The Saint Lebuinnus Church Murder
1 Life at the Top
Bas was enjoying the dinner with a view of the IJssel river. He had come across on the ferry and walked down Lage Steen Way to the Meadow riverside restaurant where he was enjoying a lager.
The Saint Lebuinnus Church Steeple towered over the smaller buildings surrounding it and complimented what he thought of as the perfect view.
The table where he sat gave him the view of all the tables in the restaurant as well as the view across the river of the large white two deck party boat tied along the Quay.
He had taken one of his many dates for an evening dinner and dancing cruise on the party boat. The cruise and dinner had been better than the dates he had taken.
The dates had achieved his objectives, but he considered most of his conquests a little dull and had kept most of them to a one-night stand.
The one person who he had been most attracted to and who he had dated for several weeks had left and gone to culinary school to become a chef.
Now he was once again on the hunt.
He had been born and raised in Vlotbrug that was just south of Rotterdam along the Haring Waterway. There he had spent many days fishing along the Forne Canal and riding his bike everywhere around the area.
It had been an easy and enjoyable way to grow up.
His parents were fairly well off and had encouraged him to pursue going to university.
He had enrolled at Wageningen University where he enjoyed the partying activities. He found the curriculum associated with becoming a data analyst rather enjoyable and easy to fulfill.
It gave him plenty of time to enjoy the pubs and soon he also realized that he enjoyed pursuing the opposite sex as much as having a good Pils.
He made it a point of enjoy almost an equal amount of each.
His time at university went by much too fast and now he had to produce enough at work so he would not get “ontslaged” or laid off. That was not hard as long as he focused on work.
He was sitting enjoying a Hieneken and thinking about his move to Deventer.
He had taken a job with a startup, Piek Mooi Adviseurs (PMA) that was focused on supplying its clients with customer eye, nail and beauty care preferences.
His job was to organize, analyze and present the company leaders with information that would put them in position to advise their clients about how to best advertise and position their beauty care products.
It was a role that he enjoyed, put him in touch with a variety of young professional women and mixed the social side with the technical data gathering programing side.
The two founders of the company were very beautiful women only a couple of years older than he.
He was attracted to both of them but made it a point to not to mix work with his personal life activities.
He kept his focus on doing his job and in doing it very well.
He made sure that he was doing that at the highest level possible and the feedback that he received from the company’s clients corroborated that.
He took a sip of his beer and decided that he was going to make a move on the two women sitting a table away who were also enjoying a Pils.
He purchase two at the bar and walked over to them.
His offering was accepted and after a few more drinks he struck gold!
Later that evening as he returned to his apartment he thought back over his short time in Deventer.
It felt to him very much like home.
He had found his role at work very satisfying, the city very comfortable and the young women that came to town on weekends very enjoyable.
It was, he felt a good life. He was not sure how it could get any better.
He walked around the corner, looked at the window displaying beauty care products and bumped into a person doing the same thing.
He began to apologize and then laughed as he realized that the beautiful lady was also apologizing for having been looking at the same beauty care products that he had been looking at.
His eyes met hers and he knew that they were going to have an affair.
He took a chance and clumsily invited her for a bite to eat at one of his favorite restaurants near Wilhelmina Fountain.
She seemed to hesitated but then agreed to dinner.
Her name, Tess, seemed to him to be the perfect name for a very beautiful woman.
She was an inch taller, had a slender figure, long arms and legs that were meant for running.
Her long flowing platinum blond hair that blew fluffily in a light breeze and her turquoise blue eyes froze him in his tracks.
He thought her small brown mole to on the left side near her nose caused the rest of her features to beam.
He was captivated.
It turned out to be one of the more enjoyable dinners that he had in many a week.
He found out that she liked to bike as much as he and they made a date to go on a Deventer–Markt Hattem round trip bike ride.
He was impressed with Tess’s new light tan, eggshell colored Gazelle Van Stael bike that she had purchased. She shared that it was her reward to herself for landing her new job at her law firm.
The bike had a black front pack where she carried food and a backpack where she had a small tent and some basic camping gear.
He learned that she had taken several long rides where she had camped out.
He had also splurged on a new Gazelle Chamonix, but he had not outfitted his bike as thoroughly as Tess had. He had taken several long rides but had not camped out.
