Free JF02 - Brother Grimm by Craig Russell

life.’
    Lex sighed. ‘I don’t know how you do it, Jan. I understand
why
, I guess, but I can’t understand how you cope with all of that pain and horror.’
    ‘Sometimes I don’t, Lex. Take this case. It started with a girl … fifteen, maybe sixteen, strangled and dumped on a beach. A girl like Gabi. A girl like your Karin. A young life snuffed out. That’s bad enough, but the sick fuck who did it left an identity on her that belonged to a different girl – a girl who has been missing for three years. It’s sick. It’s sick and unbelievably cruel … like he’s deliberately planned to devastate a family that’s already in pieces.’
    ‘And it definitely wasn’t the same girl?’
    ‘We’re almost certain. But I’m having to put the poor bloody family through DNA tests to make sure.’
    ‘Christ,’ said Lex, and looked out across the dunes and the dark velvet waves. ‘So do you think that the killer of this girl on the beach maybe killed the other girl, the missing girl?’
    Fabel shrugged. ‘I think there’s a good chance.’
    ‘So you’re back to your race against the clock. You have to get to him before he gets to another girl.’
    ‘That’s about the size of it.’
    Lex let out a long, slow breath. ‘It’s getting cold outhere and I need another beer.’ He stood up and slapped his hand down on Fabel’s shoulder. ‘Let’s go inside.’
    Fabel cast one last long look out over the dunes and out to the sea before rising and following his brother back down the dyke, towards their shared childhood home.

8.
     
3.30 p.m., Friday, 19 March: Norddeich, East Frisia
     
    Fabel hadn’t slept well. He had dreamt of a teenage Hilke Tietjen running along the Norddeich beach, beckoning for him to follow. She had disappeared behind a dune but, when Fabel had caught up, it wasn’t Hilke who lay on the sand but another teenage girl from another beach who looked up at Fabel with an unblinking, azure gaze.
    That morning he and Lex had driven into Norden to visit their mother. They had been told that she was well enough to be discharged, but that a home visit would be arranged each day for the next few days. As they had walked back to the car, Fabel had become painfully aware of how fragile his mother looked. Lex had suggested to her that Fabel should return to Hamburg, while he volunteered to stay for the next couple of days and had explained that Fabel was in the middle of a very important case. Fabel was grateful to his brother for taking the pressure off him, but felt guilty about leaving.
    ‘Don’t fuss,’ she had said. ‘You know how I hate a fuss. I’ll be fine. You can come and see me next weekend.’
    As soon as he was back on the A28 Autobahn,Fabel phoned Werner at the Präsidium. After Werner asked about Fabel’s mother, they settled down to discussing the case.
    ‘We got confirmation back from the Institut für Rechtsmedizin,’ Werner told him. ‘The DNA from the girl on the beach doesn’t match the swabs taken from Frau Ehlers. Whoever she is, she definitely isn’t Paula Ehlers.’
    ‘Has Anna made any more progress on finding her real identity?’
    ‘No. She’s been widening her search and she picked up a couple of hopefuls, but they turned out not to match when she pursued them. She’s been at it solidly since you left … God knows what time she left the Präsidium last night. Oh, by the way, when Möller called with the DNA results he wanted to talk to you to discuss his autopsy findings. The stuck-up bastard wasn’t going to talk to me – you know what he’s like. He said the report will be on your desk for when you get back. But I told him that you’d want me to pass the main points on to you.’
    ‘What did he give you?’
    Werner’s tone suggested he was scanning through notes as he spoke. ‘The dead girl is about fifteen or sixteen, according to Möller. There are signs of childhood neglect: bad teeth, evidence of a couple of old fractures, that sort of