JF02 - Brother Grimm Read Free Page A

transformed into a little girl by her very real and reasonable fear that she was about to die. Fabel had cradled her head and maintained a constant eye contact with her, talking soothingly all the time, not allowing her to drift into a sleep from which she would not wake, never allowing her to take her gaze from his and down to where the hideous haft of a thick-bladed knife jutted from under her ribcage. It had been the worst night of Fabel’s career. They had closed in on the most dangerous psychopath Fabel had ever had to deal with: a monster responsible for a series of particularly vicious, ritualistic murders. The pursuit had left two policemen dead: one of Fabel’s team, a bright young officer called Paul Lindemann, and a uniformed SchuPo from the local Polizeikommissariat. The last officer the fleeing psychotic had encountered had been Maria: instead of killing her, he had left her with a potentially fatal wound, knowing that Fabel would have to make a choice between continuing his pursuit or saving his officer’s life. Fabel had made the only choice that he could.
    Now both Fabel and Maria bore scars of different kinds. Fabel had never before lost an officer in the line of duty, and that night he had lost two, and damned near a third. Maria had lost a vast amount of blood and had come close to death on the operating table. Then there had been two tense weeks in intensive care, in which Maria had inhabited that precarious no man’s land between awareness and unconsciousness; between life and death. Seven months of a slow return to full health and strength had followed. Fabel knew that Maria had spent the final two months of her recovery in the gym, rebuilding not only her physical strength butsomething of the iron resolve that had characterised her as an efficient, determined police officer. Now she sat before Fabel, the same old Maria with her flinty, unwavering gaze and her fingers locked around her knee. But as Fabel took in her robust body language, he still found himself looking beyond it, to a night when he had held her chilled hand and listened to her small breaths as she begged him, in a small child’s voice, not to let her die. It was something they had to find their way past.
    ‘You know why I want to talk to you, don’t you, Maria?’
    ‘No,
Chef
… is it about this case?’ But the earnest blue-grey gaze faltered and she made a show of brushing away some invisible speck on her immaculate trousers.
    ‘I think you do, Maria. I need to know that you’re ready for a full case.’
    Maria started to protest but Fabel silenced her with a gesture of his hand.
    ‘Look, Maria, I’m being straight with you. I could very easily say nothing and allocate you duties on the fringes of any investigation that comes up until I’m convinced you’re ready. But that’s not the way I operate. You know that.’ Fabel leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. ‘I value you too much as an officer to do you that disrespect. But I also value you too much to jeopardise your long-term well-being – and your effectiveness within this team – by pushing you to the forefront of an investigation that you’re not ready for.’
    ‘I’m ready.’ A steel frost crackled in Maria’s voice. ‘I’ve dealt with everything I need to deal with. I wouldn’t have come back to work if I thought I was going to compromise the effectiveness of the team.’
    ‘Dammit, Maria, I’m not challenging you. I’m not questioning your abilities …’ Fabel returned her gaze with equal frankness. ‘I nearly lost you that night, Maria. I lost Paul and I nearly lost you. I let you down. I let the team down. It’s my responsibility to make sure you’re all right.’
    The chill in Maria’s glacial expression began to thaw. ‘It wasn’t your fault,
Chef
. To begin with I thought it was mine. That I didn’t react quickly enough, or react in the right way. But he was something that we’ve never encountered before. He was a unique