He had on those occasions talked some attractive rider into spending the night with him at a bed and breakfast.
He put those activities to the side as he focused on Tess.
He very much wanted to get much closer to her.
For their first ride, they met at the ferry and crossed over and then started on a seventy kilometer round trip.
Their first stop was about six kilometers north at the Matanzas estate where he purchased tickets for a tour.
It was an enjoyable walk and afterwards they continued on some twenty kilometers and stopped at Veeessen where they took in an original windmill and ate a light lunch.
He was glad that he had thought ahead and purchased some bike-to-bike headphones that allowed them to chat as they rode. He learned that Tess had an eye for and knew many of the plants and flowers that they saw along the way.
He also learned that she knew many songs with nature themes that she hummed or sang as she rode.
Most were old nostalgic songs, but a few were by some currently popular artists.
Tess mesmerized him.
Late in the afternoon they made a brief stop for dinner and then they rode swiftly along the dike to reach Deventer before the sun set. They were both happy to see the main train station and then ride on to their apartments.
He would have loved to have ended the day spending the night with her but it was not to be.
He sensed that she was not at moment seeking that type of relationship.
He hoped that would soon change.
Fall went by quickly and winter saw the relationship continue to grow.
He introduced Tess to cross country skiing but what they did the most often was to go ice skating at the De Scheg ice park. There he often hit the fast four-hundred-meter track to satisfy his desire for pure speed.
Out on the square, Tess had him holding her in his arms as she taught him to dance with her on the ice.
He was a little clumsy but captivated by holding her and listening to her sing as they skated together.
He quickly improved dancing on ice skates.
As the winter ended Deventer’s pleasant temperature seemed to encourage every kind of flower to bloom.
The reds, purples and a variety of yellow and orange of the flowers seemed to open his mind to the beauty of the woman he as dating.
He and Tess spend every hour of an entire weekend going through Deventer’s open-air book market, which he learned was the largest in Europe and was usually held in the spring.
He was impressed with the breath of her reading history and in her interest in both fiction and non-fiction. It was clear she was not into romance novels but she had read all the world-famous writers.
He was certain that he had met the person who he desired to spend his life with.
For the first time that he could remember he did not know how to make the next move.
He was afraid if he pushed he might lose her but he did go to the a local jewelry shop and bought an engagement ring.
The two of them took a weeklong bike tour through Norway during the summer. It was a breathtaking biking experience that began in Bergen, Norway and for seven days they rode north and stayed at bed and breakfast inns.
The fjords and the knurled pine and green moss cover jagged cliffs were a gateway to a stunning natural beauty that was very different than the flat beauty of the Netherlands.
Several times they traveled by boat through the long fjords to get to the next part of the bike trail. The cascading waterfalls, the small idyllic villages, stave churches, hamlets and small farms all contributed to a breathtaking tapestry.
The experience deeply affected him and he was ready to commit his life to Tess as his lifelong companion.
Several weeks after their return, Bas was walking back from the market when he ran into Greta the voluptuous young woman that he had met and dated for some time just prior to Tess. They literally bumped into each other as he rounded the corner from opposite directions.
He felt an instant sexual urge as she gave him a hug and suggested they have lunch.
During lunch Greta invited Bas to see her new apartment that she had just moved into. She was ecstatic about her new job as a chef at a local restaurant and the fact that she now would have enough money to afford some real vacations, not only in Europe but also a trip to the US.
He knew better but non-the-less he accepted the invitation. Greta led the way to her apartment and after a quick tour that ended up in her bedroom the scene changed.
Greta pushed him back on her bed and straddled his chest.
It took him by surprise but he had been in this position before and his desires took over.
He helped her take off her blouse and watched as her ample breasts with large areole and perky nipples bounced out as she giggled and swung them across his face.
He was ready.
She unzipped the shorts he was wearing and soon the two of them were naked on her bed. It was clear that Greta wanted to be on top and soon she was riding him. They spent the rest of the afternoon together in a round of sex, followed by a shower together and then a quick dinner in her apartment.
He ended up spending the night and left early the next morning. He knew that the whole encounter risked his relationship with Tess!
He returned to his apartment and the next morning prepared for a morning bike ride with Tess.
He knew he would be in trouble if she ever found out about his tryst with Greta.
