Friends Always Win in the End!
by Ruwen Rouhs
Chapter 12
Hunting a want to be Killer
At the hospital, the doctors examined Arash for longer than Severin expected. By the time Henner, Tanner and the devasted Naim arrived, he had already walked the long corridor outside the emergency station more than two dozen times, gone to the toilet three times and was shivering with cold. "It's going to be all right!" Henner tried to comfort him as soon as they arrived. Inwardly, however, he was shaking himself. , He blamed himself for the accident, "I shouldn't have invited them. It's my fault that it happened."
To make it worse, Naim moaned the whole time. He blamed himself also, "It's my fault that Arash almost died!" he kept wailing, "He went into the water because of me! It only happened because I wanted to play with my new ball!"
During the drive to the hospital, Henner had already called his boss, the Chief Kraft, even he that his superior wasn't on duty either. Henner suspected a crime and Chief Kraft was the right one to bringing light into the matter. For all he knew, Arash was healthy and known as a good swimmer. Henner couldn't understand why he had disappeared all of sudden underwater and almost drowned. His police instincts told him that something wasn't quiet right. "If there is no sign of sudden heart failure, there had to be another reason, but what would it? Maybe his boss had an idea. After all, there was the assault by the three strangers some days ago, the arson attack on Arash's house and the incident with the R4-buggy."
An hour later Arash was released. He was still weak but all organs were functioning the right way. When Henner's boss asked if there were signs of a heart failure or another health problem, the senior physician said "Not at all".
Once Severin's mother had calmed down, nothing stood in the way of the chief inspector's questioning. It didn't yield any useful information: "Yes, after a while some other bathers joint our ball game. Four or five of them were of Naim's age. Later we were joined by two students of my age. They soon got bored to play with kids and left." After a questioning look from Chief Kraft, he added, "No, I don't know them. They probably attend another school." After a brief refection, Arash added, "I also remember an Arab-looking guy. He was a bit older and tried to snatch the ball away from Naim and the others a few times. While I was asking the guy to stay away from Naim, I suddenly felt someone hugging me from behind. First, I thought it was Severin or Tanner. Then he put his arm around my neck from behind and squeezed the air out of me. Then I was gone." Arash shook himself briefly, as if trying to free himself from a bad dream "Later, I woke up on the shore. Henner was kneeling in front of me and ....." he tried to remember.
"Can't you tell me something about the man who clutched you from behind?" Arash wracked his brain, then: "The man had hairy arms, he had black hair on the back of his hands! That's the last I can remember." "Did he wear a ring?" "Yes, I think so, with a reddish stone!"
Chief detective inspector Kraft and his assistant Henner had decided to split up the interrogations. While Chief Kraft questioned Arash, Henner should try to question Nain, because the eleven-year old boy had gained confidence in him. Talking to him in presence of his father, Nain explained, "At first it was just Arash and me playing, then others came and joined in. It was really fun, even when the older boys started to play rough. Then two men joined in also. One of them always lifted me up and threw me back into the water. It was fun at first. Later, I didn't want to anymore and I told him Get Lost. Then he dunked me."
"And Arash, did the other man play with him too? I don't think so. He only ever tried to dunk him. Until Arash suddenly vanished."
"Do you know what the man looked like?"
Nain shook his head at first, then he thought of something. "He looked like Uncle Ali." He frowned and looked to his dad, who seemed to be surprised. "He had a gold tooth just like Uncle Ali. But it wasn't Uncle Ali, the guy was younger and his beard wasn't gray, it was black!" Turning to his father, Naim asked, "Show him pics of him, the pics you did last summer."
Mamuth Aksoy shook his head, "I talked to Ali today by phone. He is in Izmir. He is not here!"
"We can check on that, but do you have photos of him, they may be helpful for the investigations." Mamuth's photo showed a man in his fifties, lean and of average size. In his smiling face a gold tooth stood out, replacing one of his upper incisors. "That's him. But as I told you he is in Turkey. Call him, that his number."
"Thanks, but can we have a copy of the photo. It may be helpful."
Next morning, they showed Nain a rejuvenated photo of Ali. "It looks like him! Except the hair of the man dunking Arash was very short. He looked like he was bald!"
The police ran the photo of the Arab-looking man with a short black beard, shaved head, a gold tooth and a ring with a reddish stone through the wanted list. Without success! So, they needed more data. They got it by chance.
Severin and Arash studied the images from the wildlife cameras they had taken the previous night. Screening the clips, they noticed a box-type delivery van passing Severin's house several times. The old van was converted to a camper, with small windows. The interesting thing was its faded lettering below the windows: "Zouer, Facility Management" and a telephone number underneath. It started with 040 35...... The other numbers were no longer legible. What was the car of a facility management company from Hamburg doing in the street in front of Severin's house in Berlin at night? When they reported this observation to Henner, he called his colleagues in the department and the search now focused on Hamburg.
The licensing authority quickly found out that five vans were registered to a company named Zouer. A call there confirmed this. "The five cars a new. I bought them this spring. However, I had three old vans scrapped lately. Junkyard Meier will know what happened to them. They probably ended up in the scrap press." This information was correct. The scrap company confirmed that two of them really did end up in the scrap press. The third was bought by a man called Pogalski. He wanted to turn it into a camper.
The name Pogalski was not found. Therefore, the police began their search anew. Since Arash's father was in opposition to the mullah regime, they first checked all the organizations known to be connected with Iranian secret service or the Revolutionary Guard. First of all, of course, those that the German domestic intelligence service assumed to be involved in terrorist activities. One of this was the International Center Hamburg, IZH, in Persian Mrkez Aslama Hambwrgu, and its basis the Blue Mosque in Hamburg. According to the police records no member of the inner circle of the IZH was known to have a golden incisor. However, when the police examined photos of a demonstration organized by an organization called "Muslim Interactive" they found the picture of a young man fitting Naim's description. He held up a poster. "Caliphate is the solution". This slogan clearly identified him as an opponent of the German constitution, the Grundgesetz.
It was not difficult to spot his home in a tower block. However, when the police tried to check him out, the bird had flown the coop. A search of the apartment revealed that he was close to the Iranian secret service. Questioning his neighbor, the police found out his camper had not been seen for three or four days now. Based on the license plate number, it was quickly established that the van had left Germany for the Netherlands on Saturday night.
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