Nadia von Bredow merely nodded indifferently when Pia told her that her alibi for that Saturday evening had been checked and verified.
“Very good.” She cast a glance at her watch. “So I can go now.”
“No, not yet.” Pia shook her head. “We still have a few more questions.”
“All right then, shoot.” Nadia looked at Pia with her big bored eyes, as if trying to suppress a yawn. She didn’t seem in the least nervous, and Pia couldn’t shake the impression that she was playing a role. What was the real Nathalie like, hidden behind the beautiful, flawless fa?ade of the fictional character Nadia von Bredow? Did she still exist?
“Why did you tell J?rg Richter to ask Tobias over that evening and to make sure that he stayed as long as possible?”
“I was worried about Tobi,” Nadia replied smoothly. “He didn’t seem to take the attack on him in the barn seriously. I wanted to know that he was safe.”
“Really?” Pia opened the file and searched until she found what Ostermann had deciphered from Amelie’s diary. “Do you want to hear what Amelie wrote about you in her last diary entry?”
“I suppose you’re going to read it to me anyway.” Nadia rolled her eyes and crossed her long legs.
“That’s right.” Pia smiled. “‘I found it comical the way this blondie has been falling all over Tobias. And the way she looked at me! Sheer jealousy, as if she wanted to eat me alive. Thies totally panicked when I mentioned the name Nadia to him. There’s something not quite right about her…’”
Pia looked up.
“You didn’t like it that Amelie was so familiar with Tobias,” she said. “You used J?rg Richter to watch him and then saw to it that Amelie disappeared.”
“Nonsense!” The indifferent smile had vanished from Nadia’s face. Her eyes suddenly sparked with anger. Pia recalled J?rg Richter’s comment that even as a young girl Nadia had been able to terrify other people. He’d called her ruthless.
“You were jealous.” Pia remembered what Amelie’s diary said. “Maybe Tobias told you that Amelie visited him now and then. I think you were afraid that something was brewing between Tobias and Amelie. To be honest, Ms. von Bredow, Amelie looks a lot like Stefanie Schneeberger. And Stefanie was the love of his life.”
Nadia von Bredow leaned forward a little.
“What do you know about true love?” she whispered in a dramatically lowered voice and wide-open eyes, as if she’d received a director’s instructions. “I’ve loved Tobias ever since we were kids. Ten long years I waited for him. He needed my help and my love to get back on his feet after being in prison.”
“Then you’re probably fooling yourself. Your love obviously isn’t reciprocated,” Pia jabbed, and saw with satisfaction that her words had hit home. “Especially if you couldn’t even trust him for twenty-four hours.”
Nadia von Bredow pressed her lips together. Her beautiful face contorted for a fraction of a second.
“The relationship that Tobias and I have is none of your business!” she replied vehemently. “What’s the point of this shitty questioning about Saturday night? I wasn’t there, and I don’t know where the girl is. Period.”
“So where is your great love then?” Pia kept needling her.
“No idea.” Blazing green eyes looked into hers without blinking. “I do love him, but I’m not his nursemaid. So, may I go now?”
Pia was starting to feel disappointed. She couldn’t prove that Nadia von Bredow had anything to do with Amelie’s disappearance.
“You posed as a police officer and went to see Mrs. Fr?hlich,” Bodenstein said from the background. “That’s called unauthorized assumption of authority. You stole the paintings that Thies gave to Amelie. And later you set fire to the orangerie to make sure that there would be no more pictures.”
Nadia von Bredow didn’t look around at Bodenstein.
“I admit that I did use the police badge and a wig from the prop department to find the paintings in Amelie’s room. But I did not set the fire.”
“What did you do with the pictures?”
“I cut them into little pieces and fed them through the shredder.”
“Makes sense. Because the pictures would have exposed you as a murderer.” Pia took the photocopies of the paintings out of the file and placed them on the table.
“Quite the opposite, actually.” Nadia von Bredow leaned back with a cold smile. “The pictures prove my innocence. Thies is really an amazing observer. Unlike you detectives.”
“How so?”
“For you, green equals green. And short-haired means short-haired. Take a closer look at the person who killed Stefanie Schneeberger. Compare her with the person who watched while Laura was raped.” She leaned over, briefly looked at the pictures, and tapped on one of the figures. “Here, look at this. The person next to Stefanie clearly has dark hair, and if you look at this picture with Laura—the hair is much lighter and curly. I can tell you that on that evening in Altenhain almost everybody was wearing a green T-shirt from the Fair Association. There was some sort of text printed on the front, if I remember correctly.”
Bodenstein compared the two pictures.
“You’re right,” he conceded. “So who is the second person?”
“Lauterbach,” said Nadia von Bredow, confirming what Bodenstein already suspected. “I was waiting for Stefanie in the yard behind the barn, because I wanted to talk to her about the Snow White role. She didn’t really care about playing the part, she only took it so she could officially spend more time with Lauterbach.”
“Just a moment,” Bodenstein interrupted. “Mr. Lauterbach told us that he’d only had sex with Stefanie once. On that evening.”
