Time Heals No Wounds (A Baltic Sea Crime Novel)

by Hendrik Falkenberg

  The bartender placed Hannes’s cocktail on the table. “Do you know what you’d like?” he asked her.

  “Something with alcohol. I could use it right now.”

  “Of course, no problem,” the bartender said. “I recommend the Caribbean Dream. It’s so good.”

  “Sounds good, I’ll take it,” Anna said.

  “A Caribbean Dream goes well with today’s heat,” Hannes said. To lighten the mood, he opened with some small talk about the weather. Her Caribbean Dream soon arrived.

  “Well, does it taste like a party?” he joked and raised his glass.

  Anna sucked so hard on the straw that nearly a third of the orange liquid was gone. She exhaled in satisfaction and relaxed a bit. “That feels good. Today was really crazy!”

  “I can imagine. The news must have come as quite a shock.”

  “That’s true. It’s still all so surreal. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

  “Neither have I.”

  Anna stared at him, puzzled.

  “Yes, that’s right,” he said and laughed. “My boss could tell you one crime story after another, but this is actually my first case.”

  He briefly explained his background and soon realized it did more to make her feel at ease than any small talk about the weather.

  “Did you have a lot to do at the office today?” he asked.

  “No, not really. The whole company’s kind of shocked by what happened. Hardly anyone could work today. Or do you mean why was I late getting here? It had nothing to do with work. I . . . The tires of my bicycle were flat, so I had to lug it here.”

  “I always have my pump with me except when I need it,” he lied.

  “Actually, I have a small pump in my bag, but . . . Oh, never mind.”

  She retreated back into her shell and looked even more unapproachable than she did that morning. As he looked at her, he felt as though he were sitting opposite a frightened squirrel. He wondered if he had made another mistake. “Why, what was the problem?” he asked.

  Anna leaned forward. “The tires had been slashed; no bicycle pump would have helped.”

  “Oh . . . There are some really nasty people out there!”

  “This is the first time something like this has happened to me. Lagussa’s surrounded by other office buildings, so there are never any shady characters around. And besides . . . Never mind. To be honest, I’ve been wondering why you asked me here. I don’t know anything that could be of help. I’m sorry, this was such a stupid idea! I’m just wasting your time. You have better things to do.”

  She reached for her purse.

  “Wait, Ms. Stahl!” he said. “You made several allusions this morning, and then you show up half an hour late this evening with a frightened look on your face. Now you’re suddenly trying to back out and are telling me you have nothing to say. I’m sorry, but I don’t buy it! We’re grasping at straws right now and know almost nothing about Ms. Ternheim’s private or professional life. We’re trying to find out as much as we can, and I just want to hear what you wouldn’t say in front of your colleagues this morning. And besides, I’d like to know why you’re so afraid.”

  She burst into tears, and the bartender shot Hannes a dirty look.

  “I’m sorry,” Anna said, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. “It’s all just happening at once. Yesterday everything was fine, and today I’m caught up in this strange story.”

  “But you’re not really caught up in it. You just have to tell me about your boss, and you’ll probably never see me again.”

  Anna blew her nose. Then she rummaged in her bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper which she pushed across the table.

  “This note was stuck to my bicycle seat,” she said.

  He unfolded the paper: Silence is golden, talking can be deadly.

  “Did you tell anyone about our meeting tonight?” Hannes asked.

  “I only told my best friend, who also works at Lagussa. We went through training together. I told her at lunch in the cafeteria. But she is absolutely trustworthy. It’s possible someone overheard our conversation—the cafeteria was pretty packed. I’m so stupid.”

  “Well, you didn’t know. Why did you tell your friend about our meeting?”

  Anna blushed and looked at the ground. “Oh . . . just . . . We just talked and somehow, I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking and didn’t pay attention if anyone else was listening.”

  Hannes sensed another reason. He glanced at her knotted hands. She wasn’t wearing a ring.

  “Whoever placed the note and slashed the tires had to know which bike was yours. How many people at Lagussa would recognize your bike?”

  “In the summer, I ride it almost every day and lock it at one of the stands by the main entrance. Most of my coworkers have probably seen me with my bike.”

  “Well, I’m glad you still came,” he said. “Did you notice if someone followed you?”

  “No, I kept looking around, but I didn’t see anyone.”

  “Hmm. Usually things like this don’t amount to much,” he said. “Would it be possible for you to stay with your friend tonight?”

  “Yes, sure! She doesn’t even know what happened. I came here as soon as possible, but I didn’t know if I should tell you. But now I realize the scope of all this . . .”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you,” he said, even though he felt the note wouldn’t be enough to justify police protection. “Do you trust your friend completely?”

  “Of course, otherwise she wouldn’t be my best friend! She’s completely innocent, and if you met Tina, you’d know what I mean.”

  “Does she have any connection to the Ternheims?”

  “No, definitely not! Tina works in logistics, there’s no overlap with management.”

  Hannes decided not to press her any further but still wanted to draw his own conclusions. “Be careful! I came here by car. After our conversation, I’ll take you to your apartment, so you can pick up a few things, and then I’ll drop you at your friend’s place. And don’t worry, I know how to shake off pursuers,” he said with a grin.

