Dirk Lützelberger - Murder in the first life

Stefan opened his eyes in horror and grasped the situation in a split second. He recognized how the red Porsche and a white delivery van with inscription on the sides, had come to a halt only a few meters apart. Both drivers were sitting in their vehicles, startled, but seemed unharmed. The van will be allowed to re-sort its load for the time being, thought Stefan, and obviously they didn’t need his help now. Stefan would have liked to get out of the car to tell the Porsche driver what he thought, but there was no time for that. His friend urgently needed to see a doctor. That was the most important matter. Stefan indicated by a hand signal out of the window to the ambulance behind him that they would continue driving and stepped on the gas.

♦♦♦

The remaining drive to the hospital took less than ten minutes. With squealing tires, the patrol car and the ambulance came to a halt in front of the emergency room. The doctors in the Army hospital had been informed upfront and were already waiting. With a worried expression on her face, Gwen got out of the car and stumbled frantically towards the entrance of the emergency room. Dr Michael Peters opened the back doors of the ambulance, ran to Gwen and took her in his arms. He held her tightly and they turned away from her husband, who was already on the stretcher and on his way to the examination room.

"You must be very brave now, Gwen" Michael whispered and continued. "Your husband had suffered another cardiac arrest while driving. There was nothing we could do, and the last hope is with the doctors here at the hospital."

Gwen let her feelings run free and sobbed loudly. Michael pressed her even tighter and stroked her long curly hair with one hand. Gwen could no longer hold her tears and collapsed in Michael’s arms. They stood like this for several minutes and Michael tried to calm Gwen by soft words and stroking her neck.

"Let’s go inside, you’ll catch a cold" said Stefan, and with the words, "I’ll just drive the car to the parking lot" he disappeared again immediately.

Minutes later Michael, Gwen and Stefan met again in the waiting room. It was a cold and sterile-looking room. Without atmosphere and the white on the walls was anything but reassuring. Only the picture of a sunset hung on one side of the room, which was otherwise only furnished with plastic chairs on the walls and a table in the corner.

Gwen had calmed down a bit and turned to Stefan with a questioning look.

"What will happen if Paul dies now? How am I supposed to live without him? What will happen to Phil? How am I going to balance all this alone?"

Stefan took a step towards Gwen and hugged her, "It doesn’t have to come like that, Gwen, the doctors are doing their best for Paul. You mustn’t lose hope."

Stefan’s words had not yet been fully uttered when the door to the examination room opened and a doctor came out with a sinister expression on his face. Stefan and Michael didn’t suspect anything good, for Gwen it was already certain in this moment. "Nooooooo!" she cried out and her legs failed her service. Stefan caught her just before she hit the ground. He set her down on the next chair. The doctor nodded at Dr Peters to confirm Gwen’s suspicion wordlessly. Then he turned to Gwen, who had barely managed to retain her consciousness.

"I’m very sorry, Mrs Fisher, there was nothing we could do." After a short pause he added, "My sincere condolences for your loss."

Doctors weren’t born speakers either, but what could he have said in this situation, Stefan thought as he continued to try to calm Gwen down. Stefan nodded at Michael to tell him to move closer, because they would have to go back home without Paul to tell Beth and finally Phil the bad news.

Silently, they drove the few kilometres back in the patrol car to Felm, a small village that Paul and Gwen had chosen for their family several years ago. Surrounded by riding stables, woods and fields a wonderful place for an adolescent to run riot and excellent recreational value in the evenings and weekends for the adults with their strenuous jobs during the week. The Kronshagen secondary school, which Phil attended, was halfway to Gwen’s work, so she was always able to combine it well to bring her son to school.

Gwen hadn’t said anything the whole way through. What would become of this idyll now, she thought. What would happen to it without Paul? Gwen burst into tears again. Michael took her in his arms again while Stefan let the car glide through the night. They passed the place where an accident had almost occurred on the way to the hospital. "Luckily nothing happened" mumbled Stefan as he saw that the two vehicles were no longer there.

Phil had already been to bed for several hours when Beth welcomed her daughter at the front door of the house. Her flowered robe was no protection against the November cold, and she was already shivering all over her body when she stepped outside. One look in her daughter’s eyes said it all, and her tremor only intensified when she hugged Gwen. "Tell me it’s not true" she begged.

"There was nothing more they could do for Paul" said Michael, who knew that Gwen was incapable of answering at that moment. "I’m so sorry for you both. Let’s go inside. It’s very cold tonight."

'A good deed every day', his parents had hammered into him. Mark Stein was happy and in a state of greatest inner satisfaction. Although it was late, he had finally done his good deed for today. Now he was tired. After he had parked his car in the garage, he only wanted to go home and to bed. Mark was tall, about 6'3" and strongly built, not fat, and well trained. His long legs carried him quickly back to the settlement where his small apartment was located. In the old buildings there was no luxury like an underground garage or parking spaces. Whoever came first, was able to get hold of one of the few parking spaces along the road. This luck was seldom granted to Mark and it had always annoyed him to have to walk to his garage before he could drive his car to work, even in winter times and in bad weather.

Well after midnight Mark entered his one-room apartment almost silently as not to wake the neighbours in the house. It was a small but very tidy refuge with everything he needed to live. A small bathroom, sparsely furnished with white furniture from the supermarket, a combined living/bedroom with a pull-out couch and a small kitchen. Mark lived alone since he had moved out of his parents’ house. He could not imagine a woman at his side at the moment. He lived for his job. Day in, day out, always the same routine, but he filled it with pride and satisfaction. He could really do some good here, every day.

Although Mark was tired, he decided to spend a little more time with his friends on the Internet. After all, he had been neglecting them a bit the last few days. But it had been for a good reason. After Mark had entered his apartment, he immediately went to his computer on the small desk and turned it on. While the aged computer booted, he could wash his hands calmly, dress in something more comfortable and get a beer from the fridge. Mark sat down in his old office chair in front of the computer, which was now already waiting for the next commands. Routinely he moved the mouse over the symbol and started the program. Mark rubbed his eyes, stretched himself and when he looked at the screen again, the dazzling world of the Internet had already built up on his monitor and he was able to log in.

His hands flitted across the keyboard in somnambulistic certainty as he entered his username and password. He had done this several hundred times before and his fingers knew the movements by heart without making a mistake.

Username: Miss Gore

Password: ********