A Visible Darkness Part 31

There had been rioting in the city that winter. The grain harvest had failed for the second time since Jena. Trade with En gland and Rus sia had been hampered, as Bonaparte insisted on the adoption of his Continental System. There had been unrest in the whole of Prus sia, but especially in Konigsberg, where a slice of stale black bread was considered a luxury. Most families made much with a quarter-loaf where they had once made light of a whole.

'Surely the situation is now in hand?'

General Malaport pursed his lips, and frowned.

'In hand, you say? Three months ago, a mob set light to the building where the criminal files are kept,' he continued, gently ma.s.saging the bridge of his nose. 'A great deal was lost, though fortunately some material was salvaged. Including this file. It was brought to my attention just yesterday. As soon as I saw the contents, I knew that you had better read these papers, too.'

I held up what remained of the fascicle.

Three pages held together with a loop of twine. The first was a handwritten doc.u.ment in square, childlike German italics-full of blots, smears and crossings-out. The second appeared to have been more carefully written out by a professional hand. The last page was nothing more than a torn sc.r.a.p with a scribbled note in pencil. In addition, the top page had been severely scorched, as had sections of the two underlying pages, particularly at the bottom of the second sheet, where the flames had taken hold. There was a charred diagonal line, and the words below it had all dissolved away to ashes.

'Read them,' he instructed me. The candlelight struck harshly at his harrowed cheeks. His hooded, unblinking eyes fixed on mine with the solemn intensity of a toad stranded on a water-lily.

I obeyed.

. . . on the Pregel bank beneath the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bridge. Throttled with a length of wire . . . . . . . . . . . . no sign of interference with the skirts (she was wearing no drawers), though there was not a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ual violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the lower left forearm, hand and the thumb were missing . .

.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . like an empty bag containing bones, and nothing else.

A doctor was called to certify the dea . . .

The fragment ended there.

'A murder?'

'A murder,' he confirmed.

'This paper is not dated,' I objected.

'Read the other one,' he answered brusquely.

Again, I obeyed.

Lomse District, 26th April 1808.

Criminal Investigation 3/05/08 B (ref. murder file) Reporting officer's statement: The remains of another young woman were found at half past nine this morning. The corpse was blocking a drain outlet beneath the Grunen Brucke bridge, and was removed of necessity by workers from the city Water Board. It should be noted that a similar discovery was madenot fifteen feet awaybeneath the very same bridge just four days ago. As in the previous case [ref. CI 3/05/08 A], the victim had been garrotted with a length of thin wire. It is not clear whether both of the murders were committed at the same timethe second corpse being overlooked on the first occasionor whether the very same place had been chosen to dump the women's bodies on two distinct and separate occasions. Nor is it clear, given the decomposed condition of the two corpses, which of the two was the first to die . . .

'Two corpses in the same spot?' I said, holding up the paper in my trembling hand.

Had it all begun in Konigsberg? Before the killing started in Nordcopp?

'Two,' he confirmed.

'Have the bodies been identified, sir?"

'No names are mentioned in those fragments,' Malaport admitted quietly.

Suddenly, his temper flared. 'The cleansing power of flame. We know this, and nothing more. Two women murdered a short while ago in Konigsberg. There may be other corpses-previous cases, or subsequent ones-about which we still know nothing. The archives and the city rec ords are being thoroughly examined on my specific orders, though nothing has yet emerged. The great problem is that few of our men read German, Stiffeniis. One or two from the Saar and Alsace regions are doing what they can.'

He did not move an inch, but sat as still as a snake ingesting a large prey. His eyes never left mine, nor did they blink. It was as if he were waiting for me to say something that he evidently expected me to say.

'Two dead females,' I said, and my voice sounded hard and callous, even to my own ears. 'This is nothing new in Prus sia, sir. Nor, I believe, in the rest of the empire. Both of them were garrotted. And by the same hand, probably. What connection can there be with Nordcopp, if not for the fact that they met a premature death?'

I turned to the second sheet, noting that the police in Konigsberg appeared to have adopted Professor Kant's system of recording witnesses' statements. The policeman's prompts and casual observations were recorded, and every spoken word was scrupulously included in the declaration.

Doctor's interrogation: a naval surgeon living close by was immediately called to examine the body in the culvert.

Q. How did this person die?

The evidence is there for all to see, officer. This creature died as the result of strangulation by a means of a tight ligature binding around her throat. That rusty wire did for her, I shouldn't wonder. It is still there, and quite impossible to undo. Her eyes and her tongue are popping out.

