by Graham Brack
‘Do you remember his name?’
‘Daniel. Daniel … no, I don’t think I recall his surname.’
‘Have you seen either of them since Viktorie stopped coming to school?’
‘No, but then I didn’t expect to. Mrs Broukalová called in to tell us she was taking Viktorie away and hinting at a break-up with her partner. She thanked us but there was no prior notice. She just picked the girl up, said this was the last time she would be there and explained that she couldn’t give a forwarding address because she didn’t know exactly where she was going. Viktorie got upset at the idea of leaving school but her mother told her it was sad but they had no choice.’
‘That would explain why you wouldn’t see Viktorie and her mother, but not her stepfather. You haven’t seen him either?’
‘No, but I never did except at school events.’
Navrátil closed his notebook and stood up.
‘Thank you for your help. I’ll go to their house now to see if he is there.’
Slonský was gripping the steering wheel between the two smallest fingers of each hand. The thumb, ring and middle fingers were otherwise engaged, those of his left hand grasping a párek while those of the right were holding a cup of coffee. It was at this moment that his phone rang.
It is possible, if you have had enough practice, to eat a párek with no hands, gripping the sausage between the teeth and pulling it forward as you chomp on the bun, so Slonský freed his left hand, then realised that he could not reach his phone. He deftly transferred the coffee to his free hand and pressed the answer button.
Navrátil’s voice filled the van, to the point where Slonský yelled that he was going to pull over to take the call once he had adjusted the volume.
‘Sorry about that, lad. You now have my undivided attention.’
‘I’m at the girl’s house, sir. The girl was registered at the school as Viktorie Broukalová. As I said, the mother told them she and her daughter were moving away. I’ll fill you in on the detail when I see you. The point is that they gave me her address and I’m here now.’
‘Well done. I’m glad you can find a house once someone gives you the address. Is there a point to this call?’
‘I can see in through the downstairs windows. The house is in pretty good order downstairs, but one of the neighbours let me look from her upstairs window so I could see into the bedroom.’
‘This neighbour knew you could see into the bedroom, did he?’
‘She, sir. An old lady. She says she hasn’t seen any sign of life in the house for a while. But it looks like the bedroom has been ransacked. I can see the wardrobe and some of the drawers are open. Can I get a search warrant?’
‘Does anyone have a key?’
‘Not that I’ve discovered, sir.’
‘We have reason to believe that Viktorie was murdered there, don’t we?’
‘Do we?’
‘Navrátil, it’s as likely as anywhere else. Did the mother have a suitcase with her when she collected Viktorie at the school?’
‘Nobody mentioned one.’
‘Then if they were moving away the likeliest place to go was home to get some clothes. So that’s the last place we have a definite link with the victim. That justifies breaking in to secure evidence. The man of the house isn’t around either?’
‘Not been seen, sir.’
‘Do you know where he works?’
‘Not yet, sir.’
‘Right. Ring Mucha and get him to organise a search warrant just to be on the safe side. I also want a forensic technician there when you go in so that they can treat it as a crime scene. Mucha can ring Novák. Don’t go in till the technician arrives. We’ll have to send a couple of officers to guard the house until it’s secure again. You’re probably okay to smash a downstairs window to get in if you have to, but the technician may have a glass cutter with him.’
‘Won’t that take time, sir?’
‘I’ve arrested people who could have been in through those windows while we were on this call, lad. See if you can borrow a ladder to have a better look upstairs while you’re waiting.’
‘Very good, sir.’
‘Speak to you later — and well done.’
Slonský took a gulp of coffee and unfolded the list of names he had been given. There was no-one called Broukalová on it.
He was torn between turning back to supervise the search and carrying through his own enquiries, but reasoning that he had to allow Navrátil some independence at some time he started the engine again and drove on.
The women who were first and third on his list were nearest to the main road. Nothing about their homes suggested that a young girl was living there — other, that is, than the daughter of one of them, who was younger than Viktorie. The second name was registered as living in a block of flats but when Slonský called he was told she had moved away about three months earlier. However, the new resident had a forwarding address and Slonský found her there.
Lucie Jerneková was an angry woman. Slonský had no idea why, but she seemed to be upset with everyone about everything. She reluctantly let him into her flat, taking the opportunity to ask her neighbour what she was looking at as she did so, then stood with her arms folded looking combative.
‘Is this about my old flat?’
‘No. Should it be?’
‘That bastard of a landlord keeps claiming I damaged his plumbing and caused a flood. The shower pipe came off the wall. Is that my fault? Jesus Maria! He won’t let it drop.’
‘I’m not remotely interested in that and I don’t run around on behalf of landlords. I’m here because I’m told that you used to work at the kindergarten.’
‘I did. They sacked me. Reckoned I had a bad attitude and it rubbed off on the kids.’
‘When was this?’
‘About two years ago.’
‘But you were there when Viktorie Dlasková went missing?’
‘Now, hang on. I was off duty that day. Ask anyone. Except that bitch of a Director. She’d probably stitch me up.’
