She paused. Her lips were quivering. Frederich continued to watch on in silence. When she resumed, her voice became filled with rage.
“I mean, it was a fucking crazy thing to say! And the way he said it, and the way he was looking at me, and the way the other guy looked at me. I believed it. I still do. He’s connected to something terrifying. I just know it.” Ida had her face scrunched in disgust. Then it went stiff again with fear.
Frederich speculated about this Elias. If he were part of an organised outfit, then Ida would likely have been killed that same day. She was left with an impossible choice: try to flee and risk the lives of her loved ones or quietly go to her death. The swelling on her face gave a clue to her next move.
“You tried to escape when you got in the car?”
“Yes. I begged him again to let me go. But he just looked at me with his dead eyes and smiled. The Elias I knew was gone. Before we could leave, it started raining hard. You couldn’t see outside. So we waited. I think he was expecting the rain to stop. The street flooded almost straight away. I wish I didn’t, but I panicked and tried to escape. He was too quick. I didn’t even reach the door handle before he pinned me down. He punched me. When I screamed, he became angry and held me down by my throat. I couldn’t breathe. Then you came.”
Ida began trembling. Telling her story had been a point of focus which had held her together. Now it seemed the terrifying reality had caught up with her. Frederich watched the aftershocks of her trauma boil up to the surface. So far he had been analysing the information she was giving him for anything useful. It was time to put that aside.
He made his next move without hesitation, shifting closer to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. First a sob broke out, then she began weeping. He wrapped his arm around her and felt her despair, and with it, remembered her look of terror. He tensed his jaw and made a tight fist with his hand, furious again without knowing why. He had lost it, and not for the first time. He remembered when he snapped like that last, when that intruder broke into their house in the middle of the night and tried to kill Kraa… Don’t, a voice warned him as the ominous shadow converged. Don’t think about that. He blinked and shook his head, then took a deep breath to settle himself.
He looked down and focussed on Ida instead. After hearing her story, he was now convinced that his decision not to contact the police had been the right one. It was better to stay put for the time being, at least until some questions could be answered. Who was Elias, and what was he involved in? How much danger was Ida in? What would the police uncover once someone discovered the body? He could only speculate. For the moment he had to cast such questions aside. Ida continued to cry for a long time, and he continued to console her. There would be plenty of time to expose criminal connections and deal with the case of this so-called ‘Elias’.
5
When Ida finally composed herself, sniffling and sitting up straight again, Frederich left her alone and went to his room to browse the news on his laptop computer. There was nothing breaking about a murder in Berlin. He gazed into space while tapping his fingers on the trackpad. The body must have still been under the car. He switched his focus to his sphere of control and went into the living room.
“Do you want to check up on your family?” he asked Ida, who was laying on the sofa underneath the blanket.
“Yes,” she said, sitting up and looking alert. “But my family lives in Montevideo.”
“You’re from Uruguay?”
“Yes, but I’ve been living in New York.”
“Ok. You should still get in touch with them. Any friends or anybody who needs to know where you are?”
“No, I don’t think so. I was travelling with my friend Pia. She left weeks ago. We had a fight, and we haven’t spoken since.”
“So you’re in Berlin alone?”
“Yes, I was on a world trip. Berlin was our latest stop,” she said then looked down at the floor.
He watched her quietly but decided not to press further. His fridge only had a few slices of salami and a pair of eggs.
“Ok, I’m going to get groceries. My laptop is in the bedroom. I’ve set up a guest account for you to use.”
He was about to reach for his phone to give to Ida but then stopped. What did he actually know about her? Was Elias really just a fling or was she in deeper than she led on? He could be coming back to an ambush.
“Are you ok?” asked Ida, having noticed his state of deep thought.
He made eye contact and tried to read her for answers. She was… simply there. Nothing in her words or behaviour had given him reason to doubt her.
“Here’s my phone,” he said. “Call or message whoever you need to. If you hear or see anything suspicious, call 110 straight away, ok? I’ll be quick.”
Outside he scanned the street. Nobody was waiting. No police sirens. The parked cars within sight were empty. He relaxed slightly but remained alert for the entire walk. The floods had now subsided and the heavy rains from the previous night had reduced to a light drizzle. It was only a matter of time before the traffic got moving again and Elias’ body was discovered.
At the supermarket Frederich was met with the Saturday evening rush. He picked up
