Part 47, Chapter 626
Chapter Six Hundred Twenty-Six
27th November 1947
Berlin
Douglas was glad that Kat was unhurt, but he was furious about getting a call saying that she was at the hospital. Matters weren’t helped when he found her in the operating theater observing the Surgeons as they worked on saving the life of the man who had been with her. The rules were that there was no talking when he wanted nothing more than to yell at her for being so reckless. Kat was supposed to have been getting ready to be leaving for Argentina, instead she had been keeping an impossibly full schedule doing everything but that. In the mornings she was at University, during the early afternoon she was with the Empress. Then she was out until late at night doing something she couldn’t talk about with the BII of all people. The week before they had accompanied the Emperor and Empress when they had attended the royal wedding in London. Kat had been expressly invited because she was a friend of the bride. It was all too much.
Doug walked into the small gallery and saw Kat sitting there watching calmly. Gunther, the partner of the man being operated on had told him what had happened. They had been tracking down a suspect in the killings of several women when the suspect had stabbed Sven Werth and was going to kill him when Kat had shot him twice. The suspect had fled, leaving a trail of blood as Kat had worked to save Sven’s life. A few minutes later the uniformed police had caught up with them and Kat being Kat had taken over directing them to secure the scene. She had Gunther dive while she struggled to keep Sven alive in the backseat knowing that waiting for an ambulance would take too much time. It didn’t surprise Doug that Kat had gotten involved, he just wished that she had talked to him first. A sketch artist was waiting to talk to Kat so that they could get the likeness of the killer out to every relevant police agency.
Sitting down next to Kat, Doug saw that the Surgeons were working on stitching intestine. That was only one of the most terrible things that he’d ever seen. “Are you alright” He asked in a whisper. Kat sat there for several minutes thinking about an answer.
“No” Kat whispered back angrily, “Two shots, center mass and that monster still walked away.”
“I’m sure you did your best” Doug whispered. He’d learned long ago not to overreact to some of the things Kat said. Especially when he wanted to strangle her.
“I need to talk to Shafer about this” Kat whispered, “Perhaps he has some ideas about…”
“Ma’am” A uniformed policeman said as he entered the operating theater and handed Kat a folded note, “Preliminary results, rushed like you asked.”
“Thank you” Kat replied, earning a glare from one of the attendants.
“What does it say?” Doug asked.
“It says that they got a full set of usable fingerprints off the knife” Kat whispered, “They are trying to find a match in the files but that could take weeks. The blood found on the scene matches the blood type of the semen found in the victims and the knife itself looks like it matches cut marks found in the bones of the last victim.”
“What does all that mean?”
“It means that when we arrest this monster it will be from the jail cell to the courtroom to the guillotine, open and shut” Kat whispered, “Just wish it was at less of a cost.”
She looked down at Sven’s body as the Surgeons were starting to stitch his abdomen up.
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Ilse was listening to Anne talk about the process of writing, her favorite compulsion, and was struggling to stay awake. Sitting in the warm kitchen where she had been trying to do her homework before Anne had walked in wasn’t helping matters. One of the classes that Ilse had been struggling with had been Composition. She had asked Anne for help which had turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Anne had suggested that she needed to create the habit of writing, a diary had helped her.
That was when the conversation had taken an odd turn. Not only had Anne been writing in that diary of hers for years, it was actually the latest in a long series of volumes to her diary that she had been writing in for years. Ilse had asking if she could see them had been another mistake. Anne’s reaction had been a very emphatic no. Apparently, she included everything in them and the idea of anyone else reading them was something she viewed with considerable mortification. Personally, Ilse wondered what Anne could possibly have been doing in her life that could have caused that reaction. In the time Ilse had known her Anne had shown herself to be someone who had hardly had an embarrassing thought, much less done anything that could fall under that category.
“Enough” Ilse said, “Do you have any suggestions that will help me now?”
“Just practice” Anne replied.
“What she’s saying is there are no shortcuts” Petia said from where she had been listening in, “Worse comes to worse, you follow your sister’s advice and aim for a passing grade.”
That was the other thing that had changed in Ilse’s life. Since Kat that insisted that Kira allow her introduction before the Court of the Empress, everyone knew that she was the younger sister of Gräfin von Mischner. Suddenly she was defensive about the name assigned to her, Elizabeth Ingrid Tritten had always been her name, no one’s daughter or sister. Suddenly she had people asking if she would change her name to reflect the change in her social standing and she was holding her tongue, because she really wanted to tell them what they could do with that idea. The other thing was something that Kat had warned her about. Ilse was now a member of an up and coming family, the result was that she found herself being invited to social events and being introduced to the younger sons of Junker families. It’s because you’re regarded as a good potential daughter-in-law, Kat had said, the same thing had happened to her. Ilse regarded that prospect about the same way Anne did someone else reading her diary.
