Chapter 4
November 28, 2023 at 4:34 AM
During the two days that Adler and Ehrman had been doing their tasks, Wieland had no choice but to go to the railway company and get all the tickets and statements of Ingrid’s movements. It turned out to be troublesome, besides, the railway workers were not particularly kind. He was running around the city like a little dog. He could have sent someone, but he did not want anyone else to know about it. Therefore, he had to do everything on his own.
As it was found out from a short dialogue at the railway company, her brother sometimes took tickets on behalf of Ingrid, while flying with her by plane, which also did not go unnoticed by Wieland. In addition, Wieland, after making one call to his friend in the imperial security, found out that all air travel had been paid by the company, if they were business trips, of course. By the way, Ingrid’s father went very often on business trips.
The day was drawing to its end. Having finished the paperwork, Wieland, as the oldest in the group, took up the hardest work. Not because it was necessary, but because it was long and difficult. Namely, he went to the main archive, having requested before the schedule of all trains and planes leaving Berlin as well as with the help of his connections he got a list of money transactions from the Reichsbank. He sat down in the archive of the main directorate of the SD to go through the papers on Ingrid’s movements. Something about her death was not clear to Wieland. But what it was exactly, he could not understand. She was killed under very strange circumstances — not late at night and not at night itself, but in the evening. Moreover, almost nothing was known about her as a person. Unlike her father and brother, who managed to visit society, Ingrid did not go to social events at all, it was very difficult to make up a circle of people who she communicated with or who were a kick in her throat. However, the man did not lose faith that even among the papers he could also find something worthwhile on the case.
The first thing he checked was her movements. Flights or transfers to another country were strictly fixed, the reason of them was always written down. It was noted in the card, which after being filled out was given to the controller.
Ingrid travelled out quite often. He began to build on his memory, which never failed him. From her autumn trip to Austria, where she spent a holiday, to the previous fortnight. Wieland found a record: that same season she went to Bavaria — he also remembered that, their meetings overlapped, he was greatly perplexed about this trip. But Ingrid insisted on it. Ingrid has never disrupted our meetings, but last time she called and asked to reschedule it. Which was unlikely.
There were documents, too. However, there was a discrepancy. She told Wieland that she went there for two weeks, but according to the documents she stayed there alone and then went to Austria on business. That was what she had indicated on the card. Wieland took out the travel documents of her father and brother. Her father arrived to Germany after a week-long trip; Wilhelm, her brother, arrived to Germany later than everyone else by an express plane with several stops, he flew on. Judging by the fact that he had a transfer in one of the towns located in the north, he was going to the northern countries, but what did he forget there?
I wonder what Wilhelm wanted. Maybe he went to Norway. Or Finland. But what could he have forgotten there? I think Adler interrogated Wilhelm, I’ll have to ask him today. But here’s something else interesting: the last time she went to Austria and took away a fairly large amount of money withdrawn from the Reichsbank in the name of her father. I don’t think he knew that. Although, perhaps he had withdrawn it.
Wieland looked at the paper. Money and a lot of her movements did not give him peace. Besides, why would Ingrid take a thousand Reichsmarks with her anywhere at all? Wasn’t it too much for a girl?
Wieland continued to look for information and found a statement of an old safe deposit box at the bank. In the name of her aunt, who died the year she was born. Her mother, who died five years later, apparently knew about it; there was a fairly large sum of money in it.
Maybe Ingrid wanted to withdraw this money unnoticed by her father. But it didn’t look like she needed anything. If Ehrman found anything in the apartment, then I need to know about it.
Wieland looked at his watch. They had agreed to meet after six. Then it was time. He gathered up everything he had and locked the archive door with a key. Ingrid was a small detail in something big and that’s why they decided to remove her.
***
The evening lamps were lit early at this time of year. This day it was snowing heavily and thickly lying on the road, making it difficult for cars to move. Additional forces were thrown into clearing the snow.
Adler, Ehrman and Wieland sat in the silence of the room under the quiet ticking of the clock, each with their own information.
“Who will start?”, Wieland’s voice echoed through the office.
“I will,” — Adler said from his seat, “so, yesterday I conducted an interrogation of two people who are her relatives. This is Wilhelm, the brother of the murdered Ingrid, and her father Mr. Werner Fuchsmann. If we proceed from their words, then both were not on good terms with the deceased. If you believe their words, then the apartment in which the deceased lived was previously owned by her brother, Wilhelm. Although from the time she moved in until the time of her death it was registered in her brother’s name. He grounds this reason on laziness, which, of course, I didn’t believe. This is the first discrepancy. The second discrepancy is that her brother said that he moved out of the apartment because he earned a house. However, he held no positions and is now just starting a career as a pilot. Before that he was a student of a chemistry course, which he dropped out,” Ehrman instantly perked up. Adler continued on: “Also, the victim’s father didn’t seem very grief-stricken, he didn’t say anything about their conflict with his daughter. In general, all these actions made me put them under surveillance. He also said that the victim had a car, but it is also not clear what money she used. She didn’t communicate with her father, her brother would hardly have bought it for her — she did not have a driver’s license. Especially before her death.”
“Not bad, Adler,” Wieland sincerely praised him. “You did the right thing by organizing a stakeout. They really had a lot of inconsistencies in their family. Did Wilhelm mention where he built the house?”
“No. This insolent boy pissed me off. I barely kept my mental balance. It’s really a strange story about the house. Besides, maybe he took the money from the bank.
