explanation. What if Runi heard it? But she would never dream that Andreas was lying in my cellar with his neck broken. She didn't have that much imagination.
'Had he got himself mixed up in something?' I asked. It was like sprinkling water on frying oil: Runi at once started sputtering.
'Don't talk like that! You sound just like his father. Andreas would never do anything illegal, if that's what you're insinuating. But so many strange things go on in this town, especially at night, so I fear the worst. I feel as if I'm going crazy when I think about everything that might have happened.' She kept on crying, but more quietly now. I should offer her something, I thought, but then she would stay even longer, so I didn't.
'Do you have any coffee?' she suddenly asked. I was annoyed, but couldn't very well refuse. She might get suspicious. Runi isn't especially bright, but she can be shrewd, in a primitive sort of way. I got up and turned on the coffee maker. That's when I heard the sound again. Runi was lost in her own thoughts. Her cigarette was sending a thin, disgusting stream of smoke towards the ceiling.
'You should try calling everybody,' I said with my back turned. It's important to keep the conversation going, I thought. As long as we keep talking she won't hear the noise from the cellar. 'What about his work?' I said. 'Have you talked to them?'
'Of course I have.'
'He might have run off with a girl,' I said. 'He's so handsome, that Andreas. Having himself a little adventure. Did he have much money?'
'I can't think that he did. He doesn't make much, and he's always sharing what he does earn with Zipp. If he had gone off with Zipp, I could understand it. But Zipp is at home. He's fine.'
'Zipp?'
'His friend. They're inseparable.'
'Oh? Inseparable?'
I took two cups from the cupboard, listening. A faint sound, from something thin and light.
'I'm going to ask the police if they can report Andreas missing on the evening news on TV. With a photograph and everything. Apparently every time something runs on the evening news they get lots of calls. They say that there's always somebody who knows something.'
'That's not really true, is it?'
'That's what they say.'
'They? Who are 'they'?'
'People I've talked to.'
'But if anyone did know anything they would call, TV news or no TV news, wouldn't they?' I fumbled with the coffee filter and spilled coffee on the counter, but she didn't notice.
'No. Because they often have good reasons for keeping quiet.'
'What? What do you mean?'
I took a sugar bowl out of the cupboard and set it on the table. The sound from the cellar had stopped. Was he lying there listening to us? Did he recognise his mother's voice through the floorboards? Runi had such a shrill voice.
'Can't you turn off that music!' she said. 'I can't even think!'
'All right, all right.'
I turned it down a little more. She gave me a look of surprise that I didn't do as she asked. All my life I've done what people told me to do, but not any more. I left the radio on. She shook her head.
'What should I do?' she said.
'I'm sure he'll come back soon,' I said clumsily.
'You don't understand anything! You don't realise how serious this is. Two days. Just think what could happen in two days!'
'But he's not exactly a child,' I objected.
'Oh yes, he is. He's my child!'
'I mean, he's probably off doing something. Something that he might not . . .' I stopped and shrugged my shoulders.
'What are you talking about?'
'I'm just thinking aloud. You don't usually worry about him.'
'But this time he's disappeared!'
'Yes.'
I put my hand on her arm. It was odd. Not once, in all the years that had passed, had I ever done that before. She looked at my hand in astonishment.
'If they come over here,' she said, 'the police, to talk to you. Will you promise me one thing?'
'Come over here?' There was a knot in my breast.
'Well, you know him, after all.'
'No, no! I don't know him!' I felt the colour leave my face. 'He's never been at home when I've come to visit you. Once or twice, but no more than that.'
'What are you saying?' She looked at me with dismay.
'I just mean that I've hardly ever set eyes on him, Runi.'
'But you know perfectly well who he is! Don't talk like that!' She threw out her hands. 'I'm just begging you to put in a good word for him. They're going to ask you what kind of a boy he is. I don't want them to think that he takes drugs or gets drunk, or anything like that. You just have to tell them the truth, that he's a good boy!'
I was starting to sweat under my arms. I'm usually so dry and unflustered. 'But I don't know much about what he does in his free time.'
'Good Lord, Irma, just do this for me, will you?'
'I can't lie to the police.' She looked so upset that I bit back my words.
'Lie to them? I'm not asking you to do that. You just have to tell them the truth. Andreas is a decent young man with a steady job. I don't want them to get the impression that he's mixed up in anything bad. Then they won't put any real effort into looking for him. They'll leave him to his own devices. If only he were a girl. Then it's a different story; so many other things could happen. That's how they think. It's been hard enough, let me tell you, to get them to take this seriously!'
'I'm sorry, Runi. I didn't mean it. But I hope they don't come here. They won't come here if you don't give them my name. There must be others who know him better. You know I don't really know him.'
'So you won't help me?'
She looked stunned. As if at any moment she might fall off her chair.
'Yes, of course I will.'
'I gave them your name a long time ago. They want to talk to everybody who knows him.' I stood up and started tidying the counter, even though it didn't really need it. I moved the spice jars around and the potted plants. I didn't want her to see that I was on the verge of falling apart myself. The police at the door. And then I heard that sound again. I turned up the radio and stared out of the window in a panic.
'Oh, please.'
'It's just that you make me so nervous,' I stammered.
'What's the matter with you? And why aren't you at work?' she asked all of a sudden, as if she were seeing me for the first time. It was horrible.
'I'm not feeling very well. It will pass.' She fell silent. I said nothing either. Outside, the wind was blowing faintly. The birch trees leaned over the roof of the gazebo, as if they were stroking the green shingles, like a cautious warning of fiercer storms to come later in the autumn.
'Do you know what I was reading about in the newspaper?' said Runi quietly.
'No.'
'I was reading about a bunch of teenagers who had a party in the room one of them lived in. You know, the kind of thing they're always doing. Perfectly innocent. Maybe a beer or two.'
'And?' I tried to think about my own youth. I never went to a party in anyone's room. Henry and I would walk down the street by ourselves. He was very shy.
