She straightened up when she heard the echoing slam of the door at the far side of the factory, followed by the sound of footsteps.
11.10 a.m.: Eppendorf, Hamburg
‘This is highly irregular, you know.’ Dr Minks led Fabel into his consulting room and gestured towards the leather chair in a vague invitation for Fabel to be seated. ‘I mean, I will not compromise patient confidentiality, as you will already understand.’ Minks crumpled into the seat opposite Fabel and regarded the Chief Commissar over the top of his glasses. ‘Normally I would not discuss a patient without a warrant being issued, but Frau Dreyer has assured me personally that she is happy for me to discuss any aspect of her condition or treatment with you. I have to say that I am not as comfortable with the situation as she seems to be.’
‘I understand that,’ said Fabel. He felt strangely vulnerable sitting in the chair facing this odd little man in a creased suit. Fabel realised that he was seated where he would be were he a patient of Dr Minks; he felt more than a little ill at ease. ‘But I have to tell you that I do not believe that Kristina Dreyer is guilty of anything other than destroying valuable forensic evidence. Even that is not something that we are likely to pursue. It was clearly a product of her mental state.’
‘But you have my patient in custody,’ said Dr Minks.
‘She will be released today. I can assure you of that. However, she will be subject to further assessments of her psychological health.’
Minks shook his head. ‘Kristina Dreyer is my patient and I say she is perfectly fit to be released into the community. Your criminal psychologist made a request for my assessment, too. I sent it off to her this morning. By the way, I was surprised to hear that your criminal psychologist was Frau Dr Eckhardt.’
‘You know Susanne?’ Fabel asked, surprised.
‘Obviously not as well as you do, Chief Commissar.’
‘Dr Eckhardt and I are…’ Fabel struggled for the right words. He was annoyed to feel a flush of heat in his face. ‘… Involved with each other personally as well as professionally.’
‘I see. I knew Susanne Eckhardt in Munich. I was her lecturer. She was an uncommonly bright and insightful student. I’m sure she’s a great asset to the Polizei Hamburg.’
‘She is…’ said Fabel. He had mentioned to Susanne that he was going to meet Minks, and he puzzled for a moment over why she had not mentioned that she knew him.
‘Actually, she doesn’t work directly for the Polizei Hamburg. She’s based at the Institute for Legal Medicine here in Eppendorf… she is a special consultant to the Murder Commission.’
There was a pause, during which Minks continued to study Fabel as if he himself were a patient needing assessment. Fabel broke the silence.
‘You were treating Kristina Dreyer for her phobias, is that correct?’
‘Strictly speaking, no. I was treating Frau Dreyer for a constellation of psychological problems. Her irrational fears were merely the manifestation, the symptoms of these conditions. A key element of her treatment was to develop strategies to help her lead a relatively normal life.’
‘You know the circumstances in which Kristina Dreyer was found – and about her claim that she felt compelled to clean up the murder scene. I have to ask you directly: do you think that Kristina Dreyer would have been capable of committing the murder of Hans-Joachim Hauser?’
‘No. I am not normally in the business of conjecture about where my patients’ mental states may lead them, but no. I can categorically state that, like you, I believe Kristina’s account and that she did not murder Hauser. Kristina is a frightened woman. That’s why I’m treating her here at my Fear Clinic. When she killed before, it was because her fear became amplified to an extent that you or I cannot fully comprehend. It gave her a strength beyond anything one would expect from a woman of her stature. She responded to a direct and immediate threat to her life after a period of sustained abuse. But, there again, you know this already, don’t you, Herr Fabel?’
‘Thank you for your opinion, Herr Doctor…’ Fabel rose to go and waited for Minks to uncrumple himself from his chair. Instead the psychologist remained seated and held Fabel in his soft but steady gaze. There was nothing to read in Minks’s expression, but Fabel sensed that he was weighing up his next words carefully. Fabel sat down again.
‘I knew Hans-Joachim Hauser, you know,’ Minks continued. ‘Your murder victim.’
‘Oh,’ Fabel said, surprised. ‘You were friends?’
‘No… God, no. It would perhaps be more correct to say that I used to know him. Years ago. I’ve met him a couple of times since, but we didn’t really have much to say to each other. I never really cared for the man.’ Minks paused. ‘As you know, I treat the causes and effects of fear here. Phobias and the conditions that cause them. One of the main things I teach my patients is that they must never let their phobias shape their personalities. They must not allow their fears to define who they are. But, of course, that is not true. It is our fears that define us. As we grow up we learn to fear rejection, failure, isolation or even love and success. I’ve become an expert in analysing people’s backgrounds from the fears they manifest. You, for example, Herr Fabel… I would guess that you come from a typical provincial North German background and you’ve lived in the North all your life. You have the typical North German approach: you stand back from things, think them over thoroughly before you speak or act. Then you need the reassurance of having your observations or actions confirmed by someone else. You fear the false step. The error. And the consequences of that false step. That is why you needed the comfort of me confirming your view of Frau Dreyer.’
‘I don’t need you to approve my theories, Herr Doctor.’ Fabel failed to keep the edge out of his voice. ‘All I need are your views on your patient. And, actually, you’re wrong. I haven’t lived in North Germany all my life. My mother is Scottish and I lived in the UK for a while as a child.’
‘Then the mind-set must be similar.’ Minks shrugged somewhere in the crumpled fabric of his jacket. ‘Anyway, we all have fears and those fears tend to shape how we react to the world.’
‘What’s this got to do with Herr Hauser?’
‘One of the most common fears we all have is that of exposure. We all have sides to our personalities that we dread being revealed to the world. Some people fear, for example, their past. The different person they used to be.’
‘Are you saying that Hauser was such a person?’
‘It is probably hard for you to believe, Herr Fabel, but I was once something of a radical. I was a student in 1968 and was very much part of all that went on at that time. But I am happy with everything I did and who I was back then. We all did things then that were perhaps… ill-advised… but it had a lot to do with the ardour of youth and the excitement of the time. But what’s most important is that we changed things. Germany is a different country because of our generation and I’m proud of the part I played. Others, however, are perhaps not so proud of their actions. It was back in sixty-eight that I first encountered Hauser. He was a pompous, self-important and incredibly vain youth. He was particularly fond of holding court and passing off all kinds of borrowed ideas and bons mots as his own.’
‘I don’t see how that is relevant. Why does that give a man reason to fear his own past?’
‘It does seem harmless, doesn’t it? Stealing the thoughts of others…’ Minks was now so sunken into the chair that it was as if he had studied the art of repose all his life, but some distant brilliance burned behind the soft eyes that remained focused on Fabel. ‘But the point is whose thoughts did he borrow… whose clothes did he take as his own? The thing about an exciting and dangerous time is that the excitement can make one blind to the danger. One is seldom aware that among the people one knows at such times are those who are themselves dangerous.’
‘Dr Minks, do you have something specific to tell me about Herr Hauser’s past?’