Whisper For The Reaper by Jack Gatland (best book series to read TXT) 📕

Declan recognised the name, but couldn’t remember where from. Luckily Karl was still talking.

‘Your little stop go men on traffic lights?’ he continued. ‘Green man is go, red man is stop? In East Germany we had different images for the little men. They still exist even now. A green man with a hat walking, and a red man with a hat, standing still, arms outstretched. Ampelmännchen.’

He looked to the bottle again.

‘Müller created the image of the man with the scythe,’ he explained. ’Red man meant stop, and that was what the Reaper did. He stopped escapees. He even made this into a badge, forced us to wear it when on duty with him, when he flipped that lie of a coin to satisfy his conscience, as he fed his lust for blood.’

‘Wait,’ Declan was confused now. ‘Are you saying that Wilhelm Müller is the Red Reaper?’

Karl nodded. ‘Was,’ he replied. ‘I learned years later, through your father in fact, that Müller had followed me across Europe, and had killed people. Patrick showed me the cards, and I was living here when Craig Randall and Dorothy Brunel died.’

Declan understood this; he’d seen Dotty Brunel as one of the victims when Freeman had shown the files to him earlier that day. She’d died in 2010, two years before Craig.

‘Did you know either of them?’

‘Yes,’ Karl replied sadly. ‘I knew both. Dorothy and Craig’s father had both used my garage. In fact, all the people who died had crossed my path over the years. It was as if Wilhelm had decided that anyone who spoke to me, who befriended me, had to be punished.’

Declan leaned back at this. ‘People like my mum.’

At this Karl’s eyes started to tear up. ‘I knew I had said the wrong thing when we toasted your parents,’ he replied. ‘That I said murder. Because that was what it was. Patrick was away for ten minutes and that monster ended her life. That was when we decided that the law would fail in stopping Wilhelm Müller. That was when we took matters into our own hands.’

‘You and my father became vigilantes?’ Declan was shocked at this.

‘None of the victims could be linked to him. None of the victims could be proven even as murder. Your father was angry, frustrated, and now his wife, who was already dying, was taken from him rather than passing at her time. The police would not help us.’

‘Why not?’

‘First, because there was no proof of murder. But also because Wilhelm Müller was untouchable, a ghost.’

Declan shook his head. ‘I don’t get what you mean.’

‘I heard, years later, that Müller also changed his name when he left Berlin,’ he explained. ‘But it wasn’t the Stasi that gave him a new identity. It was the Americans.’

‘But why would—‘ Declan stopped himself. There was only one real reason the American government would give someone like Müller a new identity. ‘He became an informant for them.’

Karl nodded. ‘More than that. He gave testimony, provided documents that took down many prominent people. He was given a new life, and more importantly, he was given a kind of diplomatic immunity. Müller was no diplomat, but if they accused him of any crimes, his documents would ensure that rather than going to trial, he would disappear once more, under another alias.’

‘Christ,’ Declan swirled the last of the half pint of Guinness in his hand as he considered this. ‘The ultimate get out of jail free card.’

‘And if the Americans refused, he still had paperwork on people who had risen up over the years, enough to ensure that they would also ensure his survival,’ Karl muttered. ‘As Stasi officers burned folders, he was collecting as many as he could.’

He looked up.

‘Patrick could not stop him by legal means. However, there were always other options.’

‘I’m guessing that before he could do this, Müller killed him,’ Declan replied. Karl frowned.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘My father’s car accident,’ Declan stated. ‘They found a card in the glove compartment, complete with his fingerprints on it. And the body at the golf club, Nathanial Wing? He also had a card. Looks like Müller has returned to carry on this, well, whatever this is.’

Karl shook his head. ‘That cannot be,’ he exclaimed. ‘These murders, if truly a Red Reaper? They have to be of a copycat, or someone else.’

Declan leaned forwards, intrigued. ‘Why would you think that?’ he asked.

Karl looked him in the eyes, and Declan almost shuddered at the coldness within them.

‘Because we killed Wilhelm Müller and hid his body five years ago.’

8

Organised For Crime

Jess was in the living room, working through piles of A4 printouts, when Declan arrived back home.

‘You sort out what you needed to sort out?’ She asked, looking up briefly before returning to the organisation of sheets of paper. Declan took off his jacket as he walked over to join her, sitting on the sofa as he watched his daughter at work.

‘Monroe and Anjli are in, and Doctor Marcos is already checking through the autopsy of Nathanial Wing,’ Declan sat back in the seat, moving his neck to loosen his shoulder. It was aching after overexertion. When preparing the bullet wound, the doctors had told him to be careful when using it, and he’d been driving a lot recently. ‘Can’t get hold of Billy though.’ He was still watching Jess. ‘Get home okay?’

‘Morten brought me here on his bike,’ Jess replied.

‘So it’s Morten now, is it?’ Declan grinned. Jess’s crush had been obvious; as obvious as the reddening of her cheeks as she realised what she’d said.

‘I mean PC De’Geer,’ she blustered. ‘Don’t worry, he didn’t come in.’

‘You want some dinner?’ Declan reached for the phone. ‘I could call in pizza?’

‘Sure, as long as it’s Vegan,’ Jess was now moving to a stapler, binding the small piles of paper together. ‘Can I get this done first though? I don’t want to get tomato sauce on any of the pages.’

‘What are you doing, anyway?’