Horned Owl and the Bat: Ohne Zweifel (No Doubt, 1938)
Jul 22, 2022 3:47:32 GMT
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Post by redsycorax on Jul 22, 2022 3:47:32 GMT
The Horned Owl and the Bat were Frankfurt's premier crimefighting team in the days of late Weimar and early Nazi Germany. During that time, they solved many intractable criminal cases. This is one of them, but it turned out to be one that left its shadow on the Feathered Fury's heart.
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PROLOGUE: OWLSNEST, 1938:
Georg von Tregor smiled as he saw his young son Wilhelm realise his father had just entered his bedroom and hastily concealed a paperback:
"Oh! Uh, Father, you startled me!"
"Finished your homework, Willi?"
"Oh, ja. I was just...relaxing." At which point, the mysterious and hurriedly hidden book made an inopportune appearance as it slipped from below Wilhelm's pillow. Raising an eyebrow, Georg extracted the book as Wilhelm sank back into his bed, bracing for the admonition that would surely follow.
Instead of which, his father laughed out loud: "Ach, lad, your face! Did you think I'd scold you because I'd think this was schundliteratur, or some such nonsense? Well, this isn't. It's good to see you like her work too. Incidentally, you could have asked me for her books. She's widely translated in German, you know. I'd even consider this educational. Did you know that Agatha Christie is a qualified chemist? It definitely shows in her books. They're quite scientifically valid."
Wilhelm breathed a sigh of relief: "Uh, Father, thanks. But isn't reading them illegal under the schmut und schundgesetz laws?"
"Apparently, Goebbels and Himmler are both great fans of Miss Christie as well. If they did decide to ban them outright, there'd be a massive outcry. I know the snobbier sections of German society don't like them, but I don't think all popular novels should be treated the same. Detective fiction is massively popular, and it's excellent to see you taking an interest in our (ahem) 'family business' like this. Now, tell me, how many of her other books have you read?"
"Gosh, dad, I wish you'd told me this beforehand. Okay. Mord auf dem Golfplatz, Das geheimnisvolle Verbrechen in Styles, Roger Ackroyd und sein Mörder, Die Abenteurer-G.m.b.H - and that's about it."
"All of them. I thought you were showing good progress in chemistry. Just as well, given where we're going next."
"Is that a Vienna tourism book?" Wilhelm pointed to the slender volume in his father's hands.
"Yes, Willi. We're off to Vienna. The Horned Owl has been contacted by the Reich authorities down there and asked to investigate a suspected poisoning case."
"Wow! Does that mean we'll get to have some of that delicious chocolate of theirs?"
"Not too much, or it'll ruin your appetite. However, you do deserve a reward for being so studious and applied to our common purpose." Smiling still, Georg left Wilhelm to pack and hopefully, he'd take some of his Christie novels with him. His only regret was that he'd spent some of his pocket money on acquiring on those well-worn books. He sighed to himself- Willi was growing up fast. But if he kept up this level of commitment and initiative, their partnership would prosper and advance in the years ahead. And when the Horned Owl did eventually retire, the Bat would be able to take over and build on their already impressive reputation.
VIENNA: 1937:
Her name had originally been Marta Lowenstein. She was a foundling, which probably meant that she was 'illegitimate' in the repressive, puritanical atmosphere of conservative Catholic Vienna in 1904. As an infant, she was abandoned on the steps of an orphanage, but was adopted by a poor but loving working class couple. Life in Vienna's suburban tenements was hard, with irregular electricity, shared showers, problems with drinking water purity when it rained heavily, outside lavatories, occasional cockroach and ant infestations, and other aspects of grinding urban poverty. Marta's parents tried their best, but dressed in her second hand clothes and yearning for a better life, Marta looked on enviously at the more prosperous Viennese burghers with their fur coats, designer dresses and elegant footwear. And then, she got a job working in a womenswear store in 1919, just after the close of the Second World War. While working there, Marta caught the eye of Moritz Fritsch, a department store millionaire. Dazzled by his affluence and the fact that he was probably unable to father children on her, Marta let herself be seduced by the lecherous old man under the guise that she was his 'ward', although at fifteen, she was barely over the age of consent. In return for her 'favours', the indulgent Fritsch sent her to finishing schools in England and France, where she was surrounded by the daughters of the elite and her head was turned by the ostentatious wealth that she saw. As for what happened next, the reason is unclear. It may be that in the medical environment of the "Spanish' flu epidemic of 1918/19, Moritz Fritsch simply lacked immunity at his relatively advanced age after it arrived in Austria. It might have been the case that he had a weak heart or undiagnosed cancer. There are darker possible explanations, but even if they were plausible, there are chemical avenues whose residues only last for a short period of time before evaporation or dissolution. Without definitive evidence, however, and the time that since elapsed since Fritsch's death, it has become impossible to confirm whether or not the millionaire was the hypothetical victim of 'foul play'.
