Published: 19 Aug 2021
Author’s Notes: This story was the winning entry of a German story website’s competition. It had to include some specific objects and locations (check the end of the story to find out which). The story takes place in the German city of Leipzig, a city of 600,000 in the state of Saxony. It also is the first of so far 3 stories involving the main characters. If there is enough interest we might translate the other 2.
For some explanatory notes scroll down to the end.
The story was translated using the DeepL translator and revised manually afterwards.
And here we go…
“Eins zwei – Polizei. Drei vier – Grenadier.”
Grinning, I tapped “accept” on my cell phone. A few days ago Derek had transferred this ringtone of an ancient charts hit to the device and assigned it to his own number, so it was clear who wanted something from me.
“Hi honey.”
“Hi Sascha. Say, what are you doing right now?”
“I’m stuck in traffic on the A9 just before the Schkeuditzer Kreuz. Why?”
“Okay, then I guess you have time for me for a moment.”
“I always have time for you!”
“Haha, that would be nice. Listen, I got two theater tickets from a customer, for Othello.”
Yuck, not again. I wasn’t a big fan of the theater, unfortunately Derek was a different story. I stifled the sigh that was already on the tip of my tongue.
“And for when?”
“That’s the problem, for tonight already. Do you have time for it?”
This was an opportunity to put in some overtime! On the other hand… Derek was so cute, I couldn’t really refuse him anything.
“I guess so. What time and where?”
“Eight o’clock at the theater. Can you make it?”
“I’ll manage. Should I dress up in a big way?”
“Well, it should be a little more than your usual jeans plus T-shirt.”
I had suspected as much.
“Okay. Meet me outside the entrance at 7:30 or what?”
“Yeah, great! Thanks, Sascha!”
I could literally feel how satisfied Derek was smiling now. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for the boy.
“Well, see you tonight then.”
We said goodbye and I ended the connection. Theater. Argh! Othello? I had heard of that, but please don’t ask me what it was about now. Theater things went in one of my ears and out of the other one.
Rrrrrrriinnnnnng! Rrrrrrriinnnnnng!
It was like being on the switchboard today! That ringtone, however, did not bode well, it sounded official.
“Altmann.”
“Sascha, where are you?”
Always the same questions.
“At the Schkeuditzer Kreuz.”
“Put it on and get to Nuremberg Street 32.”
“What’s up?”
“There’s an apartment fire, and the F found a corpse.”
That’s supposed to happen at a fire sometimes. But that wasn’t normally a job for us, there had to be more to it than that.
“And?”
“The cause of death was probably neither the fire nor the fumes.”
Ah yes, so it was a job for us after all.
“Okay, I’m on my way.”
I let the window roll down next to me, then pasted the blue strobe light on the roof of the car. I added the appropriate music, and as if by magic, the road ahead of me cleared. Okay, unfortunately it didn’t go quite that smoothly, but at least I was moving again.
Maybe this is the right time to introduce myself. That’s me: Sascha Altmann. Detective Sascha Altmann, to be precise. Working for the Leipzig Criminal Investigation Department in the “Crimes against Humans” department, also known as the Homicide Department in everyday language. Just 25 years old, tall, slim, blond, gay. Well, after the phone call with Derek, that should have been clear anyway. We knew each other for half a year now, and slowly we were approaching the time when we would move in together.
Damn, that stupid chick! Blind and deaf! Just pulls in front of me. And that with a Smart. If I hadn’t put the brake pedal to the metal, my heavy BMW would have pushed this little box so hard that she would have landed on the new runway of the nearby airport. That would have been another paperwork mess!
Fortunately, I was now slowly getting out of the traffic jam, and soon I really had a free ride all the way into Leipzig’s city center. Even from a distance, I saw the blue lights of the fire department flashing as I turned into the one-way street leading to the crime scene. Shortly after, I parked the car behind a blue and silver VW Passat. The house looked like a pretty dark shack, so I should probably take my flashlight. When I got out, I spotted the first familiar face and greeted the uniformed colleague who was in charge of closing off the road.
“Hi Berni.”
“Hello, Sascha. It took you a long time, your boss has been here for half an eternity already.”
“I had the longest way, I was already in Weißenfels today, delivering evidence.”
“You poor thing. Well, have fun in there, it’s all sooty.”
Fortunately, I was wearing black jeans. I marched to the front entrance, through which two fire hoses snaked. One of the firemen approached me.
“Where are you going?”
“Altmann, homicide squad. Where do I need to go?”
“All right. Second floor on the left. Can’t miss it, just follow the smell.”
This was getting better and better. I struggled up the dripping wet stairs and shortly thereafter entered the apartment in question. The colleagues from the F had apparently been quickly on the scene and had been able to confine the fire to this one apartment. Good thing, otherwise the wooden staircase in this dilapidated old building would probably have caused huge problems.
I went deeper into the apartment and, looking through the third room door, discovered the chief of my tribe.
“Hi boss.”
“Hello Sascha, there you are at last.”
Offended, I contorted my face.
“Boss, it’s not even nine, and I’ve already been to Weißenfels and back!”
Detective Chief Inspector Machlitzke grinned.
“I’m just kidding, you were pretty quick getting from the Schkeuditzer Kreuz to here.”
Exactly!
“What do we have here?”
Invitingly, Jens (that’s the first name of my esteemed boss) pointed to the back left corner of the room.
“Take a look for yourself.”
I stepped into the room and walked over to where another familiar face stood next to a slightly scorched human body.
“Hi Doc.”
“Sascha.”
Ewww, this really wasn’t a pretty sight. A man, apparently middle-aged, his clothes partially burned into his skin, was lying in a contorted posture on the floor.
“Cause of death?”
