Dirk Lützelberger - Secret doors

Next to the bathroom there was a separate room with a toilet, which was brightly tiled. The only unspectacular room so far, Gwen soberly noted. Only the light worked automatically. At the end of the apartment they found a kind of cellar door which was locked. This must be the transition to the living area on the first floor, Stefan speculated. The last room was the bedroom. Gwen had the feeling that she could dance in the room, it was so big, despite the big bed and the built-in closet. As with the rest of the apartment, the impression was strengthened that someone with a lot of taste had had a hand in its decoration.

The entire apartment gave the investigators the impression of a wealthy inhabitant. Someone who chose very carefully what he invested in. The walls were embellished by a few pictures in elegant frames and the floor was covered with parquet flooring throughout the apartment, except in the bathroom and the toilet. What stood out were the few decorative elements in the apartment. No flowers, no objects on shelves that needed dusting. No shampoo bottles in the bathroom and no books on bookshelves. Even in the kitchen there were hardly any other utensils on the walls or on the worktop besides the most modern kitchen appliances. Only a large can of powder for protein shakes was tolerated next to the electric blender. Further tins were in the base cabinet, neatly lined up.

"The apartment looks a bit like an uninhabited show flat that only serves the purpose of the exhibition" Stefan finally stated objectively.

"There is nothing lying or standing around that somehow seems unnecessary. It’s as if he carefully tidied up and stowed away everything before he left."

"I would probably have done the same with my parents" Stefan admitted frankly. "Somehow, he wanted to protect his privacy from his parents, …"

"… or give them no reason for criticism" Gwen finished the sentence.

"In any case, we can rule out the possibility that someone else has been here in his absence. The door was locked … well, with a combination lock. But maybe someone knew the combination."

The investigators looked around the room. "But it doesn’t look like anything was touched or searched."

Stefan noticed it first, "There are no light switches here, although there are lights mounted to the wall." He smiled. "Okay Google, turn on the lights in the living room." Nothing happened. Stefan frowned. "Alexa, turn on the living room light."

The lights turned on as if controlled by magic. Stefan’s face became friendlier again.

"Alexa, turn off the living room light." The lights on the walls went out. Stefan looked around.

"Alexa, lower the shutter in the living room!" The living room darkened.

"Alexa, stop!" The shutters stopped.

"He’s installed one of those automatic assistants that can probably control a lot of things here. I’m impressed."

"Get a grip, Stefan, or can this thing open the front door?"

"Alexa, open the front door!" Stefan tried his luck.

A computer voice replied, "The front door is already open!"

Stefan spotted the round loudspeaker that was positioned next to the door.

"Then let’s try it from the outside. If we’re loud enough, it might work to open the door again."

"But surely you must have some code that we don’t have. Otherwise, anyone who comes by here could open the door."

"That’s right, Gwen, I guess I thought it would be too easy."

"Just working with experts once, that would be great" Gwen murmured to herself and rolled her eyes provocatively.

Stefan already knew the slogan and did not feel offended. On the contrary. He took Gwen in his arms and hugged her.

"Hey, not when we are in service, dear colleague!" she laughed.

"Come on, expert, let’s go. We’ve gotten an impression and we should try to find the sister. Her parents should know where to find her."

As he went out, Stefan pulled the door shut and immediately afterwards shouted a little louder, "Alexa, open the apartment door!"

The computer voice replied, "The code is incorrect."

"You’re incorrigible, my playmate" and Gwen laughed.

Both thanked Mr. and Mrs. Schörff and did not forget to ask them about their daughter. Surprisingly willing they gave all the needed information, like telephone number and an address. Once more they thanked and finally said goodbye. They would get in touch with Andreas Schörff’s sister and see if she could contribute something to the clarification of her brother’s drug abuse.

♦♦♦

The sister could wait until the next day, the investigators decided concerted. Gwen had had enough of the first day and wanted to be at home with her son and mother.

Beth, as she was called by everyone in short form, was a live wire, just like her daughter usually was. The family business and the responsibility she took on in caring for and supervising her grandson Phil made her age slowly. Her own husband Eric died before Gwen was born, so she was used to taking responsibility. However, as her grandson grew older, the responsibilities of caring for him had changed. Where he had someone to play with in the early years after school, today’s activities were limited to cooking only occasionally, when Phil had not even eaten at school. Beth had not accompanied the three on vacation in the Austrian mountains, and so this was the first evening that Gwen had to go into detail about what had happened.

Gwen didn’t know where to start and told the whole story from her point of view in all its details. Beth hung on her lips. Although Phil knew much of the story because he had witnessed it in person, he wanted to hear firsthand what was going on the first day of work. So, he sat down with his grandma and ate some gummy bears.

Gwen told her mother about the journey to Austria, which went without any problems. As well as the move to the accommodations. She described the holiday resort very clearly and they could all imagine how it would look like in winter.

In summer the audience was diverse and the interests of course different from those of the winter holidaymakers. Phil reported about his successes in searching and finding geocaches. Proudly he reported about the Travelbug and the Ziplining, which all three of them had experienced for the first time. Beth was very interested in the details and kept asking about them. Then they got to the most exciting part of the vacation. The discovery of the dead man.

Excitedly, Phil detailed, how he had actually discovered him, but was no longer able to react. Phil left the story about the report of the find in the police station, the experiences with the policeman, and also the recovery of the dead body, to his mother. As usual, she summarized the experiences, but Beth encouraged her to give more detailed explanations through her inquiries. When she reported on her last visit to the police, her mother was just commented, "That was so obvious". All three laughed and Beth was happy to see her daughter happy again. She hoped things would get better from now on and that Gwen would be able to accept the memories better.

Finally, Beth was satisfied with the details she had learned about the vacation and asked about Gwen’s first day at work.

Rolling her eyes, she reported on the new credit cards. One could feel that her remarks were filled with frustration and a lack of understanding for this whole action. It probably cost the LKA, and ultimately the taxpayer, a lot of money. The whole exchange of the cards was nonsensical and unnecessary. While talking Gwen realized that she again flew into a rage. Phil, however, was interested in a very specific aspect.

"Mom, don’t you think that maybe by changing your cards, new security features could be used?"

Gwen had long since stopped wondering about her son’s interests and the extent to which he was already familiar with things that not even an adult knew about.