The Element of Crime Page #2

Lottery tickets?

Lottery tickets?

We're the ones

who are getting killed.

She knew the risks.

Lotto murders.

Someone's killing

the ticket sellers.

So we stick together.

We always walk

in twos and threes.

He said he'd buy a lot of lotto

if she came alone tonight.

She said it was stupid

to be scared.

- Was there a little figure?

- A little figure?

That's his way.

Don't you know?

- Did you see him when

your sister spoke to him?

- From far away.

- When?

- Yesterday.

- Would you recognize him?

- No.

Can I take

my sister's tickets?

Sure.

Shouldn't I have been

informed about this?

I decide what happens.

You don't make a move without me.

I'm your boss now, not Osborne.

So don't step

out of line, Fisher.

When a job like this

really hits the mark,

I've been out there

screwing God.

Look at the lights.

It's okay, Fisher.

It's still okay.

I can feel the talisman in my pocket.

It's slippery

in an unpleasant way.

I've never seen a body

mutilated like that.

The Lotto Murders.

Relax, Mr. Fisher.

You're doing fine,just fine.

Really?

Fisher.

Inspector Fisher.

Can you show me to my office?

- Kramer sent for me.

I want an autopsy.

- Just one?

Please hold the card a little bit higher

so we can stamp it.

Osborne had me come back.

Osborne.

The great Osborne.

If I've heard about him,

I've already forgotten it.

Just mindin' my own business

when the new sheriff rides into town.

He walks into that saloon,

pulls out his six-shooter,

and he says,

"I'm gonna clean up this mess."

And I believe he will, 'cause he's got

the fastest draw I ever did see.

How did I get involved

with a couple of a**holes like you?

That's not even funny.

Take a look at yourself.

Headquarters.

I've been longing

for these endless corridors with

nowhere just around the corner.

I don't know why.

I've got some unpacking to do.

The office is familiar.

It used to be Osborne's

in the old days.

There was a videotape

in the machine.

Please, Mr. Osborne,

hold it a little higher.

Four murders.

A month between each. Talismans.

All the bodies mutilated

in the same obscene manner.

The disfigurements never publicly

revealed. The work of the same man.

I've been feeling old lately.

Chief of Police Kramer has

agreed that we bring in a man...

with the expertise

to handle a case like this.

Does that mean that you

accept the criticism that you're

primarily a man of theory?

Excuse me. Do you have a comment

on the Dive, Chief Kramer?

"Dear Osborne,

thanks for the loan.

"We think the pictures are part...

"of tailing report 19040616-JJ...

concerning Harry Grey. "

I'm trying to remember

an easier way to the archives.

There must have been one long ago.

The note in the tube mail

has made me curious to see

what's in this Harry Grey file.

Osborne had something going on.

I want to find out what.

So far, no one's told me

much about anything.

I didn't expect much

from Kramer,

but Osborne

should have said something.

I'm going through the motions

and just drawing blanks.

I can think of things

I'd rather do than attend

the autopsy on the little girl.

But it's part of the routine,

Mr. Fisher, isn't it?

Cairo seems far, far away.

It's a very beautiful corpse.

You can see that.

The corpse is impersonal.

What interests the scientist

is the marks of the murderer.

We are looking at the workings

of a mind, a man's mind.

That's the thrill of it.

Is it a Lotto Murder?

Oh, yes, no question.

She's cut up

precisely the same way.

Can you not take a rest now?

Could it be an imitation?

If so, it's a good imitation.

There is one thing

about the killings which hasn't

been mentioned in the press.

That death has taken place

before the disfiguring.

What was the cause of death?

Suffocation. Look.

These lottery dealers

are weak persons and--

and unprotected invalids...

and young women and so on.

This disfiguring--

Was it done with a knife?

Broken bottle.

Does it shock you?

I've been out of practical

police work for some years.

But you are a professional.

We both are.

Our admiration

is for the criminal, not the victim.

She's gone.

He remains out there,

leaving his little traces,

his own little system.

He cuts

and leaves himself bare.

Where did you get

your training? Auschwitz?

Mr. Fisher, it's

from Osborne's house.

There were those who did.

Mr. Fisher, you must come at once.

I think something's

happened to Mr. Osborne.

After you left, he told me

not to let anybody in,

but just now I heard him

arguing with somebody.

And now he doesn't answer.

Tora, Tora.

I fell. I get

these attacks, you know?

Th-That'll be all.

I don't know how

to explain this, Fisher.

I don't know if you understand

the meaning of a word like "expiation."

I feel I have to pay somehow.

Do you know what I mean?

You don't want to know.

Earlier in the evening,

I was called out to a homicide.

A girl. The case resembled something

you were working on before you retired.

Mom does it.

Dad does it.

- Horses have a try and--

- I think I'll come back tomorrow.

Who's Harry Grey?

Yes, that's a good question:

Who is Harry Grey?

Harry Grey

doesn't exist anymore,

and the Lotto Murders

are a closed book.

Those murders

were ritualistic,

bizarre,

the fruit of a sick brain,

maniac.

But they were systematic--

systematic

to the last detail.

Inhuman.

Now, this is the only

existing picture of H.G.

There were four murders.

It sometimes helps to study...

the geography of a crime,

remember?

But there was a connection

with a three-year-old tailing report.

A man called Harry Grey,

suspected

of subversive activity.

Wrongly, turned out.

I wondered if he'd made preparations

those three years earlier.

You know, groundwork--

groundwork

for the Lotto Murders.

A field trip.

Oh, bugger.

I used the old methods..

I lay in ambush

and waited for him.

He must have known.

He tried to escape in his car.

I followed.

He drove fast.

In spite of the wet

and the dark, surprisingly well.

Went into a slide.

Came off the road.

He hit a concrete pillar.

He died in the flames.

It was as if

he wanted it like that.

I couldn't help him.

Just one question.

Who's this picture

supposed to convince?

Me or you?

These talismans have been

seen all over the papers.

Anybody could make one like it.

This is the route according

to the three-year-old tailing report.

These are the four sites

of the murders.

Halberstadt, Friedingen,

Oberdorf and Neukalkau.

As you see, the corners

of a perfect square.

Four murders with approximately

one month between them.

Grey is dead

and his work completed.

A nice little

geometric puzzle.

- Past and present.

- No, Osborne. That's not good enough.

You deport a man...

for 13 years...

in the sand.

You bring him back to Europe...

where something

apparently has gone wrong.

He looks up his old teacher,

a teacher who has

unfortunately gone mad.

You asked me

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