“Then he was lying.” Nadia snorted. “The two of them were having an affair all summer long, even though everybody thought she was with Tobi. Lauterbach was completely crazy about her, and she thought that was cool. So I was standing by the barn when Stefanie came out of Sartorius’s house. Just as I was about to go over and talk to her, Lauterbach showed up. I hid in the barn and couldn’t believe my eyes when they came in and got it on together in the hay, only a yard away from where I was hiding. I had no chance to escape, and had to watch them go at it for half an hour. And listen to them both tearing me down.”
“And then you were so furious that you killed Stefanie,” Bodenstein concluded.
“Oh no. I didn’t say a word. Suddenly Lauterbach realized that he’d lost his key ring while they were screwing. He crawled around on all fours, practically hysterical, almost howling. Stefanie couldn’t stop laughing at him. Then he got mad as hell.” Nadia von Bredow laughed spitefully. “He was in a gigantic panic because of his wife, who was the one with the money; even the house belonged to her. He was nothing but a pathetic little horny teacher who liked to play the big man to his pupils. At home he had nothing to say!”
Bodenstein had to swallow. It sounded all too familiar to him. Cosima had the money and he had nothing to say. And this morning, when she confirmed she was having an affair, he’d felt like killing himself.
“At some point Stefanie got pissed off. She had probably imagined everything being much more romantic and finally saw what a timid creep her wonderful lover really was. She suggested getting his wife to help him look for the keys. Of course it was meant as a joke, but Lauterbach was beyond joking. Stefanie probably thought she had the situation under control. She kept on teasing him and threatened to tell everyone about their affair, until he finally flipped out. As they were leaving the barn he grabbed her. Then they really started fighting. She spit in his face and he slapped her. Stefanie got mad and Lauterbach caught on that she was actually going to do it—march right over to his wife and tell her everything. He grabbed the nearest thing he could get his hands on and hit her with it. Three times.”
Pia nodded. The mummy of Stefanie Schneeberger exhibited three skull fractures. But that wasn’t enough to prove Nadia’s innocence, because she could also have been an accessory.
“Then he ran off as if he’d been stung by a scorpion. Wearing a green T-shirt, by the way. He’d taken off his cool denim shirt when they were fucking. I found the key ring. And when I came out of the barn Thies was kneeling on the ground beside Stefanie. I told him, ‘Take good care of your dear Snow White,’ and then I left. I tossed the tire iron into Lauterbach’s garbage can. That’s exactly what happened. Swear to God.”
“So you knew that Tobias didn’t kill either Laura or Stefanie,” Pia said. “How could you let him go to prison if you loved him so much?”
Nadia von Bredow didn’t answer right away. She sat stock still, her fingers fidgeting with one of the photocopies.
“At that time I was totally pissed at him,” she said softly at last. “For years I’d had to listen to him telling me what he’d said to this girl or that one, how much in love he was or wasn’t anymore. He asked for my advice on the best way to get his chicks into bed or how to dump them. I was his best friend, ha!”
She gave a bitter laugh.
“As a girl I was uninteresting. I was someone he took for granted. Then he started dating Laura, and she didn’t want me to come along when they went to the movies or the swimming pool or to parties. I was the third wheel, and Tobi never even noticed!”
Nadia von Bredow pressed her lips together and her eyes were swimming in tears. Suddenly she was once again the hurt, jealous girl, the stopgap, who as the confidante of the coolest guy in town had no prospect of winning him for herself. Despite all the success she’d had since then, those disappointments had left scars on her soul that she would carry for the rest of her life.
“And all of a sudden that stupid Stefanie came to town.” Her voice was toneless, but her fingers, which had ripped one of the photos to tiny shreds, showed what was going on inside her. “She forced her way into our clique and snapped up Tobi. Everything was suddenly different. And then she also turned Lauterbach’s head and got the Snow White role that he had promised to me. There was no talking to Tobi anymore. He didn’t want to hear anything from anybody, because for him there was only Stefanie, Stefanie, Stefanie!”
Nadia’s face was distorted with hatred and she shook her head.
“None of us could have foreseen that the police would be so stupid and that Tobi would really have to do time. I thought a couple of weeks in juvie would have served him right. By the time I realized that he was really going to trial it was far too late to say anything. We had all lied and kept silent for too long. But I never left him in the lurch. I wrote him regularly and I waited for him. I wanted to make up for everything he’d been through. I wanted to do everything for him. And keep him from going back to Altenhain, but he was so stubborn!”
“You didn’t want to keep him from going back,” Bodenstein noted, “you had to keep him from going back. Because it was possible that he’d seen through your role in this sad drama. And that couldn’t be allowed to happen. So you played the role of the faithful friend.”
Nadia von Bredow smiled frostily and said nothing.
“But Tobias went back to his father’s house,” Bodenstein went on. “You couldn’t stop him. And then Amelie Fr?hlich showed up, who bears a fateful resemblance to Stefanie Schneeberger.”
“That stupid little bitch stuck her nose into things that are none of her fucking business.” Nadia ground her teeth angrily. “Tobi and I could have started a new life anywhere in the world. I have enough money. Someplace where Altenhain was only a bad memory.”
“And you would have never told him the truth.” Pia shook her head. “What a crazy basis for a relationship.”