  She looked at him skeptically. “But you just said that this was your first case . . .”

  “Policing 101,” he said. “We covered numerous practical exercises! Besides, I already demonstrated once today that I haven’t forgotten what I learned.”

  He persuaded her to order another cocktail and a sandwich. He had apparently managed to make her feel safe again and hoped that he actually had the situation under control. As a precaution, he decided against any alcohol and ordered another Summer Delight, while Anna opted for a Caribbean Lover. Was she trying to tell him something?

  He engaged her in harmless small talk and felt this helped further reassure her. After the bartender placed the second round of cocktails in front of them, he steered the conversation back to business.

  “Ms. Stahl, this morning I got the feeling you’re very happy working at Lagussa.”

  “Oh, please call me Anna. Otherwise you make me feel like an old woman. We’re about the same age, anyway.”

  “Sure,” he said. Anna wasn’t really his type, so why did he become more nervous the more she felt relaxed? “However, you’re a little generous in saying that we’re about the same age: I’m pushing thirty-three.”

  She cocked her head and looked at him. “Huh? How old do you think I am?”

  “That of course is the most dangerous of all questions,” he said and laughed. He made a point of sizing her up and realized she came off pretty well. She had slightly tanned, flawless skin and wore only a subtle amount of makeup. A few small freckles dotted her straight nose, and her smooth brown hair was casually tucked behind her ears. Earlier that morning, he had noticed her athletic figure.

  “Well? Finished looking?” she asked, and he realized he had been eyeing her in silence.

  “You, uh . . . Since you’ve already been working at Lagussa for almost ten years and started right after graduation, I’d gue
ss twenty-seven.”

  “Ugh, such a cop,” she said and laughed. “I gave you too much information before. Still, you’re a little off: I’m twenty-nine. But that’s not because I was held back in school. After training, I traveled the world for a year. You could still pass for someone in his twenties . . .”

  Now she was clearly flirting: there was no mistaking the look on her face. He had hoped the alcohol would loosen her up, but he had not expected this.

  “I’ve had this question on my mind the entire day,” he said, trying to collect his thoughts. He could see the expectation in her eyes as she leaned toward him. “You said Ms. Ternheim had seemed a bit absent lately. When did you first notice the change?”

  “Well, she was never really an extroverted person; she only occasionally came out of her shell. But she was always friendly, focused, and extremely present. I first noticed something had changed about two months ago. She started leaving the office earlier and earlier, at least by her standards. In the mornings, she would seem somewhat bleary-eyed and would barricade herself in her office for hours at a time. Normally, she would have meetings or would come out to ask us to do something for her. Then I started noticing how she would stare off into space whenever I spoke to her. She would ask me afterward to repeat myself.”

  “Was it just a phase or was she like that for the whole two months?”

  “Last week, she had almost returned to her former self, and I hoped she had finally recovered from whatever it was. She was looking forward to tomorrow’s charity gala for children suffering from leukemia. The cause was very close to her heart.”

  Hannes remembered Ben telling him he would be staging a protest at the gala, and winced.

  “What is it?” asked Anna.

  “Oh, nothing.” He struggled with his bad conscience. “Are you involved in this event?”

  “Our event coordinator takes care of it primarily, but I make sure management’s ideas are adhered to. Basically, I supervise it all and make sure everything goes to plan.” She sighed. “It’s been a real tough job lately. I’ve had to hit the brakes a couple of times, so it doesn’t devolve into some kind of party and we don’t lose track of the reason behind the gala.”

  He felt even guiltier and wondered if he could talk Ben out of his protest. “Do you have any idea what could have triggered the change in Ms. Ternheim?”

  Anna squirmed and stared at the table.

  “Anna, please! You have to tell me what you know.”

  “Will it stay just between us?”

  “I can’t promise that. If it’s crucial to the investigation, then I at least have to talk to my superior about it. But I promise you that we will treat your information as sensitively as possible.”

  “No one at Lagussa can find out. Think of the note on my bike, and Mr. Ternheim could even fire me!”

  He thought for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise,” he said and hoped he would be able to keep it.

  “I have two theories. One private and the other professional.”

  “Tell me the private one first.”

  “Well . . . there were rumors going around the company for some time. As you know, Ms. Ternheim was not married and never had been. Even at public and official events, there was never a man by her side. The staff started talking, and I would hear bits and pieces until I was promoted to executive assistant. After that, the gossip stopped the moment I was near.” She smiled. “But my friend Tina naturally kept me in the loop. There was a rumor going around that Ms. Ternheim was a lesbian. I couldn’t picture it at all because she . . . Well, let’s just say she didn’t fit your stereotypical idea of one.”

  He thought of Elke, who also wouldn’t be pegged as a “stereotypical lesbian.”

  “But once I started working closely with her, my opinion began to change.” When she saw the look on his face, she laughed. “No, no, she never made any advances. But I did notice how she was quite familiar with a certain colleague, and then there was this one time that I came back to the office after going to the movies because I had forgotten my house keys. It was late at night and I saw her intimately embracing this colleague on the sofa in her office. The door to the office was open, so I saw everything. Fortunately, they didn’t notice me and I immediately left.”

