Kurt and Toni ate a scant lunch, worked out assignments and their next meeting, and then departed to observe Stanley and Dalton.
CHAPTER 20
The green and white Polizei car slowly cornered back and forth down the switched-back hills of the West bank of the Rhine river. A morning iridescent glow filled the sky above a light fog that rose from the warmer river. The car turned left at the bottom of the hill and drove two kilometers along the curved edge of the Rhine where volcanic rock cliffs of the Neuwied Basin narrowed the road at numerous junctures. Two other Polizei cars and a medical van waited alongside the road.
Walter Kaiser slowly opened the front passenger door and lingered for a moment to observe the scene. He'd seen a number of dead bodies throughout his Polizei career. Mostly young men with too much beer and a heavy right foot destined to test the laws of physics with their Volkswagen laboratories. But this was the first time that he would have to determine the cause and reason of death and who was responsible.
"Inspector Kaiser?" asked an officer in uniform who approached from the river's edge.
Walt closed the car door and greeted the officer, "Ja."
"Sir, the body has been pulled from the river, but we don't want to move it any farther," the officer said.
Walt followed the officer to the edge of the river at a reluctant pace. He hadn't been told of the condition of the victim, but was fairly certain it wouldn't be a pretty sight.
A green plaid wool blanket lay haphazardly over the body in short grass on the bank of the river.
"How was the body found?" Inspector Kaiser asked, looking out to the river.
"A passing bicyclist on his way to work noticed it hung up in some overhanging branches," said one of the officers. "It couldn't have been there too long."
Kaiser turned and looked at the officer. "Why is that officer…Jung?" he asked reading his name tag.
"Well, the rain-swollen river reached its highest crest almost a week ago, and it receded nearly a meter in just a few days," he said apprehensively.
"So the tree is normally out of the water, and now the river is down to about normal levels," Kaiser added. "Therefore, the body must have gotten hung up in the branches less than a week ago. But, that only tells us when the body got here. How long has it been floating down the Rhine? And, where did it come from?"
Another officer stepped forward and uncovered the body. "The victim is still well preserved, so it couldn't have been in the river long."
Walt finally made himself look at the body lying at his feet. There was a bag over the victim's face, and some sort of vest strapped around his mid section. Well preserved may have been a hasty observation. Looks can be deceiving, but the smell of rotting human flesh is ingrained forever upon the nostrils of those who have had the displeasure of taking in a whiff. Walt was relieved at what he saw, but still puzzled.
"What in the hell is that?" Walt asked, pointing downward to the body's head.
"We don't know," said the first officer. "We didn't want to change anything until you got here."
Thanks guys, Walt thought. Now he'd have to open this bag and watch the brains of some poor slug ooze out. But what in the hell was that thing around his waist?
"I guess we can rule out suicide," Walt said as he tugged on a rope that had bound the body hand to feet as swine often were just before being butchered.
The men just looked at Walt not knowing if he was serious. Then Walt let out a slight chortle. "It's fine to make light of a situation, sometimes. Without a bit of humor we'd all go insane, and end up committing horrid crimes like this."
The two officers finally allowed a smile.
Walt looked up at the medical technicians and the other two Polizei who had remained at the roadside with his driver. The Polizei were in their late forties and didn't appear overly concerned with the body. The two Polizei with him at the body were in their mid-twenties and apparently eager to learn, or at least find out the truth.
"What's with those two?" Walt asked, nodding his head toward the older Polizei.
Officer Jung looked over to his partner and then back to Walter. "I hear they've been partners for the last twenty years. They do everything together. In fact, they live together. Some say they'd get married if the law allowed."
Walt looked up to the road again, then back at the young officers, and shook his head. "Oh well. More women for me," he said with a smile.
The young officers let themselves laugh.
"Did you check for identification?" Walt asked, getting back to the body.
Without further prompting, Officer Jung reached down to the body with gloved hands and carefully began to search for any sign of identification. The victim had twelve Deutschemarks in change in his left front pocket, and a set of keys in his right front pocket.
"So, he was right handed," Walt said.
Officer Jung gently placed the keys into a plastic bag held open by his partner who then relayed them to Inspector Kaiser.
Walt looked over the keys. One key had a Chevrolet symbol. When Walt saw that, he knew this case would be more complex than at first glance.
"Shit!" Walt said.
"What's wrong, sir?" Officer Jung asked.
"He's American."
"How do you know?"
"Well, not many Germans drive Chevrolets," Walt said.
Walt pulled a small Swiss Army Knife from his pocket, bent over next to the body, and cut the elastic tie that held the bag cinched around the man's neck. Walt pulled his hand back as if expecting something to jump out at him. Nothing happened. With a small stick, he opened the mouth of the plastic bag and slid it off the victim's head.
"Camera, please," Walt said to the officers.
Officer Jung quickly ran to his green and white Opel and returned with a camera and flash unit.
To Walt's surprise, there was very little blood visible. The man's face was pale and colorless. His eyes were closed, but the lines around the outsides of them indicated his age must have been in the forties. Why the bag? Walt turned the man's head sideways and noticed dried blood inside his ear and streaks of blood coming from somewhere on the back of his head.
Officer Jung clicked off a few close up shots of the man's face.
"Let's roll him over carefully," Walt said.
The two young Polizei did as he said, rolling the man on his side and exposing the back of his head. From that view it was pretty obvious why the bag must have been used. The man's skull was split wide open. The rest of the blood must have seeped out through the bottom of the bag, Walt thought.
"What do you think?" Walt asked, looking at Officer Jung.
The young officer looked shocked to be asked his opinion by an inspector from the regional office in Koblenz. He hesitated for a moment to be sure that he said what he meant without sounding obtrusive. "I think someone crushed his head with a metal pipe or something, and then put the bag over to keep the blood from getting all over the place."
"Good! But wouldn't the blow have knocked some blood out almost instantaneously?" Walt asked. "Maybe whoever hit this guy wasn't supposed to hit him so hard. And the bag was originally intended to make sure the guy couldn't breath if he happened to wake up from the blow after hitting the water. Of course, the killer or killers had this planned out in advance. So we're talking a professional hit here."
While Walt was talking to the officers, he pulled one of the velcro strips that held a sand weight to the victim's chest, and flopped the sides of the pouch to the ground at the man's sides.