey, slow down a bit, please.’ Olivia took a deep breath. There seemed to be one disaster after the other. First her accident, then her father’s messed-up study, and now a break-in at her own flat to steal the files. Clearly their investigations were making someone very nervous. The whole thing was getting increasingly dangero
us.

  ‘Well . . . I had to look round your flat with the police, of course’ – Levi cleared his throat before carrying on – ‘so I went into your sitting room and saw the photos. You can talk to me whenever you feel like it.’

  ‘That’s what psychiatrists are for,’ Olivia replied curtly. What the hell did Levi think of her now – that she was completely mad? She could justify herself easily enough: the photos on the walls were her way of dealing with her terrible loss. When she talked to the photos, her family were alive for her again. ‘But thank you anyway,’ she added.

  ‘Sometimes it’s better to talk to a friend,’ Levi said quietly.

  ‘Are you my friend then?’

  ‘Yes, I am.’

  Levi’s voice had a very calming effect on Olivia, and she believed him.

  ‘I’ll text you my father’s address,’ she said abruptly, ending the call.

  She started to clear up, every now and then checking on her father who was sleeping soundly. A short time later the doorbell rang, and Levi was standing there, a creased envelope in his hand.

  ‘My God, what happened to you?’ Olivia put a hand in front of her mouth in shock.

  ‘I got into a fight over you,’ Levi replied with a wry smile. When he entered the hallway, Olivia noticed that he was limping slightly.

  ‘What’s the matter with your leg?’

  ‘The guy whacked it,’ Levi answered as if it were nothing and waved the envelope at her. ‘This is Lisa’s patient file.’

  With Levi there to reassure her, Olivia was feeling better already. Maybe one day she’d talk to him about the disappearance of her family, but not just yet.

  ‘Very smart,’ Levi said as he looked around the flat. ‘Why don’t you live here in the Ninth District? It’s a desirable area and not far from your office.’

  ‘You must be joking,’ Olivia said, shaking her head. ‘Living with my father and then maybe ending up as a single woman for the rest of my life?’ Then, in a more serious tone, she added, ‘Anyway, apart from that, I already had a family of my own and a life.’ She stopped herself and added, ‘Ah, just forget it.’

  She took Levi into the large sitting room with the fantastic view of the Votivkirche.

  ‘Take a look at this video,’ she said, pressing play. ‘It’s only a few seconds but tells you a lot.’

  They sat on the floor and played the short sequence several times over. The image of the fragile-looking Lisa with her huge, sad eyes was seared on their brains.

  ‘What a monster,’ Levi said. ‘Who’s that talking to her? Is the voice familiar to you? Or the room?’

  ‘It’s one of the treatment rooms, I’m sure, but it could be anywhere at the clinic.’

  ‘Short as it is, this film clearly shows somebody exploiting Lisa’s situation but unless we know who the other person is, it doesn’t help much.’ Levi stood up slowly and went over to sit down at the large dining table.

  ‘I think the film proves a lot though,’ Olivia said, with a questioning look. ‘You can see very clearly how Lisa was being manipulated and then probably abused, certainly by a doctor.’

  ‘That’s merely an assumption because you can’t tell from the film who the other person is,’ Levi said, ‘and the voice is distorted.’

  ‘No good then,’ Olivia said, biting her knuckles. ‘Do you think it would be possible to find out when the video was made? Maybe a technician could analyse the recording so the voice can be recognised.’

  ‘The DVD is cracked and very scratched. There’s nothing you can do with it,’ Levi said, dampening her hopes. ‘Maybe there’s something in her file that would give us a clue.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Olivia replied with renewed enthusiasm. ‘Where do we start?’

  ‘Let’s look first at the days leading up to Lisa’s disappearance,’ Levi suggested.

  Silently they read through the notes. Clearly, Lisa had been in one particular treatment room several times with Nils Wagner.

  ‘My father told me already that Lisa was under Nils’s care,’ Olivia said, ‘but when I spoke to Nils, he pretended not to remember her. I knew then he was lying.’

  ‘I only got as far as questioning the duty doctor before I was injured and I don’t remember there being an interview with Nils Wagner in the transcripts,’ Levi said, ‘but I’ll take another look at my files, just to be sure.’

  ‘Here’s another interesting detail,’ Olivia said, pointing to a line in the notes. ‘Lisa did some therapy with a student doctor – which goes strictly against hospital protocol.’

  They continued to study the file quietly, but nothing else of particular significance leapt out at them.

  ‘Right, and now we come to the night when Lisa disappeared,’ Levi said, turning over a folded page.

  ‘Nurse Emma Kern was on night duty,’ Olivia read aloud. ‘Ah, she still works on that ward. I can easily ask her.’

  ‘Hang on, what was the name of that nurse again?’

  ‘Emma Kern.’

