The Lie by Petra Hammesfahr

Author:Petra Hammesfahr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
Published: 2010-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

She left the shop with her colleagues shortly after closing time. The Alfa was parked some two hundred yards away among other cars at the side of the road. Frau Gathmann saw her get in, but she didn’t let that bother her. She couldn’t find anywhere to park in Kettlerstrasse, so she drove round the corner, parked by the telephone box and walked back.

Unusually, Heller wasn’t leaning out of the window and didn’t appear as she went up the stairs. He’d be in the pub. Some children seemed to have used his absence to play a trick on him, sticking transfers on his door and over the lock.

She noticed them as she went past, but didn’t give them a closer look, her mind being occupied with Nadia. She waited until the early evening for the taxi that would bring her to collect the Alfa. She passed the time by giving the flat a thorough clean. By half-past six there wasn’t a hair, a speck of dust or a piece of fluff anywhere. She couldn’t think of anything else she could do and she couldn’t stand the waiting any longer. Taking her jacket and handbag, she went out to phone Philip Hardenberg. He would surely know where Nadia was and when she would be back. She hoped she’d find his home number in the telephone directory, she even had enough change to ask directory enquiries. All that was left in the telephone box, however, was a dangling piece of cord.

It seemed pointless to go back to her flat. There was a telephone in the house and Hardenberg’s home number on the computer. At least she hoped the index card she’d deleted so quickly in September would have that information. If Michael had actually gone to Munich, Nadia could come back any time during the weekend. Knowing the house would probably be empty calmed her nerves a little.

When the garage door slid up to reveal an empty space, she heaved a sigh of relief. She switched off the alarm in the hall and ran up the stairs two at a time. Hardly had she sat down at the desk than all the lights on the computer were glowing. A few words glided across the screen, then the picture came to a standstill with the instruction: Enter password.

Hurriedly she typed in “Arosa” and pressed Enter. Nothing happened. She tried twice more, after that every time she pressed a key there was an unpleasant bleep. Nadia must have changed her password. Without thinking, she picked up the telephone. The extension on the desk was connected, Michael must have plugged it in. She dialled directory enquiries and requested Philip Hardenberg’s number. She was asked where he lived, she assumed it was in the city. After a few seconds the operator said that she was sorry but the number was ex-directory. Her request for Helga Barthel’s number met with the same result.

She was hungry and exhausted. She’d hardly had anything to eat all day and felt she couldn’t think straight on a rumbling stomach, so she made herself two pieces of toast.

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