Whatever the reason, Marta Lowenstein now found herself a wealthy woman, given that she had inherited Fritsch's elegant mansion. While her elderly paramour was ailing, Marta's eye had fallen on handsome engineer Emil Marek. After Fritsch's death, she married the engineer, but the couple were spendthrifts and soon, in the atmosphere of economic instability that had engulfed Central Europe in the wake of the First World War and reparations imposed on their countries by the victorious allies, Emil and Marta Marek found themselves forced to sell the Modling mansion. It is unknown at what point Marta Marek began to entertain her future ambitions, but it is known that after the birth of their offspring, Marta convinced Emil to have a deliberate "accident" while engaged in chopping firewood for their more modest current circumstances so that they could benefit from the ten thousand schilling insurance policy that she had undertaken as they had agreed. Emil was not a particularly competent axeman however, and begged Marta to finish the job. There followed a battle of wits with their insurance company, whose hired doctor examined Emil and found that there were signs of three distinct axe incursions in his shattered leg. It charged the couple with insurance fraud, but the adept Marta bribed a nurse to perjure herself and claim that the insurance company had itself falsified the report to avoid paying out the policy on a severely injured man. The ruse worked and despite Emil's injury, the couple initially prospered. However, ironically, the nurse turned out to be mercenary herself when it came to her own profiteering and went to the police. The Mareks were convicted and served three months imprisonment, but oddly, the insurance company still paid them three thousand dollars.
Released, the couple left Austria and travelled to French colonial Algeria, where they tried and failed to maintain several small businesses. As a consequence, and now with two small children, they returned to Vienna. And then, a string of misfortunes hit Marta, who had been forced into operating a vegetable stall in the streets. First, Emil died, and then, so did her little daughter Ingeborg. Marta collected modest insurance dividends from their deaths. At that point, fate intervened, as Marta's elderly aunt, Suzanne Lowenstein, asked her niece to move in and care for her. While Marta did so, a curious series of events repeated themselves. Like Emil and Ingeborg before her, Suzanne Lowenstein found it difficult to swallow and her limbs became heavy and difficult to move. One month after Marta had moved into her property, Suzanne Lowenstein passed away, leaving her niece her property and a modest fortune. Again, Marta indulged herself and was forced to turn her aunt's former property into a boarding house for affluent clients. One of them, an elderly woman named Mrs Kittenburger, also passed away shortly afterward, leaving Marta a modest sum.
Thus far, one might be forgiven for asking why this particular case could not have simply be dealt with by the insurance company at the centre of this case of homicidal insurance fraud. The answer is that indeed, that was their initial solution. However, fate took a still darker turn when Marta Marek reported that valuable paintings had been 'stolen' from Suzanne Lowenstein's property. At this point, the company claim adjudicator in the case was one Ignatz Peters, who had been able to detect the initial scam that the late Emil and Marta Marek had operated in the case of his 'accidental' self-amputation now over a decade ago. However, Peters would prove unable to bring this particular case to a satisfactory solution. Whether it was because he had detected fraud once more in the case of the purloined paintings or had located them, he was shot at close range. All too conveniently, the thief involved was also killed a matter of minutes afterward.
Reluctantly, the insurance company agreed to pay Marta Marek insurance money related to the 'theft' of the paintings. However, it had begun to entertain some dark suspicions now and reported the matter to Vienna's police. As the anschluss had just occurred, the new Viennese police hierarchy had thought it right and proper that it show some pan-Germanic solidarity in this context and decided to contact the UBA, requesting the assistance of the "Feathered Fury", the Horned Owl and his young companion, the Bat. Thus it was that the two German master detectives crossed the German/Austrian border and headed for Vienna to investigate the allegations swirling around the alleged 'black widow,' Marta Marek...
VIENNA: 1938:
There was still some animosity evident on Vienna's streets. That was only natural, it had been mere months since the German Army had annexed Austria in March 1938, after four years of instability starting with the Austrian Nazi assassination of the Austrofascist "Fatherland Front" Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss in 1934 and a steady stream of pro-unification propaganda that had culminated in the resignation of Chancellor Albert Schushchnigg and a forced 'plebiscite' which backed the absorption of Austria into the Greater German Reich, unsettling France, the United Kingdom and many of Germany's Eastern European neighbours. Some Austrians had welcomed the advent of unification, others despaired at the loss of their national sovereignty and feared for the future and there was a steady and continuing exodus of Austrian Jews evident as Austria fell into the maw of the Nazi behemoth.
