The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt

Author:Friedrich Durrenmatt [Dürrenmatt, Friedrich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782273509
Published: 2017-08-14T21:00:00+00:00

23

“This conversation was reported to me by Locher. As usual, his Gothic script, minute and precise as if engraved, was almost illegible. I sent for Henzi. He, too, had a hard time reading the document. His comment was that the doctor himself was calling Matthäi’s hypotheses untenable. I wasn’t so sure; it seemed to me that the doctor just lacked the courage to stand by his own convictions. I had doubts after all. The peddler had left us no detailed confession, just a general statement concerning his guilt in the crime. Nor had the murder weapon been found. None of the razors found in the basket showed traces of blood. Naturally, this did not clear von Gunten; our original grounds for suspecting him still weighed heavily against him. But I felt uneasy. And Matthäi’s actions made more sense to me than I cared to admit. To the investigating magistrate’s annoyance I went so far as to have the woods near Mägendorf searched again. Nothing came of that either. The murder weapon was not to be found. Apparently it still lay at the bottom of the gorge, as Henzi believed.

“‘Well,’ he said, pulling one of his awful perfumed cigarettes from the box, ‘that’s all we can do about this case for the moment. Either Matthäi is crazy or we are. We have to make up our minds.’

“I pointed to the photographs I had ordered. The three murdered girls resembled each other.

“‘That does seem to point to the hedgehog giant,’ I said.

“‘Why?’ Henzi replied cold-bloodedly. ‘All it means is that the girls were the peddler’s type.’ Then he laughed. ‘I just wonder what Matthäi’s up to. I wouldn’t like to be inside his skin.’

“‘Don’t underestimate him,’ I muttered. ‘He’s capable of anything.’

“‘Is he capable of finding a murderer who doesn’t exist, Chief?’

“‘Perhaps,’ I replied, putting the three photographs back among my files. ‘All I know is that Matthäi doesn’t give up.’

“As it turned out, I was right. The first report came from the chief of the municipal police. After a meeting. We had just settled one of those cases of incompetence that comes up from time to time, when, in the middle of saying good-bye, this bumbler brings up Matthäi. I guess to annoy me. He said Matthäi had been seen at the zoo a number of times, and that he had bought himself an old Nash at a garage on Escher-Wyss Square. Shortly after that, I received another report. This one completely confused me. It was in the Kronenhalle, on a Saturday evening, I remember it exactly. The place was full—everyone who was anybody in Zurich and interested in a good meal was there. Waitresses scurrying around, the food on the trolley steaming, and the rumble of traffic sounding in from the street. I was sitting under the Miró, all unsuspecting, eating my liver dumpling soup, when the sales representative of one of the big fuel companies came up to me, said hello, and sat down at my table, just like that.

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