Hidden Depths (30 page)

Chapter Forty
-four: The Banana Lady

M
ARTHA CAME OUT OF
hospital and returned home to Motzen having been ordered to rest by the hospital doctor and her father. Jens and Angele offered to keep Peonie for an extended stay but Martha wanted her daughter at home with her. Her parents stayed for a few days and this helped Felix and Martha ease gently back into a united front. In pretending all was well, they fooled not only the others but themselves, too. Once Jens and Angele returned to Kopenick, Felix and Martha were left alone to pick up the pieces after the recent traumatic revelations and try to rebuild trust within their relationship.

Martha needed time to come to terms with the fact that her husband was a serial killer and find a way to learn to live with such a terrible secret. Her focus was her unborn child and she was worried about the effect her negative thoughts would have on her baby. Felix was careful not to mention his crimes unless Martha wanted to discuss the matter. He didn't want to upset her again and risk losing the baby.

Usually so happy together, their laughter was replaced by a subdued atmosphere that Peonie was fortunately oblivious to. Topics of conversation were limited to perfunctory exchanges and their usual tactile behaviour was cast aside. But they continued sleeping in the same bed and when either of them turned during the night they would instinctively reach for each other's hand to hold before falling back to sleep.

However, Martha could not reject Felix for long. After a few days of uncharacteristic distance between them, her forlorn face mirroring his own, she burst into tears. He held her in his arms and kissed her and only then did she begin to feel all would be well again. Ingrid was taking Peonie off their hands during the afternoons whilst Martha had a siesta or rested in bed watching television. Felix had taped a lot of comedy programmes for her, and despite the recent traumatic events, Martha laughed easily as she tucked into her favourite chocolates. Felix meanwhile occupied his thoughts and days with plenty of work, fixing up the pleasure boats and crafts for the tourist season, which would soon be in full swing.

Hanne arrived at the lake, parking her car at the old aircraft hangar. She took her Taser stun gun from its case, primed it and hid it inside her jacket. Although nervous, she felt very strongly that the events over the past five months had led her here for a reason.

There weren't many people around this early in the season. Hanne could see the beauty and tranquillity of the place and imagined the tourists would flock here when it was warmer. The lake was an expanse of calm, which was juxtaposed to her feelings of angst. Passing the waterside café she made her way to the boathouse. One of the stable-style doors was open and the sounds of a drill inside punctuated the air. This is it, Hanne told herself, there's no going back. She took a deep breath and went inside.

He was just as she'd remembered. Axel's Onkel Felix and the boy who called himself Jens on that cold, crisp November night in 1989 were one and the same. She looked at the young man who stood directly in front of her and noticed the scars on his ears had faded.

Felix stopped in his tracks. He didn't recognise the tall woman who stood by the door but immediately had a weird feeling about her.

‘Hello. Can I help you?'

Hanne showed him her police identification badge. ‘Hanne Drais, I'm with the Berlin police as a criminal psychologist. I'd like to ask you some questions.'

Felix's heart sank. Had the moment finally arrived where he was to be brought to account for his crimes?

‘Not here, my little daughter might come in,' he said. ‘Please, follow me.'

Hanne followed Felix to Das Kino and once inside he closed the doors behind them.

A large screen hung from the rafters and a light blue Schwalbe was parked in a corner of the auditorium, alongside rows of collapsible chairs and tables. In another corner was an old boxing punch bag.

‘Nice bike. Do you still use it?' she asked.

‘Yes, in summer.'

‘What's this hangar used as, a cinema?'

Felix nodded. ‘At weekends.'

‘And what's up there?' Hanne said, pointing to the balcony.

‘A store room.'

Hanne was quick off the mark. ‘I'd like to see it. What's in there?'

Felix answered candidly. ‘Not much. A bed and a sink.'

‘Is that where you stayed hidden after Dr Jens helped you escaped from Torgau?'

‘That's right. I got lucky,' Felix told her.

‘We interviewed Klaus and Bernd last week at police headquarters in Berlin and they told us some little white lies. Felix Waltz didn't die in the river Elbe, did he? He ended up here. You're Felix Waltz, aren't you?'