However, while Georg and Wilhelm Von Tregor kept up with the news and current affairs, they were more concerned with sampling Austria's cuisine that morning. Wilhelm devoured plates full of schnitzel and beef goulash and rubbed his hands in glee as the costumed waitstaff brought chocolate-laden haustorte to their table, much to his father's amusement. And then he saw her. She was a tall woman, whose hair was elegantly draped across her shoulder. She was dressed in fine haute couture, fur draped over her shoulder, and silk-stockinged slender legs in black stiletto heels. She was Marta Marek, their quarry. She happened to glance over at Georg and Wilhelm's table and pressed an elegantly gloved hand to her lips with her handkerchief, trying to stifle laughter at Wilhelm's interest in the chocolate cake repast before him. Then she recovered her poise: "Oh, I'm sorry. That was rude of me."
"Ach, think nothing of it, fraulein. I promised Willi here a treat when we got to Vienna and a friend told me the Cafe Frauenhauber was the restaurant to attend in Vienna. It certainly is beautiful. Just think, Willi, we're having breakfast where great musicians like Beethoven and Mozart once played. Oh. Manners. I'm Georg Von Tregor and his little scamp is my son, Wilhelm."
Marta Marek smiled at them both: "My, you are well informed! Oh, and technically, it's frau, not fraulein. Although I am a widow."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Mrs..."
"Marek. Marta Marek. Your son must be a very good little boy to have warranted such a wonderful treat."
"He's very good at science, particularly. Do you have any children yourself, Marta?"
A shadow crossed her face and a moment of piercing grief was evident: "One. My... seven year old daughter, Ingeborg, passed away several years ago."
And in the background, a chamber orchestra was playing. Inwardly, Georg marvelled at the incongruity. He could witness the older, starchier matrons whispering at the newcomer approaching the two German tourists as she had done and no doubt they were whispering at the controversy and rumours that now attended Mrs. Marek. However, he also noticed Marta Marek's angry glare at the dowagers and matrons, who ceased their conversation. Some of them visibly blanched, as others hurriedly settled their bills and made ready to hurriedly leave the Cafe in its wake.
That was only natural, thought Georg. After all, as part of his Horned Owl newspaper clippings, he'd kept an eye on crime stories in Austrian newspapers. It wasn't that long ago, only in 1935 in fact, that the fanatical student Johann Neiblock had murdered the celebrated Viennese analytical philosopher Friedrich Schlick at the University of Vienna itself. While Neiblock was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, the defence team had transformed the killing into a 'prophylactic act' against the "Bolshevik-Jewish international conspiracy", regardless of the fact that Doctor Schlick had not been Jewish himself. The post-anschluss Austrian regional government had exercised misguided clemency and released Neiblock after only two years of his ten year sentence. While Georg certainly favoured preventative detention for unpatriotic communist agitators back in the fatherland, condoning a cold-blooded assassination like that of Doctor Schlick stuck in his craw.
And then there was the more controversial figure Father Ignatz Seipel, head of Austria's Christian Social Union. While the late Father Seipel had been a Catholic priest, he was most assuredly not a Catholic Centrist as Georg himself had been before the Nazi coup in 1933. Instead, he had been infamous for his connections to right-wing militia groups and was constantly scheming with them or mitigating their murderous acts against Social Democrats, Austromarxists and even other right-wing factions. His chancellorship was controversial, and there had been an assassination attempt back in 1924. As a consequence, he had suffered from diabetes and tuberculosis, ultimately dying at a lower Austrian health spa in 1932. Just as well the Reich had annexed Austria, thought Georg. While he considered himself a conservative, he was not one to condone lawless anarchy on the extreme right any more than the far left. Similarly, the assassination of Chancellor Dolfuss in 1934 by a group of Austrian Nazis had revolted him. Further back, there was the killing of that Jewish dentist Morduch Halsman in the Tyrol. Unbelievably, in a hopelessly bungled and corrupt investigation, the authorities had succumbed to vulgar antisemitism, charged his student son Philippe with the murder and imprisoned him. Fortunately, justice prevailed and after an international outcry, Philippe had been released after only a year, thereafter leaving Austria for France, where he now worked as a photographer. As a student himself, Georg had signed a petition against the unjust imprisonment.
As he came back to the present day, he waved goodbye to the departing Frau Marek. As he did so, he realised that this case might be more difficult than many of the others that he had tackled over the years. However, while "black widows" might be beautiful creatures and spin intricately designed webs, that did not mean that they were any less deadly.
