Part 4 – episode 30
“Welcome back, Luisa!”
Air! I gasped! They had given me a few hours in my cell. I had no idea whether it was day or night, after all these detentions and interrogations. And it was getting worse. They had taken me out of my cell, stripped me naked again and hung me once more in an uncomfortable position. They said they would try ‘another treatment’! This time I was bent with my knees over a horizontal iron bar between two brick-built supports. My wrists were handcuffed together to the bar. My ankles were shackled. After they had hung up, they had immediately recommenced with their watering cans. This time it was even more awful, because in this position, my head hung even more backward.
"This was just a refreshing, Luisa, or whoever you pretend to be, in order to remind you that we do with you what we want!"
"I have told everything already you last time."
"You have told us some bizarre things, Luisa. But that does not interest us at the moment. How do you have that info on the Lieutenant? Who was your contact? And tell us about that murder! We want to hear about that!"
"But I have not murdered…!"
"Luisa, in your studio we have found a weapon that unambiguously can be associated with the murder of Captain Ramoz in Chaos city on the 20th of August!"
"But I have not done that!? I was to Kathalos that day, for a work meeting! There are witnesses... "
"In that case, Luisa, to whom you have lent that weapon? Or for whom were you hiding it?"
"But! No one!"
"Luisa! You really make things difficult! Give her more water!"
I went again through the wet hell.
“So, Luisa!? We keep silent?”
“Please let me down!”
I was rather moaning than talking. Especially the cramps and the pain in my knee cavity, and in my wrists and ankles which in the previous session had already been stressed, was gradually becoming unbearable. To relieve the pain I had to pull on my wrists. However, that was just the displacing the problem to my fingers. In addition, my backwards pending head made me feel vertiginous.
"Untie you? No, Luisa. But we give you a moment's rest. We know that the way you hang is painful, very painful. Very unpleasant! A torture on its own! We just leave you a moment, while we add something extra."
That 'something extra' turned out to be Maryszkà! They brought her in, stripped her naked and hung her next to me on the iron bar.
“Give her something to drink too!”
Without asking her a single question, they started pouring water over Maryszkà's face, like they had already done to me. Powerless I had to watch how she tried in vain to get away from under the jets of water and how she got more and more terrified, trying to keep the water from entering her mouth and nostrils, while trying to keep breathing. Whatever she did, shaking her head, trying to keep her breath, it all failed. I saw the increasing panic in her eyes. She began – or she tried at least – to trample and to struggle with her arms and legs, in the vain hope to break free. The iron bar was jolting up and down. Then it was finally over. They reached loudly for air, like a newborn who makes his first breath, but much louder, much more intense. A high, loud roar! Her face looked terrible, unrecognizable. Coughing and sniffing she tried to spit the water out of her lungs. Then she came back, slowly.
"So, Luisa, we have also invited your girlfriend, as you see. Maryszkà, that is her name, isn’t it? Well, Maryszkà, I have been informed that your two are friends. Good girl friends even, I heard. You see, Maryszkà, your girlfriend Luisa here, isn't really willing to cooperate with us. We expect from her a few answers to a few simple questions. But the only thing she does is telling us useless nonsense! You can perhaps help us?"
"Help!? How?"
"By giving Luisa some moral support!"
"Moral support?"
Right away they started again pouring water over Maryszkà's face. I had to witness the same scene as before.
"Tell us, Maryszkà, how long do you know Luisa?"
"Some ... ten years."
"Some ten years? And, how much children has Luisa?”
Maryszkà looked amazed at me to? Was the interrogation about that?
“None as far as I know."
"Strange, don't you think? Luisa tries to convince us that she has a son of about twenty years old. Someone we know. A son whom she has not seen for a long time! What mother would leave her child behind so long, and could keep silent about it? That's makes no sense, isn’t it?"
"I have two children, born in France. Robert and Enguerrand. And I got to leave them behind! By circumstances!" I interfered.
