The Strangler's Waltz by Richard Lord

Author:Richard Lord
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814423373
Publisher: Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.

* * *

“A waltz?”

“That’s what they said. He was humming some waltz tune. They weren’t sure which one, but it was one of the popular numbers.”

It was the next morning, back in the office, and Dörfner was reporting every detail of the previous evening’s meeting – gleaned from either his notes or his memory.

“A waltz. This whole thing is like … sport to him,” Stebbel said in disgust. “He’s playing a game, he’s having fun. He’s killing young women and it’s all sport to him. Like dancing a waltz.”

“I’m pretty sure it was our guy they were describing. They saw him, but they didn’t know who he was.”

“Did you show them the picture? Herr Hitler’s sketch?”

“Ja, but it didn’t do any good. All three admitted they didn’t see enough of his face to make any reliable identification.”

“Well, at least we know that he likes his waltz music. That should narrow it down to just under a million people here in Vienna.”

“Sorry; I tried to get as much useful information as I could.”

“No, no, you did good work there. I don’t think anyone else could have done any better. And we did learn that he leaves the scene when the ladies show up in a group.”

“He’s always trying to find one who’s all alone, no one to protect her.”

“Maybe we can convince the streetwalkers to only work in groups of three or four. Tell them it’s a matter of their own survival.” Stebbel paused. “But I wonder if they would stick to that.”

Dörfner shook his head. “They probably couldn’t take the competition. You know: one whore offering a cut-rate price and snatching a john from her partner.”

“Well, we certainly don’t have enough hooks in the department to look after their well-being. That’s for sure.”

“Of course, we could always get the Imperial Guard to escort them around. The way I hear it, most of those ginks do nothing for most of the day, then do a little more nothing at night.”

“Good point.” Suddenly, Stebbel stopped. He looked up. “Yes – the Imperial Guard.”

“I was only joking, Steb. There’s no possibility that – ”

“No, I don’t mean that. It’s … the Imperial Guard.” He pushed back his chair and started tapping his desk nervously. He stared into space as if trying to focus on an image forming in the air. Dörfner just stood watching, a little concerned.

“Yes, that’s it: the Imperial Guard.” He spun around. “Now I remember where I’ve seen that face before.”

“What face?”

“The one in the sketch. Herr Hitler’s. It was the Imperial Guard.”

“What??”

“A few years ago, I was at a special event at the Hofburg. There were several of us from the division there. When we got to the palace, they put us into this one room and assigned a handful of imperial guardsman to look after us, make sure we behaved ourselves. And … and one of those guardsman was, I believe, the man we’ve been looking for.”

“You’re shitting me!”

“No. No, I’m not. I’m most certainly not.” Stebbel jumped up and clapped his hands in triumph, like a joyous child.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.