Q. How long has she been dead?

How long, sir? I can give you no close estimate of how long she may have been left to rot in this here culvert. From two days to a week. Two weeks, perhaps. The outer tissue of the corpse, the skin covering her body here and here, can you see?has largely fallen away. Comes off in strips and patches, it does. The whole thing is riddled with maggots, worms, and the like. Decomposition accelerates to a marked degree when quant.i.ties of bilge water are present, I've observed at sea. This corpse was found in the main city drain, remember, sir, so there's the contents of that drain to take into account as well. Mainly organic and faecal matter. Can't you smell it?

Observation: a small eel wriggled out of the corpse's nose to everyone's surprise.

Apart from the general decay, there is more evident damage to the upper left arm, which hangs as an open flap around the bones, and an even more profound cavity in the area of the left shoulder. The tensor muscle and the bone of the scapula are nowhere to be found. Which does not amaze me. Such severe, localised damage is caused, as a rule, by animal scavengers. Starving dogs and rats are plentiful here by the docks, and if that shoulder were sticking out from the drain, that is where they would attack it . . .

'Who was this doctor?' I asked.

'I cannot say,' Malaport replied. 'The police in Konigsberg never name the doctor, surgeon or dentist who is called to inspect a corpse, unless the case is brought to trial in a law-court . . .'

This was another one of Professor Kant's innovations. It served, he said, to protect the ident.i.ty of the professional witness from intimidation by anyone else who happened to be involved in the eventual criminal proceedings.

'This case never got to court,' the general concluded.

'Have you any idea who compiled the notes?' I asked him. 'Surely the policeman would know the name of the doctor?'

General Malaport sniffed loudly. 'If there was a signature, Stiffeniis,' he said, 'it went up in smoke. I doubt that any Prussian policeman would own up to having written it, especially now that the French authorities are taking an interest in the case. The same thing goes for the doctor. You might start your enquiries on that count, of course.'

I was already making enquiries in my own head.

Had I found Annalise and Megrete?

Two women murdered in the port area. The amber-trading district was close by, just on the other side of the Grunen Brucke bridge. Was that what the two women were doing there? Selling off the amber they had stolen the month before from the Church of the Saviour in Nordcopp? Was that why they had been murdered in Konigsberg? And had the killer then retraced the girls' steps to Nordcopp in the hope of finding more amber of the sort that they had been offering?

Malaport was talking on, regardless of me.

'To my mind, the similarities seemed striking. With what is happening out on the coast, I mean to say. Even to a rough old soldier like myself, who is more at home with maps and provisions and the daily running of the garrison. I could not avoid making a direct deduction. That's why I sent for you.'

'You are convinced that it is the work of the same killer,' I said, having already come to the same conclusion.

'Can it not be?' he replied more forcefully. 'You have been investigating those more recent murders on the coast, Stiffeniis. In both those cases, the victim was a young woman. In both cases, the corpse was interfered with after death. That is, the body was purposely mutilated. And certainly not attacked by rats or dogs! Here in Konigsberg, too, some part of the body had been removed and carried off for reasons that we can only guess at.'

I was impressed by what he said.

I had never considered the act of mutilation as the prime objective of the crime. General Malaport proposed that the mutilation was an end in itself. He had, so to speak, turned the case on its head.

'Clearly,' he continued, 'the murderer selects his victim on the basis of a par tic u lar anatomical detail which he appears to covet. Having quickly despatched the woman, this heartless butcher then possesses himself of the physical item in question. s.e.x does not come into it.'

He stopped and peered at me for some moments in silence.

'What do you make of it, sir?' I asked.

'What do you make of it, Stiffeniis?'

I was thinking of Dr Heinrich in Nordcopp.

I saw the moulds and braces, the artificial limbs that he made, hanging on his surgery wall. The drawings he had made. Heinrich was interested in the mechanics of the human body. I remembered Gurten's ire and the hypothesis that he had advanced: that the doctor's avidity for amber containing animal insertions knew no limits. Was anatomy, then, what truly interested him? And would he go to the trouble of securing examples of the bones and joints that were his livelihood by committing murder?

'This person is interested in human anatomy,' I replied. 'Female anatomy.'

On hearing this, a trace of a smile seemed to settle on his lips.

'Herr Procurator,' he said, his eyes shifting to the paper in my hand. 'Read on to the very end.'

I turned my attention to the third and final sheet of paper.

