Monster by Hall Allan

Author:Hall, Allan [Hall, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780141039701
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2008-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

Miracle

7. The End is Nigh

The Villa Ostende in Linz is bathed in pink light and music pulsates through the walls. It is a hackneyed cliché of a brothel, with pink lights in a plastic tube that thread their way up the pink-carpeted stairs through the pink corridors to the pink bedrooms. The lounge where punters gather to choose a partner is the only one not to join in the colour scheme: it is brown and beige, with a 1970s-style Naugahyde sofa beneath three ‘artworks’ – a headless nude, a lithograph of an Apache warrior and what appears to be a Made-in-Taiwan replica of his shield next to it. Overall, it is a sad place where enforced jollity is the order of the day. It caters to the men who have no partner, or those who want to spice their life up, the stag-night crowd who insist on ‘one last fling’ for the bridegroom-to-be, and cheating sales reps spending their meal allowances on sex.

It also catered to Josef Fritzl. As sex with Rosemarie had long ago ceased and his libido showed no signs of slowing down, the Villa Ostende was one of a number of outlets where he satisfied his urges. Elisabeth was suffering in the cellar but, in the world above her, revolutions had taken place in social mores and sex drugs. Prostitution is legal in Austria and regulated by the state. Prostitutes are considered to be self-employed, and since 1986 they have been required to pay taxes. They are entitled to welfare and other social security payments.

A social research group carried out a study in the 1960s which declared that half of all Austrian males visit a prostitute at least once in their lifetimes. There is a sexually tolerant air abroad towards brothels and working girls that sometimes seems out of step with the naturally conservative and straight-laced atmosphere that exists in the rest of Austrian society. Clubs like Villa Ostende had their own website and advertised in local papers; local businesses held raunchy lads-only parties there. Elisabeth’s father, never satisfied by venting his desire upon her alone, was a subscriber to online pharmacies where he purchased prolific amounts of Viagra and other sex drugs for his special nights out at Villa Ostende. He would prime himself on a cocktail of drugs and energy drinks such as Red Bull, telling friends, ‘This will allow you to go at it for hours.’ But the pleasure was secondary.

Sexual violence is found in almost every country and research indicates it crosses all class boundaries. Fritzl enjoyed inflicting abuse from the days when he first found the opposite sex attractive. He has an exaggerated sense of masculinity, a preference for impersonal sexual relationships as opposed to emotional bonding, and views having many sexual partners as a badge of honour. Fritzl never saw women as partners to be respected and honoured; he saw them as opponents to be conquered and quashed. There is, perhaps, irony in the choice of room that Fritzl favoured above all others in the Villa Ostende.

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