The Polizeit Inspector

Martin Cordemann

The Polizeit Inspector

Another Time Travel Crime Story

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Titel

08:01

07:02

06:03

05:04

04:05

03:06

02:07

01:08

00:00

Impressum neobooks

08:01

There was a masked man. There was a gun. There was screaming. That rarely was a good combination. Never, actually. Unless, of course, a new holofilm was shot. Although... Ethan hadn't seen any of them lately, because they had gotten worse and worse by the time – so, in fact, that did not have to be something good, either. Sometimes he wondered if the word holo didn't actually had his roots in hollow, because that's what most of these arseworks were.

“I have a hostage!” the masked man shouted, and as if this statement hadn't been clear enough, he pressed the gun to the hostage's head. So the situation was getting noticeably worse.

Ethan was aiming at the gangster's head when he detected some movement close to him. Without changing the direction of his gun he looked briefly aside. There was a tall guy with blond hair, also holding a gun. If he was an accomplice of the masked man, the situation had just changed dramatically to Ethan's disadvantage. So the question was why the blond guy wasn't wearing a mask, too. Well, the answer was quite easy, if he thought about it. Wearing a mask he couldn't have gotten this close to the Polizeit Detective, at least not without attracting attention.

“Do I have to decide whether I shoot you now... or maybe later?” the Detective asked dryly, always ready to change aim as fast as possible, but possibly not fast enough.

“I'd prefer if we could avoid that, Detective Cause,” the blond guy said politely.

That changed the situation... not really. Because even among criminals there were polite people, which was one of the main reasons their work was not as easy as it should be. All he knew now was, that the guy knew his name – but that didn't have to mean anything. There were also well-informed criminals, which also contributed to the difficulty of his job. Ethan tried to keep his aim at the masked head while being ready to shoot Blondie if circumstances should demand it.

“Have we met before?” Ethan wanted to know.

“Obviously not.”

“But you know my name.”

“And your face.”

“Nothing more?”

“Well, there are some other things.” In his peripheral view Ethan noticed the guy smiling. “So here it is, our first encounter. You wouldn't believe how long I've waited for this.”

Ethan had to admit that didn't sound good. It sounded like an unpleasant ending to a probably even more unpleasant situation, one, in which the death of a person would play a significant part. In this case most likely his. So did this become the moment to finally shoot Blondie and then take care of the hostage-taker? Shoot first, ask questions later... He was a time travel policeman, so in fact it was kinda possible. But then, after having done that, trying to get a probably innocent man back to life had proven to be quite the bitchiest of a bitch.

“It might sound rude, but you are aware that I am kinda at work here?!”

“Kinda?”

“Extremely! Working! With a gun and stuff,” the Detective sounded ruder with every word. “So if you would be kind enough to put down your weapon over there where I can see it, and then place yourself where I can see you and especially your hands, you would be a great help to both of us.”

“Would I?”

“Well, actually, that depends.”

“On what?”

“If you are one of this rare and special breed that enjoys being shot down!”

The blond guy laughed. “You haven't changed a bit... or will not change a bit.” Slowly, very slowly, he took something out of his pocket and showed it to Ethan. It was a badge. A Polizeit badge.

“Detective Chief Inspector Chris Mulligan, at your service.”

“You are a colleague?”

“Yes.”

“And we have met before?”

“We have worked together before! Several times.”

“Not from my point of view.”

“Yes, I noticed. You could have warned me.”

“About what?”

“How you reacted when we met for the first time.”

“How would you have reacted if an armed man had appeared next to you in a situation like this?”

“Point for you.” Mulligan pointed at the masked man. “That's a customer of mine, by the way. I was just on my way to arrest him.”

“Obviously that worked out great!”

Again the blonde guy laughed. “In the beginning I really had some problems with your banter.”

“You'll get used to it.”

“That's what you said then, too.”

“Looks like it's true then.” Cause continued to aim at the kidnapper's head. “So you're following that one?”

“Yes.”

“And I don't suppose any of you is from this particular time?”

“No. He escaped, I followed him.”

“How do you hope this scenario is going to end?”

“I beg your pardon?” Mulligan looked at the Detective in surprise.

“What has he done?”

“Kidnapping. Hostages. And murder. Multiple murder!”

“Of hostages?”

“Sometimes.”

“Anything else I should know?”

“Ruthless, unstable... with an unhealthy love for explosives?!”

That seemed to be his cue. The masked man fiddled with his jacket and took something out. Something Ethan had seen before and knew was something extremely unpleasant: a small bomb that was often used by hostage-takers, a device able to blow up whole marketplaces, if you wanted to. Once the thing was activated, the masked man was holding an argument in his hand that was difficult to argue away.

Ethan pulled the trigger.

Something happened under the mask.

The head of the kidnapper was shaking, then the man collapsed.

“That okay for you?” Ethan asked and looked at his colleague. “Or do you insist on an arrest?”

Blondie smiled. “I think, I can live with that.”

“He won't. Well, it was nice.”

“Meeting me?”

“That, too.” The Detective finally had the opportunity to look at his colleague from top to bottom. “So we've met before?”

“Would I have trusted you otherwise?”

“Probably not.”

“So now it finally happened,” the blonde guy muttered. “It had to come to this at one point, but I was not sure, when. Well, Detective, the way it looks to me we have met in reverse order so far. So your first meeting...”

“...is your last.”

“Looks like it.”

“Well, in that case it's a good thing we are not having an affair. How would that work out with children? You first meet your 20-year-old-daughter and then you slowly see her getting younger.”

