Blood Eagle by Craig Russell

Author:Craig Russell [Russell, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781407095394
Google: 15ZIq_kpFwUC
Amazon: B004VS8658
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2005-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

By lunchtime, every policeman, uniform and KriPo, had a description of the short, powerfully built Slav who had attacked Fabel. The doctor at the Krankenhaus St Georg who examined Fabel could not conceal how impressed he was with the professionalism of the attack. The Slav had very efficiently cut off the blood supply to Fabel’s brain, rendering him unconscious. There had been little permanent damage done, although the pain Fabel was experiencing was the result of brain cells dying, starved of oxygen. The hospital staff insisted on keeping Fabel in overnight for observation and Fabel felt too exhausted and sore to argue. He yielded to a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Fabel woke shortly after two p.m. The nurse fetched Werner and Maria Klee, who had been waiting patiently outside for Fabel to awake. Maria, with an uncharacteristic informality, sat on the edge of Fabel’s bed. Werner stood, awkwardly. It was as if he felt uncomfortable seeing his boss so vulnerable. He dragged a chair from the corner and sat down only when Fabel insisted that he do so.

‘You sure it was the guy you saw outside the second murder scene?’ Werner asked.

‘No doubt about it. I was looking straight into his eyes.’

Werner’s face hardened. ‘So he’s our guy. He’s “Son of Sven” …’

Fabel frowned. ‘I don’t know. If he is, why didn’t he kill me?’

‘He had a bloody good try,’ said Maria.

‘No … I don’t think he did. The doctor here says it was very professional … that he knew how to render me unconscious. If he wanted to kill me he could have finished me off, silently and with no fuss, instead of laying me out on Blüm’s bed.’

‘But we’ve sighted him at two murder locations. That more than makes him a suspect,’ protested Werner.

‘But why was he there after the murder? And why choose now to turn over her apartment, instead of when he was there committing the murder?’

‘Maybe he thought he’d left something behind,’ Maria suggested.

‘We all know this killer doesn’t leave anything behind. Anyway, Brauner’s team went through that apartment at a microscopic level. They wouldn’t miss anything, and our guy would know that. The other thing is, the guy who attacked me doesn’t fit the description the girl from the apartment building gave us.’ Fabel paused. The sunlight through the tall, narrow hospital window sliced a bright triangle across the floor of Fabel’s room and glittered coldly on the porcelain and the stainless-steel pipes and taps of the washstand by the door. His head ached and he closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillow. He spoke without opening his eyes. ‘What is really bothering me is the strength of that old guy, and the way he was able to put me out so professionally. That takes training.’

Werner stretched his legs out, resting his feet on the steel bars beneath Fabel’s hospital bed. ‘Well, both you and Maria say he looks foreign. Like a Russian. If he is so handy, could he be one of the “Top Team” – the Ukrainian outfit Volker was talking about?’

‘Could be, I suppose.

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