Free Girl in the Cellar by Allan Hall Page B

fuse box outside. It was in September 1997, just before she lost the shop. Frau Sirny then came too and she talked to them both. I know that Frau Sirny knew Husek, and it would make sense that he called a friend of his to fix the fuse box, and this friend was obviously Priklopil.’
    Frau Glaser says she told detectives on the case of her suspicions, but claims they were apathetic, to say the least, about her allegations. ‘I believe this story needs to be investigated. There are many things that need to be clarified. Natascha did not tell the story about the night before, and this bit is missing in reports. I would like to meet her again, Natascha, to talk to her.’
    Husek is also said to know Wolfgang’s business buddy Holzapfel. So far he has refused to speak about anyfriendship. In fact, he has not spoken since he gave a press conference after Natascha reappeared, in which he said he met her while she was in captivity but didn’t know who she was.
    Can it really all be a coincidence—the perpetrator drinking in the same pub as the victim’s father, with the man who became the lover of the victim’s mother and who knew Priklopil’s business partner? But there is more.
    Natascha Kampusch was there with her father. In an interview with the authors, Herr Koch, his emotions spent along with his money, could not be certain of having seen the kidnapper at the bar, but revealed that he had been there with Natascha:
    When I first saw his pictures on TV he did seem familiar to me. It’s possible that I had seen him at Christine’s or elsewhere, but I can’t remember. I certainly knew his car from the neighbourhood, I saw it several times. It’s quite noticeable, it’s not a model you see every day.
    I’ve been going to Christine’s for at least 20 years, I forget exactly how long. If I went there at a time when I was looking after Natascha then I would always have taken her with me because I always had her with me, I never left her alone. Yes, I can say she has been in there with me, that’s true, but don’t ask me for dates.
    I know the owner really well, I’ve been going there since it opened. I just don’t recall ever meeting Wolfgang Priklopil there but I had seen him somewhere.
    Kidnapper, captor, friends, parents, all in the same bar, all simply thrown together? Did Priklopil, seeing her there, somehow tell himself he would be saving her from what he judged a wretched life if he took her? Did Natascha exchange a glance with him there, a friendly smile across the smoky saloon? Did she meet any of those regulars or hear them come to the house when she was a captive?
    However it came about, the plan that had been growing in Wolfgang Priklopil’s mind for many years was about to come to fruition on 2 March 1998. For the next 3,096 days, Natascha Kampusch would vanish from the face of the earth.

3
The Abduction of Natascha
    â€˜Hello Ernst, Wolfgang. I won’t be in tomorrow. Got something up.’ With these few words Wolfgang Priklopil launched the abduction of Natascha Kampusch. He called his partner the evening before and then set about preparing. He checked that everything was ready in the special room. He laid out underpants and towels, arranged the childrens’ books that he had bought in shops far, far from his neighbourhood. And he programmed the security and ventilation systems one more time, ensuring that the compressed air pump that would keep his trophy alive was working, along with the plethora of intruder alarms and video cameras vital to keep his secret safe.
    Shortly after 6 a.m. on Monday 2 March, as radio newscasters were informing him that it was the birthday of perestroika architect Mikhail Gorbachev, that the last will of the late Princess Diana had been published, and, closer to home, that a walker had discovered a 5-kilo anti-tank shell from the Second World War in a Viennesesuburb, Priklopil drank his coffee, set