Fatal Lies Read Online Free PDF

been pushed aside to accommodate a supine body.
    The surface of the first bench was scattered with the paraphernalia of experimentation: labelled bottles with glass stoppers, small dishes filled with powders, a pipette, a rack of test tubes, a small burner, and a flask of brown liquid. Rheinhardt lifted the flask and swirled it under his nose. It was vinegar.
    Zelenka’s notebook was still open. Various chemical formulae were scrawled across the page, some supplemented with modest observations:
bubbling
,
unpleasant smell
,
evaporation
.
    Gärtner addressed the headmaster: ‘You examined the boy with Becker, and then you told him to fetch Nurse Funke.’
    â€˜Thank you, Professor Gärtner,’ said Eichmann. The sharpness of his tone indicated that such assistance was unwelcome. He could remember perfectly well what had happened – and did not need Gärtner to remind him.
    Next to the notebook was a small pastry on a plate. It was untouched. Rheinhardt felt a sudden pang of pity – a tightening in his chest. He imagined Zelenka purchasing the cake from the tuck shop, saving it as a special treat to be consumed at the end of the day. It seemed unjust that the boy should have been deprived of this one last innocent indulgence.
    On the floor were some fragments of glass and scattered white granules.
    â€˜Do you see that broken dish, Professor Gärtner?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Was it there when you arrived?’
    Gärtner looked at the headmaster. ‘I suppose it must have been. We didn’t knock it off the bench when we were moving Zelenka, did we?’
    â€˜No,’ said the headmaster.
    At that moment, the deputy headmaster returned with Haussmann.
    â€˜Ahh . . . there you are, Haussmann,’ called Rheinhardt. ‘Everything in hand?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    â€˜Good. Now, I would like a sheet of paper, an envelope, and a clean brush, please.’
    Rheinhardt squatted on the floor and gently swept some white granules onto the paper. He then folded the sheet into a flat packet and slipped it into the envelope which he sealed. Haussmann handed him a pencil, and the Inspector wrote on the upper right-hand corner:
Sample 1. St Florian’s – Contents of broken dish. Laboratory floor. Fri, 16th Jan, 1903.
    â€˜Inspector,’ said the headmaster. ‘Would I be correct in assuming that you are treating Zelenka’s death as suspicious?’
    Rheinhardt looked at Haussmann, whose usually impassive face showed the ghost of a smile.
    â€˜Yes, headmaster,’ said Rheinhardt. ‘That would be a very reasonable assumption.’

7
    PROFESSOR MATHIAS WAS seated on a wooden stool, staring at the corpse of a young woman. An incision had been made from her larynx to her abdomen and the skin and superficial layers of tissue had been peeled back. The expression of concentration on the Professor’s face, and the peculiarity of the woman’s condition, suggested to the onlooker the more familiar sight of an avid reader poring over the pages of an open book. Above the body was an electric light, the beam of which shone down into the raw, empty cavity of the woman’s torso. A collection of glistening organs – heart, liver, lungs – were strewn across a nearby table. The stench was overwhelming.
    Haussmann covered his mouth and looked beseechingly at his superior.
    â€˜All right,’ said Rheinhardt, ‘go outside and have a cigarette. I’ll join you shortly.’ His assistant nodded and made an undignified exit.
    â€˜Professor?’
    Mathias’s gaze seemed to be fixed on the woman’s pudendum.
    â€˜Professor?’ Rheinhardt called more loudly.
    Mathias cleared his throat.
    â€˜A man who had lost his axe suspected his neighbour’s son of stealing it. Observing the boy, the man discovered that everything about him – his gait, narrow features, speech, et cetera – declared the boy a thief; however,