The Legend of The “Grau Kiefer” Inn Read online

solved yet?” I asked.

  “No, I feel that we are close, but we still miss one crucial piece of evidence, one lie or angle that would illuminate the sole prime suspect.”

  “Since you are not looking at your watch or phone, I assume you have plenty of time to talk me through the case. I too don’t have to work on Sundays. And you know that I’m more than capable of giving you a fresh look at it all, so… from the beginning then.” I hastily encouraged her with a smile.

  “I don’t have the case files with me. I won’t be able to tell you everything right now…”

  “Doesn’t matter. Tell me the basics today, and get the rest for the next time.”

  The fact that she hadn’t brought the case files surprised me, for I thought this case was why she had paid me a visit.

  “Alright. You know the general story behind the whole thing, right?”

  I nodded.

  “After the first look at the crime scene, it seemed that the people had been killed by the toxic burns of the hogweed, but that is only partially correct. Experts found considerable amount of methadone in their systems. It killed them faster than the plant.”

  “So, they were drugged, then?”

  “It seems so. Methadone is an opioid pain reliever, and the dosage for each of them was sure to be lethal even if they somehow got out of the field.”

  “The drug takes some time to kick in, right? I would assume that when they were dropped in the field, the drug must have started its effect, otherwise it would be a hassle to get them to go inside the field without screaming and drawing attention.”

  “My line of thought exactly. Luckily, nowadays the police can measure such variables with dependable precision.”

  “Then, taking into consideration the time of death, drug dosage and the time, when the bodies were found, you’ve got a workable timeline.” I concluded.

  “Actually, I am a few steps ahead of you on this one. The newest remains were roughly twenty hours old when we located them. Those were the ones of the two adults the teenager filmed. The bodies were found at 13:20. At least that, roughly, is the time when the video was posted online. The police arrived on the scene seventeen minutes later. So, we can pinpoint that as one of the markers.”

  “Ah, yes!” I exclaimed. “That gives a very workable timespan. When did the teens arrive to their camping site?”

  “They had arrived with their boats the previous day, in afternoon. The tents were erected on the other side of the river, 70 meters from a bridge that leads straight into the field. Next to the bridge we also found tyre marks which, we presume, are from the vehicle that brought the victims there.”

  “Hmm… so, most likely the victims were left there before the group arrived. I wouldn’t believe that the person, who transported them, would risk being seen, while there is a loud party going on that close to the spot.”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “Right, so, taking into account the drug dosage, time of death, and the group’s arrival, they were brought to that location between…” I looked at the ceiling, thinking.

  “14:00 and 16:00,” she stated before I had a chance to add anything. “I’m way ahead of you. The police have this figured out already. It would take roughly two hours for that amount of drug to produce a state of utter numbness and would kill an adult another two hours later. When all of that is taken into account, we get that the killer had been near Grau Kiefer between two and four o`clock.”

  “And the other bodies?” I asked.

  “Unlike my colleagues, I figured there’s no point in going into that. We have one narrow enough timespan, when we know for certain that the killer was at the Grau Kiefer. Therefore, if I can tie a suspect with that place and time, I have the bastard in my grip. Besides, other bodies are so old and damaged that the experts could only roughly point their day of death, which isn’t very useful.”

  For a while I went silent and aimlessly observed Rebecca’s cheeks – there were some bright red spots on them. She had not put any make-up on that day, which I took as a sign that she did not care about her looks in front of me anymore. It used to be completely contrary.

  “This was the easy part though. The rest is still littered with question marks.” Rebecca added, breaking the momentary silence.

  “This far your line of thought has been spot on! By the way, have you got a theory on why replicate the local legend? It’s awfully peculiar.”

  “Yes, that must be one of the keys to unlock the mystery. Whoever did the killing must also be interested in sparking the old legend. Perhaps, someone intends to do business on the grounds of it? You know; souvenirs, bars, hotels, explorers of supernatural…”

  “But?” From her intonation, I gathered that that has not been a very rewarding line of thought.

  “The only people doing that kind of business nearby are an elderly couple, who run a site for agritourism. They were hosting a tourist group at their farm whole day that day.”

