Bernhard Aichner - Woman of the Dead - A Thriller

‘What are you doing here, Massimo?’

‘Karl phoned. He had to go to the dentist.’

‘He didn’t mention it.’

‘You know that I’m happy to look after the girls. I enjoy their company.’

‘Karl was supposed to be looking after them.’

‘Like I said, I was happy to take the reins. But tell me, where have you been? I was worried sick.’

‘I had to get out of here. I just rode around on the bike – I had cabin fever.’

‘So you were away overnight?’

‘Yes.’

‘On your own?’

‘Yes.’

‘My colleague told me Reza was with you.’

‘I gave him a lift into the city. Then I went my own way.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Who?’

‘Reza.’

‘Why ask me that?’

‘There’s something the matter with him. Where did you take him?’

‘Are you interrogating me?’

‘No.’

‘Then stop asking questions. I only wanted a few hours on my own. Reza is fine.’

‘And I only want you to be safe, Blum. I told you, you’re probably in danger. How am I going to keep an eye on you if you run off like that?’

‘Nothing’s going to happen to me.’

‘Your children need you.’

‘I’m quite aware of that.’

‘Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you, Blum?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t know how many times I called you.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I don’t want you dying as well.’

‘I have no intention of dying.’

‘I’ll look after you, Blum.’

‘I know you will. But now I must see to the girls. I’ll call you, I promise.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘I’d like to spend some time with you, Blum.’

‘And I’d like to see you too.’

‘You would?’

‘Yes.’

‘What shall we do?’

‘Anything you like.’

‘Anything?’

‘Yes, but I wish you’d send your man home. You being here for me is quite enough.’

‘When tomorrow?’

‘Once the girls are asleep.’

‘Where?’

‘I’ll call you. And – thanks for looking after them.’

‘Please don’t go running off again.’

‘No, I won’t go running off. I’ll stay at home like a good girl until you catch the villains.’

‘Blum?’

‘Yes?’

‘You know I’d leave Ute like a shot, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I know.’

‘Your children need a father.’

‘Let me mull this over.’

‘You’re so beautiful, Blum.’

‘But it’s time for you to go. Please.’

‘See you tomorrow?’

‘Yes, tomorrow.’

What a bastard. The way he grins, trying to crawl into her favour. The way he threatens her implicitly, letting her know he won’t let her out of his sight. Blum can hardly stay on her feet, she’s exhausted herself, suppressing her fury, dissimulating, saying things she hates herself for. The lying bastard. She pictures him going downstairs, the front door opening and closing. Blum runs to her children. He’s never going to lay a finger on Uma or Nela again. Blum is determined never again to fear for her children’s safety; Massimo will never set eyes on them again. Uma and Nela are absorbed in the screen; they want to stay in its colourful world, they barely notice Blum’s kisses. They have no time for anxiety, tears or fear. Can we watch a little more, Mama? A little more, please . They are only children watching television, children untouched by the world, who think they have nothing to fear. This is a day like any other because Massimo is part of their lives, a family friend, a man whose lap they have sat on countless times. They kissed him goodbye on the cheek then went back to the little penguins on the screen. Massimo has gone, he has left the house, and he’s never going to set foot in it again.

Blum is breathing steadily in and out. For a moment she just stands there, wondering how she will do it and where, and what must happen first. She wonders what she is going to say to the fat little man in the red trunks, because he’s still there, parked outside her house, and he is still demanding money. As she goes downstairs she searches for the words that will make him go away. While the girls watch TV, spellbound, she will take care of that little problem. Blum goes through the front garden, down the drive and into the road where Mark died. Schrettl is in his car: she will tap on the window and tell him that she will kill him if he stays where he is.

Just one sentence will do because she is furious enough to leave havoc in her wake, because Massimo touched the children, because she slept with him, because Mark is dead, because nothing is as it was. She was happy before that car came along. She doesn’t wait for a cue, she simply leans in and tells him she will kill him. If you don’t clear out I’ll kill you , in a voice as cold as ice. He knows that she means it, it is written in her eyes, in her mouth. She isn’t joking, she will carry out her threats. She sees his confusion, his certainty. Schrettl and Blum look at each other for ten seconds, then Blum removes her head from the car window and leaves without a backward glance. Behind her an engine starts. Schrettl’s car glides down the street.

Blum goes upstairs and sits down with the children. Her head is almost bursting with noise. She must act fast. She sits on the sofa with the girls and stares ahead. Maya the Bee is flying across the screen and Massimo is a murderer. Blum must talk to Reza and they must get rid of Massimo. Because he suspects Reza and because she saw doubt in his eyes. He may know more than he admits and she cannot bear for him to live a day longer. His presence is like poison. He took Mark away from her, he tore out her heart with his bare hands.

Blum remembers everything she knows about the clown. Dunya told her he was the worst, the most sadistic, the most violent. He had joined about a year after it started, and his arrival made the cellar an even more brutal place. Four tormentors became five. And Dunya was more afraid of him than of the others. Massimo, the kindly police officer, the helpful family friend, Blum’s admirer, the unhappy husband – no one would ever have thought that he could beat and rape a pregnant woman until she was about to lose her baby and die of pain. Dunya had told them, first Mark and then Blum, how he punched Ilena in the stomach with his fist again and again, punching the child, perhaps even his own. Every last detail had been recorded on Mark’s phone. The clown humiliated and beat them. Sometimes he didn’t rape them, he just beat them, laughing crazily, a man out of control. He would take Dunya’s head and slam it on the floor when she didn’t go along with what he wanted or give him a smile. Give me a smile, slut. I said you have to give me a smile. Do you think you’re too good for me? He would take her by the hair and smash her head on the plush red carpet, until Dunya would lose consciousness and he would walk away.

Massimo, the kindly soul, the man who upheld the law. He spent nights on end in the garage with Mark, drinking beer, slapping him on the back, relaxing after work. Blum still couldn’t comprehend why Massimo had sought the company of Jaunig, Schönborn and Puch. And Ludwig. Why he had gone off to a cellar with those men, how he could have been capable of those things.

The filthy bastard. Blum couldn’t call him anything else. The epithet kept rising to her lips, while Maya’s friend the lazy bee Willy was sucking up honey on the screen. While Uma and Nela giggled and nestled close to her. Filthy bastard. Massimo. I’ll see you dead if it’s the last thing I do.

Slowly she opens her eyes. Very slowly, because she knows what is coming. She doesn’t want to see what’s there but she can smell it and hear it. The disinfectant, the sound of the cooling unit, the buzzing of the old neon tube above her head to the left, the hoist they use to lift corpses into coffins. Blum knows exactly where she is. She doesn’t know how she got there, but she knows she is in the preparation room. She knows that someone has knocked her out, undressed her and tied her to the table. The aluminium is cold against her skin. She tries to reconstruct what has happened and work out what is going to happen next. She can move only her head. She turns it one way then the other, looking around for help. She tries to scream, but all she hears is groaning; her lips are covered in tape. She doesn’t want to take it in; doesn’t want to see him there beside her.