“Not the fire, he was dead before that. Look at the head.”
I could have done without that, but it was just part of the job, so I squatted down next to the body. Hmm. Here, the early arrival of the fire department had ensured that some things could still be seen clearly. For example, the huge dent above the left temple.
“Fall or blow?”
“Blow with a blunt object, I’d say. One would have to fall really stupidly in order to catch himself something like that wound.”
With that, it was finally clear why my pack had been requested by the firefighters. I rose again and walked over to Jens.
“Murder with arson to cover it up?”
“Looks like it. Murder or manslaughter. Take a sniff.”
I sniffed. Through the acrid smell of burning and the stench of burnt flesh, I now detected another faint odor.
“Arson accelerant.”
“Exactly. That blob over there looks like a melted gas can.”
I looked around the room a little.
“Couldn’t have been full, though, or the F wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“That’s right, big guy, there were probably only a few drops left in it.”
“Probably found it here and didn’t bring it with him. Unplanned? More like manslaughter, right?”
“That’s one of the things we need to find out. So, look around a bit, maybe you’ll find something interesting.”
That’s exactly what I did, I slipped on some gloves, flicked on my flashlight and started looking around the area in detail. In the room with the body, presumably the living room, fire and water had left a trail of destruction. Or was there more?
“Boss, did the F cause this mess?”
“Nah, they say they hardly touched anything.”
“Then there must have been a nasty fight here, looking at the way the furniture is lying around.”
“Right. Watch where you’re going, I don’t want you to end up stomping on our murder weapon.”
“Geez, I’m not that much of a rookie anymore!”
“Well, I hope so.”
Carefully, I dug through the remains of a dining table along with its accompanying chairs. Hmm. Big dent in the head. A chair leg? But they all seemed to still be attached to their associated chairs. I kept digging. Wait a minute. What was that? Carefully, I uncovered a larger piece of wood in the rubble. Wow. It sure looked like I’d struck gold! Because of the debris above, the thing had apparently been somewhat protected from the fire, at least it looked pretty intact, and it wasn’t burned. That dark stuff there weren’t burnt spots, that looked like blood!
“Jens!”
Immediately, Machlitzke was next to me.
“Did you find anything?”
“Yes, looks like it. Could be the murder weapon.”
Dumbfounded, Jens stared at my find.
“A rolling pin?”
Despite the macabre situation, I had to laugh.
“That would narrow down the potential killer to mother-in-law or wife.”
Now my boss was laughing, too.
“It would be nice if it were that simple. But good work, Sascha.”
Doc, who had joined us in the meantime, also confirmed this.
“Yes, that could well be the case. The size definitely fits the head injury. I can’t say more until I had him on my table, though.”
“I get it, Doc. Time of death?”
The man addressed frowned.
“Sorry, Jens, it’s hard to say on the fly. The sooner I get the body on the table, the sooner you’ll get more specific information.”
“All right, Doc. I’ll make sure he gets delivered to you as soon as possible.”
“Thanks. I’ll be off then, nothing more for me to do here. Have a good day, you two.”
With those words, the coroner disappeared, and Jens looked at me.
“Call the Cold Hand, they can get him and take him to the coroner.”
I did as I was told and called in the hearse by cell phone. The poor bastards would have their fun with their customer, too. I then joined Jens, who looked around the apartment some more. Unfortunately, we found nothing more that gave us a quick clue to the possible killer. However, my boss discovered a laptop behind an overturned armchair.
“Let’s see if it still says something.”
He made an effort to press the power button.
“Don’t, Jens!”
Astonished, he looked at me.
“Why not? I just want to see if maybe it’s still working? Maybe we’ll find some information that will help us.”
I looked doubtfully at the device, which seemed to be badly damaged. The casing was splintered at the edge of the screen, slightly scorched in another place, and the water had also contributed to the destruction.
“If you try to turn that thing on, it might be the last straw to destroy it.”
“Shit, that’s probably true. But if I take it to the state police lab, I’ll get the results sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. And I’m deliberately not putting a year on it.”
I had to laugh. Ever since Machlitzke had convicted a high-ranking state police detective of murdering his mistress two or three years ago, the relationship between him and his colleagues there had been more than a little strained.
“I’ve got a better idea, boss.”
“So? Shoot!”
“This thing is too big even for the state police guys, they give it to external experts for data recovery.”
“What are you getting at? Stop, wait! Isn’t your better half one of those computer gurus?”
“Exactly, he half owns Data Rescue, and the notebook would probably end up on his desk sooner or later anyway.”
Jens’ face lit up a bit.
“Hmm, you mean we could slip it to him directly? There would be some nasty nagging about circumventing the official channels.”
Then he laughed.
“Oh, screw the official channels. Hildebrand?”
One of the forensic technicians, who had arrived in the meantime, rushed over.
“Yes, boss?”
“See if you can find any traces on this thing, so we can send it for data recovery. Do not try to turn it on.”
“Got it.”
The technician accepted the laptop and disappeared with it to take it to the mobile lab. Jens turned back to me.
“Can you take this thing straight to your Devon then?”
“Derek, not Devon. Yeah, I guess so. He owes me a big favor anyway.”
Curiously Machlitzke looked at me.
“For what? Or should I innocent straight guy rather not ask that question?”
Laughing, I answered him.
“Hehe, quite harmless. He’s dragging me to the theater tonight to see Othello.”
“Sounds good to me, you cultural philistine. I should do something like that with my wife again sometime soon, too.”
“Sorry, but that’s really not my thing. But maybe I’ll have to work overtime today after all?”
I looked hopefully at my supervisor, but he shook his head with a grin.
“Forget it. Especially now that we have to keep your Dennis happy so he’ll help us.”
