Things move so quickly in our age that even the horrors of the Düsseldorf murders have already partially faded from memory. And yet not so long ago we were living almost in a state of war: the struggle of an entire population against beasts in human form, who sought their victims now here, now there…
Rath had just begun to leaf through the new edition of the Monatshefte. He was reading Gennat’s article when he was interrupted by the clattering of crockery.
‘Dinner time,’ Sister Angelika yodelled, ‘but first we need to take some blood.’ She placed the tray to one side and felt for his vein.
‘I’ve come to believe you are a vampire,’ he said, smiling grimly.
Her response came in the form of a needle, which she thrust into his arm. That would be a Yes.
After she had finished, she sat him up and served him chicken with rice. The sister wished him bon appétit and let him alone. It didn’t taste bad at all.
Superintendent Gennat appeared before dessert.
‘I see you’ve got your appetite back,’ he said. ‘That’s a good sign.’
Rath mumbled something with his mouth full.
‘Don’t let me disturb you.’
He spooned the tinned pears they had given him for dessert into his mouth, while Gennat set a little present on his lap and looked round.
‘I’ve brought you something,’ he said when Rath was finished, and unwrapped his gift. He had evidently stopped off at a bakery and loaded up on supplies. ‘They tell me you need a lot of sugar, so I thought… You do eat cakes, don’t you?’
‘Thank you, Sir. Put it on the table for now. Can I offer you a slice?’
‘Only if you take some too.’
It was more or less a command, so Rath sat on his sickbed nibbling at a slice of marble cake, while Ernst Gennat savoured his gooseberry tart.
Sister Angelika swept in to clear away the tray and could scarcely believe her eyes.
‘That’s against your diet,’ she said, taking Rath’s cake away. She didn’t dare make a move on Gennat’s plate.
‘If it was up to me, I wouldn’t allow you so many visitors, Herr Rath,’ she said, casting Gennat a disapproving glance. ‘The doctor lets himself get talked into things far too easily. Just because it’s the police.’
Once she had left again, Gennat placed his cake plate to one side.
‘I ought to be giving you another dressing-down,’ he began. ‘That display of high-handedness yesterday, and after I’d suspended you!’
‘Sorry, Sir, but I had a feeling it could be a lead.’
‘Well, you were proved right. I’m glad we were able to take the man out of circulation, before he put the whole city in a flurry. Your operation saved the life of a certain Eva Kröger. We found her in the cellar. Marquard had created his own little film world down there: a small cinema, a studio, as well as a kind of operating theatre. He had already drugged Kröger; she could only remember that he had invited her to dinner.’
‘Because he wanted to make her a lucrative offer,’ said Rath. ‘He wanted to make films with her.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Marquard had already approached Betty Winter, before her death got in the way.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Relatively. There are so many similarities with the other cases, it can’t just be coincidence. Ask Marquard the next time you interrogate him.’
‘If only it were that easy.’ Gennat played with his hat. ‘He’s a tough one. He won’t accept that he killed the women. He just talks about film and how it has made them immortal. We found a number of reels. He filmed his victims in the throes of death. Not that you’d know it. That they were in the throes of death, that is. The films are very aesthetic. Perfectly lit, and the poor women all perfectly made up.’
‘The man is crazy.’
‘You could be right there.’ Gennat nodded. ‘We’ve consulted a psychiatrist, but Marquard hasn’t said anything.’
‘He’ll be convicted whether he talks or not. He tried to kill me. I can testify to that.’
‘You won’t have to testify to anything. I did wonder, however, whether you might like to take part in the interrogation tomorrow. Perhaps Marquard will speak to you. If you ever get out of here, that is.’
‘One more night and I’ll be ready to escape Sister Angelika’s clutches.’
‘Good. Then come to Moabit tomorrow at two o’clock. Marquard’s in custody there.’
‘I thought I was suspended.’
‘Your suspension is over from tomorrow morning, though I won’t be letting you anywhere near the Winter case. I hope that much is clear; nor will you be spared disciplinary proceedings. Let there be no misunderstandings there! But I think your present conduct as well as your success in solving the cinema killings will work in your favour.’
