The Carnival Master

by Craig Russell

  ‘I’m already on it.’ Scholz smiled. ‘You see? I do keep my promises. I’ve sent out uniformed teams to check all the hotels. I’ve had copies made of the photograph you gave me and told the uniforms that she may have dyed her hair black.’

  ‘Thanks, Benni. I need to get out there too.’

  ‘I’m going to need you here. At least for the next couple of days, to help me question Andrea Sandow. But that won’t take up all our time, mainly because I don’t think we’re going to get a word out of her. In between we can coordinate the search for Maria.’

  After lunch they headed down to the interview room. Andrea Sandow was brought in, washed clean of make-up and with her hair scraped back severely. Her face naked of cosmetics looked even more masculine. Scholz led the questioning, but Andrea never broke her silence and kept her fixed, hard gaze focused on Fabel. After twenty fruitless minutes they gave up.

  ‘We’ll see what the shrink has to say later today,’ said Scholz. ‘But I have to say that Andrea seems to have something going on with you. It was as if I wasn’t there.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Fabel. ‘But I got the idea that my presence was making things worse.’

  ‘Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off? You look pretty washed out after last night.’

  ‘Maria …’

  ‘By the time you get back I’ll have chased up the uniforms and we’ll see if we’ve got any leads on her whereabouts,’ said Scholz. ‘In the meantime, why don’t you chill out? After all, you’ve just completed your last murder case.’

  Fabel smiled wearily. ‘Maybe you’re right. I could do with a rest.’

  Fabel accepted a lift in a patrol car back to his hotel.

  ‘Can you drop me at the end of Hohestrasse?’ he asked the driver. ‘I’d like to do some shopping.’

  Although some stores were open, the spirit of Karneval had seized the city fully and Fabel understood why these were called the ‘Crazy Days’. He quickly gave up hope of finding a souvenir for Gabi, his daughter.

  His cellphone rang.

  ‘I’ve had a report from one of the uniforms,’ said Scholz. ‘It seems that Maria Klee checked out of a second hotel on Saturday the fourth. No joy with any of the other hotels. She seems to have dropped out of sight completely. Are you sure she’s not back in Hamburg?’

  ‘Hold on a minute …’ A noisy group of street entertainers bustled past and Fabel edged out of their way. ‘No, there’s no way. I’ve got Anna Wolff, one of my team, checking regularly that Maria doesn’t resurface … wait a minute …’ The entertainers had gathered around Fabel, one of them juggling three gold balls. ‘Do you mind?’ said Fabel. ‘I’m trying to have a conversation.’ He noticed that they were dressed all in black, each wearing exactly the same type of mask: not the usual Karneval mask but more like the type worn during the Venetian Carnival: full-face, gold, genderless and empty of expression. The juggler gave a mime-artist shrug and moved back.

  ‘As I was saying,’ said Fabel, ‘I would have heard if Maria had resurfaced in Hamburg. I’m getting really worried, Benni.’

  ‘Don’t be – I’ll keep on it.’

  Fabel snapped his cellphone shut and the group of entertainers swamped him again. The juggler leaned in close, tilting his blank gold mask from side to side as if examining Fabel.

  ‘Clear off – I’m not interested.’ Fabel was now annoyed.

  ‘Want to see a good trick?’ asked the juggler. Fabel thought he detected an accent in the juggler’s voice. Suddenly he felt the others grasp his upper arms tight and push him against the wall.

  ‘I know a very good trick …’ Still the mime-act tilting of the mask from side to side. ‘I can make a mad-bitch Hamburg cop disappear.’ Fabel struggled but the others, laughing jovially, gripped him tight. He felt a knife point pressed into his side, beneath his ribs. He looked past the masked jugglers at the shoppers walking past in Hohestrasse. There was no help to be called for. He would die before his cry was heard. You always die alone, he thought.

  The jugglers did a jester dance in front of him. Fabel couldn’t work out if it was to keep the pretence going for the sake of passers-by, or if it was for his benefit.

  ‘I can make anyone disappear,’ said the juggler through the gold mask. ‘Anyone. I could make you disappear, right now.’

  ‘What do you want, Vitrenko?’

