Trixie Trulla Kills Big Dörte · Chapter 6
Frau Knobloch founded the “Truth Working Group”. She avoided the term task force because it sounded too American. Herr Pahlke maintained a suspect matrix in a spreadsheet. Herr Yilmaz created an encrypted chat group called “Napoleon’s Eyes”. Frau Söntgen assumed responsibility for intelligence gathering, for which she possessed neither a mandate nor training.
The group met in the Knoblochs’ garage. A noticeboard hung between the winter tyres and a roof rack unused since 1998. It bore photographs, street plans and coloured threads. Nobody knew precisely why threads were indispensable to private investigations. They simply were. Television could not possibly be wrong.
In the centre hung a photograph of Trixie.
To its left: Eugen Mertens.
To its right: Viktor Voss, now eighty-five and a resident of a care home on the edge of town.
Below them: Napoleon.
“One must eliminate the impossible,” Frau Knobloch explained. “Whatever remains must be the truth, however improbable it may seem.”
She cited Sherlock Holmes. Herr Pahlke accordingly deleted “aliens” from his spreadsheet.
“What remains?” asked Frau Söntgen.
“Trixie,” said Herr Pahlke.
“That is not methodologically sound,” Herr Yilmaz objected.
“Why not?”
“Because you have only eliminated things you never believed in to begin with.”
Frau Knobloch looked at him sternly. “Young man, if you problematise everything, we shall never reach a conclusion.”
It was at that moment that the Truth Working Group defined its scientific standards.
The theories multiplied.
Theory one: Trixie had bludgeoned Dörte to death for revealing the purchase price.
Theory two: Eugen Mertens had killed Dörte to obtain incriminating documents from The Blue Hour.
Theory three: Viktor Voss had sent a professional killer.
Theory four: Napoleon had attacked Dörte.
Theory five: Dörte was alive and the dead woman was a double. This theory came from Frau Söntgen, who relied on the deceased’s altered hairstyle. The fact that Dörte had been found lying in wet grass did not persuade her. “Water doesn’t change a person’s identity,” she said.
Theory six was not committed to writing. It concerned the pharmacist, a delivery of potassium and an alleged affair which, on closer examination, turned out to have been confused with a customer loyalty scheme.
Herr Yilmaz tried to steer the group back towards facts.
“We need a timeline.”
“We need a motive,” said Frau Knobloch.
“We need both.”
“Young people always want everything at once.”
They therefore decided to begin by examining Trixie’s rubbish.
It is remarkable how quickly moral inhibitions disappear once they are described as obstacles to an investigation.
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