Felix knew nothing about his Onkels' trip to Berlin but felt sure Klaus with his measured and astute mind wouldn't have given anything away. It would be wise not to underestimate this woman, he thought. He had dreaded this moment, the moment of his capture, and speculated why the police hadn't arrived with all guns blazing, as he imagined they would. Instead, the atmosphere was eerily calm and this lone policewoman had come to interrogate him. His feeling of finally being able to let go and confess came as a great release and he decided there was no point in lying or trying to run away.

‘Yes, I'm Felix. You seem to know a lot about me,' he said.

‘All our enquiries have led me here,' said Hanne, her face giving nothing away.

‘Onkel Klaus has always been protective because he didn't want me ending up like my sister Susanne. She fell from up there,' he told her, pointing to the balcony, high in the rafters.

Hanne looked up. A wave of sympathy swept over her. ‘I'm sorry.'

‘Thank you.'

‘I met Susanne's son, Axel, at the golf club,' Hanne told him.

Felix raised his eyes. ‘Axel knows the truth about his mother, and Klaus and Ingrid have done a great job bringing him up.'

‘He seems like a good kid.'

‘He is. Have you come to arrest me?' Felix asked.

‘Escaping from a hell hole like Torgau isn't a crime,' Hanne replied carefully.

‘No, but I'm done with living a lie. If you took my fingerprints you'd find they match those on a Herbertz knife found in 1992 by Lotte Holler's car, at the scene of the crime. And I'm a size nine shoe – Plaumann grabbed hold of me during the struggle in the car as it sank,' Felix confessed.

Hanne was strangely subdued hearing this candid confession. Felix, as she suspected, really was Marine Boy.

‘What you say may be taken down and given in evidence against you,' Hanne began. ‘You have the right to remain silent… ‘

Felix interrupted her. ‘That won't be necessary. I have no rights and I'm ready to take the consequences for my actions. I may have been a crazy 17-year-old but drowning those three paedophiles was the best decision I ever made. I took the law into my own hands and it was sweet revenge for the sexual abuse they inflicted on me and my sister.'

‘I understand your motives but I can't condone them,' Hanne told him, although her heart was telling her otherwise.

‘They threatened my family. Gwisdek told me he would send his friends after Axel if I didn't go back to being one of his “boys”. Becoming a vigilante was my only option. I took his diary and went after the others.'

‘Gwisdek kept a diary of names?'

‘A diary full of sodomites.'

Hanne suddenly had a vision. ‘Was it you who sent the anonymous letter to the police which precipitated the cracking of the paedophile ring?'

‘Yes, that was me,' Felix said, with a hint of pride.

Hanne was flabbergasted.
‘Mein gott
! How clever. I'll remember not to underestimate you. We thought the Musketeers had escaped until we discovered them at Muggelsee but they didn't escape your justice.'

Felix looked surprised. ‘How did you know their nicknames at Torgau?'

‘Do you remember a boy in Torgau called Wolfgang Feuer?'

‘There was only one Wolfgang. They called him The Magic Flute.'

Hanne nodded. ‘He came forward when Lotte Holler got into the news.'

‘Wolfgang told you about me?'

‘Wolfgang gave us vital information: that you drowned in the Elbe and that your sister got pregnant. But you didn't drown. I believe Dr Jens helped you escape, just as he helped get your sister into a nursing home,' Hanne ventured.

Felix was curious. ‘How did you find out I hadn't drowned?'

‘It was what your Onkel Klaus didn't say that got my attention. I'm a psychologist, I read between the lines,' Hanne told him.

‘I see. And Lotte Holler, you know she was the go-between for the Musketeers.'

‘Yes. We know the truth about Lotte, our suspicions grew each time we talked to her. Between the lies and the rumours, there's always some version of the truth.'

Although he should have been petrified of the punishment that was to come, what Felix actually felt at this moment was great relief that everything was finally out in the open.

‘The go-between, I heard she drowned herself in the Wannsee last month.'

Hanne nodded. ‘Wolfgang went to see Lotte and told her sister what she really did at Torgau. Lotte couldn't face the shame of her sister knowing.'