"Oh, Yes, Luisa, and why did you left them behind? What were those 'circumstances' that urge a mother to separate from her children two thousand miles away for so many years. Not a caring mother, I would think! What are you hiding, Luisa?"
"Nothing! Nothing at all! It was because my husband was accused of conspiracy against the King!"
“The conspiracy of the Artois! You already told us about that! You are an imposter, Luisa, a traitor, a murderer, a spy, a wicked seductress! Unfortunately for you, you come up with the most ridiculous story I ever heard!”
“But you can confront my story with the Lieutenant’s! You have me here! Do it!?”
“Luisa, you don’t have to give us orders! We are not going to force an officer of the King to cooperate to such an investigation against his will! Forget that! Luisa, let’s talk about the real facts! Tell us about the gun we found in your studio! Where did you get it from!?”
“I.. found it.”
“Oh yes, Luisa, everybody knows how guns are littered all over the streets! Dear Luisa! We have checked the origin of that weapon! It was originally a French army pistol. It was part of a lot that has been phased out and sold to Hungary in 1993. How did it come in your hands? Who gave it to you!? Or where have you stolen it?”
“No? Someone gave it to me!”
“First you have found it, then someone gave it to you!? There is something we have to tell you, Luisa! Every gun barrel is unique! That means that, when fired, every gun barrel leaves its own unique imprint on every bullet that is fired by it. It is a signature it leaves behind on every bullet! That signature allows to link a fired bullet to the weapon it was fired with! This weapon, Luisa, is used for the murder of Captain Ramoz! No doubt about it! But we have also discovered, Luisa, that it has been used for a much older murder, some twenty years ago! Tell us about that!?”
“I did not commit a murder!”
“Luisa, does the name Lisa Kellermann reminds you something!”
“Lisa? But… that’s impossible!”
“Lisa Kellermann has been shot dead by this weapon, in Slovenia, near Laibach, Luisa, with five shots!”
“But that is impossible! She was still alive when I got that gun!”
“We are coming closer, isn’t it Luisa? Lisa Kellermann worked for the Artois family you mention! Did you try then to infiltrate already!”
“That is ridiculous!”
“And the sixth bullet was for Captain Ramoz, who was about to reveal your past, right!?”
“I did not shoot Lisa, and I did not shoot the Captain!”
“Luisa, bullets do not fire by their own! Someone must pull a trigger! We need the truth from you, or you and your friend will spend more time on this bar! Let’s try something else.”
He took a thin wooden stick and gave with full force six strokes on the soles of my feet. The pain was enormous. I screamed. I could hardly imagine the pain from hanging to that iron bar, still could be surpassed by something worse. But instead, the two reinforced each other.
Then Maryszkà's soles were beaten. Not six, but twelve times. She also cried out with each stroke.
“Luisa, have you killed, or ordered to kill, Captain Ramoz!? Why and by whom!?”
“But I did not kill Captain Ramoz!”
“Luisa! Think! Consider! You are not alone here! We can give your friend more beatings on her soles, but we can making it worse by giving her a pedicure first!”
He took a wooden pin and put it under one of Maryszkà’s toe nails. Her screaming and writhing were terrible. Then he put a second one! I could not hear it anymore! I could not let this happen! What should I do?
A sergeant and Lieutenant d’Artois entered and had some talk with the chief interrogator. Then, they left again.
“Listen, Luisa,” the chief interrogator said, “I just heard your friend Judith has confessed about the murder of Captain Ramoz!”
“Hah!” I shouted, with my last forces, “I told you! Untie us and let us go, will you?”
“Not so fast, Luisa! You kept that weapon with you, and both your and Judith’s fingerprints are on it! You are at least an accomplice! Secondly, Judith has confessed more things. About spying! She has admitted she was part of a network, and she has named you and your friend here too! It looks bad for all of you!”
(to be continued)