Collision of Evil Read Online Free PDF Page A

No weapon has been recovered. We have no motive. But I think we’ll get somewhere. I have a feeling that we will get someone for this. I’ve been around crime a while and I give these feelings their due.”
Robert nodded without actually agreeing. He had a heavy feeling in his stomach that he might end up flying home with his brother’s cold remains in the cargo hold of a United Airlines flight and without any answers. He pushed the thought away. “How did he die? I want to know whatever you can tell me, and please don’t pretty it up for me.”
Waldbaer looked up at the ceiling and pursed his lips. “Fair enough. I will tell you as accurately as I can,
Ja?
First, we did have a bit of luck, insofar as the body was discovered within twenty-four hours of death. The crime scene is remote and it could have easily been a week or more before someone happened upon your brother. There was no attempt to conceal the body. I find that interesting.”
Waldbaer ran a hand slowly over the back of his neck before continuing. “A number of possible reasons come to mind. Perhaps theattacker was scared and wanted to get out of the area quickly after the crime. That would suggest the killer is not a professional. It could also be that it was getting dark and the killer didn’t have the visibility to find a place to put the body and needed to concentrate on getting away. Or maybe the killer didn’t have the strength to move the body, although the force of the blows he—or she—delivered would seem to indicate otherwise. But who knows, weak heart, asthma? Just as possible, the killer could have left the body where it fell because he was sure that the crime could never be traced to him. Why go through the effort of moving a body if its discovery won’t reveal anything?”
Waldbaer paused, but his visitor interjected neither comment nor question.
“When we arrived at the scene, the body was still wet from the thunderstorm the previous afternoon. There was no water collected in the nostrils or oral cavity, which suggests that your brother was killed after the storm had abated. That means early evening sometime, around dusk, at the latest. Your brother was struck from behind, three times. Two of the three blows were to the head and either one alone would have been fatal. One blow was delivered between the shoulder blades and taken by itself might not have been killing, but I personally believe that the loss of blood and damage to the spinal column from even this wound would have made it impossible for your brother to have gotten out of that meadow. Even with that one blow, I think he would have died up there, just more slowly. The killer was leaving nothing to chance however.”
The Kommissar paused. The American’s breathing had become audible.
“Do you want some water? Or should we stop for today?”
“No, it’s okay,” Robert replied. “Keep going.”
Waldbaer nodded and resumed his narrative. “All right. We don’t have a murder weapon, and we aren’t certain exactly what it is. An axe or hatchet or something similar. The weapon was swung with significant force. This is surely not pleasant for you, but it needs to be said: Your brother’s head was cleaved open to and through thebrain by one of the blows, probably the last one. The other head blow was severe too, but the one that penetrated the cerebral cavity was devastating. It would have been apparent to the killer that this blow had been fatal. This was not a struggle in which your brother happened to be killed. There was no struggle. Your brother was very deliberately murdered.”
The detective must have noticed a slight tic in Hirter’s cheek, and decided that the man was fighting to control his emotions. “I think that suffices for today. We can meet tomorrow.”
His guest cut him off. “How painful do you think it was? Did Charles suffer a lot? Would he have lost consciousness from that first blow to the head?”
The Kommissar released a breath slowly,