The insurance company required that the police be informed, so immediately after ending her conversation with the guard, Chyłka phoned to report the possibility of an offence being committed under article 288 of the Penal Code. This really infuriated the woman on duty on the other end of the line, but Chyłka couldn’t help herself.
Some time later, a police car appeared at the estate, attracting the attention of all the residents. Out climbed two police officers, who swiftly carried out all the required formalities and assured Chyłka that investigations would be made.
‘Is that it?’ asked Chyłka with disbelief.
‘Yes.’
‘But you’ve done nothing but make a few notes.’
‘At this moment, we cannot—’
‘Interview witnesses?’ cut in Chyłka. ‘Identify the security guards?’
The officers looked at one another.
‘How about searching the site?’ continued Joanna. ‘Finding non-human sources of information? You’ve got surveillance cameras, for heaven’s sake.’
‘Madam . . .’
‘You’re downplaying the whole matter,’ she said, shaking her head. She looked at Oryński helplessly, while he pointed to a crowd of people gathered a little further on.
‘We have quite an audience,’ he said.
The two officers looked at the ground, and headed back to their car.
Chyłka cursed under her breath, but decided there would be a chance later to talk with their superiors, who might be more decisive. She turned her gaze to the onlookers. If you counted those leaning out of their windows, there must have been a good few dozen people.
‘I expect there are already rumours going round about another murder,’ she said. ‘And actually, we should be glad, because now we’ve become local celebrities, and it should be easier to interview the residents.’
‘And are we going to interview anyone now? Apart from the shopkeeper?’
‘In this situation, Zordon?’ she raised her eyebrows and lit another cigarette. ‘We must seize this opportunity. Because that bloody Collective must have an insider.’
‘I know, or the car wouldn’t have been wrecked.’
‘And they could have planted the bodies in Langer’s apartment.’
‘Or killed those people in his apartment and then planted Piotr’s unconscious body in there,’ added Oryński. ‘But the police have found nothing to corroborate that.’
‘Maybe we’re dealing with rubber glove and disinfectant fetishists.’
‘Maybe.’
‘We need to interview the other neighbours,’ she said, looking at her X5. Mobil Care roadside assistance had just arrived, and the crew were preparing to load the BMW onto their truck.
‘Did you hear me, Zordon?’
‘Yes, yes, we need to interview the other neighbours,’ he repeated. ‘But do you really think they’ll want to talk to us?’
‘After this incident, they’ll all be inviting us in for coffee and biscuits. Or possibly champagne and caviar, given the affluence of the locals.’
‘Well, I’m not so sure.’
‘Everyone will be happy to talk to the two people at the centre of today’s events. They’ll invite us in to find out what happened, but we’ll be the ones asking the questions.’
‘As simple as that, eh?’
‘Stop whingeing,’ she said. ‘Let’s go to the shopkeeper first. Lead me to his shrine, Zordon.’
They set off towards the neighbourhood shop, watched by the crowd.
‘Do you think they know who we are?’ asked Oryński.
‘I think you’re an idiot if you even need to ask.’
‘It’s quite an important issue.’
‘Not in the slightest,’ she said. ‘What does it matter? They’re here because they think they have another killer in their community. And God knows, they soon will, if you don’t stop asking such lame questions.’
‘But . . .’
‘Listen,’ she said, cutting him short. ‘A moment ago, I saw my poor car, my battered baby. In my mind I can still see it. Anyone who pisses me off may end up regretting it, and you are in a high-risk category.’
He glowered at her and muttered something under his breath. ‘The shop is just round the corner,’ he said.
They turned the corner, but the shop wasn’t there. What was more, there was no evidence that it ever had been there. Kordian decided that either he had made a mistake, or the shopkeeper was a master at covering up his tracks.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Chyłka. ‘Have you got amnesia?’
‘Everything looks the same on this estate,’ said Oryński to justify himself, looking round at the surrounding buildings. ‘But I’m pretty sure this is where Kormak and I came.’
‘And I’m pretty sure you were more preoccupied with Ms Powirska’s formidable assets than about thinking where you actually were.’
‘Do I detect a hint of jealousy?’ said Kordian with satisfaction.
Chyłka glared at him. ‘Believe me, if I’m ever jealous, you’ll know about it.’
He smiled and wanted the banter to continue, but Joanna had lost interest. She had noticed a boy watching them from a distance, and waved to him.
She headed towards the child. Oryński sighed, and followed her.
‘Hi there,’ she said. ‘We’re looking for the grocery shop, could you show us where it is?’
‘It was here not long ago,’ the boy answered shyly, pointing to an empty building.
‘When did it close?’ asked Kordian.
‘I don’t know. But if you want Dr Pepper, you won’t get it anywhere here,’ replied the youngster. ‘Well, you could come with me and Mum to Blue City, then yes. But it isn’t here anymore, and the next nearest shop is . . . oh . . . way over there.’ He waved his hand to the right.
‘Do you know why the man moved out?’
The child frowned, as if he was trying to trisect an acute angle using Archimedes’ method.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘But Mum says it’s strange, because he had customers all the time. Everyone went to his shop.’
‘And did you hear anything else?’
‘Mum says that maybe someone drove him out of here.’
‘Thanks,’ said Chyłka.
The boy nodded and briskly walked away. Joanna looked at Kordian knowingly. They didn’t need the youngster to tell them that the Collective had taken care of the shopkeeper.
‘Needless to say, he didn’t leave a forwarding address,’ said Kordian peering through the window.
Joanna ignored him.
‘Why did they remove him?’ she asked. ‘He wasn’t that important.’
‘Maybe he was, and we didn’t realise it. I guess he could have testified that during those ten days, Langer didn’t buy anything from his shop. If we compare this with readings from his magnetic card, the amount of fuel he used, money withdrawn from his account, etc., we could argue that there’s no way he was in that apartment.’
‘That would be stretching it too far.’
‘Perhaps not,’ objected Oryński. ‘If no one else in the community could testify that they had seen Langer in that ten-day period, the shopkeeper’s testimony would be worth its weight in gold.’
‘Don’t exaggerate. You’ve watched too many legal soaps on TV. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And even more so in this case, because our client has already been convicted and is now doing time.’
Kordian preferred to drop the subject, bearing in mind that Chyłka’s emotions associated with the destruction of her car had not yet completely subsided.
They both smoked another cigarette and got down to work. They started by gathering information from the residents on the ground floor – and just as Chyłka had predicted, people spoke to them fairly willingly. Once the news spread that ‘the lawyer who was recently on TV’ was meeting residents, doors were opened wide for the Żelazny & McVay legal duo, even before they reached the given floor.
Once they had checked every apartment, they could be certain that none of these residents would compromise their case. None of them had seen Langer during the ten days when he was supposedly hiding the bodies in his apartment, and what’s more, none of them had seen him for a long time before that.