“Derek!”
“All right, all right. So go ahead, get lost. As soon as Hildebrand’s done checking the computer, you head over to your honey’s place and talk him into it.”
“All right, boss. Want me to come back here after?”
“No, go straight to the office, I’ll be on my way soon, too. I can’t do much more here anyway, the forensics will have to do the rest.”
I left the uncomfortable crime scene and wandered down to the street, where I got into the forensics van. The technician present was currently bent over the laptop.
“Anything to find, Werner?”
“Three pretty messed-up fingerprints and half a palm print. I can’t promise they’ll be usable in the end, though.”
“But you’ll try?”
“Sure, I’ll do my best. Okay, I’m done, you can take that thing with you.”
“Great.”
I grabbed the laptop, which by now had also been cleaned up a bit. After safely stowing it in the car, I made my way to my beloved’s company. Hmm. Maybe I should give him a heads up. I tapped the speed dial for his cell phone. After a ring and a half, he was on it and I heard his cheerful voice.
“Hello Sascha, longing for me again already?”
I laughed.
“I always long for you when we’re not together.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere. I just hope for your sake you don’t call to cancel tonight!”
I sighed.
“No, but I have some work for you to do.”
“Shoot.”
“I need your expert help. We have a damaged notebook here, and we really need to get the data. If we leave it to the state police, it’ll take forever and three days.”
“How badly damaged?”
“Badly, I’d say. Fall, fire, and water.”
Derek groaned.
“You don’t do things by halves, do you? And knowing you, you want me to drop everything else?”
I had to grin, he just knew me way too well.
“That would be very nice!”
“Alright, I can take a look at this thing. What time will you be here?”
I took a quick look around, the traffic was rolling along quite nicely.
“Five to ten minutes, that’s all I need.”
“Okay, I’ll go ahead and clear the table. See you in a bit.”
We ended the call, and about seven minutes later I turned into Data Rescue’s company parking lot. After getting the laptop out of the trunk, I entered the office building and was about to take the familiar path to Derek’s office – but I hadn’t counted on the house dragon behind the reception desk.
“Wait, where are you going?”
I looked around. Oh God, where had Data Rescue found that old saddle pad? Isn’t a receptionist supposed to greet clientele in a friendly manner? I decided to answer with a counter question.
“Where is Miss Doelke?”
“She’s on vacation, I’m the stand-in. So where are you going? You can’t just walk in here like that!”
I can’t? That would be something new.
“You’re the substitute? I see. Tell me, do you happen to know Mr. Prosch?”
“Of course, he’s one of the owners!”
Well, at least she knew that.
“Great. First of all, I’m his boyfriend, secondly, I have an appointment, and thirdly, I’m sure that he wouldn’t be particularly thrilled if he overheard the tone you’re taking with potential customers here!”
The dragon’s face grew longer and longer, but no further words came, so I turned again and was in my sweetheart’s office-slash-lab three minutes later.
“Hi Derek.”
“Sascha!”
He came rushing to me, very carefully took the laptop from me and put it on a table, only to hug me afterwards, nowhere near as carefully. Oh God, I was so smitten with this crazy little brown-haired guy! About three hours later, we managed to let go of each other. Alright, it wasn’t quite three hours. Actually, it was way too short. But duty called.
“So this is my new patient?”
“Yes. What do you think, can you handle it?”
Derek eyed the laptop curiously.
“Has anyone messed with it yet?”
“No, I just managed to stop Jens from trying to turn it on.”
“Very good, then there’s hope. Where did you get it?”
“It was in a murdered man’s apartment, where the killer set fire to cover it up.”
I briefly told Derek about my latest case. He sighed.
“Nice. When do you need a result?”
“Let me think. Yesterday?”
Reprovingly, he looked at me.
“Okay … Until the day before yesterday?”
“Jerk! All right, I’ll jump right on it and get back to you when I find something.”
“That would be really sweet of you, honey.”
“Anything for you. But no changes about Othello tonight, right?”
“Yep!”
I bit down hard on my tongue before adding “unfortunately”. I said goodbye to Derek, threw another friendly “Goodbye!” to the reception dragon on my way out, got in the car, and drove to the police station. There I arrived at almost the same moment as my boss, and together we went upstairs to the office.
“What does David say, can he get the notebook working?”
“Derek! His name is Derek! And he’ll try his best.”
“I hope he can do it, we haven’t found anything useful in the apartment. But maybe Eva already has something.”
Eva Schlueter was a junior detective, but was in a wheelchair after a serious accident, and since then had been doing everything that could be done from the desk. In fact, we found her happily hacking away at the keyboard of her computer.
“Hi Eva.”
“Hello boss, Sascha.”
After the greeting, we sat down in our chairs and looked expectantly at the only female in the room.
“Okay, I’ve already found out a few things. The tenant of the apartment is called Harald Brauner, 43 years old, with a long criminal record. OV (the Organized Crime Department) has a thick file on him, from human trafficking to counterfeit money, it’s all there. But he was always just one of the small fish. Here, we have a photo, too.”
Eva pointed to the large flat screen on the wall. I couldn’t tell if that was our burned corpse. It could be, but it didn’t have to be. Jens seemed to feel the same way.
“That could be the victim, but I wouldn’t commit myself to that yet. Whereas it was his apartment, of course, so chances are high that he is it.“
Probably. It would be quite a coincidence, after all, if someone who looked somewhat like the tenant allowed himself to be beaten to death in someone else’s apartment.
“Is there any current investigation on him going on?”
“No, boss. Brauner just got out of jail six weeks ago, and he hasn’t made another appearance since.”
“Hmm. Check with the OV anyway, maybe they can give us some kind of tip on where to look.”
