Kordian walked slowly up to the bench. Kormak raised his head, pushed up his spectacles, closed the book with the horse’s mouth on the cover and put it into a compartment in his bag. Kordian noticed the words on the bookmark: ‘INSERTED HERE, BUT I SWITCHED OFF TWO PAGES AGO.’
‘Who was that meathead?’ asked Kormak, pointing to the club entrance.
‘Don’t know, I guess he wanted to give his lungs a shot before his workout and asked for a light. He lives in the apartment block we’ve been trying to break into, in the virtual sense.’
‘I don’t recognise his face.’
‘Because he’s only just moved in.’
‘So never mind him. Did you get the number?’
‘Yes, the necklace worked like magic.’
‘Then let’s give the object of your desires a call,’ said Kormak, but Oryński had already pulled his phone out of the inside pocket of his jacket. He clearly hadn’t taken Artur Żelazny’s advice to heart.
He dialled the number and sat down next to Kormak with his phone pressed to his ear.
‘Hello?’ said a velvety female voice. She even sounded beautiful.
‘Good morning, Agnieszka,’ said Kordian in his ‘official’ voice.
‘Good morning,’ she replied. ‘If you’re calling with another loan offer . . .’
‘Not at all,’ Kordian said. ‘I am a lawyer defending Piotr Langer. I would like to have a few words with you if you have time.’
‘How did you get hold of my number?’
‘I came across it by chance, and . . .’
‘Sure. Just like Obama spies on people by chance through PRISM.’
For a moment Kordian wondered if he was really talking to the person whose pictures he’d seen the previous day. That girl looked more like a ditsy bimbo than someone who knew about the American surveillance programme. Or maybe she’d just liked the right page on Facebook.
‘A lawyer you say? Which firm?’
‘Żelazny & McVay,’ replied Oryński.
It was hard to hide the pride in his voice. Even more so now, because he didn’t have to admit he was only a trainee.
‘What do you want from me? I’ve already spoken to the police.’
‘I’d like to ask you a few questions regarding one or two issues.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like whether you noticed anything suspicious, unusual, anything out of the ordinary.’
‘I’ve already gone over this,’ she sighed. ‘I saw nothing, I heard nothing.’
‘So for ten days you didn’t see my client leave his flat?’ asked Oryński, getting straight to the point.
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘But normally, you’d see him around? Going out to buy a newspaper, or shopping?’
‘Peter, reading newspapers, are you joking? What would he want with newspapers? He had his tablet, didn’t he?’
Peter, not Piotr, Kordian noticed. Why would she anglicise his name?
He glanced excitedly at Kormak, regretting he hadn’t switched on the speakerphone. The way Agnieszka spoke about their client and knew ‘Peter’s’ habits was not so much a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel as the beam from a lighthouse.
‘Did he ever do any shopping?’ he asked.
‘Yes, I often saw him in the local shop. He didn’t like shopping malls, he said you met the worst kind of people there. Plebs, he called them, you know? He said half of them stank. That is, not directly. Peter was hardly ever direct. He’d always beat about the bush, you know?’
‘I know exactly what you mean.’
‘And at our shop here on the development, they can order anything you want,’ continued Agnieszka. ‘You just have to ask them in advance.’
‘Did you often see him there?’
‘Fairly often, because no one at our place buys food for more than a day. Why bother if you have a shop downstairs? If you want a beer, you don’t buy a whole crate and lug it upstairs. You go down to the shop and buy a bottle. Or five.’
‘Did Langer drink a lot?’ Oryński asked.
‘Depends what you mean by a lot. He drank normally, same as everyone.’
‘Did he eat out?’
‘Funny thing to ask,’ muttered Agnieszka. ‘I didn’t know him that well, and I don’t know where he ate. I’d occasionally see him downstairs in the pizzeria, but I don’t know anything more. Is there anything else you wanted to ask? Can I get back to my work?’
Her tone suggested that there could only be one possible answer. Doesn’t matter, he thought, she had given him more time than he’d expected.
‘Of course, please go back to your work. Thank you very much for the information.’
‘You’re welcome,’ she replied, then paused. ‘I’d just like to add that Peter always seemed like a decent person. A bit critical of the world, but essentially decent.’
Oryński thanked her again, said goodbye and hung up. The information about Langer was worth its weight in gold, although on the other hand, whatever ‘Peter’ had been like previously, his current circumstances were forcing him to change character completely.
‘And?’ asked Kormak.
‘He habitually did his shopping in the local shop,’ replied Kordian with a smile. ‘Buckle up, we’re joining the nouveau riche in their enclave.’
‘You talk as if you belonged to a different class.’
‘My family is vieux riche. If we can speak of riches at all.’
‘The first lawyer in the family?’
‘Depends what you mean.’
Kormak raised his eyebrows.
‘Officially, there’s nothing but lawyers in my family,’ said Oryński. ‘But most of them know more about getting into Parliament and how to access Poland’s top politicians than about the Supreme Court.’
His comment was met with silence, then the pair set off to the gated apartment complex. It was clear from first glance that no stranger would wander in by accident. The CCTV, security guards and high fence were there to make sure it could never happen.