Death And The Maiden

58

It was past midnight when Rheinhardt finished his paperwork. He opened the drawer of his desk and took out a tin of Vanillestern biscuits, baked by his wife. Unfortunately, there were only two left. The tin had been full when he had sat down earlier. Although he could remember consuming biscuits as he wrote his report, he was not conscious of having eaten quite so many. Yet the evidence was irrefutable. He shrugged, and decided that abstinence, at this late stage, would constitute a deplorable act of self-deception. Besides, two more biscuits would not expand his waistline very much further.

Leaning back in his chair, Rheinhardt rested his feet upon the desk and placed a whole Vanillestern in his mouth. He savoured the appeasing sweetness and the slow release of flavours. His wife had added some unusual essences that blended harmoniously with the traditional recipe and left a pleasing, zesty aftertaste. The second biscuit was even more satisfying. Rheinhardt thought of his wife with affection, gratitude and a modest frisson of desire before closing his tired eyes. Some thirty minutes later he awoke from a disturbed, chaotic dream in which he had been chased around a lake by a gang of gypsy fiddlers.

Rheinhardt tidied his desk and made a half-hearted attempt at shaking the creases out of his trousers; however, he paid more attention to his moustache, and checked with his fingers to make sure that the points were still upstanding. He left his room and walked down several empty corridors and a staircase. The door that he eventually came to had a sign hanging outside which read ‘Records Office’. Rheinhardt fished a key out of his pocket and entered.

The light, when it came on, was not very powerful. Its weak illumination revealed a room full of cabinets and a station which was usually occupied by a clerk. The air smelled frowsty and institutional. Rheinhardt went directly to the cabinets in which cases designated as ‘closed’ were stored and began to search through the shelves. It did not take him very long to find Professor Saminsky’s file.

Sitting at the clerk’s station, Rheinhardt opened the folder and began to examine the contents. There were the photographs of Saminsky’s body and there were his own preliminary reports and case summary. Beneath a wad of official correspondence held together with an elastic band he found the results of Professor Mathias’s first autopsy. The results of the second autopsy had been removed.