He thought about how stupid he had been and swore to himself never to take such a chance again.
Tess seemed a little withdrawn but they rode out together on a twenty-kilometer ride that had become common for them. They stopped for a light lunch at a small countryside restaurant.
There was little conversation and he wondered what was up.
The following couple weeks Tess was busy with a case that she was handling and the two of them did not meet or go riding together.
Since this was different than what they had been doing, it worried him.
Then Tess invited him for dinner at a restaurant that she said had become her favorite because the new chef there prepared everything to her taste.
He was shocked and alarmed that her now favorite restaurant was the same one where Greta was the chef.
Was it a coincidence or was it more than that?
He was nervous for the entire meal and could not concentrate.
After a dinner and a walk arounds the edge of the old town and along the river, Tess invited him to go up in the Lebuinus Church Tower where she had a surprise for him.
He followed her slowly up the stairs.
Tess was wearing shorts, and her long legs triggered a desire for her that was more intense than usual.
He really wanted to do more than just kiss her when they got to the tower platform.
The engagement ring was in his pocket, and he felt that this might be the right time to propose.
He stood next to Tess watching as the sun set below the horizon in a glorious show turning the few clouds in the sky cascading puffs of red and orange.
He put his hand in his pocket and grasped the box with the engagement ring.
He turned to look at Tess and was surprised to see the look in her face.
He followed her eyes as she looked over his shoulders to the right and left then smiled and asked whether the Chef’s body was better than waiting for hers.
Bas was shocked.
He watched as Tess smiled, put her hands on his shoulders and pushed with all her might. He felt the rough stone of the railing as he slid over the edge and began his fall to the ground below.
His surprise was total and in those last seconds her brilliant smile was what he saw.
2 Tess
Tess stood looking over the rail down to where Bas lay on his back as if looking up at her. It looked to her as if he was waving goodbye with his left hand. His right hand for some reason was inside of his jacket.
It had all happened just as she planned.
She had slowly come to love him but she could not accept his betrayal.
The betrayal had sealed his fate.
She took one last quick look at his still and crumpled body as a shiver of excitement ran down her back.
She took a moment to enjoy the feeling, then she stepped out of sight back into the tower.
She slowly descended the circular steps as she enjoyed each step.
She took a furtive look outside to make sure there was no one watching, then exited and walked slowly away on Nieuw street. She turned, resisted looking over her should as she walked to her apartment on Kuiper street.
She focused her attention looking ahead.
She was glad that there was no one out on the street.
What took her somewhat by surprise was the sense of power, enjoyment and the warm feeling that she felt was better than sex, go through her body.
She was amazed that she felt so satisfied with what she had just done. It sent a shiver down her spine.
There had been no one in sight when she pushed Bas over the railing but she knew that in the morning he would be found.
She walked at a slow pace to her apartment where after a long hot shower, she stood before the mirror, took in her slim figure, her accentuated breasts that looked to her like two slalom slopes.
Then she touched the small brown spot just to the left side of her nose. That was the only blemish in her otherwise smooth tan cream-colored skin.
She knew she had a beautiful body.
She had a trim figure and had often been hit on by various men.
Bas had never made the move that she had waited for!
She wondered why he had cheated on her.
She had hoped things would work out with him but for her it had not been a hot romance.
He was good looking but she had considered him a little slow but over time she had grown to like him. She had been ready to make the move to get him into her bed.
She had hoped for a faster romance but it had not happened.
Then by sheer coincidence she saw him walking away with a voluptuous radiant looking auburn-haired woman.
She discretely followed them and watched how Bas was reacting and holding the woman as they walked.
It was clear to her that the two knew each other very well!
She followed them to the point where they both entered into an apartment building.
When Bas followed the woman into her apartment she knew that her relationship with him was over.
After pushing him over the hand railing, she then spent time to learn more about the woman and discovered she was a trained chef that had just been hired at the restaurant Grand Friesian.
Over several weeks she had frequented the restaurant to learn more about her. She learned that she was a local that had grown up, lived in Twello and had only recently relocated to Deventer when she had been hired as a chef.
She also learned that Bas had dated her for several years.
This was before the two of them dated so she was sure that he had cheated on her with his previous lover.
Knowing all that had not helped and had instead sealed his fate!
