Read Online In Matto's Realm: A Sergeant Studer Mystery by Friedrich Glauser - Free Book Online Page A

interrupt the unceasing flow of
words, Studer decided, so he asked a question.

    "Do you remember the harvest festival?"
    "Of course."
    "Did you see the Director?"
    "He came out of the casino at ten."
    "Alone?"
    "At first, yes."
    "And then?"
    "And then he met a lassie at the corner of the
women's 0 Ward."
    "What lassie would that be?"
    Fraulein Kolla's eyes went wide with astonishment.
She'd never have thought, she said, a copper could be
so stupid.
    Studer accepted the remark with equanimity, tucking into his steak, which was so tender his knife went
through it like butter. Then he continued his patient
questioning.
    "So who was it?"
    "That Irma Wasem, of course. The girl's" - and the
cook used an expression normally reserved for a
female mammal at certain stage in its reproductive
cycle.
    "Aha ... oh, yes," and Studer conceded that he had
heard something along those lines already.
    "Why do you ask such silly questions then?"
    "We-e-ell, you know ... So, anyway, the two of them
went off for a walk together?"
    "Arm in arm!" said Fraulein KOlla. She'd been sitting
up there at her window, she explained. There were
some arc lamps in the courtyard, it was bright as a
sunny day.
    She deposited a pile of green beans, liberally flavoured with garlic, on the sergeant's plate, refilled his
glass, wished him "Good health" and clinked glasses
with him. Then she emptied her tumbler in one gulp. Studer raised his glass to her. He approved of Fraulein
KOlla.

    "And when did the two of them get back?"
    "About half past twelve. The lassie came with the
Director to the door of the central block, then he kept
her waiting there for a long time. When he came back
down, about half an hour later, he was wearing a loden
cape. They walked together to the women's 0 Ward
and Irma Wasem went in, while the Director continued
his walk." That was when Fraulein Kolla had gone to
bed, so she couldn't say whether the lassie had come
down again. But she couldn't get to sleep right away,
that's why she'd still been awake when she heard the
cry.
    "The cry? What cry?"
    "There were others heard it too. A cry. It sounded
like a cry for help"
    "When did you hear this cry?"
    `Just before the clock struck half past one."
    Studer bowed his head. The curve of his back was
like the gentle rise of a dark hill. "Where did the cry
come from?"
    "From the corner on the men's side, where wards T
and P join."
    Aha! So Schiil had been right about what he had
heard.
    "A hoarse cry, Sergeant. It sounded like this."
    Fraulein Kolla tried to imitate the cry. It sounded
like the squawk of a hungry young crow. Some
people would have laughed at it, but Studer
remained serious. So people in the clinic had been
talking about it. Why then had Dr Laduner not
mentioned it?
    In the corner between wards T and P.
    That seemed to put paid to his theory about a little excursion to Lake Thun or Ticino. No amorous
escapade, such as old gentlemen sometimes go in for,
even if they do happen to be directors of medical
establishments. No one talks about them. Colleagues
make their little jokes, but nothing trickles through to
the outside world ... The cry! No, the cry was no
laughing matter. If you listened carefully, it seemed
that everything in this case that sounded funny at first
eventually struck a wrong note.

    The smashed-up office - a wrong note; the male
voice on the telephone - a wrong note; Pieterlen's disappearance - a wrong note; Bohnenblust's bruise - a
wrong note.
    Everything sounded wrong: Dr Laduner's jokey
tone, his offering of bread and salt, the way he played
the distinguished physician on his rounds - as if he
were already the director - and there was something
not quite right about that friendly nurse either, Gilgen,
the redhead who passed with a run of four to the ace of
spades and who had those worry lines all over his
anxious face ...
    "In the corner between T Ward and P?" Studer
asked, lost in thought. "What's