Part 43 (2/2)

'You killed Rickert, Procurator Stiffeniis.' His voice was a rasping growl. 'You listened to him. He would have told you anything for a handful of coins.'

'He thought that he was helping you,' I replied. 'He hoped to save you.'

Silence greeted this remark. When he spoke again, his voice was an angry cascade.

'Helping me? By telling you where I was living? Tracing a map of the street in his own blood? What a remarkable talent I have wasted!'

I ought to have recognised that voice, but I did not. The cloth had been so closely wrapped about my ears, I had to strain to hear him.

'You knew him,' I insisted.

He hovered over me like Death.

'Rickert and I had never met before tonight, Herr Magistrate. Satan told him where to look for me. At least, that's what he told me. And d'you know what? It may even be true. I have no idea how he found me. What strange times we live in!'

A violent spasm of s.h.i.+vering shook me.

At any moment, a knife might slice through my throat. His knowledge of the human body was unequalled. As was his eagerness to kill, dissect, anatomise, mutilate. I gasped for air, but that wet rag clung to my mouth. I was afraid, but it was not fear of pain alone that tortured me. He would decide when to kill me. He would choose the method of my despatch. He would dispose of my corpse as he wished.

'What do you want from me?' I challenged him.

My inquisitor did not hurry to reply. Indeed, he seemed to consider carefully before he chose to speak. 'What do you want from me, Herr Stiffeniis?'

'You have been murdering women on the coast,' I accused.

'Is that what I've been doing?' he spat back sharply.

Was he toying with me?

He repeated every word that I said. Like an echo running round the dome of an empty church. My voice returned to me, a pale, thin shadow of its former self. I spoke, and he repeated what I said. He did not answer my questions. Instead, he asked a question of his own.

'You killed them, Vulpius.' I stepped out onto thin ice. I was determined to use his real name, no matter how he might try to disguise his ident.i.ty from me. 'Or should I call you Dr Heinrich of Nordcopp?'

'Heinrich, Vulpius,' he murmured, conceding nothing.

'You killed Rickert,' I pressed on, 'and you'll soon kill me.'

'Kill . . . you?' his voice faltered, as if the idea had come to him that instant.

I retched, but nothing issued from my mouth. I swallowed acid, sank back in a faint.

Had the bindings loosened as my body shook?

I tried to move my hands.

Pain exploded, as his boot cracked down on my s.h.i.+n.

'Bones are made of calcium,' he growled. 'They are brittle. Do not provoke me, foolishly trying to free yourself before my eyes. I need no encouragement to cruelty. You should know that by now.'

I gritted my teeth. He was a doctor, a surgeon. He had vast experience of pain. He knew the fragility of human limbs. I had seen the callous professional indifference with which he lopped them off.

'My bones are not so weak as Erika's,' I said, despite the throbbing ache. 'Is that why you let her live? Is that why Erika's body interests you so much? Because she is so different from the others, the ones that you have murdered?'

Again, he said nothing.

Was he gratified to hear that his crimes were known to me, at least?

'I know you,' I said more boldly. 'I know what you can do.'

'Do you really?' he replied sarcastically.

'I know your house. I visited your surgery,' I pressed on. 'I know about the amber that you covet. The worthless bits you showed to me in Nordcopp; the treasures that are hidden here in Konigsberg. Amber stolen from women that you murdered and butchered ruthlessly. Using Erika Linder as your go-between. Promising to cure her in exchange. She told you what the women had found in the sea.'

I paused for an instant, but he said nothing.

'She has been arrested,' I went on quickly. 'She is in the hands of the French. She will tell them everything. Just as she told Gurten and myself. You approached the women. You took what you wanted. It was so easy for a doctor. You stole their amber, then you robbed them of their lives without a second thought!'

The bonds cut sharply into my wrists and throat. That foul rag was choking me. I s.h.i.+fted my head, trying to ease the pressure on my lips, struggling to breathe. If I could have freed myself, I would have murdered him.

'You have been slaughtering women here in Konigsberg, too. Two girls from Nordcopp stole amber relics from the local church. Megrete and Annalise. They did not dare to try and sell those pieces there, of course. But here in Konigsberg they thought that they were safe.'

He seemed to be listening, waiting for me to go on.

'Was that what you were celebrating when you were stopped by the town watch last April?' I probed more gently. 'That night you intended to lay your hands on amber of incredible value for the price of their two miserable lives. Amber from the collection of the venerable Jakob Spener.'

Silence.

Would my throat be slit without an answer? Without knowing why he had hacked those women to pieces?

'Johannes Gurten knows,' I blurted out.

Doubt seized me by the throat. I had sent my young a.s.sistant to Lotingen. His work done there, he had taken it on himself to return to Nordcopp.

'Have you murdered him as well?' I asked.

Silence hung as heavy as an axe above my head.

Suddenly, he spoke up: 'You are well informed, it would appear.'

His voice was calm, his tone distant. Dr Heinrich's reserved detachment had surprised me the very first time that I spoke with him. We were fellow Prussians, and we were obliged to serve the French in a professional role, yet he avoided any reference to the unsavoury fact which united us, as if it did not interest him at all. Now, I thought, I understood his motive. He was working for himself alone. By seeming to help the French, he had acquired the freedom that he sought.

'I still don't know why you mutilate women,' I said.

'Is that all you want to know?'

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