“I don’t think so. More likely he went to his father,” Wieland said, waving away. Adler had now acquired a different value in his eyes. He used to think of him as a straightforward and nervous person. However, at the moment he saw Wieland as an educated man with a thinking head, who he could rely on.
“And what about their quarrel? What was its cause?” Ehrman intervened a little rudely, but he asked the appropriate question.
“Because of the rabbits.”
“Because of what?”, Ehrman asked in perplexity. “Rabbits?” The quiet ticking of the clock echoed in the silence of the office. Adler 's voice interrupted it:
“Yes, Ingrid was against experiments being carried out on them.”
“Wait, but her father is in the chemical industry, as everyone knows.”
“Maybe a secret drug or poison has being tested,” Adler shrugged.
Ehrman whistled, the case was acquiring more and more interesting facts, it was impossible to predict what would happen next.
“I’ll be next,” Wieland opened the folder. “So, I dug around in the archive and this is what I managed to find: Ingrid flew to Austria, but at the same time took with her a fairly large amount of money withdrawn from a secret safe deposit box registered to her maternal aunt. Ingrid’s mother died of pneumonia five years after her birth. Adler, did her father or brother say anything about her mother?
“Fuchsmann said that after the death of his wife the children communicated with each other, he spoke only with the son, but not with Ingrid.”
“Fuchsmann and Wilhelm also went to Austria. And Wilhelm, most interestingly, went to the north of the country after that, then he travelled from there to one of the northern countries. Did he mention where the house was located?”
“No, he didn’t,” Adler recalled the details of Ingrid’s family life.
“That’s why I think that these trips, the money and the house are somehow connected with each other,” — Wieland finished his story.
“Are you saying that Ingrid had connections in Austria and was thinking of taking the money that belonged to her there? Then her father and brother found out about it and her brother killed her, right?”, Ehrman suggested with a grin.
“Let’s see what you say. This version cannot be discarded,” Ehrman rolled his eyes. However, having discovered his achievements, he began to speak.
“All right. Here’s what I dug up. There’s a lot of weirdness in the victim’s flat. A carpet that is stained with blood and shampoo. I assume the killer wanted to get the blood out, but there is another oddity — why there’s no blood on the floor, if she was killed in the apartment. The forensics show she was killed with a knife, there must be a lot of blood. There’s no blood anywhere but the carpet. Secondly, a ring was found in the victim’s apartment,” Ehrman took it out and handed it to Adler and Wieland. “It’s bigger than any of her fingers, I can tell that the ring was for sale. Adler, you were engaged in fake jewellery case. Can the ring be somehow connected to it?
“It can. We couldn’t find a part of the collection, the jewellery seemed to have fallen through the cracks. But where did Ingrid get it from?”
“Maybe she bought it on the black market,” expressed his theory Wieland.
“Then,” continued Ehrman, “letters were found in the apartment — there is no sender mentioned. But this handwriting is clearly not German.”
“Too beautiful,” concluded Wieland.
“There is also a suitcase with things, she was going to leave, but it’s not clear where to — I didn’t find any ticket. There is a diary, too. But almost nothing is written there.”
Ehrman held out the diary, Adler read and put the diary on the table.
“He’s coming for me, what does that mean?” Adler handed the diary to Wieland, who examined the phrase. Adler mentally noted the logical chain that Ehrman had built. He very subtly drew attention to the right details and emphasized the confusing points.
All three were silent, each in his own thoughts.
No one knew which theory to test first. Ingrid’s murder was taking on a different significance, besides, her case began to have an indirect bearing on other cases.
“So, let’s summarize what we have. Ingrid — the victim — was going to flee the country with money and obviously by car, if we are talking about the fact that she had a car. Most likely she wanted to flee to Austria — it is the closest, and if she took the money there, then it is more than logical, but why? Who did she want to run from? Her brother comes under suspicion because of her mother’s money. We can also assume that she is somehow connected with the black market. Besides, she was not killed in her apartment. So, she was killed elsewhere or, as stated in the pathologist’s report, she was poisoned and then stabbed. Who discovered the body?”
“Neighbours. According to them, the apartment was noisy, the neighbours went to ask to turn down the radio and found the body.”
“So the killer went down through the window,” concluded Adler, “before he could get down the stairs”.
“Or he went down and got into Ingrid’s car because there were no cars near the house. There weren’t any,” said Ehrman.
“Maybe he covered his tracks and took out some of the evidence.”
“So, the results have been summed up, let’s continue tomorrow, I think we can go home today.”
“Wait!” said Adler. Wieland and Ehrman turned to look at him. “Doesn’t it bother you that there aren’t many faces in this whole story?”
“What do you mean?”, Wieland leaned on the table.
“I mean, Ingrid could hardly have done everything alone. She needed someone to hide the money and get the ring. She couldn’t do it all by herself.”
“Adler is right. Too few people,” Ehrman scratched his chin.
“Or we haven’t found them yet. In any case, let’s not make up our minds, we must rely on what we have.”
“We have almost nothing,” angrily said Adler, banging his fist on the table.
“Let’s not consider ourselves as losers ahead of time,” soothingly said Wieland. “Just because we don’t know a lot doesn’t mean we won’t solve this case. We’re all going home now. Tomorrow will be another day.”
After saying goodbye Wieland sighed and opened the to-do list his wife had written that morning.
