Casebook 4: A Score Settled - 4.15[index]
The silence rang out like a bell. I understood everything. All the strange contradictions and mysteries conformed into a terrible harmony.
“The Stradivarius – how did he come by it?”
“Anonymous benefactor. It was a real stroke of luck. He guarded it so carefully. We were so jealous.”
So there it was. A pact with the devil. I don't know what deal he struck with the Sweetheart Club, but they had come to collect. They had poisoned his lunchtime Tafelspitz. Not to kill him, but to deafen him – which to him was worse than death – a living torture.
The strange music was waiting for him on his return from lunch. Bemused by its appearance, he began to sound it out, just as Hallgató had done. And just like Hallgató, it had taken a few attempts before he saw through the music and decoded the gloating message from his destroyers. He shouted out in disbelief and fear: “No. No. No!” And as he did so, the poison began to take effect. He screamed out in pain and then the deed was done. He shouted out again at the top of his lungs: “No! No! No!” But he could hear nothing.
He decided in that silent instant that his life was over.