  ‘Why do you think I am Vitrenko? We are many here.’

  ‘Because you’re an egomaniacal fuck and this is how you get your kicks,’ said Fabel. ‘Because you have to make a big show of everything. Just like the way you killed all those people in Hamburg. Just like the way you made sure I was a witness to you murdering your own father.’

  The juggler leaned his mask into Fabel’s face again. ‘Then you know your bitch friend will suffer before she dies. I’ve got her. I want the dossier. Deliver a copy, complete and unexpurgated, or Maria Klee will be delivered to you piece by piece.’

  ‘I can’t just get a copy of the dossier. It has to be signed out before anyone can even read it.’

  ‘You’re a resourceful man, Fabel. You are finished with the police – what does it matter to you? But if you fail to deliver a full copy of the dossier to me, I will deliver Maria Klee to you in one-kilo pieces. And I will use all my skill to make sure that she will be alive for most of the butcher work.’

  ‘When?’ asked Fabel.

  ‘Let’s keep things festive. Rose Monday. During the processions. Wait on the corner of Komödienstrasse and Tunisstrasse and someone will collect it from you. They will be wearing a mask like this.’

  ‘I’ll only give it to you.’

  ‘You don’t even know what I look like now. It could be anyone behind one of these masks.’

  ‘I’ll know. Just like I knew today. If it isn’t you, then I won’t hand over the dossier.’

  The juggler’s laugh was muffled by the mask. ‘You want me to walk into a trap that’s so obvious?’

  ‘You’re sick enough to see it as a challenge. There’ll be no trap. Give me Maria and we’ll both stay out of your business. For good.’

  ‘Do not disappoint me, Herr Fabel. If you wish I can have a portion of Frau Klee delivered to your hotel to prove that I have her. And to underline my intent …’

  ‘I believe you’ve got her. Don’t hurt her and I’ll do as you ask.’

  ‘Good. But let me warn you that if there is any suggestion of a police presence, Frau Klee will be carved alive. No metaphor. You understand?’

  Fabel nodded. He was shoved violently and crashed onto the ground. A couple of passers-by helped him to his feet in time to see the last of the masked men skip into the mass of the crowds.

  3.

  Maria’s heart began to pound as soon as she heard the heavy clunking bar mechanism of the cold store door. It all depended on whether it was The Nose or Sarapenko who came in with the meal. Not that it could be called a meal: they had kept her on the minimum calorie intake to dull her mind and weaken her resistance. The near-starvation diet combined with the irregular switching on and off of the light was intended to disorientate her. The door slid open. She didn’t look to see which of them it was. The decision to act or not act, to kill or not kill, would have to wait until the very last moment. She knew the routine: the tray would be left outside on the floor and whoever had brought the meal would stand back from the doorway, sweeping an automatic round the room before training the gun on Maria.

  Maria remained on her knees, clutching the hollow of her belly, gasping for breath.

  ‘I’m sick …’ she said, still not looking up. It was the only way to go: she knew that Vitrenko would have given them strict orders to keep her alive until whatever use he had for her had been fulfilled. She heard the sound of boots approaching.

  ‘I have medicine …’ gasped Maria. ‘In my coat … please help me.’ She didn’t want the door to close; for her guard to contact Vitrenko for instructions. She was presenting a problem and a solution at the same time. She w
as counting on her stuff still being there. The tablets in her coat were the anti-anxiety pills that Dr Minks had given her. The boots didn’t move: feigning sickness was an obvious ploy. Maria had predicted this doubt of the guard’s and she clamped her hand to her mouth as if about to vomit. Unseen, she slipped her ring finger into her mouth and throat. The hair-trigger reaction. There was little left in her stomach from the meagre meal of God knew how many hours before, but enough splashed onto the cold store floor to suggest that she was genuinely ill. Maria slumped onto her side, her eyes closed. She heard the footsteps approach again and a boot jabbed her in the ribs. Maria had so detached herself from her body that she didn’t even flinch at the kick. A pause while the guard calculated the risk: just how much of a threat could Maria pose, even if she were conscious? Then the sound of a weapon being reholstered. She felt fingers jab into her neck to check her pulse.

