Victor O'Reilly - Games of The Hangman

Fitzduane played the tape that he'd made of the first half of their interview with Paulus. He plugged the miniature tape recorder into a battery-powered extension loudspeaker. Immediately the sound was crisp and clear, and the listeners were transported to that small office in the museum and the strained voice of Paulus von Beck. Fitzduane stopped the tape at the point previously agreed upon with the Bear. There was silence in the room.

"For the first time," said the Bear, "we've actually got a live witness who can tie Balac in with some of the key elements of the case. It's no longer supposition. We now know that Balac was involved with Erika von Graffenlaub on an intense and regular basis. We know that he was the original seducer of Rudi and Vreni. We know that he made use of drugs in a manner similar to the Hangman. It's all getting closer."

"There's a difference between running orgies, even if they do involve underage kids, and killing people," said Charlie von Beck. "God knows I'd like to believe we've got a case. If you put everything together, I guess we have, but it's far from a sure thing. There could be an innocent explanation for almost everything we've got so far. You've put forward one hell of a clever hypothesis, I'll grant you, but that final firm link is still missing."

The Bear looked around the room. It was clear that most of the team agreed with the magistrate. The Chief looked indecisive. The Bear was glad he'd taken time to build his argument point by point. Once the discussion stage was over, they would be back in harm's way. They had to avoid another Muri. The needed a united team convinced of what it was doing if they were to come up with an angle that would result in success.

"Both Hugo and I," continued the Bear, "felt that Paulus's reaction indicated rather more than that he was gay and had played around with group sex, even if some borderline minors were involved. This is a tolerant town if you're discreet, and whereas the Rudi / Vreni thing isn't the stuff fairy tales are made of, they weren't exactly prepubescent children – that would have been serious. No, Paulus was actually afraid, afraid for his life. Why? What does he know or surmise that brings him close to panic?

"Most of you here know what an interrogation is like. A good interrogator often learns more from atmosphere and body language than he does from the actual words used. After a while he gets so immersed in the mood of the whole thing that he begins to sense meanings, almost to be telepathic.

"Any successful investigation requires luck as well as man-hours. And so far the tide of fortune seems again and again to have favored the Hangman. Whether by accident or design or a mixture of both, he seems to have been just ahead of us most of the time. He had Ivo killed before we could talk to him. Siegfried, the tattoo artist, went the same way. Vreni was saved, but she can't or won't talk about her experiences. Ericka von Graffenlaub, who might have cracked under interrogation, is dead. Lodge either wasn't there or escaped before we arrived. And so it goes on. We're dealing with a shrewd and lucky man. But no one is lucky all the time. Very early into the questioning of Paulus, but Hugo and I had the feeling that here was the essential like we were looking for. You can decide for yourselves."

Fitzduane moved the tape recorder selector switch to ‘play.’

"This is an edited version," began the Bear.

"Play it," said the Chief.

There was a slight hiss, and the Bear's recorded voice could be heard. "Paulus, he said, "you've stated that your relationship with Balac started about five years ago."

"Yes."

"Is it still going on?"

"Not… not exactly," said Paulus hesitantly.

"I don't quite understand," said the Bear, his voice gentle.

"It's not so easy to explain. The relationship, as it were, changed; it came to an end. But from time to time he calls me, and I go to him."

"Why, if it's over."

"I… I have to. He has… he has a hold on me."

"An emotional hold?"

"No, it's not like that. He has photographs and other things he his threatened to send to the police."

"We don't care about your sex life," said the Bear. "What kind of photographs are these?"

There was silence again and then the sound of sobbing, followed by an editing break. The conversation started again in mid-sentence.

"…embarrassing, terribly embarrassing to talk about," said Paulus in a strangled voice.

"So the von Graffenlaub twins weren't the only underage kids involved," said the Bear.

"No."

"How old were they?"

"It varied. Normally they were in their mid-teens or older – and that was all right."

"But not always?"

"No."

"What age was the youngest?"

There was silence yet again, and then an encouraging noise from the Bear could be heard. Reluctantly Paulus answered. "About twelve or thereabouts. I don't know exactly."

There was a crash as Charlie von Beck threw his coffee mug to the ground. His face was white with anger. Fitzduane stopped the tape. "The idiot, the stupid, irresponsible, disgusting idiot!" shouted the examining magistrate. "How could he?"

"Calm down, Charlie," said the Chief. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. I hope that mug was empty."

Charlie von Beck smiled in spite of himself. The Chief waited until he was sure von Beck was in control, then gave Fitzduane the signal to proceed.

"Where did these sexual encounters take place?" said the Bear's voice.

"Oh, various places."

"For instance? In your house, for example?"

"No, never in my house. Balac always like things done his way. He likes a certain setting, and he likes to have the things he needs, his drugs and other things."

"So where did you go?"

"I didn't always know. Sometimes he would pick me up and blindfold me. He likes to play games. Sometimes he would pretend I was a stranger and we were meeting for the first time."

"Did you ever go to Erika's apartment?"

"Yes, but not so often. Mostly we went to Balac's studio down by the Wasserwerk."

"You mentioned that Balac likes a certain setting," said the Bear. "Could you describe it? Why was it important?"

"He likes rituals, different kinds of rituals," said Paulus, his voice uncertain and strained.

"What kinds of rituals?"

"Like… like a black mass, only not the real thing. More like a parody of a black mass but with black candles and mock human sacrifices. It was frightening."

Fitzduane broke in. "Could you describe the rooms where this happened?"

"There were several such rooms. They were all decorated the same way, with purple walls and black silk hangings and the smell of incense. Sometimes we were masked; sometime the other people were masked."

"Tell me about the sacrifices," said the Bear. "You said mock human sacrifices?"

"The idea was that the victim should die at the moment of climax. It was something that Erika, in particular, liked. She had a knife, a thing with a wide, heavy blade, and she used to wave it. Then she brought a cat in and killed it at just that moment, and I was covered in blood." There was the sound of retching, cut off abruptly by an editing break.

The Chief signaled for Fitzduane to stop the tape. He looked shaken, the full implications of what he had been hearing finally beginning to sink in. "And next came people," he spat. "It's making me sick. Is there much more of this?"

"Not a lot," said the Bear. "I'll summarize it for you if you like."

The Chief steepled his hands, lost in thought. After perhaps a full minute he looked up at the Bear. "It's just hitting home. It's so incredibly sick… so perverted… so evil."

"We asked about the knife," said the Bear. "Balac told Paulus that he'd had it specially made. It was a reproduction of a ritual sacrificial knife used by a pagan cult in Ireland. He'd seen a drawing in some book and taken a fancy to it. Apparently he has a library of pornography and black magic and the sicker aspects of human behavior. He uses these books to set up his games. The more elaborate rules are written down in what he calls ‘The Grimoire.’"