“Will do, boss.”
“Sascha and I are going to the canteen now, neither of us has had a proper breakfast yet.”
Breakfast? I looked at the clock, it was already shortly after eleven. How fast time passed when you had fun.
“Shall we bring you something?”
“No, thank you, I’ll go eat with the girls later.”
Machlitzke and I went into the building next door, where the canteen was located. It was reasonably empty, breakfast time was over, lunch time was just beginning. We got something to eat, then sat down at one of the many empty tables.
“What do you think, Jens? A criminal record with a thick OV file, a murder, it all fits together.”
Thoughtfully, my boss looked at his plate.
“Yeah, looks like it. This could be a pretty big thing if there’s any gang stuff involved. It would be really fucking important that your Detlef…”
“Derek!”
“…whatever, that he finds something on that laptop. I’ll have the apartment searched again with the finest comb too, maybe something will turn up there after all.”
We chatted a bit more before heading back to the office around half past eleven. There, Eva already had news for us.
“Doc called and sent over the victim’s fingerprints. There wasn’t much we could get out of them, the fingers were pretty singed, but there’s an 85 percent chance it’s Brauner. He’s also doing a dental match, but that’s going to take time, he needs the records from the prison dentist first.”
“Good, that’s enough to work with the hypothesis that the dead man is indeed Harald Brauner. Have you heard anything from the OV yet?”
“No, they were quite surprised that he was already out again. They said he still had a year and a half to serve.”
Very Weird. At that moment, my cell phone rang with the familiar tune that made the other two people in the office laugh. Quickly, I answered the call.
“Yes?”
“Hi honey. You are lucky, the notebook was nowhere near as damaged as it looked from the outside. I was able to read out the hard drive almost completely and put everything on a thumb drive. One of our field guys should be arriving at your place within fifteen minutes or so, he’s got the notebook and thumb drive with him.”
“Wow, you’re awesome! I didn’t think it would happen that fast.”
“Like I said, the damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Well, I’ll see you tonight.”
“Thanks a lot, kiddo!”
Grinning, I hung up and looked at the expectant faces of my colleagues.
“Grinning as wide as you are, your Daniel must have found something.”
“Derek!”
This time my objection to Jens defacing my beloved’s name was backed up by Eva in stereo.
“Yeah yeah, all right. So come on, what is it now?”
“He was able to copy almost all the data, in a few minutes we’ll get the notebook back, plus a thumb drive with the salvaged data.”
“Great! I hope that will help us. You better go down and receive the stuff right away.”
I followed the instruction, and twenty minutes later I re-entered the office. I immediately handed the thumb drive over to Eva.
“Here, see what you can do with it.”
Our computer expert immediately rushed to work, and even as she did so, the door opened and Detective Chief Inspector Berger from the Organized Crime Department entered.
“Hi guys. I heard you’re working on one of my patients?”
“Well actually Doc is working on that one right now, and I wouldn’t necessarily call him a patient anymore. Do you have anything that might help us?”
“Not much that you guys don’t have already, but I did at least find out why this guy was already released from jail.”
Curiously, we looked at our visitor.
“Terminal colon cancer, the doctors gave him another three to six months.”
He hadn’t even reached the three months. But that explained the early release. And perhaps Brauner should be happy that he had been spared the final stage of his illness.
“According to the records, Brauner wasn’t much of a big light, was he?”
“Nah, he was always just a henchman. And always the one who got caught and busted. But he never ratted out his accomplices.”
“So no revenge among old business associates?”
“I don’t think so. Like I said, he never ratted on anyone, and to make a mortal enemy of anyone he was far too insignificant.”
“Until today, anyway.”
“That’s right, Jens. Okay, I’ll let you get back to work. Please give me a call when you find something out, okay?”
Machlitzke promised him that, and then it was just the three of us in the office again.
“Guys, I’ve got something!”
Immediately we rushed to Eva, who was staring intently at the screen of her computer.
“Here, his eMail app. He’s been in constant communication with a Viktor Barenkow for the last two weeks.”
Something rang in my head at that name, but I couldn’t figure out what exactly.
“And here, he wanted to meet with him this morning, at his apartment! For something, Brauner wanted to collect $50,000 from Barenkow.”
Jens jerked up.
“Got it. Viktor Barenkow. He runs a car and scrap metal business somewhere out in Loessnig. Supposedly he’s big into car racketeering, but they’ve never been able to prove it.”
Thoughtfully, I looked at the screen.
“Was Brauner trying to blackmail him with this?”
“Possibly. But wait, here’s something else. In this e-mail, Brauner mentions some stones. I think he wanted to sell them to Barenkow for the 50,000.”
Our boss reached for the phone and punched in a speed dial.
“Sven? Jens here. Tell me, Brauner in connection with some kind of stones, does that ring a bell?”
Jens listened briefly, then switched to speaker.
“Again, please, so the others can listen in.”
Berger’s voice rang out.
“Shortly before his last arrest, Brauner was involved in a trade in blood diamonds. Maybe that’s the kind of stones we’re talking about?”
An interesting theory. Maybe Brauner had forked over some back then?
“How much of this would it take to get $50,000 for it?”
Our telephone partner pondered for a moment.
“It depends. With a reasonably reputable dealer – if you can even talk about reputable involving blood diamonds – not even that much. If you have to sell quickly and can’t pick the buyer, it would probably have to be a handful.”
Jens immediately shifted gears.
“Well, Brauner didn’t have much time to look for a serious buyer. He had to fall back on the connections he had from before. Tell me, did the name Barenkow ever come up in connection with him?”
“Barenkow? Viktor Barenkow? The car pusher? Not that I know of, but he’s supposedly involved everywhere and anywhere.”
