Strangers: A Novel(73)
The officer tries to calm me down, and I let him. After a few moments, I continue with a softer, more composed voice. “It was so strange yesterday. You know—I think Erik suspected that something wasn’t right. There were a few attempts on his life in the past few days. And looking at it in hindsight, it seems to me like his company could be involved in the attack. I also got this very strange call from one of his coworkers yesterday. He warned me, you know.”
“Really?” The officer is now listening attentively, but with caution as well. He probably gets ten people an hour calling him with some conspiracy theory. “Would you come to the station and go on record about your suspicions?”
I was afraid of that. “No. I’m sorry, I don’t want to leave the house right now. I don’t know if I’ll reach you alive.”
“Fine. Then we’ll send someone over to you. This afternoon around two; please make sure you’re available, on the phone as well.”
I give him the address and hang up.
* * *
The three hours until the scheduled arrival of the police feel like three days. Just before twelve, Ela calls, distraught, wanting to know if Erik has turned up yet, saying that she can’t find him on any of the lists—neither the survivors list nor the casualty list.
It hurts to have to lie to her, but if I want to keep Erik’s cover intact, there’s no other way. “No. No sign of him.” I whisper into the phone. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll come by.”
“No.” That was a little too quick. “Please don’t. I didn’t get a moment’s sleep the whole night and I just took a sleeping tablet. Maybe tomorrow, hopefully by then…” I didn’t finish the sentence, but Ela understands.
“Oh God, yes. Hopefully.” I can hear her hesitating, like she wants to say something else but doesn’t really know what. “You sound almost like you used to before. Like you care about Erik. So do you? Are you remembering?”
He is sitting opposite me, and looks up when he realizes I’m staring at him. Tries to smile.
“No,” I say. “Not even a little. But I’m still so terribly worried about him. And no, I don’t understand it either.”
We promise that we’ll contact each other right away if we find out anything about Erik, then Ela hangs up.
* * *
When the doorbell rings shortly after two, it almost takes superhuman effort for me to open the door. The two men I can see through the spy hole could just as easily be Gabor’s people. Dark pants, dark jacket. Only when one of them holds up their ID do I open the door.
We sit down in the living room. I wanted Erik to wait upstairs until the policemen are gone, but he insists on hearing as much of the conversation as possible. So he’s sitting in the pantry, and I hope there’s nothing in there that makes him sneeze.
I’ve prepared myself for this. Among other things by covering the remainder of the bruise on my forehead with concealer. I don’t want the police to ask the wrong questions.
But they barely ask anything anyway; instead they let me speak, and I tell them everything. About the boiler which almost cost us our lives, about the car accident that pushed Erik off the road. “There are police reports and hospital files on both of these incidents, which I’m sure you’ll be able to take a look at. The day before yesterday, Erik said that he suspected Gabor Energy Engineering were behind all of it. But he didn’t think anything of it when they asked him to pick up some business partners from Munich station on Monday. His boss specifically told him that he had to be there at ten minutes past one, and not be late.”
I look at first one, then at the other policeman, seeing their faces blur before my eyes. Tears, at exactly the right moment. “And it seems he was there on time.”
The policeman sitting opposite me and to my left has been making notes the whole time. Now he lays his pen aside. “If all of this is the case, Frau…” He glances at his notepad. “Frau Berrigan, why didn’t you report the suspicion previously? Why didn’t Herr Thieben?”
“We didn’t have any proof.” I wipe the back of my hand across my face, taking care not to touch the part with the concealer. “Do you think Erik would have been able to keep his job after that? And besides, we didn’t know whether we were right, it all seemed so implausible. And there wasn’t even any reason for Gabor wanting to get rid of Erik.”
The two policemen exchange a quick glance.
“You said on the phone that one of Erik’s coworkers called you yesterday and warned you?”
“Yes.” I pick up my phone from the coffee table and open the caller list. Hopefully the officials will also see my forty-seven unsuccessful attempts to reach Erik; that can’t hurt.
“This call here at half past twelve, that was Bernhard Morbach, a close colleague of Erik’s. He’s never called me before, so I have no idea where he got my number from. He seemed to want to apologize more than anything. He said that he hadn’t known exactly what was going to happen, that he should have warned Erik, and that he was sorry. And then he said that I should disappear, hide as quickly as possible. Otherwise I would soon be dead too.”
Another quick exchange of glances between the two. The one on the right makes a note. “Thank you, Frau Berrigan, this information could prove to be very helpful. It would probably be a good idea if we take you to a safe place until we’ve checked the details of your statement. We don’t want anything to happen to you. Would you agree to that?”