He picked up the razor again and considered his target area. She had a compact, dark bush, shot through with occasional coarse grey hairs. He’d never cut a woman before Margarethe Schilling and it had taken a little more thought. But now his was a practised hand. He made his first incision across the top, where the pale skin of her flat stomach disappeared under the hair. Then he made two further incisions at an angle down the side of the mound of Venus. Delicately, he teased the edge of the razor under the skin, gently peeling it back from the flesh below. It was easier every time, his movements more assured. Where her body began to curve downwards towards the labia, he made a straight cut across the skin and lifted the scalp on the blade of the razor, leaving a raw scarlet trapezoid oozing blood. He unscrewed the jar he’d brought with him and slid his trophy into the formalin, relishing the swirl of red fading to pink as the blood washed clear of the skin. He smiled beatifically, then fastened the jar. Then he began to clear up. The last act was to take out a handkerchief and rub down everything he had touched, including her skin. Finally, wrapping the handkerchief round his fingers, he took a slim folder from his bag and crossed to the filing cabinets. He slid the file into place under the letter C. His case notes on the bitch were safely in place.

The job was done. And done better than ever before. He was the master now, no question of that.

Case Notes

Name: Marie-Thérèse Calvet

Session Number: 1

Comments: The patient presents with a lack of respect for other human beings. Her self-importance blinds her to the needs and rights of others. She sees herself as the centre of her own universe to whom everyone else should defer. Other people exist purely for the furtherance of her own desires.

That she has attained her position in her chosen field is a tribute to her ruthless pursuit of her own desires to the detriment of others. She attempts to negate her femininity with an approach to her work that is aggressively masculine. She is reluctant to concede the contribution of others to her work, invariably claiming credit for herself. She lacks affect or empathy.

Therapeutic Action: Altered state therapy initiated.

Chapter 25

25

Darko Krasic supposed he had better things to do than sit outside an apartment block off the Ku’damm waiting for a woman. On the other hand, time spent preventing his boss from making a fucking fool of himself had to be time well spent. It had been bad enough when Tadzio had wanted to show his face on the front line. Look where that had got them. Krasic had to set up an assassination and childcare, and he knew which was harder of those two to manage.