Craig Russell - The Carnival Master

Something was happening to her. It was as if the pain was shaping her resolve, sharpening her mind. She felt new clarity, a new purity of thought. Mortification of the flesh, they called it. The pain became like a background noise: the further she placed herself from it the more dislocated from her physical being she would become. Maria focused all her energy on her thoughts. There had to be a way out of this.

‘You know Oliver Ludeke?’

‘Yes…’ Andrea looked into the air as if seeing into the past. She shook her head. ‘I can’t believe it. Ludeke. You’re sure?’

‘Yes,’ said Tansu. ‘There’s no doubt about it. How did you know him?’

‘We were medical students together.’ Andrea crossed her legs and the hem of her skirt rode up a little. Fabel noticed that a few centimetres of the top of her thigh were exposed above her stocking, the skin tanned dark over a ripple of muscle.

‘Where are you going tonight?’ he asked. ‘I mean, if it’s an important appointment, then we could come back later, or even tomorrow.’ Fabel used the word ‘appointment’ just as she had. Not ‘date’. Not ‘meeting with friends’.

‘No, it’s fine. I’ve explained that I’ll be delayed.’ She turned back to Tansu. ‘When I say we were medical students together, I mean he was a couple of years ahead of me. But we all knew him. He was a bit of a heart-throb for a few of the female students.’

‘You too?’ asked Fabel.

Andrea fixed him with her hard, masculine stare. ‘I suppose. I was like that back then. Soft. But he never seemed to notice me. I can’t believe that he…’ Her expression hardened even more. ‘The bastard. Leave me alone with him for half an hour and I’ll save you all a lot of time and trouble. Why? Why did he do that to me?’

‘It would appear that Ludeke is a very sick individual,’ said Fabel. ‘You’re probably not his only victim, and some of the others didn’t survive. But it looks like we’re going to have some difficulty proving that.’

‘But if we can convict him of the attack on you,’ said Tansu, ‘then we’ll be able to put him away for a long time. Hopefully long enough to build a case against him for the murders.’

‘Are you prepared to give evidence against him?’ asked Fabel.

‘Of course I am.’

‘It’s just that it may be an ordeal for you. In court, I mean.’

Andrea laughed bitterly. ‘Do you think that that shit can scare me now? I’ll look forward to facing him across a courtroom and telling everybody exactly what he did to me.’

‘Good…’ Fabel paused for a moment. ‘You say you knew him by sight. As a student, I mean.’

‘Yes.’

‘But you didn’t recognise him that night?’

‘No – he was all made up. As a clown.’

‘I have to ask this,’ said Fabel. ‘There’s no way Ludeke is going to be able to claim consensual sex, is there? I mean, if you knew him and had a thing for him.’

‘Are you mad?’ A vein throbbed visibly in Andrea’s neck. ‘He nearly killed me. Didn’t you see the state he left me in?’

‘Listen, Frau Sandow…’ Fabel made his tone as conciliatory as possible. ‘You have to trust me when I say I know exactly how sick and perverted this creep is. But I just need to know if things had maybe started off consensual and then got out of hand. It’s an angle his defence may take.’

‘No. I was at that party that I told you about. When I came out there was a clown in the street. He seemed to just stare at me, not moving. I started to walk home, then I realised he was following me. I ran and he ran after me. I thought I’d lost him in the crowd, then he appeared out of nowhere at the church. St Ursula’s. Then he raped me, beat me, then raped me again. All the time he had his tie pulled tight around my neck, half strangling me.’

‘And he bit you?’

‘Over and over again.’

‘We’ve got the forensic photographs of the bites,’ said Fabel. ‘We’ll get a match from an impression of his teeth. Trust me, Frau Sandow, he’s going to prison for a long time.’

‘I would never have thought of him. I thought it was a stranger. Some psychopath who happened to pick on me.’ Andrea looked as if she was lost in her memories, then she became galvanised as a thought hit her. ‘Maybe he was at the party! When I was questioned, they asked me for the names of all the men there but I couldn’t give them many. I mean it was Karneval and everybody was in disguise. You know, fancy dress and stuff. So he could have been there. I know they questioned all the male students in my year.’

‘It was a medical student party?’ asked Tansu.

‘Mainly. But not exclusively. Tell me, will he be released pending trial?’

‘Not if we can help it,’ said Fabel.

‘Don’t worry, Andrea,’ said Tansu. ‘We’ll keep him away from you.’

‘I’m not worried,’ said Andrea, again with the hard, male stare. ‘Like I said, it’s he who should worry if we were ever to come across each other again.’

On the way back to Tansu’s car, Fabel looked back at Andrea’s apartment building as if he could read an answer from it.

‘What’s up?’ asked Tansu.

‘Did you see the way Andrea was dressed?’

‘She looked like she was going out on a date. To be honest, without the muscle behind it I would have called that outfit almost tarty. What about it?’

‘That’s it,’ said Fabel. ‘She looked as if she was dressed for a date but she kept on talking about an appointment. Like it was business. I have the weirdest idea… Don’t laugh, but I think our musclewoman moonlights. As a hooker.’

Women’s Karneval Night. 23 February.

The world had gone mad by the time Fabel walked into the Cologne Police Presidium. Today was Women’s Karneval Day and even the security officers were wearing fancy dress. In the Murder Commission, Benni Scholz was sitting behind his desk wearing full uniform – except, Fabel noticed, it was a female officer’s uniform.

‘Now, Principal Chief Commissar Fabel,’ said Scholz in warning. ‘Don’t start getting ideas…’

Tansu Bakrac came in wearing an all-in-one catsuit, complete with fluffy ears and painted-on whiskers. Fabel found himself noticing her curves. Kris Feilke was dressed as a Wild West sheriff. The rest of the officers were similarly attired, including – rather inappropriately, thought Fabel – several dressed as clowns.

‘I must say, Jan,’ said Tansu in mock reproach, ‘you could have made an effort.’

The truth was that Fabel did feel rather out of place without a fancy-dress outfit. Instead, he was dressed in his usual Jaeger sports jacket, black roll-neck and chinos. At least he’d remembered not to wear a tie.

The team assembled in Scholz’s office.

‘Okay,’ Scholz said, summoning as much seriousness as his outfit would allow. ‘All of you are on duty until midnight, after which we’re all going to the pub where we’re going to show our Hamburg colleague here what a real party is like. Until then, however, I want you to stick to the routes you’ve been allocated and keep your eyes peeled. The Karneval Cannibal has always struck before midnight on Women’s Karneval Night. Of course, we have our number one suspect banged up and if we make it until midnight without incident, then it proves we’ve got the right man.’

Scholz spent a further ten minutes confirming which teams were covering which routes and repeating his order that no one was to touch a drop until they got the all-clear from him.

‘You sure you want to take the duty you’ve asked for?’ Scholz asked Fabel afterwards. ‘I could put a uniformed unit on that.’