‘No, she said you weren’t there. But the case has been reopened and the evidence points to someone who worked at the kindergarten being implicated, hence why I’m talking to everyone who worked there then. You haven’t been singled out. Do you have any children?’
‘I don’t have a man, so how can I have children?’
‘A reasonable question, but if you don’t tell me you haven’t got a man, how am I to know?’
She swept her fingers through her hair and flopped on a red vinyl sofa with a conspicuous tear in the seat.
‘Sorry. It all gets on top of me sometimes.’
‘Don’t worry. It takes more than that to upset me. Is there a café near here?’
That Lucie was surprised at the question was evident from her face.
‘There’s a bar round the corner that does coffee if that helps.’
‘If I go into a bar I’m not wasting my time buying coffee. Come on, you look like an hour out would do you some good.’
She picked up her jacket and followed this curious policeman in his antique overcoat and crumpled suit.
‘Walking behind me isn’t going to work too well, because I don’t know where I’m going,’ he called over his shoulder.
‘Next left.’
‘Ah yes. I can smell beer. Come on, step lively.’
He held the door open and they took seats by a pane of glass that would have been a window had it not been plastered with handwritten notices about items for sale.
‘I’ll have a beer,’ Slonský announced.
‘What size?’ asked the owner.
‘Man size. And give this lady whatever she wants to drink.’
Lucie asked for a hot chocolate with all the trimmings. Since Slonský had no idea what all the trimmings could be, he took a keen interest when the mug arrived.
‘Is there some hot chocolate under there somewhere?’ he asked.
‘Whipped cream, marshmallows and choc
olate sprinkles like the lady ordered,’ said the owner, giving an inflection to “lady” that suggested he might have used another word. He plonked a glass of beer in front of Slonský.
Slonský picked it up, admired its colour and took a satisfying slurp.
‘I could tell you how to sell a lot more beer,’ he said.
‘Oh, yes?’ replied the owner, not without sarcasm.
‘Yes,’ said Slonský definitively. ‘Fill the glasses up to the damn top.’
The owner marched away affronted, but Lucie was smirking.
‘You told him,’ she said. ‘He’s a bas—’
‘I know,’ Slonský interrupted. ‘Is the chocolate good?’
‘Haven’t had one of these for ages. Very nice, thanks.’
‘Let’s assume, for the sake of clarity, that I’m convinced you didn’t abduct young Viktorie. Who do you think might have done?’
Lucie considered for a moment. ‘Why is this all coming up again now?’
‘We’ve found her body, I’m afraid.’
‘Poor little mite. I didn’t work in that classroom very often but I knew her to look at. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I could never work out how it could be done. But I suppose if it was one of us then it wouldn’t be too hard. You could just take her hand and walk her out, but not to the gate. But you’d surely be seen.’
‘Suppose it happened too quickly. Suppose the other helper in the room was busy. But don’t worry yourself about how it was done. That’s my job. I want your opinion on who had it in them to do this.’
‘I’d like to think none of them could. But I suppose the Director would be on her own. Nobody would be watching what she was doing.’
‘And is she evil enough to do this?’
Lucie shrugged. ‘Probably not. But then you must have arrested plenty of people who weren’t thought evil enough to do things.’
‘You have a point there,’ conceded Slonský. ‘But where would she hide a child for seven years?’
‘Seven years? You mean she’s been alive all this time?’
‘Until now.’
‘Jesus Maria! Poor child. Why her?’
‘I can’t answer that. Not yet, anyway. Maybe she was the one nearest the door. Who knows?’
Lucie took another drink of her chocolate and absentmindedly wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. ‘Why are you talking to me about this?’
‘Because I’m working on the theory that Viktorie didn’t cry out because she knew the person who took her. That means her family, which seems unlikely, or the people who looked after her day by day. We got a list of staff from the Director. Those who were on duty were cleared at the time, but they didn’t talk to those who were off duty.’
‘You’re right there. This is the first time I’ve been asked about it.’
‘Can you remember what you were doing on the day she was taken?’
‘No. Only that I wasn’t at work. I worked Mondays and Thursdays then.’
‘And you didn’t drop in when you were off duty?’
‘Not on that day. Other times, yes. If you’re passing and you need the toilet, why not? Or if it’s someone’s birthday and there’s cake going. But I kept away. The problem was that if you went in you’d finish up being given things to do and not getting paid for it. The Director was a bitch for that.’
Slonský told himself that you didn’t need to be much of a detective to realise that Lucie and the Director didn’t get on.
‘I’ve spoken to three of the four of you. The only one I still have to find is someone called…’ He consulted his list. ‘Tereza Jandová.’
‘Good luck with that. She’s dead.’
‘Dead?’
‘About three years ago. Drank herself to death. Pretty good alibi, I’d say.’
‘It’s not much of an alibi, actually. The fact that she died since doesn’t stop her being the one who took Viktorie seven years ago.’
‘No,’ Lucie conceded, ‘but she was in her fifties and not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She couldn’t have come up with a plan like that. It was all she could do to get the children’s drinks ready at lunchtime.’
