The Mammoth Book of Historical Crime Fiction

“My only regret is that I didn’t kill you on the spot.”

“Ah, but you did not. And we held off the charge.”

“And I was cashiered and imprisoned. For that there is no forgiveness. None.”

Foxx turned away from the other. He knelt beside the body on the floor. Then, to Konrad, “I take it that this is Mr Strauss.”

“He served his purpose. I could not take him back to Europe with me and he would have been dangerous to our cause in America. I knew him. He was weak. He would have revealed too much, too soon, to the wrong persons. Anyway, already he was wounded in the car. I am not a nursemaid. He is a problem no longer.”

“So you shot him. In the back of the head, I see. Clearly your preferred form of murder. Will you do the same to me? Here, I will make it easy for you.” He struggled to his feet, puffing as he lifted his great bulk from the floor. He swayed, then reached for the edge of his desk to steady himself.

He stood with his back to Konrad. Over his shoulder he said, “Well, Heinrich? I see you find it most convenient to shoot when you do not need to look them in the face. You shot that poor child whose only crime was to deliver a telegram.”

For a time there was no sound in the room other than the crackling of the fire and Caligula Foxx’s breathing as he slowly regained his equilibrium.

Then strangely, Foxx heard the music resume. He turned. Heinrich Konrad had placed the Walther pistol back on the music stand and resumed playing the Wagner melody. So softly at first, that his voice could barely be heard, Konrad began to sing.

Mild und leise

wie er lächelt

wie das Auge

hold er öffnet

seht ihr’s, Freunde?

Seht ihr’s nacht?

Immer lichter

wie er leuchtet,

stern-umstrahlt

hoch sich hebt?

Seht ihr’s nicht?

And from the doorway, advancing slowly into the room, a hand extended before her, the other concealed behind her back, came Lisalotte Schmidt. She sang, also, in harmony with Heinrich Konrad, Wagner’s lines rendered into her own accented English.

Softly and gently

how he smiles,

how his eyes

fondly open.

Do you see, friends?

Do you not see?

How he shines

ever brighter.

Star-haloed

rising higher.

Do you not see?

Heinrich Konrad rose to his feet, his hands resting on the piano above the keyboard. The Walther pistol still lay on the music stand.

Lisalotte Schmidt brought her hand from behind her back, pointing Andy Winslow’s Beretta at Heinrich Konrad.

Konrad started for the Walther, but Lisalotte Schmidt fired a single shot. He slumped back on to the piano bench, bleeding from the shoulder. With his other hand he reached for the Walther but was stopped by a single word from the bulky woman.

“Lisalotte,” he murmured. “Lisalotte. After … after our night … after our night of love … Lisalotte. How —?”

“Sie haben meinen Bruder ermordet.” Her voice had become an angry growl.

From the doorway, Jacob Maccabee whispered the translation to Andy Winslow. “You murdered my brother.”

Lisalotte Schmidt carefully aimed the Beretta, pointing it at Konrad’s heart.

Konrad lunged for the Walther but Lisalotte Schmidt’s second shot sent him reeling backward. The piano bench caught him behind the knees and he crashed to the floor. A final syllable hissed from his lips. “Sieg …”

Lisalotte Schmidt hissed, “Mein Bruder ist revenged.”

Andy Winslow said, “There’s no need to translate that, Jacob.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Ashley is a full-time writer, editor and researcher with almost a hundred books to his credit. He has compiled over fifty Mammoth books including The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives and The Mammoth Book of Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes. He has also written a biography of Algernon Blackwood, Starlight Man. He lives in Kent with his wife and three cats and when he gets the time he likes to go for long walks.

Copyright Acknowledgements

With the exception of the story below, all of the stories are copyright © 2011 by the individual authors, are original to this anthology and are printed with the authors’ permission.

“Brodie and the Regrettable Incident” © 1998 by Anne Perry was first published in Murder, They Wrote II, edited by Elizabeth Foxwell and Martin H. Greenberg (New York, Boulevard Books, 1998) as “Brodie and the Regrettable Incident of the French Ambassador”. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, MBA Literary Agents Ltd, London.