JF01 - Blood Eagle by Craig Russell Read Free Book Online Page A

There is a chance that your paths have crossed in the past. Or maybe he is someone you know right now.’
    ‘But that is by no means definite …’ Fabel made the statement more like a question.
    ‘No, not definite. It’s just a possibility. This sense of connection may be based simply on what he has read about you, for example … about you or one of your cases and made his choice based on that.’
    ‘But it could be someone whose path has crossed mine in the past, perhaps significantly?’
    ‘I think it’s a possibility … but only that.’
    Fabel turned to Van Heiden: a look laden with meaning. Van Heiden shook his head. ‘Not that old chestnut, Fabel …’
    Fabel shrugged. ‘I know. It’s just I can’t help thinking that it would fit: Svensson taunting me with this “Son of Sven” crap … telling me he’s alive and that this is his work …’
    Van Heiden shook his head ‘Give it up, Fabel. Svensson is dead. He’s been dead for nearly twenty years.’
    ‘Who’s Svensson?’ asked Dr Eckhardt.
    ‘History,’ answered Van Heiden. ‘Ancient history, and nothing whatsoever to do with this case. Someone long dead.’
    ‘ Presumed long dead,’ corrected Fabel. ‘Supposedly burned to death. But there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the body was his. His name was Karl-Heinz Svensson and he was an evil manipulative bastard who maintained a cell of young female terrorists. He was a former member of the Baader-Meinhof Rote-Armee-Fraktion who set up in business for himself. At that time there were a lot of splinter groups who didn’t share the Baader-Meinhof philosophy of going completely underground. There was the Movement 2nd June and the SPK, which predated the Rote-Armee-Fraktion, and there were the Revolutionäre Zellen, who combined active, deep-cover terrorists with “legals” working in plain sight. Then there was Rote Zora – which was exclusively female. Svensson borrowed from them all. He called his unit RAG – the Radikale Aktionsgruppe. Most of the girls he operated were in their late teens. He sent them out to plant bombs in the arcades by the Alster and to hold up banks.’
    ‘Fabel and I have been over this before.’ Van Heiden turned back to Dr Eckhardt. ‘Because of the inconclusiveness of the identification of Svensson’s body, Fabel suspects that he may have somehow come back from the grave to carry out these murders.’
    ‘Is that what you believe?’ she asked Fabel.
    ‘No, not necessarily. Not really. I just think it’s an option we should keep open …’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ said Dr Eckhardt, ‘I just don’t understand: why are you even considering this person as a potential suspect? I don’t see the connection between a dead terrorist and these serial killings …’
    ‘I admit it’s highly unlikely. And I do accept what Herr Kriminaldirektor Van Heiden says – it probably was Svensson who died in the explosion. But it was the reference to “Son of Sven” that first started me wondering … and the continuous reference to eagles. Svensson’s codename was “Eagle”. Added to that is the weird relationship he had with women.’
    ‘In what way weird?’
    ‘He seemed to need to totally dominate them. He was supposedly physically intimate with all of his group. The press dubbed them “Svensson’s Harem”.’
    ‘And what’s the connection with you?’
    ‘In 1983 they tried to hold up the main Commerzbank in Paul-Nevermann-Platz. There were three women, members of Svensson’s splinter group. They were on the way out when they stumbled into two uniformed Schutzpolizei on foot patrol. There was an exchange of fire … two of the terrorists and one SchuPo were killed and the other badly wounded. I arrived on the scene as the surviving terrorist made a run for it. I chased her to the waterfront, called for her to drop her gun, but she turned and fired. She hit me in the side and I fired back: two shots in the face and head. She died instantly. Her name was