Eine Verstummung
This is an old comic-like story I wrote in the second semester, I show it here because I still like some parts of it.
It’s a crime story. I called it Summertime back then, firstly because the story is set in summer and secondly because I like the melancholy in George Gershwin's Summertime so much.
It all started after they had cut down the old lime tree on the village square
Three days later dairy farmer Alois Sulzinger. He also was involved in cutting down the lime tree.
Two days later village's carpenter Xaver Semmelmaier was found dead, lying in his liver dumpling soup*. He was essentially involved in the felling.
*Liver dumpling soup is a traditional Bavarian soup and is often served as an appetizer.
Three days later dairy farmer Alois Sulzinger. He also was involved in cutting down the lime tree.
When on the seventh day after Semmelmaier's death the mayor Josef Froschhuber collapses in the street, panic
breaks out in M.
Local police are utterly overwhelmed with the affair and it’s agreed, that a case of such dimensions demands a highly experienced criminological mastermind.
Inspector Tief was called.
During his lunch break.
Speechbubbles:
Police detective Kärch-Wies: «Enjoy your meal!» Inspector Tief: «What’s up?»
Speech bubbles left to right:
Police detective Kärch-Wies: «A new case, sir.»
Detective Chief Inspector Tief: «That for you’re calling me?»
Kärch-Wies: «Order, sir.»
Tief: «I see. Very well.»
On July 17, 1962, at 15:35, Detective Chief Inspector Tief and his colleague Kärch-Wies arrived in M. Village policeman Schulter led them to the beer cellar of the inn ‹Zur alten Post›, which had been converted into a morgue.
«No injuries. All seem like having been hit out of the blue by some unknown force», said forensic pathologist Kremper, while looking at the three corpses. «Are there any motives, suspicions, any clues?», asked Tief. «Sorry, only one, but you won’t like it: Witness K. thinks he had seen a figure climbing out of the tree and hastily departing just the night before the lime tree’s felling. K. is convinced that it was a witch, that, according to him, has been living in the lime tree for centuries already. By the way in the village the assumption circulates, that the witch has cursed the place in vengeance for taking away her home». «To put it mildly», the inspector replied, «those statements are humbug. We’re trying to investigate rationally. Kremper. If you’d ask me, we’re rather dealing here with an…». The inspector was abruptly interrupted as village policeman Schulter rushed in. «Constable Küchle is dead!», he shouted.
«They found him lying in the kitchen.»
Speech bubbles left to right:
Tief: «Yah, Küchle was a good soul. I heard he and Schulter were good friends.»
Kärch-Wies: «Yes, he must have been deeply hurt, I think.»
Tief: «Bloody hell!»
Kärch-Wies: «What are you going to do now, sir?»
Tief: «To be honest: I don’t know.»
Kärch-Wies: «Don’t you think, that we’re facing something bigger in this case?»
Kärch-Wies: «Something, that we can’t understand?»
Tief: «Maybe. But I don’t give up that fast.»
The next days people were dying like flies.
Rumors spread in the village that the inspector was no match for the case.
Tief: «That’s not an easy case, for heaven’s sake!»
On June 19, 1962, at 14:53, Kärch-Wies and the inspector called for backup.
Two hours later police arrived in M.
There the detectives were confronted with a terrible picture: no one was left alive. In the inn 'Zur alten Post' they finally found the body of detective chief inspector Tief.
Days later, bewildered and neglected Kärch-Wies was picked up in the nearby forest, where he had fled. His reports were vague, inaccurate and therefore useless.
Am 22. Juni 1962 wurde das Dorf M. niedergebrannt. / On June 22, 1962 the village M. was burnt down.
The case remains unsolved to this day. Some suspect a nuclear accident at the nearby nuclear power plant as the cause or an epidemic. Others however are firmly convinced that the village was cursed.
/ Der Fall ist bis heute ungeklärt.
Manche vermuten einen Reaktorunfall im nahegelegenen Kernkraftwerk G. als Ursache oder eine Epidemie, andere wiederum sind der festen Überzeugung, daß ein Fluch auf dem Dörfchen lag.
