Bad Wolf by Nele Neuhaus Read Free Book Online

but … you, yes.” The appreciative look in his eyes might have flattered her at some other time, but right now it pissed her off.
    “Have you had a good look? Then tell me what we have here.” Pia snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Well?”
    Kröger cleared his throat. “Uh … yes. Hmm. Here’s the situation: The unconscious boy was lying on his stomach, precisely where our colleague the medical examiner is standing now. His left leg was in the water. The girl is exactly where we found her.”
    The body of the young girl was caught between the reeds and the weeds on the riverbank. She was floating on her back, her eyes wide open. One arm was sticking out of the water. With each gentle wave, she seemed to move.
    Pia looked at the gruesome scene in the cold glare of the floodlights. For a moment, the horror of the deed threatened to overwhelm her. Why should a person so young have to die before she’d even had a chance to live?
    “A short distance away, underneath a weeping willow, we found vodka bottles and Red Bull cans. Also a few articles of clothing, shoes, a cell phone, and quite a lot of vomit,” said Christian Kröger. “It looks to me as though a group of young people got unauthorized access to this off-limits area so they could get drunk undisturbed. And somehow things got out of control.”
    “What about the boy?” Pia asked.
    Henning had already examined the unconscious youth before he was taken away in the ambulance.
    “The kid had been boozing a lot,” he replied. “And threw up. His pants were unzipped.”
    “And what do you conclude from that?”
    “Possibly he wanted to relieve himself. But then he fell down the riverbank. He has fresh scratches on his hands and forearms, presumably from trying to break his fall.”
    Pia took a step to one side to make room for Kröger’s people. Two of them hauled the girl’s corpse out of the water.
    “She hardly weighs a thing. Just skin and bones,” said one of the men.
    Pia squatted down next to the dead girl. She was wearing a bright-colored top with spaghetti straps and a denim miniskirt that had hiked up and was bunched around her waist. There wasn’t enough light, but to Pia, it looked like the girl’s pale, bony body was covered with dark spots and welts.
    “Henning? Are those bruises?” Pia pointed to the belly and upper thighs of the dead girl.
    “Hmm. Could be.” Henning shone his flashlight on the body and frowned. “Yes, bruises and lacerations.”
    He inspected first her left, then her right hand.
    “Kröger?” he called.
    “What is it?”
    “May I turn her over?”
    “Go ahead.”
    Henning handed Pia the flashlight and with his gloved hands turned the girl over onto her stomach.
    “Good God!” Pia blurted out. “What is that ?”
    The lower portion of the girl’s back and her buttocks were completely shredded; her backbone, ribs, and one side of her pelvis shone white through the darker muscle tissue.
    “Wounds from a boat propeller,” Henning pronounced with a look at Pia. “The girl didn’t die tonight or in this location. She’s been in the water longer than that, and the formation of skin maceration on her hands is already fairly advanced. Her body was probably washed up here on the current.”
    Pia stood up.
    “You mean that she had nothing to do with the other teenagers?”
    “I’m only the medical examiner,” said Henning. “Figuring it out is your job. The fact is that the girl did not die tonight.”
    Pia rubbed her bare upper arms and shuddered, although it was not cold in the least. She looked around, trying to get a picture of what might have happened here.
    “I’m going to try to find out something about the young woman who discovered the body,” she said. “Please take the body to the forensics lab. I hope the DA will grant authorization for an autopsy ASAP.”
    “Here, let me give you a hand.” Kröger gallantly offered her his arm to help her up the slope, and she took