“Okay, thanks, Sven. I think we’ll pay Mr. Barenkow a visit.”
“You’re welcome. And keep me posted, okay? If you get your hands on anything against Viktor, it’ll be a feast for us. That slimy brother has always slipped through our fingers so far.”
“Will do.”
Machlitzke hung up and looked at me.
“Come on, Sascha, we’re going out.”
We grabbed our jackets and headed out. Twenty minutes later we had found the junkyard with an attached used car dealership. Everything looked very quiet, not a soul in sight, the gate however was wide open, so we drove in. We got out and looked around when suddenly, about a hundred meters away, a man came around a pile of junk cars. When he caught sight of us, he stopped stock-still. Jens called to him.
“Mr. Barenkow? Viktor Barenkow? Police.”
The man had hardly heard the word police when he turned around and ran away. We dashed after him. As we came around the pile of junk cars, we just saw the man storming up the outside stairs of a building about three stories high.
“Freeze, police!”
One always could try I guess. The fugitive, however, remained unimpressed by this request and rushed into the building through a door at the top of the stairs. My boss and I ran toward the building, just as the man reappeared in the doorway, holding something in his hands that made an extremely threatening impression. I immediately recognized what it was.
“Shit, he’s got an AK!”
In the next moment, bullets from the Kalashnikov were flying around our ears. Fortunately, the guy was shooting from the hip, which was anything but helpful for accuracy. Jens and I jumped for cover behind junk cars and drew our weapons.
“Barenkow, give up, you’re not getting out of here!”
In response, bullets again slammed into the sheet metal protecting my boss.
“Damn it. If he’s got enough ammo, we’re not going to get to him that easily.”
“We should call for reinforcements and have the area sealed off. We don’t want to let him slip out of the backside.”
Machlitzke grinned wickedly.
“At least that he can’t do. I know the building, it’s an old coal bunker, with the office on top. The only access is this staircase. And AK or not – we won’t let him get out of there.”
At least some good news.
“Still, you’re right, we’ll call for backup. I’m not running against an assault rifle with a pistol, I’d rather call the SWAT team.”
My supervisor reached for his cell phone, turned it on, and cursed.
“Damn, no reception here. What’s yours saying?”
Unfortunately, exactly the same – no surprise, we were using the same network.
“Boss, I’ll dash to the car and try it over the radio.”
Machlitzke looked around thoughtfully. The terrain looked good, I’d always have cover along the way.
“Okay, I’ll give you cover fire. You’re ready?”
“Yeah, on three.”
My companion nodded, and I started counting.
“One … two … THREE!”
We both jumped up, and while Jens fired several shots toward the building where Barenkow was holed up, I stormed off.
It worked. By the time the first shots were fired from the Kalashnikov, I had long since rounded the protective corner and was running in safe cover to our car. Once there, I tried again with the cell phone, but again there was no reception. Well, then it had to go over the open radio. Even at the risk that the place would soon be swarming with press hounds. I switched on the radio and grabbed the microphone. Just then, a patrol car was checking a car owner’s data, and I couldn’t wait that long for it to finish.
“Clear the radio! Lion!”
Immediately, the babble on the airwaves died out, and the control center answered.
“Caller Lion!”
“Seven-twenty-three.”
“Lion listening!”
“Location car dealership Barenkow, Zwieselstraße. We are being fired upon with an automatic weapon and urgently need SWAT.”
Appropriately, the next volley from the AK sounded in the background.
“Received, initiate backup and SWAT!”
There you go.
“Seven-twenty-three, thank you and out.”
I got out of the car again and went to the trunk from which I took two bulletproof vests, one of them I put on immediately. From the secret compartment I took out the Heckler&Koch MP5, which would at least provide a little equality in firepower. Of course, a submachine gun was inferior to an assault rifle in everything except handiness. I loaded the gun, and at that moment I already heard the siren of the first reinforcement car. Shortly thereafter it came to a halt next to me with squealing tires, and the two uniformed colleagues jumped out. I didn’t know them, so I introduced myself.
“Altman, homicide. My boss is pinned down back there, there’s a murder suspect squatting in the building at the end of the lot with a Kalashnikov.”
“Nice shit. Do we go ahead?”
“Yeah, we go ahead, but not in. Let the SWAT take care of that.”
“Well, thank God.”
The colleagues were already wearing protective vests, and one also had the patrol car’s MP5 in his hand.
“Let’s go then, show us where you want us.”
We dashed ahead to the corner of the pile of scrap metal behind which the danger area began. Cautiously, I peered around and saw that my boss was eyeing the door of the building several feet above the ground. I let out a short whistle, whereupon he looked at me. I raised my thumb and indicated that I would come back to him. He nodded and looked back at the building. I turned to my colleagues.
“Take a quick look around the corner so you can get an idea of what’s going on.”
They did just that, and I continued.
“He’s firing out the door at the top of the stairs.”
“Is he alone?”
“Looks like it, we didn’t notice any other people.”
“Good, you want to go ahead again?”
“Yeah. Cover me with the HK, okay?”
“All right.”
The sequence of events from a few minutes ago repeated itself, on “three” I charged forward, jumping from cover to cover, while the blue-clad colleague opened fire with the MP5. In response, a few shots came from the building, though completely untargeted, so I easily reached the cover behind which my boss was holding out.
“Here, I brought you something.”
Gratefully, Jens accepted the bulletproof vest – even though it would offer no real protection against a shot from an assault rifle.
“I’ll try to talk to him again.”
“Okay.”
I adjusted the MP5, while my supervisor peered cautiously over the cover.
“Barenkow, give yourself up! You’re surrounded, the SWAT is about to arrive. You don’t stand a chance!”
