A NEW MYSTERY FOR MARRIAGE BISMARCK
Adolf von Bismarck used to read the newspaper before going to the bed every evening. However, that night, when he began to read the gazette someone knocked the door of his house and Bianka Hoffman, his wife, went to open it; their son Karl Ernst Adam —who was known as Adam— was sleeping in his bedroom and she was in the kitchen cooking the lunch for the next day when the event was happened.
The man who wanted to talk with her husband was the Kent Police chief constable Harry Barclay. Mr. Barclay was investigating a killing in Coquelles with the help of the Gendarmerie Nationale commissioner named Gabriel Le Brun but seeing that that case was more complicated than they were thinking, they decided to request for Adolf von Bismarck's help.
Bianka and Harry went to Adolf's office where he was also drinking a cup of tea with milk. He got close to the door of his office when he listened their steps in the hallway and before Bianka knocked the doorway he unclosed it and he invited them to sit in the sofa. Adolf asked to Harry why he was in his house and the chief constable Barclay began to narrate what had happened two nights before in the town of Coquelles.
"Someone has killed a businessman in the bedroom of the hotel where he was making some conferences about economy." Harry began to explain. "The night of the crime Mr. Schneider request to a waiter to give him a bottle of champagne in his bedroom and when he went to visit him, he found his body in his bed which was spilling blood by the sheets. The waiter called the police and the Gendarmerie Nationale commissioner Gabriel Le Brun asked for my services because it was been occurred in the English zone of Coquelles!" he finished to tell.
"And as you can't solve it you are wishing my services as a private detective and also my help to jail the guilty of the murder. Correct?" wished to know Adolf. "Surely I am going to accept your proposition. However, firstly I want to see the corpse and the scene of the crime with Bianka who will be the forensic surgeon responsible for the autopsy!" answered Mr. Bismarck.
And that was how Adolf phoned his parents Jürgen von Bismarck and Lisbeth Müller —who were living in a cottage near Düsseldorf— to ask them to take care of his son Adam while Bianka and him were in France investigating their new case for two weeks and a half approximately. They answered affirmatively his wishes and one day after it they arrived in Maldon by ship.
Two hours later Bianka and Adolf arrived in Folkestone by their Audi R8, they booked two tickets for them and one for Harry Barclay and whilst a driver who was working by the british railway company parked their car inside the shuttle train they went to their sits and rest some minutes while the train crossed the English channel and arrived in the city where the commissioner Gabriel Le Brun was waiting for them with a police car.
When they arrived in Coquelles Gabriel told to the marriage Bismarck that he had booked one suite in the hotel of the town for the time which they would were there carrying out the investigation; the board and lodging would be full meal and they could use his office if they wished to work on the case. Bianka and Adolf gave him thanks and went to their hotel to leave the luggage and sleep some hours: they were so tired and they couldn't begin to solve it till the next day.
How soon Adolf woke up the following morning, he downstairs going to the dining room, he took a dish with some toasts with chestnut jam and a cup of coffee with milk. Bianka came into the room some minutes later and said him hello kissing him also.
Later on, at eight o'clock, they went to the hotel where the police had found Mr. Schneider deadly and asked to the waiter who discovered the body some questions about it; he was very upset because of the murder and he didn't want to answer it them. However, in the end, he began to tell them how he had find the corpse and what he did when he discovered it.
"How Mr. Schneider was slain by the killer?" asked Adolf to the guy. "How many hours passed since your conversation with Martin Schneider to your discovery?" added Mr. Bismarck also who was wishing to know the truth known by the waiter.
"I saw how the killer commit the murder: it was a woman who did it... She asked me in Spanish (she was from Euskadi) where Mr. Martin Schneider's bedroom was. She met with him that night at eleven o'clock to break up her lovership with him because Martin had a debt with the Italian mafia and she didn't want to live with him in danger... He didn't want to break up; for this reason he wanted a bottle of champagne and he requested it me... When I went to visit him to give him the bottle, I saw her with a dagger killing him. She put the body on the bed and he began to tear him in pieces. I made some photographs; nevertheless she saw me and when she discovered my plan she struck me with the bottle of champagne to take my camera and go out of the room!" answered the waiter. "When I woke up, I remembered it and I phoned the police to request their help. They arrived and asked me some questions about it!" added the waiter.
