Читать книгу Nakkita - Udo Meeßen - Страница 9

Sisters on separate tracks

"Hello, is anyone here?!"

"One moment please! I'll be right there… Good morning… no, right? Charly? Is that really you?"

"Oh… Hello, Nadja. This is your workshop?"

"Jou. What brings you to me. What can I do for you or your car?"

"Since when is your name Jablonski? It says Jablonski KFZ-Service out there."

"That's the name from the previous owner. I continue to run the company under that name because it's old-established and otherwise I'd have to go through the hassle of changing all the printed materials and all that stuff."

"I see."

"So, what can I do for your car?"

"For my car? Nah, my Insignia is fine. I'm here in my capacity as a detective on a murder case."

"Ouch. How can I help you?"

"Do you know a certain Tanja Sorg?"

"Tanja? My sweetheart? Sure I know my darling."

"Your sweetheart? Then you know her car too?"

"Sure thing. Nakky's been on the lift since Saturday noon. I've got to get the Signum out first…it's getting to be too small a hall."

"I'll have to take a look at the Nakkita. By the way, this gentleman is my colleague Thomas Berger, a forensic scientist."

"Okay? Well, come with me. What do you want to know?"

"The man who damaged Ms. Sorg's car last Saturday is dead and we found traces at the scene that point to her Nakkita."

"To Tanja's Nakky? No, no. Tanja got a rental car from me, a blue Astra, and her Nakky has been standing here on the hoist since Saturday. It hasn't been moved a meter since then, because I don't have any space in the hall and the idiots in the locksmith's shop next door put a scrap container in my area in the yard."

"Then you won't have a problem with Mr. Berger reading the car's system, will you?"

"Nope, certainly not. If you're on the trip, Tanja would have taken revenge on this guy, you're on the wrong track. Tanja was with me all weekend, we went out to eat several times, and right now she's in the personnel office at her company, because she'll be working for me as a foreman starting next Monday."

"You two are a couple?"

"Yeah, total lightning strike."

"And we don't have to do much checking on Sorg's alibi," Berger interjected, "there's no dirt from the field in the car's tire tread, there are no drag marks on the muffler from touching down on the clod, and both tailpipes are present. Above all, the tailpipes have probative value."

"How so, Tom?"

"Those are put on the tail pipe and then soldered. And the solder traces on the sleeves here on this car are definitely not new solder, they're older."

"So no one noticed that one of the trim pieces was lost and put a new one in place?"

"Correct, Charly. Our evidence clearly doesn't belong to this car, and I can't find any circumstantial evidence that the car went through a field."

"And…when did you say Burgmeister died?"

"According to the kidney thermometer last night at three o'clock."

"At three o'clock. I suppose that's when you two were good in bed."

"Uh, no. Tanja sent me a message shortly after three that she can't sleep again, so she's going for a walk and then wants to see the HR department at 8:00."

"So she has no alibi for the time of the crime."

"Tjo. Except that your colleague assumes that Burgmeister was killed with a Nakkita painted in turquoise and that the car lost one of its tailpipes in the process. Do I see that right?"

"And where have you been?"

"Me? I was in bed, slumbering peacefully. Tanja and I have a lot of catching up to do and… well… I was really exhausted. And if you don't believe it… I have a biometric lock in my apartment's locking system. You're welcome to have that read out."

"Nah, that's all right. I guess I was barking up the wrong tree. Say… I'm not really satisfied with my authorized workshop. You're a workshop partner of Opel and you're allowed to do inspections?"

"You drive an Insignia?"

"Yes. A 2040 Insignia GTD."

"Then I'll make you the girls' rate. I didn't forget that at the country school back then."

"Neither did I. And if I had known then…"

"You got involved with Julius after the class trip, huh? What happened to that?"

"Five years of marriage for the cat and my Sissy. She's now twenty and studying medicine in Munich."

"And now you're solo?"

"Nah. I've been in steady hands for a year now, so to speak. In the meantime, I've… I don't like to talk about it."

"You once sent me a photo of your Sissy and wrote that you were the happiest mommy in the world. She was five or six years old. Why… why have I never held my niece in my arms and why have you never cuddled my Anika? What happened?"

"You warned me about Julius back then, and I didn't want to believe it. That's what happened, sis. And after it was over with Julius, I married my job at the CID. That's what happened."

"Then… then please let us be sisters again. I was never angry with you. You turned away because of Julius, and I told you then that I loved you forever."

"You're not mad at me?"

"Nah. I was always sad and when you sent me the photo of your Sissy, I cried. You never saw my Anika… I sent you a photo of Anny, but the letter came back as undeliverable, because you must have moved. That's bullshit. You are MY sister. How long has it been now? "

"Almost twenty years… I'll give you my business card and then… will you come to lunch on Wednesday?"

"Tanja still has to work this week… Then I'll just come without her. But the next time we see each other, Tanja will be there."

"That's fine. You have your Tanja and I have my Denise. I don't see any problems there, do you?"

"No. There's no problem there."

"I'll see you Wednesday night then?"

"Yes. And believe me, that makes me happy. I've missed you all these years, sis."

"I love you too," Charlotte said with tears in her eyes, hugged Nadja for a long time, finally turned away and signaled Berger he could go.

"Mrs. Sorg did not kill Burgmeister. And my sister… she might have a motive because she's obviously a Nakkita freak, has a yard full of cars like that, and has a relationship with Sorg, but Sorg's Nakky wasn't in the field and I don't see any other Nakkita painted turquoise here."

"I agree with that, Charly. And that's why I don't like to be in your shoes. I know how Ms. Detective ticks and gets stuck into her cases."

"Let it go, Tom. I'll find the killer someday. I always have, and I always will."

"It's okay, Charly. If you need me, you know where to find me."

"O.K."