VIENNA GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS:
After they had changed into their Horned Owl and Bat uniforms, the two Frankfurters made their way to Vienna's Gestapo headquarters, where the local Gestapo chief, Franz von Huber, and Vienna's city gauleiter, Baldur von Schirach, awaited their arrival. After perfunctory and largely ceremonial heil Hitlers to one another, they settled down to business. As they talked, it became obvious that the two men had differing priorities- Huber was more focused on the deportation of Viennese Jews away from the city and Schirach was more oriented toward the redistribution of 'reclaimed' (stolen) housing stock to gain status amongst his Austrian party colleagues. To the Horned Owl's growing irritation and dismay, they seemed to be more obsessed with the "Jewish problem", interception and imprisonment of social democrat and communist dissidents and Bible students than with the more mundane and everyday aspects of policing and detective work. Finally, however, the Horned Owl and his sidekick gained access to the essential Zentralevidenz files of criminal suspects and Fandungsblatter (wanted suspect) files so that they could go about their contracted business. At present, though, Marta Marek's files were in transition from the first room of files to the second, so they proved difficult to track down. However, in the end, they were successful.
"Owl, why has this been allowed to continue on for so long?" The Bat whispered.
"Because the Viennese Gestapo believes that its first duty is to apprehend Jews, political dissidents and other "threats' to Austrian and Reich security, Bat. Its Ehrhebung evidence gathering process is thus affected by the factor of Gessinung. That means that although the Austrian courts have considerable latitude and can hold prisoners for as long as eight days, merely on suspicion of 'wrongdoing,' the cells are clogged with 'politicals' and not with everyday criminals. Unless the criminals in question are foolish enough to prey on party members or members of the armed forces."
"And so, because Frau Marek has not done so...?"
"Her case is accorded lower priority. Yes, I know, lad, but they contacted us in order to bring the suspected murderer of several people to justice and that is what we must do."
CAFE FRAUENHABER:
While Georg decided to romance Frau Marek in the palatial Cafe Frauenhaber in order to gain background clues as to her motivation, his partner the Bat broke into the former Lowenstein apartments and proceeded to put his forensic chemistry training from his father to good use. Gloved and masked, and with a visor, the Bat frowned as test after test for possible substance contamination failed to provide any clues as to what, if any, poison had been used against Frau Marek's putative 'victims.' However, on his fifth try, the Bat found what he was looking for. What he had thought initially to be 'tin' gave off a distinctive green colouration when he exposed it to air. He searched for evidence of glass manufacture or any signs of involvement in the pharmaceutical industry, but then found 'paydirt.' In his gloved hand, he picked up a small box of rat poison, labelled Zelliopest. He looked closely at the list of active chemical compounds on the side of the box. Yes, his suspicions were valid. It was thallium. Depositing it in a plastic envelope, the Bat was perplexed to hear moaning from the adjacent room. To his horror, he found Frau Marek's son, with copious shed hair on his pillow and what seemed to be numbed hands and feet. From what his father had told him, those were signs of thallium poisoning! Which could mean... with a torchlight, the Bat found the supplementary evidence that he'd been looking for- invoices for not inconsiderable amounts of zelliopest. Given that this area of Vienna had few rodent problems, the Bat congratulated himself on his collection of what seemed to be a damning amount of forensic evidence that Frau Marek was a 'psychopath', with few inhibitions about taking human life. As his father had instructed him beforehand, he also took hair and urine samples from the nearly comatose youngster before retreating to a safe distance, thoroughly decontaminating himself back in their Viennese hotel room and then calling Georg at the cafe:
"Father?"
"Yes, Willi."
"About that chemistry homework you asked me to do. The answer seems to be thallium."
"You're sure about that?"
"The background tests bear it out, Father. I'm told that it can be a potent poison. Enough to poison a little boy."
"Mein gott."
"I heard an ambulance on the way to an apartment near here." Coded, that conversation meant that the Bat had called for medical assistance for the poisoned child after he had undertaken forensic analysis of the Lowenstein/Marek apartment and then called the police. Although Georg offered to escort Marta Marek home, she turned him down. However, he did insist on paying for a taxi. And after he saw her off, he turned on his heel and went back to the hotel. Georg regretted the subterfuge, but his son had found enough evidence to conclusively suggest that Marta Marek was a mass murderer and she had to be stopped before she could kill anyone else. And from what Willi had told him, her next victim would have been her own son.
EPILOGUE: DECEMBER 1938:
From then on, after Marta Marek's apprehension at her apartment home, justice moved inexorably to its conclusion. The bodies of Emil and Ingeborg Marek, Suzanne Lowenstein and her last victim, lodger Mrs Felicitas Kittenberger, all disclosed telltale concentrations of thallium in their bodies, too much to suggest accidental cumulative exposure and moreover, much of it was found within their digestive tracts, indicating that the substance had been administered through poisoned food. Although Marta Marek feigned paralysis in the hope of an early release, she was unaware that the new Reich administration had reinstated capital punishment. Although there was some debate about using it against a female murderer, the Viennese city administration received a guillotine from Berlin and after a brief struggle on the day of her execution, during which time she delivered a swift kick to the executioner, Johann Rheinhart. The blade took only a matter of seconds to slice through her neck and thus, on December 6, 1938, the 'black widow' Marta Lowenstein Marek perished. Although Reich newspaper censorship meant that there was no media coverage, Gestapo bureaucrats insured that the Horned Owl was handed a receipt informing him that the murderer had met her end.