Adolf von Bismarck asked him a description about the woman and the waiter gave him all of her details: she was red-haired with some freckles in her face. She had green eyes a big nose and her lips were thick. She had to be a slender woman who was married with a man whose name was Asier Bergara; she was a Spanish spy who was working by the italian govern and he was a famous spanish writer. They were spending some days in Paris.
With Gabriel Le Brun's help Adolf got an interview with the marriage Bergara at their hotel from Paris. He ordered to Bianka to wait for him with the chief constable Barclay while Gabriel and him were going to the French main city to talk with them by his Audi R8.
They arrived in Paris two hours and a half after getting the interview and Adolf met Asier Bergara who had to be a young man; he maybe was thirty years old with a brown courly hair, black eyes and some beard. He was tall and thin, the son of an aristocratic family who was borned in Bilbao the 22nd of December 1991.
Mr. Bergara's wife was in their bedroom because she was pregnant as Asier told them when they began to talk with him. They were waiting for a daughter who would born two months after their meeting with them.
While the commissioner Gabriel Le Brun went to leave the suitcase in their bedroom, Adolf talked with Asier about the case and wanted to know if his spouse wished Mr. Schneider's death and if she met him any time. Of course, Asier Bergara answered negatively; however, Adolf had some experience in this field and thought that Mr. Bergara was lying him and that he was covering up for his wife because she may be had any type of relation with the murder.
Sawing that Gabriel did not come back to the room they where, Adolf went upstairs to the third floor to visit him and when he came into their bedroom he had find Le Brun's corpse: he had been killed by someone some minutes after coming into the room; someone who had to know that they had arrived and that they had booked that bedroom.
Adolf phoned to the reception and requested to the secretary to order Asier to go to the scene of the murder to talk with him. Five minutes later he came into the room also and asked to Adolf why he ordered him to visit him; Adolf advise to Asier to go to his suite and visit his wife who may be went out of the hotel after killing Gabriel. However Asier had found his wife and Adolf lost the only main suspect he had at the moment.
Mr. Bismarck, whilst Mr. Bergara was visiting his wife, discovered the murder weapon: it was a knive; the killer was the same who had killed several days before Mr. Martin Schneider! He took it and he went to the police station to know if the killer had to leave some fingerprints in the murder weapon.
The forensic surgeon found a lot of fingerprints but all were different between them. Who was the killer and why he had had to slay Mr. Schneider and Mr. Le Brun? The two victims had any relation with the guilty of the case? They knew something that he did not know at the moment?
He came back to the hotel to rest: it was so difficult to think anything about the mystery if he did not sleep various minutes.
The next morning, he woke up and after eating some cookies and drinking a glass of milk, he got into his car and came back to Coquelles. There were his wife and his friend waiting for him and his news about the investigation.
When he arrived in Coquelles Harry Barclay told him that the waiter who had found the corpse of Martin Schneider had tried to leave and to go to Brussels. Nevertheless, the police arrested him and he was at the moment inside a cell in the English police station guarded by two young English policemen who had helped to jail him.
They went to the police station and Adolf von Bismarck ordered to Mr. Barclay to search in the Europol database something about Martin and some information about Gabriel also. Harry discovered the worst: the first had used a name from an old German man who had died some years ago in Munich and the second was not working by the Gendarmerie Nationale... He was a member of the Italian mafia who had spent some months in prison because of a killing occurred in Rome some years before.
"And Asier Bergara? What's about Asier Bergara?" asked Adolf to Harry who was beginning to think that he was not also Asier Bergara.
"Mr. Bergara is himself. However his wife is not his wife: she is working by the Spanish govern in a mission to stop the nuclear development of Russia. She is a spy!" answered the Kent Police chief constable Harry Barclay.
"Thank you very much. Do you think that the marriage Bergara is involved in?" wanted to know Bianka Hoffman who was drinking a cup of tea at the same room they were working in the case and searching that important information to solve the killing.
"I can't tell you this because I don't know. It is possible but it is not sure!" exclaimed Mr. Barclay who decided to break the work and go out for lunch.
Later on, at 16:00 p.m., Adolf asked to Harry if he could talk with the waiter to know more about the case; he had to know more than he thought and he had to investigate him as a possible guilty of the case. Harry left him alone with the waiter in the cell when his friend requested him to do it; he trusted in Adolf and he thought that he was the only person who could solve the killing without anyone's help.
When he knew his name, Adolf ordered to Harry to search him in the database to discover if the waiter was jailed any time and why but by his surprise Simon Courtois was not a criminal at least for now.
