Frank Tallis: Deadly Communion

‘The seduction of minors! You have no proof.’

‘I’m afraid I do. Your friend the actor — you know, the one who lives over there.’ Rheinhardt pointed towards the window. ‘He did not require a very large incentive to provide us with a statement.’ Rheinhardt smiled and patted his coat pocket.

Rainmayr watched as the constables lifted his unfinished canvas from the easel. The officer carried it out through the door and there was a crashing sound as he threw it onto the cart.

‘You lied to me! You said you wouldn’t do this!’

‘Herr Rainmayr … you may think me immoral, but I can assure you that I have a code of conduct which my conscience does not allow me to breach. It may not be a moral code that you share — but it is a moral code nevertheless. A man with your strong views on the nature of morality must surely understand this. Come, now — get dressed. There is much that we must do today.’

64

THE SECURE HOSPITAL WAS silent but for the sound of the warden’s footsteps as he made his midnight inspection of the upper floors of the east wing. Occasionally, Herr Trommler would stop outside a cell door, gently ease the viewing panel aside and peer through the grille at the occupant within. Most of the incarcerated men slept like babies. Very occasionally, he would see a candle flame and the hunched back of someone writing. Some of the men fancied themselves as poets and composed verses into the night. The warden had read some of their work and was surprised by its naivety — lyrical ballads about maidens and heroes.

A curious screeching drew Trommler towards one of the cell doors. He hadn’t ascertained yet whether Sprenger was a sleeper or a poet. Until now, the new admission had behaved very much like a sleeper.

The warden slid the viewing panel aside.

Sprenger was standing in the middle of the cell, arms outstretched. He was gazing up at the moon through a small barred window. Shafts of silver light angled through the opening and illuminated Sprenger’s body. He was naked, his clothes folded neatly on the bed. The screeching sound emanated from something which Sprenger held tightly in his right hand.

Trommler recoiled in horror when he realised that Sprenger was squeezing the life out of a plump rat. His horror turned to disgust when Sprenger convulsed and Trommler heard the smack of vital fluids spilling onto the concrete floor.

Trommler banged on the door and directed his flashlight into the cell.

Sprenger turned around slowly. He was still tumescent. Dropping the dead rat, he acknowledged Trommler with glistening, bloody fingers.

‘Night is the other half of life, and the better half,’ said Sprenger, smiling. The flashlight faded, but the smile impressed itself indelibly in the ineffable substance of Trommler’s soul. It was destined to reappear in his nightmares.

‘Something for you from Inspector Rheinhardt,’ said Liebermann, handing the parcel to Amelia Lydgate.

‘For me?’

‘Yes. With gratitude for your assistance.’

The Englishwoman looked bemused.

‘But it is I who owe a debt to Inspector Rheinhardt. It was he who permitted me to attend Professor Mathias’s autopsies and I have profited greatly from my association with the professor.’

‘It is Inspector Rheinhardt’s opinion that your contribution to the investigation was significant and should therefore be rewarded.’

Amelia blushed, placed the parcel on her gateleg table and stroked the wrapping paper.

‘Well? Aren’t you going to open it?’

‘I will. But first, forgive my discourtesy, some tea? I must make you some tea. Please, do take a seat.’

Amelia excused herself and Liebermann sat down. He looked around, registering the various features of the familiar room: the blue vase with its unvarying choice of white blooms, books of Latin and Greek, the journals of Amelia’s grandfather Ludwig Buchbinder and, hanging on the wall, three mezzotint views of her homeland: the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the great cathedral of St Paul’s and a pastoral scene under which was written the words The Heath from the South Front of Kenwood House, Hampstead .

It had been over a month since Liebermann had visited the opera house with Rheinhardt, but as he waited for Amelia’s return his auditory imagination spontaneously recreated the glorious strains of the love duet from Tristan and Isolde. Once again he heard the voices of Erik Schmedes and Anna von Mildenburg. Beneath their declarations of love the orchestra heaved and swelled.

The inner music fragmented as the creaking stairs forewarned Liebermann of Amelia’s arrival. She entered the room and placed a tray of tea things on the table next to Rheinhardt’s gift. After pouring Liebermann a cup of Earl Grey tea and offering him a vanillerkipferl biscuit, she picked up the parcel and squeezed its surface. Something soft was contained inside.

‘Open it,’ said Liebermann.

Amelia’s hesitancy — her embarrassment — was affecting.

The habitual intensity of her expression was interrupted by a brief smile. Amelia tugged at the yellow bow and carefully unfolded the wrapping paper. The movement revealed some brightly coloured fabric inside. Lifting it up, she allowed the material to unfurl.

‘Oh,’ she gasped. ‘It’s … beautiful.’

‘A reform dress from House Wolnik,’ said Liebermann, sipping his tea. ‘After her arrest, Frau Vogl transferred the deeds of her salon to her assistant Wanda Wolnik who, it seems, has a talent for design equal to her mentor’s.’

Amelia stroked the material and blinked at her guest.

‘How did Inspector Rheinhardt know that I …?’

‘He had a little help from his wife, who knows about such things — and I may have said something or other,’ Liebermann answered.

‘Thank you,’ said Amelia. A vertical crease appeared on her forehead. ‘I will write a note to Inspector Rheinhardt and his wife. It is a gift I will treasure.’

‘And wear — I hope,’ said Liebermann.

Amelia held the dress up against her body.

‘Oh, it’s so beautiful,’ she repeated.

‘Why don’t you try it on?’ Liebermann suggested.

Again — the briefest flickering smile.

‘If you wouldn’t mind …’

‘Of course not.’

Amelia left the room.

She was gone for some time. Liebermann finished his tea, ate a biscuit, and flicked through a textbook on blood diseases. The subject matter did not interest him much and he abandoned its study in favour of further consideration of the mezzotints.

In due course Amelia returned.

He heard her saying: ‘It fits perfectly’ before she made her appearance.

The garment hung loosely from her shoulders and undulated as she stepped into the room. It was cut from a material of the richest red, covered with a repeated circular gold motif. These colours found corresponding tones in Amelia’s russet and copper hair, which she had unpinned.

Liebermann had always found reform dresses unflattering — but now he was persuaded otherwise. This was how a modern woman should be dressed: unconstrained, unfettered — free to inhale the air of a new century.

Amelia turned a full circle, creating a ripple of brilliance on the fabric.

She was like the high priestess of some ancient mystery cult, a primal power, enigmatic and ineffable. Hygeia. Her femininity was at once alluring and also a little frightening.

It was clear that she had discarded her corset and Liebermann became acutely aware of the proximity of her nude form just beneath the fabric. His thoughts misted and he was troubled by ghostly images of pale flesh. Once again, the love duet sounded in his mind and he was overcome with a yearning so strong that it was as if he had been mortally wounded and his life blood was ebbing away.