  “Clearly,” I mumbled. “And how many of the suspects, you’d say, seem weak, insecure or with low self-esteem?”

  “None, I think. Why?”

  “The children were first.”

  Rebecca raised an eyebrow.

  “The two adult corpses were the most recent, which means that the culprit killed the children first. Speaking from experience, that nearly always is a sign of insecurity, or doubt of one’s abilities. In other words, adults are more likely to put up resistance and take out the attacker.”

  “I get what you mean. That’s definitely another angle to look at. ”

  … Visiting hours are up. Say goodbye and line up by the exit! ...

  The first sentence made me jump a little as the prison guard’s deep voice blasted the room. This whole time, the background had been quite silent, with two other inmates sitting with their visitors in different parts of the room, so that their conversations could not be heard by outsiders.

  “Perfect timing, isn’t it?” I said. “I’ll be looking forward to our next meeting.”

  “Take care, Albert. I’ll take some of the case files with me the next time, if you wish.”

  “Sounds good!” I briskly replied.

  “By the way, Boris sends his regards. Last week he got my grandparents a little angry when he got in grandpa’s way and made him drop an open bottle of raspberry syrup. Ironically, most of that stuff ended up in his fur, so he had to take the most unpleasant bath he’s ever had.”

  “Ha, ha!” I laughed. “Indeed, we got right to the case and I even forgot to ask how’s my dog doing.”

  “Yeah, we did.” She said with a wistful smile.

  “Till the next time then.” I wanted to hug her goodbye, but, as I stood up, the guard grabbed me by the shoulder and unceremoniously pulled me towards the line.

  “Bye.”

  A week went by. Then another, but I still had not heard a word from my beloved police officer. Nor were there any developments on the case in the news. The silence irritated me, for it made little sense to disappear like that if she was genuinely interested in solving this damned mystery. Yet, there was nothing I could do about it. It was a grim reminder that with my situation, I am in thrall to her view on things. She is the one, who controls how often and under what circumstances we meet and what is the nature of these gatherings. The more I thought about it, the angrier, I felt, I became. Occasionally, even up to a point where I would stay awake a third of the night, fuming.

  These weeks were also the time, when I wrote down my modest escapade with The Crutch. By the way, he has been gaining, on average, fifty grams of weight per day, which is an achievement in itself, considering prison’s scarce catering.

  Rebecca paid a visit nineteen days after our initial conversation. I immediately noticed dark circles under her eyes, dry lips and absolute lack of enthusiasm beginning our conversation.

  “Sorry for taking so much time.” She said.

  “What happened?”

  “Oh, we found a dead banker in a forest, shot an
d tied to a tree. Apparently, nasty business with a string of bad investments in Shanghai. I also went through a bit of an ugly breakup with a guy, who was too head over heels… You didn’t think I wasn’t…?”

  “No, no. Of course.” My face must have mirrored my thoughts.

  She looked at me with slight suspicion. “I sincerely hope you have come to terms with our situation.”

  “Trust me, I understand. It makes absolute sense for you to, well, you know, see others.” I could not force myself to be honest.

  “Good.”

  “Then, how did it go with the banker business?” I asked to try to curb my growing discomfort.

  “The Chinese hired Dworak, a Slovakian hitman, to do the job.”

  “I’ve met Dworak. He’s exactly as unpleasant as you would expect him to be.”

  “Really? Anyway, I did some massive movement tracking and it would seem that a representative of one of the Chinese investors had travelled to Budapest, the rumoured location, where Dworak had been residing. Twenty nine days later the banker is dead in the Czech’s trademark fashion and a man with a different passport, but with Dworak’s appearance, is let through the Polish-Belarussian border and vanishes.”

  “Not enough to tie it to the Shanghai business, right?”

  “Exactly,” she exclaimed! “Everyone’s shrugging and playing dumb.”

  “Oh, well.”

  “I can’t stand when something this fucking easy slips through my fingers! You have no idea how many hours, days I spent just to trace the whereabouts and connecting the dots. Only to end up falling in