‘She worked in the kitchen?’
‘She worked anywhere she was needed, but she spent very little time with the children. Besides, most of them were scared of her.’
‘Why was that?’
‘She had funny eyes. Something medical, I think. They were a bit goggly and you couldn’t tell what she was looking at.’
Slonský made a note on his list and knocked back the remainder of his beer.
‘What do you do now?’
‘A bit of cleaning if I can get the work, but there aren’t many jobs going around here.’
‘Ever thought of looking for something in Prague?’
She laughed. ‘It might as well be the moon. I don’t have the money to go up there and stay somewhere while I look. I get by most days.’
Slonský put his hat back on. ‘I’d better get going. Thanks for the help.’
‘Thanks for the chocolate. You’re an unusual type of cop.’
‘So people tell me. You’re an unusual type of witness.’
‘Yeah, they tell me that too.’
Lucie rose to her feet and drank the last part of her chocolate.
‘You don’t have to leave just because I’m going,’ Slonský said.
‘Yes, I do. As soon as you’re gone he’ll throw me out anyway.’
‘Why?’
Lucie shrugged again. ‘It’s his place. He makes the rules. Oh, and he thinks I’m a whore.’
‘Are you?’
‘No. I’d live better if I was.’
‘If I think of anything else, is there a phone number I can reach you on?’
‘No. You’ll have to send me a postcard. Make it a picture one.’
Slonský walked to the van with a smile breaking through. An idea was forming in his mind. It was completely deranged, but then many of his best ideas were.
Chapter 8
Navrátil was surprised when a car pulled up alongside his and Dr Novák climbed out.
‘I was only expecting a technician, Doctor,’ he explained.
‘They’re right behind me. But if there is any chance that this is a murder scene I want to supervise the sample collection.’
The arrival of a small van produced two technicians, one of whom marched straight to the front door. After a brief inspection he decided the back door was a better option, and the party walked round the house.
Navrátil was just wondering which window they should break when he realised that the back door was open.
‘I’m sure that was locked,’ he said in some confusion.
‘It was,’ smiled the technician. ‘It isn’t now.’
‘We’ll let them go first,’ said Novák. ‘They know what they’re doing. We’ll wait here.’
‘This isn’t going to look good if Viktorie’s stepfather returns,’ Navrátil offered.
Novák opened the fridge. ‘I don’t think he’s been here for a while. And if he comes back and eats any of this stuff I’ll be back here once again.’
‘Rancid, is it?’
‘The milk is the best guide. That hasn’t been disturbed for a week or more, I think.’
One of the technicians came downstairs.
‘I think you’d better see the girl’s bedroom, doctor.’
Novák followed at once, and was gone for a quarter of an hour or so before coming back down.
‘You can come up, but don’t go beyond the doorway, please,’ he said to Navrátil.
The room was quite small. It was dominated by a single bed whose head was in the centre of the wall opposite. On the nearer side there was a chair and on the farther side a small nightstand. The window was to the left as Navrátil looked into the room, and a small wardrobe was positioned to the left of the window. Navrátil could not see it clearly with the door open.
Novák stood in his lint-free suit on the far side o
f the bed and used a laser pen to point to items of interest.
‘The wardrobe is full of her clothes, so if the mother was planning to take her away they never got to finish the packing. Of course, they may have travelled light. Let me draw your attention to the bed. Although it has been made, someone has been lying on it, as shown by the indentations in the coverlet and the pillow.’
‘That’s a big dent in the pillow,’ observed Navrátil.
‘Yes, because she was pushed down into it, I think. There are traces of saliva and blood there. I think she suffocated when someone laid on top of her and shoved her head into the pillow. She tore her frenulum trying to turn her head.’
‘Her what?’
‘The frenulum. The piece of tissue that connects the top lip to the top of the gum. When she was struggling to breath she would try to gasp like a fish. With her lip pushed into the pillow that wouldn’t be possible but she would tear her mouth trying to force her lips apart.’
‘Would it be quick?’ asked Navrátil.
‘Not quick enough,’ Novák replied. ‘She must have suffered. Apart from anything else, I think a man was lying on top of her while she was face down, and I think we’re going to find that those stains halfway down the bed are due to semen. We should be able to get a good DNA sample from them.’
Navrátil wanted to sit down but had to make do with rubbing his face vigorously.
‘So let me get this right, doctor. You’re saying she died here while she was being raped?’
‘I don’t know that there was penetration, but it’s likely because there’s some blood too.’
‘And the person most likely to be raping a young girl in her own home is a family member.’
‘A male family member, to be precise. And we only know of one. If we can’t find the stepfather we need to find out who he is so that we can get DNA from a family member for comparison. Are you all right, Officer Navrátil?’
‘Sorry, just a bit faint. It’s my first experience of this sort of thing.’
Novák smiled in a kindly way. ‘We all had a first time. Why don’t you go downstairs and make some notes while I finish off in here?’
‘Thank you — yes.’
Navrátil returned to the kitchen and had just started writing when the back door was flung open and a familiar figure strode in.