Rath understood that Gennat wanted him back at the Castle. He didn’t want to show how happy he was and so changed the subject. ‘Where is Marquard’s mother?’
‘We had her admitted to hospital. She is probably a case for the psychiatric unit. Why do you ask?’
‘I owe her a stroll by the lake.’
Suddenly the door flew open and Assistant Detective Lange came bursting in.
‘Couldn’t you have knocked? This is a sickroom,’ Gennat scolded.
Lange was out of breath. ‘I’m glad I found you here, Sir. Wolfgang Marquard escaped during the transfer to Moabit!’
‘What!?’ Gennat dropped his cake fork. ‘How did that happen?’
‘He simulated a diabetic attack and then put the guards out of action. They panicked and pulled over somewhere on Invalidenstrasse, because he was no longer moving.’
‘And?’
Lange cleared his throat. ‘Marquard took Lensing’s service weapon off him along with a pair of handcuffs and keys. Then he used the other pair to chain them to the steering column. It took quite a while for a passer-by to find them.’
‘He has a weapon?’ Gennat shouted.
Lange nodded.
Gennat calmed down. ‘What the hell? The man won’t get too far without insulin.’
‘I’m afraid he might.’ Lange appeared so dejected it was as if he was responsible for the slip-up himself. ‘We’ve just had a call from his chemist. He’s based in Wilmersdorf.’
‘Surely he didn’t give him insulin, he knows that Marquard was arrested.’
‘I’m afraid he did. Marquard threatened him with a gun. Lensing’s service weapon, I imagine.’
‘How much insulin did he take?’
‘The chemist said enough for two or three weeks.’
‘Goddamn it!’ said Rath.
Gennat patted his arm. ‘Don’t you worry, my man. If he’s out for revenge then he’s got no chance. I’ll have the hospital placed under guard immediately.’
They had taken blood from Rath again, for the final time today. Then it was lights out at ten on the dot. All at the same time, just like in the clink. He dozed for a while and waited for sleep.
It was a catastrophe that Marquard had escaped. He wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the two guards. He didn’t really think the fugitive would turn up here in the hospital, but in Gennat’s position he’d have done the same and placed it under guard. The hospital and any other places he might have felt drawn to: his villa, his cinemas, and of course wherever his mother and Eva Kröger currently were. He was in no doubt that Marquard was enough of a megalomaniac to want to bring his work, as he called it, on Kröger to a conclusion.
His thoughts became more and more entangled as the first fragments of dream emerged, and he felt himself slowly rocking to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep.
A noise fetched him back to the present. A door handle being pressed down.
The door opened quietly without anyone having knocked. Perhaps Gennat’s guards weren’t so invincible after all?
He groped for the bell he used to call Sister Angelika. ‘Who are you?’ he said into the darkness. ‘Tell me right now, or I’ll call the nurse.’
‘Sshh,’ a voice hissed from the darkness. ‘Do you really want me to fall into Sister Angelika’s hands?’
The door closed and the steps drew closer to the bed. Silky hair tickled his face, and he felt a wet mouth on his. Charly!
‘Do you know who it is?’ she asked.
‘Lieselotte? Isolde? Franziska? Hildegard? Angelika?’ He fired the names as if they were bullets from a machine gun.
He couldn’t help it, he always had to destroy the romance with stupid jokes, but at least she laughed.
‘Angelika I’m not buying.’
‘You do the rest?’
‘You’re more closely guarded than the Reichsbank. If I didn’t know the two officers outside, I’d never have made it to you.’
‘Marquard’s escaped,’ he said with a scratchy voice, before clearing his throat. ‘Gennat thinks he might want to come here.’
‘They just reported it on the radio. I don’t think he’ll get very far.’
‘Why’s he doing it? Silent in the interrogations, almost as if he’s given up, then this?’
‘Perhaps he really is finished with everything and just wants to die in peace.’
‘If that’s true, do you think he’d have stolen so much insulin?’
‘I don’t know, but I do know one thing. Right now you urgently need protection.’
While she was still speaking she slipped under the covers and kissed him a second time. He closed his eyes as a man flitted past, grinned at him and disappeared.
Screw you, Rath thought. Charly is here. With me!