Читать книгу Nakkita - Udo Meeßen - Страница 8

Tire marks on face

Monday 13 May 2047, 8:15 am, Eisbergen in the southeast of Porta Westfalica on a field road called Regensbruch between fields in the north of the settlement:

Detective Charlotte Bauer identified herself to the policewoman at the barrier as a CID officer and moved toward the body, which Thomas Berger, a forensic scientist, was tampering with.

"Moin, Tom. What do we have here?"

"Big crap, Charly. Pedestrians found this body in the field half an hour ago."

"He's still lying where he was? You said in the field and now the dead man is lying here on the asphalt."

"Yes. Stupid thing to do. One of the walkers felt he had to retrieve the body and they dragged him here."

"Hmm… can you tell where the body was before?"

"That yes. There's the man's toupee lying in the field, and the walkers swear it was right next to it."

"O.K. I assume you've already looked at all this and have a theory."

"Jou. There are definitely tire marks in the field and," Berger pointed to the face of the man in his mid-fifties, "in his face as well. The man was probably out for a walk, was run off the road by a passenger car, stumbled, and then was run over several times. The way I see it, this is murder, and that's why the colleagues from the on-call department called you."

"Rolled over once would be an accident. But the tire tracks tell you that he was run over several times, and then I agree with you. It was an execution, a targeted assassination. What else you got, Tom?"

Thomas led Charlotte out into the field and pointed to a spot in the broken earth crust.

"See that dent there?"

"Yes."

"That's a bump in the road and the car touched down with the tailpipe of its exhaust. Hence the oval imprint in the ground. That means it was a lowered passenger car. A car with normal suspension or even an SUV would not have touched down there."

"O.K. Do you have anything else for me?"

"No, right now I…"

"But I have something here, Detective!"

"I see, what's your name, colleague?"

"Roswitha Schleimer, First Police Commissioner Roswitha Schleimer, Detective."

"O.k. I'm KK³ Bauer, or rather Charly. So what do you have, Rosy?"

"There's an exhaust trim pipe stuck in the ground here, Charly."

"An exhaust-what?"

"The tailpipe of the standard exhaust is shortened and a chrome-plated decorative pipe is put on top of it to make the exhaust look more noble," explained Schleimer, who in her service as a police officer on patrol was confronted almost daily with often unacceptable optical tuning of vehicles.

"I see. That's just for looks, and it's probably from the crime vehicle."

"Exactly. And it's special, Charly."

"Uh-huh? To what extent?"

"For one thing, there's the E stamped in the oval. So it's an add-on part with EU approval and general operating permit. And for another… one end is round like the tailpipe of the exhaust and now look at the other end."

"Hmm… that's heart-shaped? That kind of looks like a… girl car? Is it?"

"Exactly. I wonder what guy would want a chrome tailpipe shaped like a heart on his car. I mean… unless he's gay."

"I agree. Tom, wrap that up, too, please. Thanks, Rosy."

"No matter, Charly. This is my job. And… wait…"

"Do you have anything else?"

"I think so," Schleimer said, pulling the duty cell phone out of her breast pocket, "I recorded a traffic accident on Postillion Way on Saturday and took photos of the damaged vehicle… Wait… Ah yes… Look."

Schleimer held out the duty cell phone to Charlotte, and she saw the photo of Tanja's damaged Nakkita with two chrome, heart-shaped tailpipes on the display.

"Shit. They look like this?"

"Jou. That's a '33 Opel Nakkita GTC that a Porsche Cheyenne crashed into."

"Let me guess," Berger interjected, "the GTC is painted turquoise."

"Uh, yes. What makes you think that, Mister Berger?"

"Tom, please."

"O.K. Tom."

"Because I have paint chips here, and these are turquoise, Rosy."

"Now…I haven't seen the dead man yet…may I, Charly?"

"Sure, Rosy. Look at him. Not a pretty sight."

"Don't worry. It's not my first dead body… Shit… I know the man."

"How so?"

Schleimer took her cell phone again, selected another picture from the gallery and showed it to Charlotte.

"Therefore, Charly. That's the Porsche that Mrs. Sorg's car was damaged with and now, in the next picture… that's the driver of the SUV, a certain Hans Burgmeister and he's lying over there and he's dead."

"Burgmeister damages this Sorg's car and she flattens him?"

"He was pretty snarky about her and her beloved car and didn't give a damn that the little girl was crying. That could be a motive, right? And… how many Nakkita's in turquoise with heart-shaped tailpipes have you seen?"

"More like none. My GTC was anthracite metallic, like most."

"You used to own a GTC, too?"

"Sure. I was young once too, Rosy. And the Nakkita GTC was THE girl car back then, along with Mini-Cooper and Nissan Micra. And… well… I loved my Nacky."

"Tanja Sorg loves her Nakky, too, and Burgmeister didn't give a damn."

"Then we need to find Sorg's Nakkita. Do you still have her address in mind?"

"Sure. And I know where the car probably is, too."

"How so?"

"My friend Nadja runs a garage with a contract from Opel. She loves the Nakkita and always gives women what she calls a girl discount when it comes to repairs on cars like this. I recommended her to Ms. Sorg."

"Let's take a look at Mrs. Sorg's Nakky, then. Are you done here, Tom?"

"Jou. The pathologist is already arriving and can take Burgmeister with him. He really is, by the way, according to his ID card and driver's license in his wallet."

"Then please come with me. Rosy, please give Tom the address of the workshop."

3 Regarding the German abbreviations, see the glossary.