Bernhard Aichner - Woman of the Dead - A Thriller

They take the coffin off the trolley and over to the hydraulic ramp. Blum observes his desperation, his rage and fear. He tries to break free, he flings his body back and forth, and the coffin wobbles as it rises in the air. It stops at chest height. Massimo turns his scarlet face to Blum, a defenceless, panic-stricken monster with eyes ablaze. All he can move is his head, ninety degrees to the left, ninety degrees to the right. However much he wants to leap up and attack her, he can’t. All he can do is talk: tell the truth, humiliate himself, beg for forgiveness. Blum comes very close and whispers that he is about to die. In five minutes’ time you’ll be burning. You can keep shouting or you can talk to me. The decision is yours . She withdraws her face from his and stands there watching him compose himself. How quickly he changes. He calms his body and waits for her to tear off the sticky tape. Massimo knows he must do as she says, he knows he mustn’t make a false move, mustn’t provoke her. His eyes wander back and forth, he is feverishly thinking. Blum knows him well. He’d do anything to save his skin, he will talk for his life.

‘Why, Massimo?’

‘I’m so sorry, Blum.’

‘That’s not what I want to hear.’

‘If I could turn the clock back—’

‘Stop it.’

‘You must believe me. Mark was my friend.’

‘For the last time, this is not what I want to hear.’

‘What do you want to hear, then?’

‘Why the cellar?’

‘It just happened, Blum.’

‘Happened?’

‘It happened by chance. The neighbours called the police. I was in Kitzbühel on a surveillance mission. I thought I’d give my uniformed colleagues a hand, and I followed up the call.’

‘When was this?’

‘Four and a half years ago.’

‘Were you on your own?’

‘It was the middle of the night, I was awake anyway, so I thought I’d go and see what was up for myself.’

‘And what was up?’

‘The neighbours had heard screams.’

‘Yes?’

‘I rang the bell, I knocked on the door, then I climbed in. The cellar window was open.’

‘Go on.’

‘They were raping her, four of them. Men with their trousers down wearing masks. They’d left the window open by mistake, and the girl was screaming so loudly that she could be heard from the street. She wouldn’t stop screaming. I didn’t know what to do. I had to keep the men in my sights; I shouldn’t have answered the call alone. I was in extreme circumstances, Blum.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘I hit her on the head with my gun.’

‘Why?’

‘I had no option.’

‘So instead of helping her, you hit her?’

‘I wanted to shut her up. I had to get the situation under control, and I was afraid the four men might attack me. They were wearing masks. I was afraid, Blum.’

‘You had a gun.’

‘I panicked.’

‘Which of them was it? Dunya or Ilena?’

‘Ilena.’

‘And you didn’t help her.’

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know.’

Blum listens to what he has to say. He is trying to justify his decision to stay, not to call for reinforcements but to talk to the men. He talked to them upstairs in the deserted restaurant while Ilena was lying unconscious and anaesthetised below. When they removed their masks, Massimo simply closed the doors and windows and went back to the outside world. He turned a blind eye, then he let temptation lead him. He’d seen the land of Cockaigne, a secret place where everything was permitted and he answered to no one. In this place, he couldn’t hear Ute wailing that God had overlooked her, that her life was pointless without a child. He talks about Ute, about how she rejected him and wouldn’t let him touch her, how she made him feel it was all his fault. Her husband wasn’t a real man, he was a failure who couldn’t even give her a child. She told him so every day and the humiliation made his life unbearable. It only happened because of the trouble with Ute, he said. That was what caused his false move, that night in the cellar.

Massimo is lying in his spruce coffin on the verge of tears. His mouth opens and closes, and Blum watches Mark’s eternally kind, helpful friend. His voice is calm, he sounds almost meek, you would never imagine that he is capable of what he did. That he bought himself a brightly coloured mask and returned to the girls’ tormentors. He had them in the palm of his hand: it was easy to come to an agreement with the priest and the cook, the huntsman and the photographer. They did as he asked; they accepted this new member of their club. Four became five, and all because they had forgotten to close a window.

His eyes lock with hers, as though somehow he can latch on to her and haul himself up that way. They are small, sad eyes, as unimpressive as everything else about him. Briefly, the monster is calm, briefly the kindliness is back, for a moment she even pities him for being who he is. But only for a moment. She tries to remind herself of the old times, when the world was still intact. There is a wild beast slumbering behind those eyes, prowling up and down, scraping its hooves in the sand, ready to bite. It would pounce and rip into her throat without hesitation.

But he knows the beast cannot attack; he sees in her face that it makes no difference what he says. It’s over. He hears the resolution in every word she speaks. Blum wants him to die. In her cold, hard stare, he sees there is no way out. So the wind changes again and the storm inside him rises. The wild beast of his fury returns.

‘What happened to the others?’

‘They’re dead.’

‘I don’t believe you’re capable of that, Blum.’

‘That was exactly your mistake.’

‘You killed them?’

‘I got them ready for their funerals.’

‘No.’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘And you think you’re better than me?’

‘I do.’

‘Well, you’re wrong.’

‘You hit and kicked the girl until she lost her baby. She bled to death. And then you just threw her away.’

‘And you decapitated a priest.’

‘Yes, and now I’m going to burn you.’

‘You won’t go through with this.’

‘I will, for Mark.’

‘Blum, this is ridiculous.’

‘You were the worst of them all.’

‘That’s what your little friend told you, did she?’

‘Yes.’

‘If she’d only kept her mouth shut she’d still be alive. I wouldn’t have had to hold her head under water. She wouldn’t have ended up in the River Inn like the boy.’

‘You bastard.’

‘It’s a shame we had to close our little club. Your husband and that little cunt insisted on trying to save the day.’

‘Stop.’

‘I had a lot of fun with Dunya, the little slut. We were very fond of her. It was silly of her to run away.’

‘I told you to stop.’

‘I was very surprised to see her in the girls’ bedroom after I’d fucked you. There was no keeping that little tart down.’

‘I said—’

‘She was really good in the sack, believe me. I’m sure Mark would have told you the same.’

‘Stop!’

‘That’s not all—’

‘Yes it is.’

She doesn’t want to hear another word, she doesn’t want to know a thing more, she wants rid of him. Her finger depresses the button and he begins to scream. The furnace door opens and the coffin slides in, feet first. Massimo roars but no one can hear his curses, no one can come to his aid. Blum and Reza stand side by side, fingers intertwined, watching the spectacle unfold. They don’t move; they do nothing to stop what is coming next, they just stand hand in hand watching the furnace door. How Massimo screams, but only for a moment. Then everything is still and, suddenly, it’s just the two of them.