  It was then that Maria opened her eyes. Wide. She stared directly into Olga Sarapenko’s face. Maria saw the alarm in Sarapenko’s eyes as she realised that she was looking at something that was no longer human.

  4.

  Fabel’s hotel room had the expected brightly coloured abstract print hanging on the wall. He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at it as if it would yield the knowledge or the strength to help him work out what to do next. His head ached. It was Vitrenko’s sheer arrogance that astounded him: grabbing a senior police officer on a busy street and demanding that he betray everything he believed in.

  As Fabel stared at the painting, he thought of The Nightwatch hanging in his mother’s parlour; about how he had forgotten what he had seen in the painting as a small boy. The protection of others from harm.

  Fabel knew what he had to do but dreaded doing it. It went against every instinct he had. He picked up the phone and dialled.

  ‘Hello, Ullrich, Fabel here. About the Vitrenko Dossier …’

  5.

  Maria had realised, in those cold, dark, isolated hours, that she needed a sharp cutting edge to succeed in any attack. She had planned to sharpen the spoon, but that had been taken away along with, for a while, all hope. Then she had realised that, of course, she did have a sharp-edged weapon. It was just that using it had taken her to a place that was beyond human.

  The grey-white walls were splashed with arcs of arterial blood. Sarapenko now reached out to Maria, desperate to touch another human being as she died. The spurts from her neck weakened: the outstretched hand dropped onto the grubby floor. Shakily, Maria dragged herself to her feet and wiped the blood from her mouth and face with the back of her sleeve. She took the automatic from its holster on Sarapenko’s body, trying not to look at the face stripped of its beauty. The face that she had ravaged. But Maria felt no horror. Again, it was as if she were unreal; simply watching herself. She staggered out into the main part of the unit, swinging Sarapenko’s automatic wildly around. There was no one. No Nose. Maria saw where the row of surveillance monitors still sat: now blank dark eyes. She ripped drawers from their runners, tore open cabinets until she found three more clips for the automatic, plus the two guns they had taken from her. There was a wastebasket in the corner and she frantically tossed its contents out onto the floor. She found a half-eaten roll, sodden with discarded coffee, with a shred of meat left inside. She stuffed it into her mouth and swallowed it half chewed, its stale flavour mingling with the lingering taste of Sarapenko’s blood in her mouth.

  The Nose came in through the main door at the end of the unit, carrying a large box. The instant he saw Maria he dropped the box and reached into his leather jacket. Maria walked deliberately and unhurriedly towards him. She heard several gunshots and felt Sarapenko’s gun kick in her outstretched grasp. The Nose sank to his knees, hit in his chest and left flank. His hand cleared his jacket and Maria fired twice more into his body. His gun clattered to the floor. Maria kicked the automatic out of his reach. He looked up at her, his breath coming in short gasps. Maria knew that he was seriously wounded and would die if he didn’t get hospital treatment immediately. She guessed he knew that as well. He tried to stand up but Maria shoved him back onto the floor with her boot.

  ‘Where’s the swap supposed to take place?’ she asked.

  ‘What swap?’ he said between laboured breaths.

  Maria lowered her aim and fired again. He screamed as his right kneecap shattered, his jeans turning black-red as the blood soaked into them.

  ‘I’m supposed to be swapped for something,’ said Maria, still calm. ‘My guess is the Vitrenko Dossier. Where’s the meet and who with?’

  ‘Fuck you …’

  ‘No,’ Maria said wearily. ‘Fuck you.’ She leaned forward and aimed the muzzle at his forehead.

  ‘Near the cathedral,’ said The Nose. ‘On the corner of Komödienstrasse and Tunisstrasse. With Fabel.’

  ‘Jan Fabel?’

  ‘He’s supposed to hand over a copy of the dossier in exchange for you.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Rose Monday. When the procession is passing.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Maria. ‘You’ll die if you don’t get help. Do you have a cellphone?’

  ‘In my pocket.’

  Maria shoved the gun’s muzzle into his cheek while she dug into his leather jacket with the other hand, retrieved the phone and put it into her own pocket. Then, with all her remaining strength and ignoring his screams of agony, she dragged The Nose by the collar of his jacket across the floor and into the storeroom. She dumped him next to the body of Olga Sarapenko and left him there.