That night, Georg Von Tregor got very drunk.
THE END [12.30, JULY 25, 2022]
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PROLOGUE: OWLSNEST, 1938:
Georg von Tregor smiled as he saw his young son Wilhelm realise his father had just entered his bedroom and hastily concealed a paperback:
"Oh! Uh, Father, you startled me!"
"Finished your homework, Willi?"
"Oh, ja. I was just...relaxing." At which point, the mysterious and hurriedly hidden book made an inopportune appearance as it slipped from below Wilhelm's pillow. Raising an eyebrow, Georg extracted the book as Wilhelm sank back into his bed, bracing for the admonition that would surely follow.
Instead of which, his father laughed out loud: "Ach, lad, your face! Did you think I'd scold you because I'd think this was schundliteratur, or some such nonsense? Well, this isn't. It's good to see you like her work too. Incidentally, you could have asked me for her books. She's widely translated in German, you know. I'd even consider this educational. Did you know that Agatha Christie is a qualified chemist? It definitely shows in her books. They're quite scientifically valid."
Wilhelm breathed a sigh of relief: "Uh, Father, thanks. But isn't reading them illegal under the schmut und schundgesetz laws?"
"Apparently, Goebbels and Himmler are both great fans of Miss Christie as well. If they did decide to ban them outright, there'd be a massive outcry. I know the snobbier sections of German society don't like them, but I don't think all popular novels should be treated the same. Detective fiction is massively popular, and it's excellent to see you taking an interest in our (ahem) 'family business' like this. Now, tell me, how many of her other books have you read?"
"Gosh, dad, I wish you'd told me this beforehand. Okay. Mord auf dem Golfplatz, Das geheimnisvolle Verbrechen in Styles, Roger Ackroyd und sein Mörder, Die Abenteurer-G.m.b.H - and that's about it."
"All of them. I thought you were showing good progress in chemistry. Just as well, given where we're going next."
"Is that a Vienna tourism book?" Wilhelm pointed to the slender volume in his father's hands.
"Yes, Willi. We're off to Vienna. The Horned Owl has been contacted by the Reich authorities down there and asked to investigate a suspected poisoning case."
"Wow! Does that mean we'll get to have some of that delicious chocolate of theirs?"
"Not too much, or it'll ruin your appetite. However, you do deserve a reward for being so studious and applied to our common purpose." Smiling still, Georg left Wilhelm to pack and hopefully, he'd take some of his Christie novels with him. His only regret was that he'd spent some of his pocket money on acquiring on those well-worn books. He sighed to himself- Willi was growing up fast. But if he kept up this level of commitment and initiative, their partnership would prosper and advance in the years ahead. And when the Horned Owl did eventually retire, the Bat would be able to take over and build on their already impressive reputation.
VIENNA: 1937:
Her name had originally been Marta Lowenstein. She was a foundling, which probably meant that she was 'illegitimate' in the repressive, puritanical atmosphere of conservative Catholic Vienna in 1904. As an infant, she was abandoned on the steps of an orphanage, but was adopted by a poor but loving working class couple. Life in Vienna's suburban tenements was hard, with irregular electricity, shared showers, problems with drinking water purity when it rained heavily, outside lavatories, occasional cockroach and ant infestations, and other aspects of grinding urban poverty. Marta's parents tried their best, but dressed in her second hand clothes and yearning for a better life, Marta looked on enviously at the more prosperous Viennese burghers with their fur coats, designer dresses and elegant footwear. And then, she got a job working in a womenswear store in 1919, just after the close of the Second World War. While working there, Marta caught the eye of Moritz Fritsch, a department store millionaire. Dazzled by his affluence and the fact that he was probably unable to father children on her, Marta let herself be seduced by the lecherous old man under the guise that she was his 'ward', although at fifteen, she was barely over the age of consent. In return for her 'favours', the indulgent Fritsch sent her to finishing schools in England and France, where she was surrounded by the daughters of the elite and her head was turned by the ostentatious wealth that she saw. As for what happened next, the reason is unclear. It may be that in the medical environment of the "Spanish' flu epidemic of 1918/19, Moritz Fritsch simply lacked immunity at his relatively advanced age after it arrived in Austria. It might have been the case that he had a weak heart or undiagnosed cancer. There are darker possible explanations, but even if they were plausible, there are chemical avenues whose residues only last for a short period of time before evaporation or dissolution. Without definitive evidence, however, and the time that since elapsed since Fritsch's death, it has become impossible to confirm whether or not the millionaire was the hypothetical victim of 'foul play'.
