“Yes, a sixteen-year-old that he had locked in a boathouse for three days last year for the fun of it.” Schäfer took out a picture he had found in the police database and held it up to Heloise. “This is him here. Do you remember him?”

She sat up in bed a little and closely studied the man’s face. He had a wide jaw and a thickset face below his black hair.

“Ulrich said that he had been threatened by a burly, dark-haired man,” she said.

Schäfer nodded. “Do you recognize him?”

“No, I didn’t see him.” She shook her head. “He attacked me from behind.”

“Never mind,” Schäfer said, sticking the picture back in his pocket. “Maybe it’s for the best that you didn’t see him. Then you won’t have these images in your head.”

“But how can you know for sure that he was the one who attacked me? Where did you find him?”

Schäfer furrowed his brow. “You don’t know?”

Heloise shook her head.

“Your friend Duvall—he saved you.”

Heloise blinked a couple of times.

“He came into your apartment and found you before it was too late. You should have seen this guy Stefan when Duvall was done with him. He had to go to the ER to get his face sewn back together before we could even question him. Not that he was some kind of fashion model before, but he sure as shit ain’t too pretty to look at now,” Schäfer said, chuckling contentedly.

A tear ran down Heloise’s cheek. “Martin saved my life?”

“Yup.” Schäfer nodded.

CHAPTER

31

IT HAD TAKEN twenty-eight stitches to close the gash that ran from his forehead, down the bridge of his nose, and all the way across his right cheekbone. He had also acquired a broken incisor and an “eight-ball” eye, black due to bleeding inside his eyeball.

“That’s a good look for you.” Erik Schäfer pointed to the messed-up face and sat down at the table across from the man. “Does it hurt? I mean, other than your manly pride?”

The man didn’t say anything.

“It must be humiliating for a street kid like yourself to get your ass handed to you by a yuppie with manicured nails and neatly pressed slacks.” Schäfer slapped a case file down hard on the table. “Humiliating!” he said, making a sympathetic face.

He pulled out a chair and sat down across from the man.