JF02 - Brother Grimm Read Online Free PDF Page B

them at the Polizeirevier Norderstedt-Mitte in the town’s Rathausallee.
    When they arrived at the Polizeirevier, they were not conducted, as they expected, to the main Kriminalpolizei offices; instead a young female uniformed officer led them to a stark, windowless interview room. The female SchuPo asked them if they would like some coffee, to which they both said yes. Anna glanced gloomily around the room and, after the SchuPo had left, she and Fabel exchanged meaningful glances.
    ‘Now I know what it must be like to be a suspect,’ said Anna.
    Fabel gave an ironic smile. ‘Quite. Do you think we’re being told something?’
    Anna didn’t get a chance to answer: the interview-room door swung open and a man in his early thirties entered. He was shortish but powerfully built and had a big, friendly but forgettable face fringed with dark hair and a stubbly beard. He smiled broadly at both Hamburg officers and introduced himself as Kriminalkommissar Klatt. He placed the file he had brought under his arm on the interview-room table and indicated that Anna and Fabel should be seated.
    ‘I’m sorry we’ve been stuck in here,’ said Klatt. ‘I’m afraid this isn’t my usual location. I’m actually stationed at the Europaallee Revier, but I thought it would be easier for you to find your way here. They are doing me a favour … but I’m afraid our accommodation is a little more modest than I expected.’ He sat down. The geniality on his face was washed away by a more sombre expression. ‘I believe you’ve found Paula …’
    ‘The truth is, Kommissar Klatt, we won’t know for sure until the parents make a positive ID of the body … but yes, it looks like it.’
    ‘It was always just a matter of time.’ There was a resigned sadness on Klatt’s broad face. ‘But you always hope that this is the one you’ll bring back alive.’
    Fabel nodded. Klatt’s sentiments echoed his own. The only difference was that Klatt had a chance: on the whole, he dealt with the living, while Fabel’s job as a murder detective meant that someone had to die for him to become involved. For a fleeting moment Fabel wondered what it would be like to transfer back to a general KriPo office. The female officer returned with the coffee.
    ‘Did you think there was a chance you’d find her alive?’ asked Anna.
    Klatt thought for a moment. ‘No, I suppose not. You know the statistics. If we don’t find them within the first twenty-four hours, then the chances are that they’re never coming back. It’s just that Paula was my first missing kid. I got involved. Maybe too involved. It was tough to see a family in so much pain.’
    ‘She was an only child?’ Anna asked.
    ‘No, there’s a brother … Edmund. An older brother.’
    ‘We didn’t see him at the Ehlerses’ home,’ said Fabel.
    ‘No. He’s about three years older. He’s nineteen or twenty now. He’s doing his national service in the Bundeswehr.’
    ‘I take it you checked him out thoroughly.’ Fabel made it a statement, not a question. Whenever there’s a murder, the first rank of potential suspects is the victim’s immediate family. Fabel was being careful not to suggest that Klatt didn’t know his job. If Klatt was annoyed, he showed no indication of it.
    ‘Of course. We got a full account of his movements that day. All corroborated. And we went over them again and again. What’s more, he was truly worried sick about his sister. You just can’t act as well as that.’
    Yes, you can, thought Fabel. He had seen countless genuinely distressed lovers, friends or relatives of a victim who had turned out to be their killer. But he had no doubt that Klatt had examined Paula Ehlers’s family thoroughly.
    ‘But you did suspect Paula’s teacher …’ Anna checked through her own copy of the file.
    ‘Fendrich. He was Paula’s German teacher. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was a suspect …it’s just that there was something about him that didn’t gel. But