Whatever the reason, Marta Lowenstein now found herself a wealthy woman, given that she had inherited Fritsch's elegant mansion. While her elderly paramour was ailing, Marta's eye had fallen on handsome engineer Emil Marek. After Fritsch's death, she married the engineer, but the couple were spendthrifts and soon, in the atmosphere of economic instability that had engulfed Central Europe in the wake of the First World War and reparations imposed on their countries by the victorious allies, Emil and Marta Marek found themselves forced to sell the Modling mansion. It is unknown at what point Marta Marek began to entertain her future ambitions, but it is known that after the birth of their offspring, Marta convinced Emil to have a deliberate "accident" while engaged in chopping firewood for their more modest current circumstances so that they could benefit from the ten thousand schilling insurance policy that she had undertaken as they had agreed. Emil was not a particularly competent axeman however, and begged Marta to finish the job. There followed a battle of wits with their insurance company, whose hired doctor examined Emil and found that there were signs of three distinct axe incursions in his shattered leg. It charged the couple with insurance fraud, but the adept Marta bribed a nurse to perjure herself and claim that the insurance company had itself falsified the report to avoid paying out the policy on a severely injured man. The ruse worked and despite Emil's injury, the couple initially prospered. However, ironically, the nurse turned out to be mercenary herself when it came to her own profiteering and went to the police. The Mareks were convicted and served three months imprisonment, but oddly, the insurance company still paid them three thousand dollars.
Released, the couple left Austria and travelled to French colonial Algeria, where they tried and failed to maintain several small businesses. As a consequence, and now with two small children, they returned to Vienna. And then, a string of misfortunes hit Marta, who had been forced into operating a vegetable stall in the streets. First, Emil died, and then, so did her little daughter Ingeborg. Marta collected modest insurance dividends from their deaths. At that point, fate intervened, as Marta's elderly aunt, Suzanne Lowenstein, asked her niece to move in and care for her. While Marta did so, a curious series of events repeated themselves. Like Emil and Ingeborg before her, Suzanne Lowenstein found it difficult to swallow and her limbs became heavy and difficult to move. One month after Marta had moved into her property, Suzanne Lowenstein passed away, leaving her niece her property and a modest fortune. Again, Marta indulged herself and was forced to turn her aunt's former property into a boarding house for affluent clients. One of them, an elderly woman named Mrs Kittenburger, also passed away shortly afterward, leaving Marta a modest sum.
Thus far, one might be forgiven for asking why this particular case could not have simply be dealt with by the insurance company at the centre of this case of homicidal insurance fraud. The answer is that indeed, that was their initial solution. However, fate took a still darker turn when Marta Marek reported that valuable paintings had been 'stolen' from Suzanne Lowenstein's property. At this point, the company claim adjudicator in the case was one Ignatz Peters, who had been able to detect the initial scam that the late Emil and Marta Marek had operated in the case of his 'accidental' self-amputation now over a decade ago. However, Peters would prove unable to bring this particular case to a satisfactory solution. Whether it was because he had detected fraud once more in the case of the purloined paintings or had located them, he was shot at close range. All too conveniently, the thief involved was also killed a matter of minutes afterward.
Reluctantly, the insurance company agreed to pay Marta Marek insurance money related to the 'theft' of the paintings. However, it had begun to entertain some dark suspicions now and reported the matter to Vienna's police. As the anschluss had just occurred, the new Viennese police hierarchy had thought it right and proper that it show some pan-Germanic solidarity in this context and decided to contact the UBA, requesting the assistance of the "Feathered Fury", the Horned Owl and his young companion, the Bat. Thus it was that the two German master detectives crossed the German/Austrian border and headed for Vienna to investigate the allegations swirling around the alleged 'black widow,' Marta Marek...
VIENNA: 1938:
There was still some animosity evident on Vienna's streets. That was only natural, it had been mere months since the German Army had annexed Austria in March 1938, after four years of instability starting with the Austrian Nazi assassination of the Austrofascist "Fatherland Front" Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss in 1934 and a steady stream of pro-unification propaganda that had culminated in the resignation of Chancellor Albert Schushchnigg and a forced 'plebiscite' which backed the absorption of Austria into the Greater German Reich, unsettling France, the United Kingdom and many of Germany's Eastern European neighbours. Some Austrians had welcomed the advent of unification, others despaired at the loss of their national sovereignty and feared for the future and there was a steady and continuing exodus of Austrian Jews evident as Austria fell into the maw of the Nazi behemoth.
However, while Georg and Wilhelm Von Tregor kept up with the news and current affairs, they were more concerned with sampling Austria's cuisine that morning. Wilhelm devoured plates full of schnitzel and beef goulash and rubbed his hands in glee as the costumed waitstaff brought chocolate-laden haustorte to their table, much to his father's amusement. And then he saw her. She was a tall woman, whose hair was elegantly draped across her shoulder. She was dressed in fine haute couture, fur draped over her shoulder, and silk-stockinged slender legs in black stiletto heels. She was Marta Marek, their quarry. She happened to glance over at Georg and Wilhelm's table and pressed an elegantly gloved hand to her lips with her handkerchief, trying to stifle laughter at Wilhelm's interest in the chocolate cake repast before him. Then she recovered her poise: "Oh, I'm sorry. That was rude of me."