Scrawled with a blunt stub of graphite pencil on rough brown paper, the handwriting sloped riotously away to the right in a downward slant. I had to turn the note this way and that to catch the light, and I moved it even closer to the candle on more than one occasion to make it out at all.

'It is the list of a watchman,' General Malaport explained.

We had spoken French all the while. Did he know German, too? Had he read the papers for himself, or had some more qualified person told him what the doc.u.ments contained?

21st April 1808 19.00. Started out checking workshops in the Konigstra.s.se district.

20.30 Robbery reported in the butcher's shop in Zeebruggestra.s.se. Two sides of beef and several strings of sausages removed. Proprietor to make a statement tomorrow.

22.50. Three persons stopped on the Grunen Brucke bridgetwo women and a man. Rowdy behaviour. The women were shouting drunk. The man was not. The women's papers were in order, as were his. Sent them on their way, telling them to make less noise. The man sneered something as he turned away. I took his name and gave him a further warning. Flighty fellow. Gave his name as Herr Vulpius . . .

'Vulpius,' I said out loud. 'This is the first name that we have come across.'

As my eyes fell upon the smoke-darkened page once more, a most surprising fact caught and held my attention. When questioned by the officer, Vulpius had described himself in a way that was at once bland, yet terribly disconcerting. Bland in the opinion of a humble policeman who was probably uneducated beyond being able to read and write, and who appeared to make nothing of the declaration uttered for his benefit.

Vulpius's description was most disconcerting to myself, however.

My eyes seemed to burn another hole in the page as I studied the line in question.

Herr Vulpius describes himself as a scholar,

a follower of Manual Cant.

Had the name of Herr Professor Immanuel Kant, once so famous throughout the world, dwindled so quickly into the twilight of the past? Evidently, the name meant nothing to the officer who had written it down and made two cra.s.s mistakes in just as many words.

Was Vulpius studying at the university in Konigsberg? And what exactly did he mean when he spoke so determinedly of himself as a follower of Kant?

'Herr Stiffeniis?'

I heard my name called out again.

Looking up, I saw the puzzled frown on the general's rugged face.

'Is something troubling you?' he asked.

'I was simply wondering whether anyone has managed to speak to this man.'

Malaport shrugged his narrow shoulders. 'I was short of soldiers when I came here. Not a day pa.s.ses, but I lose some more. The Konigsberg garrison is being cut back to a bare skeleton. The war in the Peninsula, as you know, is taking its toll on our resources. You'll have to find him for yourself, I'm afraid.'

General Malaport settled more comfortably into his chair.

Resting his elbow on the desk, he stroked his narrow chin and stared at me.

'So, tell me, Stiffeniis. How do you intend to proceed?'

25.

MY MEMORIES OF Konigsberg were stark.

The images fixed most clearly in my mind were black and white.

Four years earlier, late one afternoon in February 1804, I had taken the same route in a coach with Sergeant Amadeus Koch. As we were driven along the quay towards the Baltic Whaler inn, snow was falling heavily. Gale-force winds rocked the vehicle on its leather springs like a flurry of hard punches. Solid ice imprisoned every barge and lighter, every fishing-boat and three-master confined within the narrow harbour. No ship entered Konigsberg, or left it. Nothing moved on the quay, apart from our coach. No man worked on ship, or on sh.o.r.e. The ware houses were all locked and barred. The city was suffering the worst winter in over a century.

Everything had changed for the better.

I could not deny it: the French had wrought the change. My eyes, ears and nose confirmed the opinion. The quay was as busy as an ant-hill. Dock labourers bounded up and down the wooden gang-planks to the moored ships. They charged in and out of holds and storerooms, heaving boxes, barrels and sacks on their backs-not a man was idle. The sky was a bright cerulean blue; harmless pink clouds sat on the rim of the horizon like billiard-b.a.l.l.s against the bottom cushion. The sea was also blue, though of a darker, altogether greener hue, its surface crisped and crinkled by a gentle breeze that promised wind-filled sails and swift navigation.

No contrast with the past could have been sharper.

The French demanded industry and efficiency. The Baltic Sea provided them.

Wherever I looked, I saw what was expected. Ships coming and going, as the companies required, as the merchants requested, as the captains who sailed those vessels with their bulging holds held dear. It was as if every individual action was well thought out, full of purpose and utility, promising a handsome profit to the commonwealth.

A similar sense of purpose possessed me, though I was not so sure that I would reach the destination I had set for myself. I had asked General Malaport about the amber trade before I left him. What interested me more than anything else was the means by which Prussian amber was transported to France.