Chapter 10

Lotte Frank
(June 2001; Munich)

Upon graduating from Munich University, Lotte Frank

surprisingly joined the large Southern German detective
agency
Wanz & Wanz, but was fired after a year for numerous
clashes with management over employee salary and welfare.
She now
keeps a low profile working for a Munich research
company, and plans to become a writer. Her first novel
is said to be
an escape suspense set in the Middle Ages, about a slave
who flees his owners and attempts to become a free man.
She met me at a cafe in Schwabing near her alma
mater, dressed in what would be considered, for her work,
a rather
rough outfit: navy jacket, cut and sewn shirt, knee-
length skirt. Most striking of her features were her
large, round
glasses, and her bobbed hair with a pigtail on the side.
She had a charming, jaunty air. The files she carried
under her
arm were apparently the results of a survey on which type
of white sausage teens prefer: boiled or fried.

- Let's get to the questions. Tell me how it was you

came to be involved with these events.
"When I heard from the student office that Mr.
Schuwald was hiring female college students for part time
jobs, I
figured it was my big chance. It ended up being cleaning
and laundry and stuff like that."
- Your big chance?
"Yes, I was interested in the Vampire of Bayern.
When I told Herr Schuwald that I wanted to write a thesis
on
'Mental Profiles of Bayern's Rich and Powerful in the
Middle Ages and Today,' he thought it was very funny. He
wanted to
know if he was my subject. And when I worked there, I
noticed the students he hired to read to him... whom I
found an
interest in. Especially Karl... and Johan. Johan
Liebert."
- Why were you interested in these two?
 "As far as the reading was concerned, Karl was a
horrid student. The things Schuwald used to say to him!
I
figured he would quit in no time. Schuwald would treat
his readers harshly, but he never fired them. Instead,
most of
them would simply stop coming after a few times. I
honestly thought Karl was just another one of them. But
even after
all the things Schuwald said to him, even through all the
pain he was clearly suffering, Karl came back every week
like it
was the only thing that mattered. I figured there must
have been something to it. As far as Johan goes... he
was just so
handsome and perfect that it surprised me anyone like
that truly existed."
- And Edmund Fahren?
"Eh, either way. He was blond and pretty, but sort
of take-it-or-leave-it, as far as I was concerned."
- So, you kept an eye on what Mr. Schuwald did
everyday.
"Yes. Karl told me he would go out on the town every
Friday night. So we followed him."
- And this is how you met the prostitute known as the
"Red Hindenburg," and learned that there was another
young
man claiming to be Schuwald's son.
"Right, we learned that she was using Karl's mother's
name to leech money from Schuwald, and that Edmund Fahren
had stepped forward, calling himself the rightful son.
Karl and I went to his dorm, and he had committed
suicide...
And from then on, it was just one thing after another."
- You have also met Anna... that is, Nina Fortner.
"Yes, I met her at the school library. She came
every day, and researched things until the library's
closing
time. I was curious, so I talked with her. Nina was
looking into a series of unsolved serial murders that had
happened
in Bayern over the past few years, including, to my
surprise, the murder of Karl Schuwald's mother..."
- As a matter of fact, you are the first person I've
spoken with who has talked about Nina Fortner. Can you
tell
me your impressions of her?
"She was very pretty, with long blonde hair... sort
of naive, or should I say, withdrawn... But I think she
felt
a calling, a strong will inside of her. It was almost
like desperation, in a way. From the moment I met her,
she
reminded me of Johan... with one big difference.
Something that Johan did not have... that was her
expressions. She had
the most wonderful, human expressions on her face."
- This is the question I have been most curious
about... Karl told me that you were quite familiar with
Johan's
fainting episode with the storybook "The Nameless
Monster"... Can you tell me about it?
"Ah yes. When I heard that he had fainted, I rushed
to the hospital. Bodenheim State Hospital... Johan had
already been checked in, and I met the librarian who had
been there when he fainted. I asked her about the book
he had
seen, because of course I was curious, so I looked it up
for myself."
- And what did you think, after you read it?
"I didn't just read 'The Nameless Monster,' I got my
hands on everything that Emil Scherbe... well, everything
that author did."

As she said this, she pulled out several storybooks

from among the thick stack of files she carried. Klaus
Poppe's "The God of Peace," Jakub Farobek's "The Man With
Big Eyes and the Man With the Big Mouth," Emil Scherbe's
"My
Garden," Helmuth Voss's "A Peaceful Home"... some of
which I had never seen before. My only thought was, is
this the
source of Johan's story? These fairy tales shaped him
into what he is?