"Ach, think nothing of it, fraulein. I promised Willi here a treat when we got to Vienna and a friend told me the Cafe Frauenhauber was the restaurant to attend in Vienna. It certainly is beautiful. Just think, Willi, we're having breakfast where great musicians like Beethoven and Mozart once played. Oh. Manners. I'm Georg Von Tregor and his little scamp is my son, Wilhelm."
Marta Marek smiled at them both: "My, you are well informed! Oh, and technically, it's frau, not fraulein. Although I am a widow."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Mrs..."
"Marek. Marta Marek. Your son must be a very good little boy to have warranted such a wonderful treat."
"He's very good at science, particularly. Do you have any children yourself, Marta?"
A shadow crossed her face and a moment of piercing grief was evident: "One. My... seven year old daughter, Ingeborg, passed away several years ago."
And in the background, a chamber orchestra was playing. Inwardly, Georg marvelled at the incongruity. He could witness the older, starchier matrons whispering at the newcomer approaching the two German tourists as she had done and no doubt they were whispering at the controversy and rumours that now attended Mrs. Marek. However, he also noticed Marta Marek's angry glare at the dowagers and matrons, who ceased their conversation. Some of them visibly blanched, as others hurriedly settled their bills and made ready to hurriedly leave the Cafe in its wake.
That was only natural, thought Georg. After all, as part of his Horned Owl newspaper clippings, he'd kept an eye on crime stories in Austrian newspapers. It wasn't that long ago, only in 1935 in fact, that the fanatical student Johann Neiblock had murdered the celebrated Viennese analytical philosopher Friedrich Schlick at the University of Vienna itself. While Neiblock was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, the defence team had transformed the killing into a 'prophylactic act' against the "Bolshevik-Jewish international conspiracy", regardless of the fact that Doctor Schlick had not been Jewish himself. The post-anschluss Austrian regional government had exercised misguided clemency and released Neiblock after only two years of his ten year sentence. While Georg certainly favoured preventative detention for unpatriotic communist agitators back in the fatherland, condoning a cold-blooded assassination like that of Doctor Schlick stuck in his craw.
And then there was the more controversial figure Father Ignatz Seipel, head of Austria's Christian Social Union. While the late Father Seipel had been a Catholic priest, he was most assuredly not a Catholic Centrist as Georg himself had been before the Nazi coup in 1933. Instead, he had been infamous for his connections to right-wing militia groups and was constantly scheming with them or mitigating their murderous acts against Social Democrats, Austromarxists and even other right-wing factions. His chancellorship was controversial, and there had been an assassination attempt back in 1924. As a consequence, he had suffered from diabetes and tuberculosis, ultimately dying at a lower Austrian health spa in 1932. Just as well the Reich had annexed Austria, thought Georg. While he considered himself a conservative, he was not one to condone lawless anarchy on the extreme right any more than the far left. Similarly, the assassination of Chancellor Dolfuss in 1934 by a group of Austrian Nazis had revolted him. Further back, there was the killing of that Jewish dentist Morduch Halsman in the Tyrol. Unbelievably, in a hopelessly bungled and corrupt investigation, the authorities had succumbed to vulgar antisemitism, charged his student son Philippe with the murder and imprisoned him. Fortunately, justice prevailed and after an international outcry, Philippe had been released after only a year, thereafter leaving Austria for France, where he now worked as a photographer. As a student himself, Georg had signed a petition against the unjust imprisonment.
As he came back to the present day, he waved goodbye to the departing Frau Marek. As he did so, he realised that this case might be more difficult than many of the others that he had tackled over the years. However, while "black widows" might be beautiful creatures and spin intricately designed webs, that did not mean that they were any less deadly.
VIENNA GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS:
After they had changed into their Horned Owl and Bat uniforms, the two Frankfurters made their way to Vienna's Gestapo headquarters, where the local Gestapo chief, Franz von Huber, and Vienna's city gauleiter, Baldur von Schirach, awaited their arrival. After perfunctory and largely ceremonial heil Hitlers to one another, they settled down to business. As they talked, it became obvious that the two men had differing priorities- Huber was more focused on the deportation of Viennese Jews away from the city and Schirach was more oriented toward the redistribution of 'reclaimed' (stolen) housing stock to gain status amongst his Austrian party colleagues. To the Horned Owl's growing irritation and dismay, they seemed to be more obsessed with the "Jewish problem", interception and imprisonment of social democrat and communist dissidents and Bible students than with the more mundane and everyday aspects of policing and detective work. Finally, however, the Horned Owl and his sidekick gained access to the essential Zentralevidenz files of criminal suspects and Fandungsblatter (wanted suspect) files so that they could go about their contracted business. At present, though, Marta Marek's files were in transition from the first room of files to the second, so they proved difficult to track down. However, in the end, they were successful.