Mr. Courtois was married with an American woman whose name was Anne Martinson; they were living in an apartment in Brussels with their children but because of the work Simon had to leave his family and to come back to France. He met Gabriel one day when he was drinking a glass of beer in the restaurant of the hotel where he was working and he was employed by him as his butler —in fact, Gabriel was an Italian rich man who was spending a few days there with his family; he was the leader of a group of mobsters who had changed his name because he was followed by the Europol— and he ordered him to kill Mr. Schneider.
"We know that Mr. Schneider was not Mr. Schneider. Who was the man who pretended to be named Martin Schneider?" began to ask Adolf. "If you want I can give you a cup of tea while you are thinking the answer!" offered him Mr. Bismarck.
"No. Thanks but no... The man who pretended to be named Martin Schneider was a killer who killed a businessman whose name was Martin Schneider. He had a debt with Mr. Le Brun and he had to kill Mr. Schneider because he was a millionaire to steal the amount of money to pay the debt with the mafia. The killer tried to tell his issue to the police but when Gabriel knew that, he employed me to kill Schneider!" he answered.
"And why you killed Gabriel Le Brun?" asked Adolf again who wished to know who was the guilty of Gabriel Le Brun's death. "Have you done it?" continued Adolf.
"Of course I am not his murderer! I don't slew him!" answered Simon Courtois very angry who hit the table throwing it away.
Adolf ordered to Harry to open the door and to close it again after leaving him alone in the cell. Sooner rather than later he came back to Paris with a French policeman to talk again with Bergara marriage; however, Asier and his wife had leaved the hotel and had took a flight to come back to Spain.
He sent an email to the Spanish Security Force requesting to arrest them when they would have arrived at the airport of Madrid as the main suspicious of those killing that had happened several days before in France caused by Bergara marriage.
The Spanish National Police took them and they were sent back to Paris where Adolf was waiting for Asier Bergara and his wife with ten policemen from the Gendarmerie Nationale who commanded them to go to the police station because Mr. Bismarck wished to know some things about the murders and they were the main suspicious of it.
They payed attention of it; however, when they were in his office, Asier threatened him to kill his son and his wife if he did not leave the case straight away. Bismarck asked them if they had ordered to their accomplice to kidnap his wife and his son but they did not want to answer the question and this was how Adolf thought that they were the guilties of the killing.
Adolf von Bismarck phoned to his friend Harry Barclay to know if Bianka and Adam were fine and as he answered that they were good, Adolf did not pay attention of what Asier had told him and he decided to begin the questioning later on.
Before the lunch time Asier and his wife confessed their guilty: they were employed by the Italian mafia to kill Martin Schneider as he was a German politician who wished to stop all the mafia organisations; Gabriel Le Brun and Simon Courtois were the leaders of the criminal group who had a debt with someone who was working by Mr. Schneider —Martin was a businessman also who dealt with his workers as his slaves and as Mr. Courtois met it bribed Mr. Schneider's killer with an amount of money if he got Martin Schneider's death—. Martin Schneider was been killed by him; nevertheless he wanted to tell all to the police. Gabriel Le Brun killed him to avoid the problems with the justice and, by the way, become a new multimillionaire to have the supreme control of the Italian mafia; however, as Simon Courtois met his plans and he wished also to be the supreme leader of the mafia and the most richest man in the world, he employed Bergara marriage as his hit men to slay Gabriel Le Brun.
"And who was Mr. Le Brun?" asked Adolf. "Was he a Gendarmerie Nationale scoundrel high-ranger official or, on the contrary, was he an Italian man, leader of the Italian mafia, who changed his name to prevent to have problems with the French Security Force?" finished to ask them Adolf.
"Gabriel Le Brun was a Gendarmerie Nationale scoundrel high-ranger official who worked by the French govern as an undercover agent in the Italian mafia who was bought off by Simon Courtois to be their leader and he accepted it!" Asier answered whilst Adolf phoned again his friend Harry to order him to take Simon Courtois into their custody.
Mr. Bismarck went out of the office. He said goodbye to the commissioner, he got into his car and with the French policeman who was from Coquelles he came back to the town where his spouse was waiting for him with Harry Barclay.
Afterwards, when the investigating judge commanded to jail Simon, Asier and Asier's wife without finance letter while they were waiting for a trial, Bismarck marriage and Harry Barclay came back to Folkestone and there Harry went to Ashford and Adolf and his wife came back to Maldon where Jürgen and Lisbeth were taking care of their grandson Adam... The second mystery of Adolf and Bianka was solved!