In response, bullets again pelted our steel and tin cover, so we preferred to keep our heads down.
“He seems to want to shoot it out, boss.”
“Looks like it. And if he killed Brauner, he’s got very little left to lose, too.”
That’s what it looked like, unfortunately, so we waited for the special task force to arrive and meanwhile kept an eye on the stairs out of the building. Ten minutes later, the heavily armed and armored colleagues arrived. The head of operations came running to us in a zigzag.
“Moin. What do you have for us?”
Machlitzke filled him in.
“A murder suspect shooting up the place with an AK.”
“Great. What about other exits?”
“There aren’t any, the only way in or out is through these stairs and that door.”
“Good. Shall we go in or do you want to try talking it out with him again?”
We laughed softly.
“His response to our attempts at talking it out has always been lead so far.”
“All right. I’ll pull my guys in, we’ll go in in fifteen minutes.”
While the SWAT leader was now sorting and briefing his men, surprisingly no more shots were fired, although there was some movement as the officers worked their way in. Questioningly, I looked to Jens.
“I wonder if he’s out of ammo?”
“I’d rather not count on it. We’ll hook up with the SWAT. You know how to handle that thing, don’t you?”
He pointed to the submachine gun in my hands.
“Four hundred and eighty out of five hundred the last time I trained.”
“Very nice.”
The clock ticked on mercilessly, and then it was time. The mission commander turned to us again.
“We’ll attack in a minute.”
“Okay, we’ll hook up with you guys.”
He didn’t seem enthusiastic about this announcement, but he didn’t argue.
“Agreed. But if there’s a shootout, you guys throw yourselves in the dirt.”
We promised, then got ready to go. Ten seconds to go…
“Go go go!”
Some SWAT officers rushed out from their cover while others pointed their weapons at the doorway. When no shots were fired immediately, Jens and I also jumped up and followed our colleagues. We quickly bridged the open area to the building, where we then felt our way up the stairs along the wall of the building. Still there was no reaction from Barenkow. Very strange.
The first SWAT officers had reached the door, threw in a flash grenade and jumped into the building, and shortly thereafter the first shouts rang out.
“Left clear!”
“Right clear!”
The next officers rushed in, followed by the officer-in-charge as well as Jens and me.
“Back secured!”
“All rooms secured!”
That had gone much smoother than I had expected. No shooting at the OK Corral? I secured the MP5 and looked around as the SWAT boss returned from the rooms.
“Sorry, but your birdie has flown the coop.”
Jens was stunned.
“How is that possible? There’s no second exit here!”
At that moment, a call rang out from one of the back rooms.
“Over here!”
We rushed to the officer who had called. The latter was standing in front of an open window. In disbelief, Jens looked at the picture that presented itself.
“That’s impossible, that’s at least eight meters to the ground!”
The SWAT officer pointed to a scrap of rope hanging from the radiator.
“He tried a rope ladder. Emphasis on tried.”
As we stepped to the window and looked out, we jerked back, startled. On the ground, actually eight or more meters below us, lay a hunched figure, a Kalashnikov beside it and a rope ladder on top of it. Wordlessly, my boss turned and stormed out of the building, me following close behind. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we ran into detective Berger.
“Did you get him?”
“You could say that. What are you doing here?”
“I heard about the shooting on the radio and came straight here. Where’s Barenkow?”
“Come with us.”
We circled the building, and when Berger caught sight of the non-moving human figure, a small yelp escaped him.
“Holy shit. Did he hop out or what?”
After a few steps we had reached the AK gunner, and my boss grabbed the rope ladder lying on top of him. The end of the ladder looked badly frayed, either it had been damaged before or Barenkow had simply been too heavy for it.
“He didn’t jump, he tried to abseil down. And stupid little me didn’t even think of that possibility.”
And if he hadn’t been working with inferior material, he probably would have managed to escape. While I looked at the back wall of the building, which was windowless on the first two or three floors, Berger squatted down next to the prevented climber.
“Hm. Two things, Jens. One, he’s dead. Two, it’s not Barenkow.”
I jerked around, just in time to see my boss’s now finally totally befuddled face.
“Not Barenkow? Then why did he take off when we addressed him as Barenkow?”
“I don’t know, but that’s certainly not Viktor. He looks familiar, I think it’s one of his errand boys. I can’t come up with the name now, I’ll have to look at the files first.”
The story became more and more obscure.
“Boss, maybe it wasn’t Barenkow who killed Brauner? If this is Viktor’s errand boy, then maybe he got wind of the diamond deal and wanted to treat himself to a little extra pay.”
“Could be, but then again, Brauner had an appointment with Barenkow today.”
At that moment, my supervisor’s cell phone rang.
“Machlitzke.”
Tensely, he listened.
“Good work, thanks!”
He ended the call.
“Sascha, your theory just went down the drain. The rolling pin had Barenkow’s fingerprints on it.”
Damn. Then why had this guy been shooting up the place so wildly?
“We should go upstairs and have a look around the office. Maybe we’ll find a clue to Viktor’s whereabouts.”
So we went back to the premises from which we had been so wildly shot at. There we split up and began to look around in detail. I found a lot of documents on the desk about the scrap metal and car trade, but nothing that helped us in any way. My luck didn’t turn around until I started looking at the wastebasket.
“Boss, I’ve got something!”
Both Jens and the colleague from the OV stepped up to me. Triumphantly, I showed them a letter.
“What’s this, big guy?”
“A booking confirmation from the railroad. Barenkow bought a ticket for the Moscow Express on the Internet, and it’s been mailed to him.”
“Well done, Sascha! Does it also say when the ticket is for?”