“Sounds difficult.”

“It does. And yet, I think that families like that exist – or even more complicated ones.” Ethan pointed to the body of the masked man and his crying ex-hostage. “Maybe you'd better take care of these two. After all, it's your case!”

“Thank you, Detective.”

“What case is this anyway?”

“The heads of a few bodies have been found in his house.”

“That's usually not the best of signs.”

“My thoughts exactly. And since he was a murderer, I thought it would be a good idea to arrest him, but then he took a hostage...”

“...and I think I know the story from there.”

“Yes.” Mulligan looked at the Detective and smiled. “You know, sometimes I get the feeling you are the only person who really understands me... and who's always understood me.”

“You expect too much from a first meeting, I'm afraid.”

“Maybe you're right.”

“I often am. Makes the job more easy.”

“I told you the thing about the banter?”

“You would be the first, not to.”

“I can imagine that, too.”

“So I'm gonna meet you again?!”

“You will.”

“I'm not sure...”

“If it will happen?”

“If I'm looking forward to it.”

“Banter?!”

“Hey, you won't remember, next time we meet.”

“Damn, you're right!”

“Yeah.” Ethan tilted his head. “Nice haircut,” he said.

“I had the feeling you might say something like that,” Mulligan smiled. Then he nodded. “See ya.”

“Obviously,” Ethan agreed. “Oh, by the way,” he added after a moment. “Pleasure meeting you!”

07:02

“So, in the name of the law, I'm going to arres...”

The man started to run. That was a reaction Ethan really despised. They had done something illegal and they were found out and then they did not even have the decency to face a proper arrest. Every time he said “in the name of the law” the criminals knew what was coming and then tried to run. Maybe he should just stick to a nice short “you are under arrest”, but these stupid rules demanded how he had to make an arrest. He sighed, pulled out his gun and started running.

It all, as usual, had started with a murder – and three suspects.

“So, Mr. One, Mr. Two and Mr. Three, welcome to our beloved game: Who's the killer? You three are our candidates for today, and it might not come as a surprise to you, but one of you is a murderer.”

He smiled.

“If anyone likes to use his telephone joker and call his attorney, now would be a good time.”

But nobody did. Pity.

“Soooo,” Ethan started, “I invited you all to a trip in my little time machine to present to you, tatata, the crime scene, as we call it.”

Like a presenter he presented it, but the suspects weren't very enthused.

“Or, to be precisely,” he corrected himself, “let's say, one part of the crime scene. The... painful part.”

They stood in front of a skyscraper right on the sidewalk. The area was shut down by the police due to some gas leak or something... but there didn't seem to be a sign of the murder. No blood, no chalk drawings on the pavement, nothing that indicated that a crime had happened there.

“As you know, the victim, whom you all know as Mr. Four, was thrown of a building. So the first part of our very popular two-part-crime-scene is, of course, the roof of the building while the second and most deadly part is the pavement right in front of us.”

Not as shocking as he had hoped.

“You, my dear suspects, are here because you a) own a time machine, b) knew the victim and c) where in the building close to the roof when the despicable deed happened.”

He looked at his watch.

“So all we have to do now is to confirm the exact time of the murder. It's one minute past seven now...”

“7:01?” Mr. Two repeated, looked at his own watch to confirm, then shouted: “Fuck!” And ducked with his back to the building. A few seconds later there was a loud noise, a splash of blood and a mist of red fluid painting all the suspects in the same deadly color. Two of them had an expression of surprise and disgust on their faces, as well as lots of blood – only Mr. Two had a clean face... and was still staring at the pavement.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Two. May I take that as a confession? Well,” Ethan smiled, “I will.”

That was almost too easy. He took out his handcuffs.

“So, in the name of the law...”

That was, when the running started.

Ethan missed those cases where it was only mental capabilities that mattered, the ones he solved with his head and not with his gun, and where he didn't have to run around ready to shoot someone – although in those cases he was really tempted to do so, because he was pissed.

“Stop!” he shouted, but the criminal obviously preferred to ignore him.

Tempted!!!

The path of escape, which should directly lead to hell, went up a staircase, through an underpass, then they had reached a small park. Ethan still hadn't learned to give the area of possible escape a good look in advance, and he doubted he would start now.

Then, suddenly, he saw double... or twice? He no longer seemed to be chasing just one man, but two. It may have been out of solidarity or for some other reason, but another man had joined the fugitive. Wearing different clothes and looking quite different, Ethan did not assume that his criminal had simply divided into two to confuse him – although he would have totally succeeded.

Then the Detective noticed that he wasn't alone anymore, either. Next to him someone else was running. A tall figure. With blond hair... Who now also noticed him and looked at him in surprise.

“So we meet again, Detective Chief Inspector Mulligan.”

“DI Cause. What are you doing here?”

“Have a guess.”

The DCI gasped out of breath.

“Try again.”

He gasped again. Running did not seem to be his strong suit.

“Okay, it's the same thing you are doing... I guess. Hunting a criminal. Well, at least I hope that's the case.”

“That I'm chasing him?”

“That he's guilty.”

“Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Insurance fraud. Some complicated plan... that didn't quite work out. And yours?”

“Just convicted, fled directly.”

“You can't trust anyone anymore.”

“Especially criminals.”

Ethan gave up, stopped running and shot into the air. Both fugitives stopped, looked at each other in surprise and then at the two Polizeit officers.

“Next one won't miss,” Ethan shouted, pointing the gun at them.

“You would just shoot them both?” Mulligan asked in surprise.