Nadia didn’t even deign to look at her.
“You saw Amelie as a threat,” Bodenstein said. “So you wrote the anonymous letters and e-mails to Lauterbach. Because you could count on him to do something to protect himself.”
Nadia von Bredow shrugged.
“By doing that you set terrible events in motion.”
“I wanted to prevent Tobias from being hurt again,” she said. “He has suffered enough, and I—”
“Bullshit!” Bodenstein interrupted her. He came over to the table and sat down facing her so that she’d have to look at him. “You wanted to stop him from finding out what you had done in 1997—or to put it more precisely: what you didn’t do! You were the only one who could have spared him the conviction and kept him out of prison, but you didn’t. Because of injured pride and childish jealousy. You watched as his family was humiliated and destroyed, you stole ten years of your great love’s life out of pure selfishness, only so that one day he would belong to you completely. That has got to be the lowest motive I’ve come across in a long time.”
“You don’t understand!” Nadia von Bredow countered with sudden bitterness. “You have no idea what it’s like to be constantly rejected!”
“And now he has rejected you again, right?” Bodenstein watched her face sharply, registered the play of emotions ranging from hatred to self-pity to furious spite. “He feels deeply indebted to you, but that’s not enough. He loves you as little today as he did then. And you can’t keep hoping that someone will get rid of your competition for you.”
Nadia von Bredow stared at him, full of hate. For a moment it was dead quiet in the interview room.
“What have you done to Tobias Sartorius?” asked Bodenstein.
“He got what he deserved,” she replied. “If I can’t have him, nobody else will either.”
* * *
“She’s a total nut case,” said Pia, stunned, as Nadia von Bredow was taken away by several officers. She had thrown a fit and started screaming when she realized that they weren’t going to let her go. Bodenstein had justified the arrest warrant with flight risk, since Nadia von Bredow did own houses and apartments abroad.
“She’s a psychopath,” he said now. “No doubt about it. When she realized that Tobias Sartorius still didn’t love her despite everything she’d done for him, then she killed him.”
“You think he’s dead?”
“I’m afraid he is.” Bodenstein got up from his chair as Gregor Lauterbach was escorted in by an officer. His lawyer appeared seconds later.
“I want to speak with my client,” Dr. Anders demanded.
“You can do that later,” said Bodenstein, assessing Lauterbach, who was looking miserable as he sat hunched on the plastic chair. “So, Mr. Lauterbach. Now let’s talk turkey. Nadia von Bredow has just seriously incriminated you. On the evening of September 6, 1997, in front of the barn on the Sartorius farm you killed Stefanie Schneeberger with a tire iron, because you were afraid that she was going to tell your wife about your affair. Stefanie had threatened to do just that. What do you say about that?”
“He has nothing to say,” his lawyer replied in place of Lauterbach.
“You suspected Thies Terlinden of being an eyewitness to what you’d done and put pressure on him to keep quiet.”
Pia’s cell phone rang. She glanced at the display, got up, and moved away a few yards from the table. It was Henning. He had analyzed the medications that Dr. Lauterbach had been prescribing for Thies for years.
“I spoke with a colleague from psychiatric cardiology,” said Henning. “He is very familiar with autism and was shocked when I faxed him the prescriptions. These drugs are absolutely counterproductive for the treatment of a patient with Asperger’s.”
“In what way?” Pia asked, plugging her other ear with her finger because her boss had raised his voice and was firing all his cannons at Lauterbach. His lawyer kept shouting, “No comment!” as if he were already in the middle of a press conference in front of the courthouse.
“Combining a benzodiazepine with other centrally active pharmaceuticals such as neuroleptics and sedatives will amplify their effects reciprocally. These neuroleptics on the prescription are actually used for acute psychotic disorders with delusions and hallucinations; the sedatives are used for calming; and benzodiazepines are used for relief of anxiety. But the latter have another effect that could be interesting for you: they work as an amnesic. That means that the patient has no memory while the drug is in his system. Any physicians who have prescribed these medications to an autistic patient over a lengthy period should have their license revoked, at the very least. Such action is tantamount to causing grievous bodily harm.”
“Can your colleague write a report for us?”
“Yes, certainly.”
Pia’s heart began to pound from excitement when she grasped what all this meant. Dr. Lauterbach had stuffed Thies full of consciousness-altering drugs for over eleven years in order to keep him under control. His parents might have believed that the prescribed medications would benefit their son. Why Daniela Lauterbach did this was perfectly obvious; she wanted to protect her husband. But suddenly Amelie showed up, and Thies stopped taking his medications.
Bodenstein opened the door; Lauterbach had hidden his face in his hands and was sobbing like a child, while Dr. Anders packed his briefcase. An officer came in and led the weeping Gregor Lauterbach away.
“He confessed.” Bodenstein seemed extremely pleased. “He murdered Stefanie Schneeberger. Whether it was in the heat of the moment or with premeditation really isn’t important. Tobias is innocent in any event.”
“I knew that the whole time,” Pia said. “We still don’t know where Amelie and Thies are, but it’s clear to me who was trying to get rid of both of them. We were on the wrong track the whole time.”
* * *