Fatal Lies Read Online Free PDF Page B

the following day the man discovered his axe beneath a sack in his own cellar. When he encountered his neighbour’s sonagain, he no longer saw anything unusual about the boy’s appearance.’ The professor paused for a few moments. Then he added: ‘Well, Rheinhardt?’
    â€˜I really have no idea,’ said the Inspector.
    â€˜No, I didn’t think you would. It is by an ancient Chinese author. I have been making a study of their literature – and very interesting it is, too.’
    Mathias stood up and rolled a mortuary sheet up to the dead woman’s neck. Before covering her face, he gently touched her hair.
    â€˜So very beautiful,’ he said softly.
    â€˜Yes,’ Rheinhardt agreed. ‘How did she die?’
    â€˜Natural causes – a congenital defect of the pulmonary semilunar valve.’ Mathias wiped his hands down the front of his brown apron. ‘We are advised,’ he continued, ‘to be cautious in our judgements. Yet . . . yet . . .’
    He suddenly fell silent.
    â€˜Yet what?’ asked Rheinhardt.
    â€˜I strongly suspect that the last time this woman
received
her husband, she had already been dead for some time.’
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’
    â€˜The gentleman exercised his conjugal privilege
post-mortem
.’
    â€˜Dear God,’ gasped Rheinhardt.
    Mathias shrugged.
    â€˜I cannot share your disgust, Inspector. It is my understanding that what passes for sexual relations in most Viennese marriages is essentially necrophilic.’ The old man began to chuckle. ‘Only joking, Rheinhardt. Now, who have we here?’
    Professor Mathias shuffled past a metal bucket in which a length of colon was coiled like a sleeping serpent.
    â€˜Thomas Zelenka,’ said Rheinhardt.
    The boy was laid out – like the eviscerated and misused
Hausfrau
– on a brightly illuminated table. The brilliance of the electric-light beam showed his freckles more clearly. They were more numerous than Rheinhardt remembered, and their ginger dappling had the effect of making Zelenka look much younger than his fifteen years.
    A child
, thought Rheinhardt.
Still only a child
.
    â€˜Inspector?’ Mathias’s voice sounded querulous.
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜Why are you wearing tails?’
    Rheinhardt sighed. He gave an account of the evening’s events while Mathias pulled a trolley of surgical tools over to Zelenka’s table.
    â€˜Help me get his clothes off, will you?’
    Rheinhardt baulked.
    â€˜Oh, come now, Inspector!’ Mathias reprimanded. ‘Your coyness with the dead is becoming quite tiresome!’
    The old man tutted and began to undo the buttons on Zelenka’s woollen shirt. Rheinhardt reluctantly manipulated the boy’s stiffening arms, and the shirt came off without too much difficulty. He then removed the boy’s vest. Rheinhardt placed each article of clothing in a sealed paper bag. When he turned to assist Professor Mathias again he found that the old pathologist was standing very still, staring at the body with intense interest.
    â€˜The trousers, Professor?’
    Mathias grunted – but it was evident that the meaning of Rheinhardt’s words had not registered.
    â€˜The trousers?’ Rheinhardt repeated.
    â€˜Sshh,’ said the pathologist, waving his hand in the air. He then moved forward, his stealthy gait and purposeful gaze reminding Rheinhardt of a predatory animal. Suddenly, Mathias pounced. He lowered his head – his nose almost touching Zelenka’s body. He then snatched a magnifying glass from the trolley and began to examine the boy’s chest.
    â€˜Professor?’
    â€˜Extraordinary.’
    â€˜What is?’
    â€˜Come here. Take a look at this.’
    Rheinhardt could not see anything at first. But as he drew closer he saw that there was something unusual about the boy’s skin: a patch, about the size of a five-Krone coin, just above the right nipple,