  “Which colleague was it?”

  Anna looked around. It was clear she was struggling. “You can’t tell anyone I told you!”

  She had him sitting on the edge of his seat, and all he could do was nod. But he would have never guessed her answer.

  “It was Ruth Wagner.”

  “What? The head secretary?”

  Anna smiled, and to his surprise, he also noted how her smile made him soar. “I had caught them touching each other affectionately at a meeting before and thought I had been mistaken.”

  “Well, Ms. Wagner has certainly gotten herself under control pretty fast. I would have expected a more emotional reaction.”

  “Don’t fool yourself! Ms. Wagner and Ms. Ternheim were very similar. Ms. Wagner is always under control. When her twin brother died, she was back in the office the day after the funeral and you wouldn’t have known at all. However, I did see her in the ladies’ room this morning looking like she had been crying.”

  Hannes looked at Anna and took a moment to think. “How long had this been going on?”

  “No idea. The first time I noticed was about six months after I became an executive assistant.”

  “How did they interact when other people were around?”

  “They were very proper and always polite. You couldn’t tell if you didn’t suspect anything. For me, it was obviously different. Since I had caught them together, I noticed little things. Ms. Ternheim, for example, always gave her assistants a glass of champagne on her birthday, and we got her a small gift. Ms. Wagner always organized this gift. Last year it was a brooch. Ms. Ternheim wore it every day since. Sure, everyone sensed a certain familiarity between the two, but that’s not unusual after working together for so many years. I’m pretty sure no one else at Lagussa thinks there was something going on between them. And it has to stay that way.”

  “I understand. But what does Ms. Ternheim’s change in behavior have to do with her relationship with Ms. Wagner? It didn’t cause any problems in the past.”

  “I don’t know if one thing has to do with the other,” said Anna. “But their relationship began to cool off significantly around the same time Ms. Ternheim’s general behavior changed. There were several times when she pointed out mistakes Ms. Wagner made very explicitly in front of other colleagues. They grew more and more distant.”

  “Couldn’t that have to do with the changes in Ms. Ternheim’s attitude?”

  “She wasn’t like that with the other employees. Although she seemed absent and not fully engaged, she was still very professional with us. No, I think the crisis in her relationship had other reasons. I know Ms. Ternheim met a man at some point in the last few months.”

  Surprised, Hannes leaned forward, hitting his cocktail glass and spilling it across the table. Anna jumped back, but a few drops splattered on her blouse.

  “I’m sorry. Man, I’m clumsy!”

  The bartender appeared with a rag and wiped up the mess.

  “Ugh, I’m sorry. Could I have another cocktail? Anna, how about you?”

  She nodded, laughing.

  “So you’re saying that Ms. Ternheim has never been married, had a secret lesbian relationship with her assistant for years, and most recently was with a man?”

  “I didn’t say they were together, but she repeatedly called him and probably also met with him.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “He kept calling. Since external calls are diverted to me, I was the one who answered every time. When I asked Ms. Ternheim who the caller was, she avoided the question and said something along the lines of an acquaintance. After that, he didn’t call her office anymore, but I’m sure he
called her on her cell phone. Sometimes Ms. Ternheim’s phone would ring, and I could see his name on the display. I was always asked to leave the room.”

  “But maybe he was just a platonic friend. Maybe she did have some kind of social circle.”

  “Well then, why hadn’t he contacted her before? Sure, maybe he was a regular friend, but not a longtime one. In any case, Ms. Wagner heard me ask Ms. Ternheim about the man, and their relationship cooled off after that. That’s why I felt guilty. I suppose she was jealous and yelled at Ms. Ternheim.”

  “Anna, this is really important information! We finally have a lead on someone who played a role in Ms. Ternheim’s life. Do you still remember his name?”

  “He called so often that I noted the name. He introduced himself as Mark von Wittenberg, and whenever I put him through, Ms. Ternheim would immediately shut her door.”

  Hannes quickly jotted the name down in his notepad. “How do you know they met?”

  “‘Know’ is too strong of a word. But sometimes she rushed out of the office after he called. I once randomly saw her meet a man by the Charles Memorial. I wasn’t spying on her, if that’s what you think. I had the day off because my brother came to visit. I wanted to pick him up at the train station and you have to pass the monument on the way.”

  “Could you see what he looked like?”

  “No, at least I can’t remember. I only glanced briefly because I didn’t want her to see me. That definitely would have been awkward.”

  “Did they hug or kiss?”

  “No, they stood opposite each other, and he showed her something in a folder. That’s all.”

  “Was he her age?”

  Anna shrugged. “Like I said, I can’t tell you anything about his appearance.”

  “Would you recognize his voice?”

  “No idea! I remember only that it sounded a little hoarse, as if he had a slight cold. And there always seemed to be static on the line whenever he called, which made it hard to hear him. I never spoke to him for long because he always immediately asked for Ms. Ternheim.”