"Owl, why has this been allowed to continue on for so long?" The Bat whispered.
"Because the Viennese Gestapo believes that its first duty is to apprehend Jews, political dissidents and other "threats' to Austrian and Reich security, Bat. Its Ehrhebung evidence gathering process is thus affected by the factor of Gessinung. That means that although the Austrian courts have considerable latitude and can hold prisoners for as long as eight days, merely on suspicion of 'wrongdoing,' the cells are clogged with 'politicals' and not with everyday criminals. Unless the criminals in question are foolish enough to prey on party members or members of the armed forces."
"And so, because Frau Marek has not done so...?"
"Her case is accorded lower priority. Yes, I know, lad, but they contacted us in order to bring the suspected murderer of several people to justice and that is what we must do."
CAFE FRAUENHABER:
While Georg decided to romance Frau Marek in the palatial Cafe Frauenhaber in order to gain background clues as to her motivation, his partner the Bat broke into the former Lowenstein apartments and proceeded to put his forensic chemistry training from his father to good use. Gloved and masked, and with a visor, the Bat frowned as test after test for possible substance contamination failed to provide any clues as to what, if any, poison had been used against Frau Marek's putative 'victims.' However, on his fifth try, the Bat found what he was looking for. What he had thought initially to be 'tin' gave off a distinctive green colouration when he exposed it to air. He searched for evidence of glass manufacture or any signs of involvement in the pharmaceutical industry, but then found 'paydirt.' In his gloved hand, he picked up a small box of rat poison, labelled Zelliopest. He looked closely at the list of active chemical compounds on the side of the box. Yes, his suspicions were valid. It was thallium. Depositing it in a plastic envelope, the Bat was perplexed to hear moaning from the adjacent room. To his horror, he found Frau Marek's son, with copious shed hair on his pillow and what seemed to be numbed hands and feet. From what his father had told him, those were signs of thallium poisoning! Which could mean... with a torchlight, the Bat found the supplementary evidence that he'd been looking for- invoices for not inconsiderable amounts of zelliopest. Given that this area of Vienna had few rodent problems, the Bat congratulated himself on his collection of what seemed to be a damning amount of forensic evidence that Frau Marek was a 'psychopath', with few inhibitions about taking human life. As his father had instructed him beforehand, he also took hair and urine samples from the nearly comatose youngster before retreating to a safe distance, thoroughly decontaminating himself back in their Viennese hotel room and then calling Georg at the cafe:
"Father?"
"Yes, Willi."
"About that chemistry homework you asked me to do. The answer seems to be thallium."
"You're sure about that?"
"The background tests bear it out, Father. I'm told that it can be a potent poison. Enough to poison a little boy."
"Mein gott."
"I heard an ambulance on the way to an apartment near here." Coded, that conversation meant that the Bat had called for medical assistance for the poisoned child after he had undertaken forensic analysis of the Lowenstein/Marek apartment and then called the police. Although Georg offered to escort Marta Marek home, she turned him down. However, he did insist on paying for a taxi. And after he saw her off, he turned on his heel and went back to the hotel. Georg regretted the subterfuge, but his son had found enough evidence to conclusively suggest that Marta Marek was a mass murderer and she had to be stopped before she could kill anyone else. And from what Willi had told him, her next victim would have been her own son.
EPILOGUE: DECEMBER 1938:
From then on, after Marta Marek's apprehension at her apartment home, justice moved inexorably to its conclusion. The bodies of Emil and Ingeborg Marek, Suzanne Lowenstein and her last victim, lodger Mrs Felicitas Kittenberger, all disclosed telltale concentrations of thallium in their bodies, too much to suggest accidental cumulative exposure and moreover, much of it was found within their digestive tracts, indicating that the substance had been administered through poisoned food. Although Marta Marek feigned paralysis in the hope of an early release, she was unaware that the new Reich administration had reinstated capital punishment. Although there was some debate about using it against a female murderer, the Viennese city administration received a guillotine from Berlin and after a brief struggle on the day of her execution, during which time she delivered a swift kick to the executioner, Johann Rheinhart. The blade took only a matter of seconds to slice through her neck and thus, on December 6, 1938, the 'black widow' Marta Lowenstein Marek perished. Although Reich newspaper censorship meant that there was no media coverage, Gestapo bureaucrats insured that the Horned Owl was handed a receipt informing him that the murderer had met her end.
That night, Georg Von Tregor got very drunk.
THE END [12.30, JULY 25, 2022]