I read the text more carefully and turned pale.
“For today!”
“Damn, what time?”
“4:33pm.”
Synchronously, we looked at our watches. It was already close to half past three; we would have to hurry mightily.
“We have to get to the train station, and we need a photo of Barenkow!”
“I’ve got one with me, and I’ll come with you, I’ll recognize him without a photo.”
“Good, then let’s go.”
We rushed to our cars, and shortly thereafter, with blue lights and sirens blaring, we sped through the thickening afternoon traffic toward the main train station. On the way, I had an idea.
“Shouldn’t we inform the Federal Police? They could have a massive look around on the platform.”
Jens shook his head.
“I thought of that, too, but I’d rather not. If Barenkow is as crazy as his henchman, he might be heavily armed, too. With the crowds at the station, that would be a disaster. We should try to get this done as inconspicuously as possible.”
That was a good point. We finally arrived at the main station, left our cars at the cab stand, and rushed into the building. As we walked up to the base platform, Berger showed us a picture of our killer. Once at the top, my boss stopped our stampede.
“We’d better move on inconspicuously now. Sascha, which platform do we have to go to?”
I looked at the electronic display board.
“Platform 9.”
“All right, let’s go. We’ll split up. Sascha, you get on at the front and go through the train. Sven, you go to the other end and start from there. I’ll take the platform. And remember, he’s dangerous, so be careful.”
Quickly, but without running, we made our way to the aforementioned platform. There were barely 20 minutes left until the departure of the train. Through the opened first door of the first carriage I boarded. The train was already quite full, and many passengers were traveling with heavy luggage. It would not be easy to make progress through the train.
I laboriously worked my way forward, but even after three carriages I had not yet discovered Barenkow. And the train was getting more and more crowded. Hopefully one of the other two had more success! Sighing, I pushed on, bumping into an older man.
“Sorry.”
“Job twoju mat!”
Fuck your mother? How nice. I gave the guy an angry look, and he stared back grimly from under his mustache. Well, I didn’t have time for that now, I turned around and kept walking. But suddenly something twitched through my brain. The nose was somehow familiar to me. But the beard? And the blond hair? On the other hand: a beard can be glued on, and hair can be dyed. I turned back to the oh-so-friendly guy and examined him closely. And the more I looked at him, the more I was convinced that this was Viktor Barenkow!
Unfortunately, my detailed examination of his person caught his eye. Only two meters away was one of the carriage doors, and through it he jumped onto the maintenance platform. I rushed after him.
“Barenkow, stop, police!”
While still running, I drew my service weapon – better safe than sorry. The man I was chasing, however, didn’t even think about stopping or attacking me, he kept running in the direction of the base platform, probably hoping to disappear into the crowds there.
However, I caught up quite quickly, my legs were probably 20 to 25 years younger than his. When he then looked around for me shortly before reaching the base platform, fate struck, in the form of a small dog, which ran in front of his feet and brought him down. Three seconds later, while he was still trying to pick himself up, I threw myself on top of him.
“Stay down. Viktor Barenkow, you are under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Harald Brauner.”
I literally sat on his back, put my gun away and reached for the handcuffs, which I immediately put on him. In the meantime, two heavily breathing officers of the Federal Police had arrived.
“What’s going on here?”
I reached into my jacket pocket and showed my badge.
“Altmann, Leipzig CID. I’ve just arrested a murder suspect. Can you have something called out over the loudspeakers on Platform 9?”
“Yes, no problem.”
“Good. Please have it announced that Chief Inspector Machlitzke and Chief Inspector Berger are to proceed to the base platform, the operation is over.”
“All right.”
The one officer spoke into his radio, and shortly thereafter the announcement sounded over the platform loudspeakers. A few minutes later, the two paged officers showed up at our location gasping for air. When my boss caught sight of the secured Barenkow, a broad smile crept onto his face.
“You got him? Great, Sascha! Any problems with that?”
“No, he was going to take a run, but then tripped over some little yapper, and that was that.”
“Great. Where exactly did you find him?”
I pointed to the still-open carriage door.
“In there, to the left, he was standing in front of the second compartment.”
“Good, then we’ll go see if we can find his luggage.”
Machlitzke turned to the two federal policemen.
“You’d best come with us, and please make sure that the train doesn’t leave for the time being.”
“The railroad won’t be happy about that.”
“That can’t be helped, we’ll hurry, though.“
Again one of the officers spoke into his radio, and shortly after that the information that the Moscow Express was expected to be 10 minutes late at departure rang out from the loudspeakers. On the way back to the carriage, detective Berger looked back and forth between me and Barenkow. Then he shook his head.
“He’s changed quite a bit. How did you recognize him? I think I would have just walked right past him.”
“I probably would have, too, but he insulted me, and that’s when I took a second look. Still, I kept walking for a moment, but then I remembered the nose.”
That nose had once been broken and was sticking out a tiny bit crooked out of his face – and that was a feature you couldn’t cover up so easily.
“Good work, Sascha. Wouldn’t you like to join me in the OV?”
Jens immediately jumped at it.
“I heard that, Sven! Keep your paws off Sascha, he’s mine!”
Defensively, Berger raised his hands.
“Alright, alright, it was worth the try.”
In the meantime, we had reached the carriage and got back on the train. In the compartment in front of which Barenkow had been standing when I bumped into him were two more people, an ancient couple. Smiling amiably, Machlitzke entered.
“Good afternoon, police. Tell me, please, was this gentleman here in this compartment earlier?”
The two old folks were a bit frightened, and the man answered in broken German.
“Yes, he was sitting here with.”
My supervisor smiled even wider.
“Can you tell me which of this luggage is his?”