  ‘Like I said …’ Maria regarded the Ukrainian coldly as she slid the cold-store door shut. ‘Fuck you.’

  6.

  Fabel stood on the corner of Komödienstrasse and Tunisstrasse, the spires of Cologne Cathedral looming behind him, and watched as float after float drifted by. Crowds of organised chaos. Fabel looked up Tunisstrasse and recognised Scholz’s Cologne Police float approaching. He stood watching the procession but not seeing it. Instead, he ran through every possible outcome. He even wondered if he would die here: if Maria was already dead and if Vitrenko would finish him off as soon as he got his hands on the dossier. Fabel gripped the plastic carrier bag tight.

  ‘It’s nothing to do with roses, you know,’ Scholz had told him. ‘The Rose in Rose Monday comes from the Old Low German Rasen – to rave or run around madly.’ Now Fabel stood on the corner of a Cologne street on Rose Monday and watched as the city’s population turned the world on its head. A giant papier-mâché model of the American President George Bush, his bare buttocks being spanked by an enraged Arab, drifted by. It was followed by another depicting the new German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, dressed as a Rhine Maiden. A group of German TV personalities were depicted on the next float, stuffing their pockets with cash. Everyone was cheering and scrabbling to catch the candies thrown by the costumed members of each float.

  The procession slowed and came to a temporary standstill, as it did periodically to maintain the regulation distance between floats. Undaunted, the crowd continued to cheer. Fabel scanned the faces around him: clowns, oversized floppy hats in stridently jolly colours, face-painted children hoisted on the shoulders of parents. Then he saw him: the same gold mask and black outfit, standing four or five rows back. Fabel edged through the crowd towards the figure, then became aware of another gold mask. Then another. And another. There were five … no, six of them scattered throughout the crowd. All the gold masks were watching Fabel, not the procession. He stopped and tried to weigh up which was Vitrenko. Two of the figures made their way over to him. Fabel and the two gold-masked men stood, an island in an unseeing sea of revellers.

  ‘I said I’d only hand this over to Vitrenko,’ said Fabel. Neither masked man moved but Fabel heard Vitrenko’s voice.

  ‘And I said I wouldn’t walk so easily into a trap.’

  Fabel spun around and came face to face with another identical gold mask. The other two men closed in behind him.

  ‘You have it?’

 
‘I have photocopied pages from the original. Where’s Maria?’ said Fabel. The crowd around him cheered another passing float.

  ‘Safe. She’ll be released when I return with the dossier.’

  ‘No, she won’t. That wasn’t our deal. You said we would exchange here. If I let you walk away with the dossier you’ll kill her. Or she’s dead already.’ A shower of candies rained down on them, thrown by a passing float with the ritual Kölsch cry of ‘Alaaf … Helau!’. The crowd responded with ‘Kölle Alaaf!’

  ‘You’re right, Herr Fabel, I don’t have her to exchange any more. But that doesn’t matter, because you’ve brought the dossier. Thank you. And goodbye, Fabel.’

  Vitrenko seized Fabel by the shoulder and pulled him close to the expressionless gold Venetian mask. One of the others snatched the carrier bag from his grasp. Vitrenko’s other hand thrust a knife upwards and into Fabel’s abdomen. Fabel doubled over, gasping for breath.

  At that moment a flood of police officers burst out from under the curtain of the Cologne police float. Benni Scholz, who had been riding on top, leapt from the float, still dressed in his comedy police costume. The crowd cheered enthusiastically, thinking it was all part of the act until the officers barged into the crowds. Vitrenko looked down at Fabel, then at the knife in his gloved hand. He dropped it and ran, disappearing into the crowd.

  ‘Get after them!’ Scholz screamed at his men. He pushed through the crowd to where Fabel had fallen.

  7.

  Scholz put his arm around Fabel’s shoulders and gently eased him up.

  ‘You okay?’

  Fabel looked down at his punctured coat and jacket. ‘Just winded.’

  ‘It’s a good job you were right about his weapon of choice. If he’d brought a gun that stab-vest wouldn’t have helped much.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Fabel.