Felix was unforgiving. ‘Hmmm. Being found out is not the same as owning up. You'd think when you are faced with possibly the last moments of your life you'd confess the truth but not her, or the Musketeers!'

Hanne interrupted. ‘Lotte left a letter to her sister. She confessed in the end… just so you know.'

Felix still wasn't appeased. ‘Lotte left it too late. The Musketeers said sorry but only to try and plead for mercy and their lives and none of them showed any guilt or remorse. They were all in denial, lying to themselves up to the very end. Well, I won't do that. I killed the Musketeers by driving their cars into Muggelsee and attempted to kill their go-between, and I'd risk my life and my sanity again if my family were threatened.'

Hanne felt another twinge of compassion for Marine Boy. ‘Are you saying you were insane back then, but you're normal now?'

Felix wanted to laugh. ‘What's normal? Moral constraints of society define normality. All I know is that I had all this anger inside me but at least I felt I took my anger out on the right people. I'd like to think in their dying moments the Musketeers, and Lotte Holler for that matter, thought how the hell did a Torgau boy get the better of us?'

Hanne found his confession brutally honest. ‘Lotte awoke from her coma to the aria Toreador. What was that all about?'

‘They all used to make me dance so I thought I'd humiliate them, let them see how it feels, jigging about naked in the cold water. The music I chose for all of them was Toreador because it's about a Matador, and that's how I felt when I faced them all. It was like being in a bullring facing possible death,' Felix admitted.

‘I see. Tell me, why didn't you drown Lotte, like the others?'

‘She told me she was pregnant and that would have meant I'd be killing an innocent baby too. I know she lost the baby but I didn't set out to kill it.'

‘Lotte said you told her she wasn't fit to be a mother and you said something in Latin…
in loco parentis
,' Hanne recalled.

Felix was shocked. ‘Lotte Holler remembered that after 12 years in a coma?'

‘When she woke up it was if the past 12 years had been a dream. It was incredible, she was as sharp as an eagle. She remembered everything but was selective with the part she played and with all that went on at Torgau. In my opinion, she played the victim right up to the very end.'

Felix looked at Hanne. He instinctively felt the police psychologist understood his motives and didn't condemn him. ‘Lotte wasn't fit to be a mother. I'm glad you could see through her lies.'

Hanne nodded. ‘I had the feeling right from the start. Don't get me wrong, Lotte was a victim, but so was Marine Boy: you.'

Felix smiled. ‘Marine Boy! Is that what you call me?'

Hanne was embarrassed. ‘Yes. On account of the boat knife, the rope and the aqua shoe.'

Felix gave a little laugh, to ease the tension. ‘Marine Boy,' he repeated aloud.

‘We'd better be going now. Hopefully handcuffs won't be necessary. Please, gather your things and come with me to police headquarters in Berlin.'

Felix was indignant. ‘No handcuffs, please, allow me some dignity. My wife's pregnant with our second child and my daughter is two and I don't want her to see me being led away in handcuffs.'

Hanne agreed to his request. ‘OK, Herr Waltz. No handcuffs.'

‘I'm not Felix Waltz, I'm Felix Baum. I changed my name when I was 21,' Felix told her.

‘Your grandmother's family name,' Hanne stated. ‘Do you live in her house?'

Felix replied rhetorically, ‘Is there anything you don't know about me? Yes, here in the village.'

‘That explains why it was hard to trace you,' Hanne began. ‘We were looking for a Felix Waltz. You and me, is it fate or just coincidence?'

Felix looked confused.

‘You don't remember me, do you?' Hanne asked.

Felix shook his head. ‘Should I?'

‘When the Berlin Wall fell, I bought a crate of bananas to give to the East Germans as they came through to the Western side. You and I had a photo taken together with my baby daughter, who pulled your wig off. I saw your scarred ears as you scurried away.'

Felix was astonished. His thoughts drifted back 15 or so years to that eventful night in Berlin. ‘That was you? The Banana Lady?'

Hanne smiled. ‘Is that what you called me? We all seem to have nicknames. You told me your name was Jens.'

‘It was the first name that came to mind, I'd just seen Dr Jens in the crowd.'

‘Dr Jens! What's his surname? Do you know if he's still alive?'