  ‘Strange,’ Levi said, scratching his stubble. ‘If I remember correctly from my own files, she told us she’d not been working on Lisa Manz’s ward at the time.’

  ‘But it states it very clearly here,’ Olivia said. ‘What a total bunch of lies! No one is telling the truth.’ She was exhausted and propped her chin on her fists. ‘It’s so depressing!’

  ‘No, not at all,’ Levi said in encouragement. ‘We have evidence here of a witness who obviously lied. We’ll need to question her again.’

  ‘I have something else that might help – how could I have forgotten?’ Gingerly Olivia got to her feet, went into the hallway and came back with her bag. ‘Jonathan gave me this item of jewellery in our last session together.’ She pulled the pendant from the bag and showed it to Levi. ‘He was afraid of it. The snakes with their red eyes really scared him.’

  ‘What an unusual piece,’ Levi said as he took it from Olivia’s hand. ‘It does look a little spooky,’ he concluded after inspecting it thoroughly.

  ‘I did wonder how a fourteen-year-old girl might have got hold of such a valuable ornament.’ Olivia wrapped the leather strap around her fingers and dangled the pendant in front of Levi’s face.

  ‘Are you going to hypnotise me?’ he asked. ‘Maybe it’s an heirloom on Theresa’s side, the Stollwerks, passed on from mother to daughter.’

  ‘Or Lisa got it from her murderer,’ Olivia said, thinking aloud.

  ‘Let’s start with Lisa’s family and show it to Theresa Manz tomorrow. I’ll ask if it ever belonged to her, while you observe her reaction.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because most people lie.’

  34

  The driveway up to the Villa Manz was designed to hide the place from view until the very last moment. Olivia was not impressed by its overblown country house aesthetic.

  ‘You again,’ Theresa Manz said, wafting down the stone steps in a Moroccan kaftan. ‘Oh, and who have you brought along today?’ she asked, pointing to Olivia. ‘Is this your assistant?’

  ‘This is Doctor Hofmann, a psychiatrist,’ Levi said, gesturing to Olivia not to say a word.

  ‘Do you want to section me?’ Theresa flashed her teeth in an offhand smile and then turned her back on them. ‘You’re a little late – I already live in the biggest madhouse in Vienna.’ She walked off through the entrance hall towards the large drawing room.

  ‘We don’t want to bother you for long, Frau Manz,’ Levi started calmly. ‘I only have one question for you today.’

  ‘Good, because my husband will be back soon, and he doesn’t like it when there are ex-coppers sneaking around.’

  ‘Do you recognise this pendant?’ Olivia asked, coming straight out with it and taking over from Levi. She pulled the piece of jewellery from her bag and showed it to Theresa. She immediately regretted having acted so hastily and noticed an irritated glance from Levi. Olivia often struggled with her impulsiveness and silently vowed to control herself from now on. Theresa Manz stretched h
er hand out for the piece, but Olivia held on to it. ‘It’s evidence,’ she said.

  ‘What do you mean, evidence?’ Theresa gave her a puzzled look.

  ‘Did this pendant belong to your daughter?’ Levi said.

  ‘Why are you asking me that? I don’t understand,’ Theresa murmured. ‘The case is closed, isn’t it? The murderer committed suicide – my husband told me. Is that not true?’

  ‘Generally speaking, he’s quite correct,’ Levi said, ‘only there are a few questions still outstanding.’

  ‘Have you ever seen this pendant before?’ Olivia interrupted, ignoring Levi’s warning glance. ‘You only have to answer with a yes or a no.’

  ‘Can I have another look, please?’ Theresa asked, and suddenly Olivia sensed some insecurity in the other woman. You just have to be a bit harder with her and she crumbles.

  ‘Of course.’

  Olivia gave the pendant to Theresa who looked at it carefully.

  ‘No, I’ve never seen it before, but it’s certainly a beautiful item of jewellery. Those rubies are very valuable. Where did you find it?’ She frowned. ‘But why would you think it was Lisa’s?’

  ‘We’re not at liberty to reveal that information.’ Levi gave her a noncommittal smile.

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You aren’t even with the police any more,’ Theresa said. ‘And you failed utterly when you were tasked with finding the person who murdered my daughter. Is your conscience haunting you now?’

  ‘So you don’t recognise this pendant?’ Olivia said, noticing Levi’s face muscles twitch, although he otherwise ignored Theresa’s accusations; she admired his composure. But the other woman’s reaction was telling for Olivia. Theresa herself seemed haunted by a guilty conscience, which she was projecting onto others.

  ‘I’ve never seen this pendant before in my life,’ Theresa repeated, before rising from the large sofa and going over to the richly carved dresser. ‘All these questions are making me rather thirsty,’ she muttered, pouring herself a glass of champagne. She drained the glass in one gulp and refilled it immediately, then she looked Levi and Olivia up and down. ‘Anything else? As I said, my husband will be here any minute.’