“But did you notice the sparkle in her eyes when Lea told Lew that he would inherit?” Helga Unterhuber added, “It’s good that we’re taking a closer look at her…” At that moment, the chief inspector pointed to his colleague, quiet to be, because voices could be heard. “What do you mean Lew, do we want to get married?”, they heard Lea suggest, “Then we could sell the property and live in my house. You could set up your own company with the money and I would support you in everything?” “That sounds wonderful,” Lew replied, beaming with joy and wanted to hug Lea, but she refused. “I have to go now,” she said.
She was greeted at the door by Chief Inspector Kowalczyk and his colleague Unterhuber. “I think we should talk,” said the latter and they led the woman into another meeting room. “You know what’s interesting about this case?” the chief inspector asked after they were seated. “No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me right away,” Lea said, visibly irritated. “That Lew Ponomaryov makes the ideal perpetrator, far too ideal. Of course, that makes me suspicious. That’s why we looked around a bit in your past. The parallel between the death of the countess and your father is fascinating. A woman grabs a spade and kills her husband. Why shouldn’t a woman have grabbed a spade here and sent the countess to the afterlife?” “You don’t suspect me!” Lea exclaimed involuntarily, “Why should I do something like that? And as for my mother, that was self-defense.” “Self-defense? Really?”, Mrs. Unterhuber now intervened in the conversation, “Maltreating someone from behind with a spade who is sitting comfortably in an armchair can hardly be described as self-defense.” “It was self-defense, in a metaphorical meaning”, said Lea, “My father earned very well with his company. But he still kept my mother on a short leash financially and didn’t allow her anything. She only took what was her due.” “I think your father pulled the emergency brake after your mother became addicted to shopping,” interjected the chief inspector. “So what? She was entitled to all that,” Lea countered immediately. “Certainly not to ruin it. But it goes further with the strange deaths in your immediate vicinity. Appropriately, your grandmother died on your 18th birthday and here, too, greed was assumed to be the motive. Unfortunately, we couldn’t prove anything for you, but that will be all the easier in the case of Countess Smirnova.” “Indeed, how should I have done it?” Lea said. “You sneaked into the house and overheard Lew and the Countess talking. To be on the safe side, you took the spade, which Lew had actually placed next to the door,” said the Chief Inspector. “I assume it wasn’t planned. They just wanted to know if the Countess would finally tell him that he had inherited what they already knew. And precisely because she didn’t tell, you killed her. You knew perfectly well that we wouldn’t be so stupid as to think Lew was the killer. Which brings us to the motive, greed. We found out that since your grandmother died, you’ve been living off your inheritance and haven’t worked a single day. But even an inheritance eventually runs out. With Lew, a way out has opened up for you so that you can continue not to work, but still be able to lead a comfortable, financially worry-free life.” “First of all, you have to prove that to me,” Lea replied relaxed. “Nothing easier than that,” said the chief inspector, “We found clothes with the countess’s blood and your fingerprints on the spade.” “That can’t be,” Lea said indignantly, “I was wearing gloves.” “Thank you for that “, said Commissioner Unterhuber, “That was very meaningful.”
Sometime later, Lew was released, but he was far from happy because suddenly he had lost not only his maternal friend and patroness, but also the woman he thought loved him and he loved her. Again, he was all alone, just as he had come, only a little richer.
***