She thought back over all the times she and Bas had spent bicycling, ice skating, dining on the river cruise, sailing and the fact that he had never made the move she had waited for.
It had made her wonder what his problem had been!
Bas’s body was found early in the morning hours and because of the alcohol content found during the autopsy his death was considered an accident.
There seemed nothing suspicious and there was no one to explain why he had gone up in the tower.
Tess sat at her desk and thought about the fact that she had planned and committed the perfect murder.
It was a strange feeling that seemed to invigorate her.
Her energy surged and she found it hard to concentrate on her work.
She felt a new desire and began to look forward to the next good-looking guy that might hit on her.
She stayed focused on the law at work but now her biking took on a new focus.
She was thinking about where and how she would pull off the next successful murder, or as she though more about it, murders!
It seemed like the focus on the law was the salt that flavored the risk of once again killing someone.
The pepper was the focus on how to recreate the excitement of that push that had thrilled her and seeing the surprised look in Bas’s eyes.
It was a change in her that she had not expected but found that she was embracing.
Thinking about it sent shivers up her back.
She thought back to her school years and realized that she had always controlled the interaction with the male friends.
She realized that controlling the men she had dated had always been part of her relationships. Bas had been the exception but in the end she had taken ultimate control.
She took to her new desire like a duck to water.
In her case she took to her bike as she located the next murder location.
She studied the map and followed the IJssel north and south to scope out the locations she would pick to commit each murder.
She rode her bike fifty miles north along the IJssel and then fifty miles south. Each ride was focused on locating the places that she planned to take her victims. At each location she would determine the method she was planning to use.
It became a full time focus of hers after work.
She felt exhilarated by planning the future events.
Her bike rides took on a new meaning.
The flowers, trees, the streets of towns and the flowing Ijssel exuded a new and thrilling perspective.
It was the thought of the future events she was planning that seemed to generate the adrenaline that powered her rides.
The Stadsgracht of Zwolle, a defensive star-shaped moat that surrounded the city with its centuries long history as a defensive moat immediately attracted her. She was impressed that the Stadsgracht was constructed around eight hundred AD by Frisian merchants, the troops of Charlemagne and that it had received city rights in twelve thirty from the Bishop of Utrecht.
It had a long history as a trading city at the point where three rivers converged, and the city flourished.
She rode through the city and located all the interesting shops and night spots.
She contemplated the moat and decided that she would stage a drowning.
She found the night spots that she planned to frequent to meet her next lover victim.
She felt an excitement and a thrilling chill go through her when she realized that she had found the first spot for her next murder.
She went south for the next location and picked Nijmegen because it had the Charlemagne connection and the fact that it was the oldest city in The Netherlands. Charlemagne had built a palace on the Valkhof, a hill overlooking the city.
She was planning her event not on the hill but a drowning that would feature an improperly worn life jacket.
She realized the challenge would be to identify her dates with the type of death she was planning for them.
Identification of the second murder location sealed the fact that she was fully committed to making it all come true.
Now when she stood before the full-length mirror in her bathroom she would smile as she thought about the queen in Snow White standing before the mirror and finding out that Snow White was the most beautiful woman. The queen had given her a poisoned apple to kill her.
She was not a queen but she knew she had a beautiful body and that she would easily attract her next victim.
Snow White had been saved by a good fairy who put a spell on her that put her to sleep until she was kissed by a true love.
She had found out that Bas had chosen another woman over her and her response was to put him to sleep forever.
He would have no true love’s kiss to bring him back to life.
She looked back into the mirror and asked herself how many poisoned apples she should hand out and decided that it should be more than two.
She continued to identify the locations where she would carry out her deeds. To the south in Hoven, she planned another death where she would stage the scene where a bikers pants caught in the chain causing the rider to drown.
To the north at Langen Kulk, she planned a swimming-drowning.
To the south at Apeldoorn, it would be a drowning in the water in the bottom of a boat.
The Kanaal Zuid would be the site of an inner tube drowning.
To the East at Harder Wijk it would be a paddle board fall where the paddle boarder head hit his head on a rock.
Her plans to the west at Coevorden would be a suicide fall from a giant electrical power generation windmill. This scenario was the one that scared her the most but it was the one she constantly thought about.
She would save that “suicide” for the last.
This was a scene that had captured her imagination and in her mind she kept rehearsing it.
