HS04 - Unholy Awakening Read Online Free PDF Page B

mother died. It was during the epidemic. Her death and the need to ensure a decent burial have done the rest…’
    I stared at her. ‘Your mother?’
    She held my gaze, and nodded.
    ‘I am sorry to hear it,’ I said.
    ‘How many people died in Lotingen?’ she asked. ‘Was it half the population?’
    ‘Not half the population,’ I murmured. ‘A third, almost.’
    ‘In our house, apart from Father and myself, two serfs survived,’ she said. ‘There had been ten of them at the start of the month. But Mother was the first to succumb. In its way, it was a blessing in disguise. She was buried in a solid oak coffin, which was placed inside the family vault. The servants were bundled without much ceremony into holes in the ground. The spectacle drove my father out of his wits entirely.’
    ‘Where were you living?’ I asked.
    She did not reply at once. I put her hesitation down to sorrow. She had lost her mother, her home and, in a certain sense, her father, too.
    ‘To the north-west. In the country outside Marienburg,’ she said at last.
    I imagined that the burials in Marienburg had been like those in Lotingen. Hasty, lacking in religion and respect. Carried out by the employees of the sanitary inspector’s office, whose haste hid fright as much as cruelty. Emma Rimmele must have walked the same dark road. I was tempted to tell her about the death of Anders. I would have liked to tell her about Helena’s reaction to the tragedy, the high wall which had reared up between my wife and myself. It was folly, I realised. I was the investigating magistrate, and Emma Rimmele was a stranger to me. A corpse had been discovered in the garden of the house where she was living. That was all that mattered.
    ‘Regarding the body in the well,’ I said, seeking refuge in facts. ‘My clerk was able to identify her. She lived not far from here, he says, in the village of Krupeken. Her name was Angela Enke.’
    I did not think to ask her if she knew the victim. How long had they been living there? A week? She might recognise a few people from the neighbourhood by sight, perhaps, but she would know far fewer by name.
    Emma jumped up. She turned towards the window, freeing her gown, which twirled around her figure. Her naked shins disappeared beneath the folds as if a shutter had been suddenly closed on a window that had been unexpectedly opened.
    ‘Angela Enke?’ she whispered, catching her breath, her right hand clutching at her throat. Then, she raised both hands to her head, pushing her curls back tightly over her fore head as if they were a troublesome veil. ‘Is it Angela’s body down there?’
    ‘I’m afraid it is,’ I said, surprised.
    The pearls danced furiously in her ear-lobes as she shook her head.
    ‘Oh, God!’ she muttered softly.
    ‘Did you know her?’ I asked.
    She shook her head uncertainly, then nodded. Her eyes filled with tears, her lips parted, sounds issued from her mouth. Moans of distress, but not one intelligible word.
    She turned away, and stared out of the window.
    I placed my hands on her shoulders. I felt the involuntary jerking of her frame beneath my palms as she fought to hold back sobs. Then she turned to face me, eyes staring into mine. Impulsively, she stepped towards me, crushing herself against my chest, pressing her hands against my shoulder blades, pulling me towards her.
    I held her, and I felt the force of her emotions.
    Her hair was in my face, crushing against my nose and mouth. I did not pull away, but breathed it in. I closed my eyes, and smelled the perfume of the woods, wild flowers, damp moss. I might have been walking in the forest after a rain shower.
    She leant back in my arms, making no attempt to free herself, staring up into my eyes again. The tears were gone. Her eyes were wide with fear.
    ‘Why would anyone want to murder her?’ she asked.
    ‘I do not know,’ I admitted, but I was puzzled.
    Why throw a body into a well, then leave a tooth in a bucket on the