27th November 1947
Berlin
Douglas was glad that Kat was unhurt, but he was furious about getting a call saying that she was at the hospital. Matters weren’t helped when he found her in the operating theater observing the Surgeons as they worked on saving the life of the man who had been with her. The rules were that there was no talking when he wanted nothing more than to yell at her for being so reckless. Kat was supposed to have been getting ready to be leaving for Argentina, instead she had been keeping an impossibly full schedule doing everything but that. In the mornings she was at University, during the early afternoon she was with the Empress. Then she was out until late at night doing something she couldn’t talk about with the BII of all people. The week before they had accompanied the Emperor and Empress when they had attended the royal wedding in London. Kat had been expressly invited because she was a friend of the bride. It was all too much.
Doug walked into the small gallery and saw Kat sitting there watching calmly. Gunther, the partner of the man being operated on had told him what had happened. They had been tracking down a suspect in the killings of several women when the suspect had stabbed Sven Werth and was going to kill him when Kat had shot him twice. The suspect had fled, leaving a trail of blood as Kat had worked to save Sven’s life. A few minutes later the uniformed police had caught up with them and Kat being Kat had taken over directing them to secure the scene. She had Gunther dive while she struggled to keep Sven alive in the backseat knowing that waiting for an ambulance would take too much time. It didn’t surprise Doug that Kat had gotten involved, he just wished that she had talked to him first. A sketch artist was waiting to talk to Kat so that they could get the likeness of the killer out to every relevant police agency.
Sitting down next to Kat, Doug saw that the Surgeons were working on stitching intestine. That was only one of the most terrible things that he’d ever seen. “Are you alright” He asked in a whisper. Kat sat there for several minutes thinking about an answer.
“No” Kat whispered back angrily, “Two shots, center mass and that monster still walked away.”
“I’m sure you did your best” Doug whispered. He’d learned long ago not to overreact to some of the things Kat said. Especially when he wanted to strangle her.
“I need to talk to Shafer about this” Kat whispered, “Perhaps he has some ideas about…”
“Ma’am” A uniformed policeman said as he entered the operating theater and handed Kat a folded note, “Preliminary results, rushed like you asked.”
“Thank you” Kat replied, earning a glare from one of the attendants.
“What does it say?” Doug asked.
“It says that they got a full set of usable fingerprints off the knife” Kat whispered, “They are trying to find a match in the files but that could take weeks. The blood found on the scene matches the blood type of the semen found in the victims and the knife itself looks like it matches cut marks found in the bones of the last victim.”
“What does all that mean?”
“It means that when we arrest this monster it will be from the jail cell to the courtroom to the guillotine, open and shut” Kat whispered, “Just wish it was at less of a cost.”
She looked down at Sven’s body as the Surgeons were starting to stitch his abdomen up.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ilse was listening to Anne talk about the process of writing, her favorite compulsion, and was struggling to stay awake. Sitting in the warm kitchen where she had been trying to do her homework before Anne had walked in wasn’t helping matters. One of the classes that Ilse had been struggling with had been Composition. She had asked Anne for help which had turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Anne had suggested that she needed to create the habit of writing, a diary had helped her.
That was when the conversation had taken an odd turn. Not only had Anne been writing in that diary of hers for years, it was actually the latest in a long series of volumes to her diary that she had been writing in for years. Ilse had asking if she could see them had been another mistake. Anne’s reaction had been a very emphatic no. Apparently, she included everything in them and the idea of anyone else reading them was something she viewed with considerable mortification. Personally, Ilse wondered what Anne could possibly have been doing in her life that could have caused that reaction. In the time Ilse had known her Anne had shown herself to be someone who had hardly had an embarrassing thought, much less done anything that could fall under that category.
“Enough” Ilse said, “Do you have any suggestions that will help me now?”
“Just practice” Anne replied.
“What she’s saying is there are no shortcuts” Petia said from where she had been listening in, “Worse comes to worse, you follow your sister’s advice and aim for a passing grade.”
That was the other thing that had changed in Ilse’s life. Since Kat that insisted that Kira allow her introduction before the Court of the Empress, everyone knew that she was the younger sister of Gräfin von Mischner. Suddenly she was defensive about the name assigned to her, Elizabeth Ingrid Tritten had always been her name, no one’s daughter or sister. Suddenly she had people asking if she would change her name to reflect the change in her social standing and she was holding her tongue, because she really wanted to tell them what they could do with that idea. The other thing was something that Kat had warned her about. Ilse was now a member of an up and coming family, the result was that she found herself being invited to social events and being introduced to the younger sons of Junker families. It’s because you’re regarded as a good potential daughter-in-law, Kat had said, the same thing had happened to her. Ilse regarded that prospect about the same way Anne did someone else reading her diary.
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