She would climb up ahead of her lover to be but what he would receive at the top was not only what he was looking at as he climbed up behind her but one last additional thrilling experience.
Tess rode her bicycle to each location to see where she would commit the murder.
Over the year she put in countless miles.
She thought about adding in some winter deaths but struggled with the logistics of the cold weather deaths.
It seemed to her that she would suffer more than her victim.
She was surprised at her personal mental condition as she thought about what she was doing.
She felt fine but she also realized that she was about to undertake a personal project that would make her in to a person who would be referred to as a black widow.
This thought was tantalizing, attracted and overwhelmed her !!
Once again, as she stood naked before the mirror and admired her lithe body that had gotten into even better shape by the bicycling to each murder location.
She had the six pack that advertisers always referred to.
She began to fill her closet with the clothes that she planned to use as the lures that would attract the men she planned to do in. The selection of clothes were very different than the ones she wore to work or had previously kept in her closet.
Her dresses all had revealing, plunging neck lines that went down between her breasts to her belly button. Some did the same down to her butt cleavage. The hemlines of some were as high as she dared wear them. She enjoyed the clothe selection more than pushing Bas over the railing.
Each day she would spend a few moments pulling them out, admiring them and deciding in what order she would use each outfit. In her mind she was orchestrating each event.
She decided that her victims should be men from the locations where she planned to kill them.
To accomplish this, she identified the night spots in each location and began to frequent them.
Her hunt slowly yielded the men that seemed eager for one-night stands.
She actually enjoyed the hunt and figured she had several exciting years of thrilling fun ahead.
She also enjoyed the variation that she experienced as she took in the slightly differing norms from one region of the country to the other and the differences in the men that she was selecting.
She smiled as she thought about the phrase, “variety is the spice of life.” It certainly was the spice that caused her body to react when she was out on the hunt.
In the first year she created what she thought of as the four corners of the cross she would forever bear.
She lured the men in like an expert fisherman. She killed four unsuspecting men that desired her body but instead were led to their deaths.
In Zwolle she met and culled out Ted with whom she slept several times and learned that he was isolated from his family because of a fight with his stepfather.
On his fateful night, she spiked his drink and then got him to go swimming by taking off her clothes and luring him into the waters of the Stadsgracht.
She was able to push him under and hold him down until he drowned. She felt a surge of excitement as he struggled and she wished she would have gone lighter on the spiking.
Afterwards she got out, dried off, got dressed put a suicide note on his phone, returned to her car and drove home.
It was hard for her to concentrate on driving.
Once home, she enjoyed a hot shower, dried off, stood in front of the mirror and admired her lithe body.
The feeling that coursed through her body send a shiver up her back that made her shake.
She smiled into the mirror and thought that it was better than any sexual feelings she had ever experienced.
She knew that she had chosen the right path.
After kill number one, she knew she was on the way and that she was going to enjoy her journey.
The surge of the killing desire and then the after effects that traversed and shook her entire body let her know that being the deviant she recognized herself to be was worth every moment.
She tried to find out how the death to the north was reported. It was a very short report on a suicide in the moat. This was both a relief and disappointment. She would have loved to see the report have more speculation about, why Ted had committed suicide.
For her next kill, she developed a relationship with Len a handsome professional to the south in Nijmegen.
She used a similar approach with Len with whom over several weeks she spent several nights.
He too had no family connections, and she made it a point of not meeting any of his friends. She had him very drunk when she walked with him to the canal, put him into a life jacket and pulled him out into the water. She turned him face down in the water and held him that way until he drowned.
What she enjoyed the most, besides the surges that went through her body, were his struggles as he swallowed the water and drowned.
She then left him face down in the water and left the scene.
She returned home and once again lingered under the hot shower, leisurely dried off and again admired herself in the mirror. She felt the surge that went through her body and knew that she was reaching ever heightening surges that coursed through her body. She continued standing before her mirror, reliving the killing and enjoying the same exhilarating feelings.
The report in the local newspaper highlighted the fact that the life jacket had been put on in fashion that facilitated the drowning.
No foul play was suspected!
She celebrated her third successful murder with a dinner at the Grand Friesian. She looked over at where Greta was talking to some customers and felt like going over and thanking her for being the catalyst that had pushed her into her current practice.
Thank you for reading this far.