With a trembling hand, the grandfather pointed to a suitcase and a travel bag. Jens grabbed the suitcase and handed it to me, he himself took the travel bag. Then he turned again to the old people.
“Does he own anything else in this compartment?”
The two shook their heads.
“Fine, thank you for your cooperation, have a safe trip!”
With these kind words, we left first the compartment and then the train. During the whole event the arrested man had not said a word, he had only looked around angrily and had not made any further attempt to escape.
“Well, that settles everything here. The train can leave now.”
The federal police officer with the radio announced this, while Machlitzke used his cell phone to summon a patrol car to the train station, which would take Barenkow to the police station. By now it was 4:40 p.m.
When we arrived at the police station, we immediately started with the first interrogation. After we had presented Barenkow the evidence, especially his fingerprints on the murder weapon, he quickly broke his silence to make it clear that it was not murder but “only” manslaughter. Shortly after 6pm he was taken to his cell. Our case was solved. Satisfied, we leaned back in our chairs.
“That really went great today, I wouldn’t have thought that we could close the case on the same day.”
Something like that really happened rather rarely.
“But Sascha, you should hurry up now. You have an appointment at the theater. You don’t want to stand Derek up and make him mad at you. Then I’ll have the next murder on my hands, and actually I want to call it a day.”
Hallelujah! My boss had used my boyfriend’s correct name! But he was right, I really had to hurry. Especially since I still had to change. And I could use a quick shower, too. So I said goodbye and hurried home. I did everything in a rush, and I reached the theater right on time. I spotted Derek from afar, and when he finally caught sight of me, he ran up to me and jumped into my arms.
“There you are! I was afraid you were going to leave me hanging.”
I gave my little one a good hug.
“I promised you I’d be here, didn’t I?”
Happily, he looked at me out of his big brown eyes.
“Yes, you did. Shall we go inside?”
I guess there was no way around it, so I let him drag me into the theater. By the time we took our seats, it was ten minutes before the play started.
“How’s your case going? Did the laptop data help you a bit?”
“Yes it did, it was a big help. We were able to arrest the killer three hours ago.”
“Come on, tell me! What exactly was going on?”
My little one was always very interested when it came to my work, so I told him how we had gotten on Barenkow’s trail. By the time I got to the scene at the junkyard, Derek was getting paler.
“He shot at you?”
Gently, I took him in my arms.
“Yeah, but I’m okay.”
“Damn it, promise me you’ll always be careful!”
I did him the favor, then continued to the end.
“But why did he … what was his name? Brauner? Why did he kill that one?”
“He claims it happened in the heat of the moment. Brauner suddenly wanted $10,000 more for the blood diamonds, and that’s when it came to a fight. Brauner allegedly attacked him with a knife, so Barenkow grabbed the rolling pin and hit him over the head with it. When he realized that Brauner was dead, he panicked and set the place on fire. Afterwards he dyed his hair and glued on a beard. Since he planned to go to Russia today anyway, he thought he could just abscond. But he didn’t count on the data on the notebook.”
“And this Brauner guy was terminally ill?”
“Yes, he probably wanted to have a few nice last weeks with the money. Well, fiddlesticks. But I guess here we go.”
Sure enough, the lights dimmed and the play began. Derek was quickly fully engrossed in the action, while I struggled not to fall asleep. The day had been exhausting. I wondered if I would be able to count the theater visit as overtime. After all, it was about murder and manslaughter, that was more or less educational, wasn’t it?
When we left the theater late in the evening, my little darling was still completely exhilarated.
“Shall we go out for a beer somewhere?”
I contorted my face in agony.
“Sorry, please be not upset with me, but I had a long day. Actually, I just want to go to bed.”
A cheeky grin appeared on Derek’s face.
“Do you feel like spending the night at my place?”
Suddenly, I wasn’t THAT tired anymore. I grinned back.
“Are your parents around?”
“Nope, they’re out of town, we have the house to ourselves.”
How promising.
“Well, let’s go!”
Fifteen minutes later we reached Derek’s apartment, and another ten minutes later I crawled naked into his bed while my friend was still in the process of taking off his clothes. Well, what was that? My feet had hit something. I bent over and pulled it out from under the covers. The next moment I was shaking in laughter. I was holding a hot water bottle. And a bright pink one at that!
“What’s this?”
Derek grinned.
“Well, something has to keep me warm when you’re not around.”
“I get it, but this? That looks so really gay! And I thought you were the one with the sense of beauty around here.”
“I am, after all, I chose you. And I’d rather take this thing out of service sooner than later. But I can’t do that until we move in together and you warm me up every night…”
Damn, I really think we should do that soon. I flung the rubber thing out of bed and Derek slipped under the covers with me…
Half an hour later I fell asleep and lapsed into a wild dream full of rolling pins, notebooks, rope ladders, train tickets, not to mention pink bed bottles. That had been just one day in my life, and it had yielded material for at least half a novel!
Explanatory Notes: Locations that had to be included: police station, theater, junkyard. Objects that had to be included: rolling pin, notebook, train ticket, rope ladder, pink bed bottle.
A9: Highway 9.
Schkeuditzer Kreuz: Highway Interchange between Highway 9 and 14 near the Leipzig Airport.
F: slang for the Fire Department.
Blue and silver VW Passat: German police patrol cars nowadays are colored blue and silver, the VW Passat in it’s station wagon version is often used for that.
Cold Hand: slang for undertakers/hearse.
Lion: the lion is the heraldic animal of Leipzig, “Lion” is the radio call sign of the local police control center, unit call signs are “Lion” with an added number for precincts or departments and the specific unit (often only the number is used).
Federal Police: in Germany responsible for border security, train system security, airport security, protection of federal buildings and so on.
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