"I read all of them... the art is unique. You don't

see many people draw like this, do you? The problem is
what's
inside. I think for average kids who live a normal life,
these would be unremarkable for the most part. But what
if you
really preached the stories to them, as if they were the
Bible? As something that HAD to be read and understood.
There's
a message in them. But I can't tell exactly what kind.
I feel a kind of evil from it. But I can't tell what
sort.
Aside from "A Peaceful Home," it's a commonality in all
of them... I can't explain it. There are so many ways
you can
take them. How would a human being interpret these
books?"

I found her words to be quite fascinating. How did

the storybooks create Johan? By leaving the
interpretation
of the books up to the children, after they had been
read. And not just left up to the children, but
forcefully read to
them in an extremely restricted and terrifying
environment, pounding it into their minds in a place that
fills them with
malice and nihility. The best and brightest of
Czechoslovakia's psychologists must have had an idea of
what this would
produce.

[Picture] (upper half sketch of a smiling Lotte, holding

files)
Ms. Frank tells me it's nice to be a writer, but that
detective work provides its own good ideas. A very
unique
individual.

[Picture] (photo of Nameless Monster storybook and sketch

of Lotte speaking excitedly)
Lotte's detective thoroughness has led her to read most
of Franz Bonaparta's storybooks. She has an excellent
analysis
of Bonaparta's style, as befitting a person of
considerable insight. I believe she has ample talent to
be a novelist.

- Did you see Johan after his fainting episode?

"From time to time at school... This was around the
time that Johan and Karl grew somewhat estranged from me.
I had quit my job for Mr. Schuwald, and I didn't go to
the ceremony when the fire broke out. But the one thing
that I CAN
say is that the book changed Johan's plans, if not his
entire life."
- Changed his life?
"When I asked the librarian about the circumstances
of his collapse, she said he just happened upon the book.
It
was an unexpected incident. Or more like, he had
forgotten about the book's existence."
- He had no memory of it?
"Yes, I believe he had lost his memory. Until he saw
it again... And when he saw "The Nameless Monster," he
remembered that he himself was NOT a monster. It might
have been the instant that he returned to being human."

Johan cast aside his ambitions of Schuwald's fortune

in the flames, and disappeared. He would leave to the
Czech
Republic on a journey of self-discovery, possibly to fill
in the pieces of his missing memories.

- Did you meet with Nina again, after the burning of

the library?
"I went to see her in the hospital. She said that
Dr. Tenma had saved her life. After being discharged,
she went
to Dr. Reichwein's house, where Dr. Gillen put her under
hypnosis. She talked about a fairy-tale land... and
three frogs.
I figured that she must have been missing part of her
memory as well. The same thing with Johan. The next
day, she
disappeared. I'm sure she must have remembered where
this fairy-tale land was, or where Johan would be going.
I saw her
once again, near the end of the whole string of events.
She had gotten all of her memory back... and she was in a
bad
state. It was hard to get close to her..."
- How do you feel about Johan now, after all is said
and done?
"I understand that he was a terrifying person, but I
was a bit like Karl, and I didn't delve too deeply into
him... Looking back, there were definitely some things
about him that send shivers down my spine, but I wouldn't
say that
I hate Johan, or feel angry at him."
- Karl seems to have complex feelings about Johan as
well. Do you think that it's possible he planned to kill
Karl in the library?
"Hmmm... I wouldn't say so. Schuwald learned of
Johan's plot before it happened, and still went to the
ceremony...
He made up an errand for Karl to run so that he wouldn't
be present... and I think Johan accounted for all these
things.
If he really wanted to kill Karl, he could have done so
long before that."
- Why do you suppose Karl escaped Johan's sights?
"I don't know if Johan was really such a methodical,
plan-oriented person... He was able to get whatever he
wanted
so easily that it was equally simple for him to bring an
early end to it. He grew tired of fame and wealth just
before he
would have had them for himself. But what Karl wanted
was something that Johan could never have... Karl wanted
the
evening lights of homes in the city... the sight of
people returning home... the harmony of family... the
warmth and the
bonds... All things that Johan could not have... and
could not understand... And he probably couldn't kill
anyone who
sought such things."