Page 7 of Nothing Watching

As they drove through the city, Juliette glanced out the window, spotting some of the buildings decorated with the incredible, graffiti-style street art that Berlin was famous for, and the bustling streets where shoppers, workers, and tourists thronged. It was hard to imagine that such dark and gruesome crimes could be happening in a place so full of life and activity.

But her thoughts were quickly pulled back to the case at hand as they arrived at the crime scene.

Fischer veered off the side road where she’d been driving, heading down a narrow lane where the car rattled over some loose paving stones, and it became suddenly dark as the high walls of the surrounding buildings blocked out the light.

Then, they were back in the sunshine, pulling up in a tiny, narrow street that seemed to lead only to people’s backyards.

Juliette’s first thought was that this must have been a very deserted place late at night. Why had Hannah been walking here?

As they climbed out, turning to the crime scene tape, one of the officers beyond turned, saw them arrive, and came hurrying over.

“Detective Fischer,” he called. “If the American team is here, they need to know about the pages! We found a second one here, at this scene.”

CHAPTER FOUR

The pages? Wyatt Thompson glanced at Juliette, seeing that she looked as confused as he felt. What pages? There had been nothing about them in the report. Perhaps they were a new discovery.

Hoping that this might present a breakthrough, he ducked under the crime scene tape and followed Juliette into the scene.

“Do we need to put on foot covers, head covers?” he asked the officer who approached, but he shook his head. “Forensics have finished up. The scene will be reopened as soon as you have viewed it.”

That meant the pressure was on. What could they see from this scene, a cordoned-off area on this quiet street, with traffic—such as it was—rerouted from each crossroad for the time being? The cordoned area covered about ten yards of the road.

The street was neat, and Wyatt had the impression that the lack of any litter or untidiness wasn’t just due to it being combed by forensics. He had heard about the German efficiency, neatness, and attention to detail. The Germans he’d known in the Middle East had all been very detail oriented.

This was the amazing and, he had to admit, entrancing thing about Europe. It was so individualistic. So many different cultures and countries, thrown into this jigsaw puzzle of a continent. At first, he’d not appreciated it, but he was starting to enjoy it. Over the weekend, he and his wife, Suzy, had taken the train to Belgium, and that had been fascinating. An hour-and-a-half train ride, and there you were, in a different country, a tourist all over again, with so much to see and do, and little delights and surprises, historic buildings, quaint shops, and great eateries around every corner.

He’d never have thought he would have started to actually like Europe. And weirdly, now, he was feeling motivated to solve this crime because of his respect for the special character of Europe, and the need to make sure that all its citizens and visitors, American and otherwise, were safe.

Which brought him back to the case at hand, as he reached the place where the body had been found and looked around, imagining what it must have been like, yesterday, when the killer struck.

He frowned in puzzlement. Okay, so it had been dark, and late at night, but what was a killer doing lurking in this area? It seemed like a typical quiet, residential neighborhood, and most probably, the youth hostel on the next street was the biggest source of trouble—if his experience was anything to go by.

Looking at the far side of the tape, he saw that a small group of curious onlookers had gathered there and were being held back by a couple of uniformed officers.

“What pages are these? Do you think they’re linked to the killer?” he asked, striding over to where two technicians were at work, dismantling the temporary cover that must have been placed over the body. So Hannah had been killed, and left, on the sidewalk. With a page nearby?

“It is a page torn from a literature book. Just a random page, ripped out of some historical book,” the forensic officer said.

“And where was it found?” Wyatt asked, seeing that Sierra, too, was listening and watching intently as this lead was explained.

“It was found against the wall of that house over there.” The man pointed. “We guess that the wind blew it there, and that it might have originally been placed close to the victim. It’s been taken into evidence and is being examined and tested.”

“Was there a similar page at the other scene?” Wyatt asked.

The police officer nodded. “Yes. At the other scene, a similar ripped page from an old book was found tucked into the victim’s coat pocket. That one was in Spanish. We thought it might have been a personal item, just something she was carrying with her, until we found this one, which I see is in German.”

“So it’s a signature,” Wyatt muttered, knowing Juliette would know more about that methodology than he did. The killer was leaving a signature at each crime scene, but why? Was it a way of taunting the police, or was there a deeper meaning behind it?

Juliette nodded, her eyes focused on the crime scene. “It could be. A signature or a calling card. It’s possible that the killer is leaving these pages behind as a message or a symbol of some kind. It might be important to know what those pages are.”

“They were photographed by us, and by the coroner also, who checked for any blood or trace,” the forensic officer explained. “They have now been taken from the pathologist’s office, for further testing.”

Wyatt walked over to where the technicians had been working and examined the area where the page had been found. There was nothing remarkable about the spot, just a plain white wall with a few patches of graffiti. Most likely, the wind had blown the page there.

“Do we have photos of the scene?” he asked.

Walking quickly over, Detective Lehmann showed him his iPad. “Here you are. These are the photos of Hannah, the victim who was found here.”

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