Shadows

two statements

Later in the afternoon the witnesses arrived at the police station. It was disappointing. Schulze's assistant was questioning the neighbor, as Schulze tried his best with the old lady. At the end she came out triumphing. "He was watching football but he remembered the registry code. It's a black Mercedes. The code starts with FM 39..."

"Excellent, Clarissa. When did the car arrive?"

"He said at eight thirty."

Schulze's face went into lines as he was thinking. "That's interesting... Mme Schmidt was in a terrible mute. She said his girlfriend left around eight. And when she got up to close the window curtains around nine, she saw no car outside."

Clarissa's eyes opened widely. "But which one is lying?"

"We'll see. Take a blood probe for Hallelujah, I want to know if she really took the drug."

"It's almost 24hr ago. Do you think that he will still find traces of it?"

"If he says that it's impossible, I'll show him what trouble is. Now I want the TV magazine."

"What do you mean? We don't have one here."

"Then fetch me one. Anywhere!"

Clarissa bristled with anger as she went, because she had a premonition that it will be a lot of work.

"And hurry up! I can't keep him forever."

"This is my last favor for this year," she growled as she went.

Schulze went into the room and sat down next to the witness.

"Relax. We just got some new information. So it will a couple more questions..."

The witness sat up straight and looked at the detective with expectation.

"As I see in the protocol, your name is Meier. When did you go to bed last night?"

"Around two... The game went on very long. And afterwards I watched a movie."

"Which movie?"

"<145 hours> on channel 5"

"And what game?"

"Dortmund against Bavaria Munich. It was so great... Bavaria won."

"Oh I'm also fan of Bavaria. Too bad I missed this game. I was busy. Can you tell me more?"

After a half an hour Clarissa came back with a robber from the supermarket. Müller was already waiting behind the glass. As Clarissa wanted to walk into the questioning room the advocate stopped her. "I want an explanation now!", she told angrily, "The assistant detective buys groceries in the middle of the work day and the detective sits down for an hour to talk with the witness about football."

"He's checking if the witness really was watching TV. So I had to get the magazine."

"Good. I want to hear that in one hour at my office. And Clarissa," she added calmly as the assistant turned to go, "What legitimates the orange juice and the eggs?"

Clarissa went into the room and put the magazine on the table. "And remember this is my last favor," she bristled as she went. "She's getting more annoying with every day... Sometimes I wish I could fire her," Schulze murmured as he opened the magazine.

"So you said the game was an RTL?"

"Yes."

"From 9:30 until 11:15?"

"Yes."

"And the movie was on channel 5 at 11:20?"

"Yes."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Oh it's a great movie. It's too bad that he had to cut his hand of..."

"And it's coming next week on channel seven. Channel five was shoving documentaries the whole night."

Meier started shaking nervously.

"May I ask you why you went to bed this late?"

As Schulze went out his assistant and the advocate standing in front of the door. "Any results," the advocate asked chewing.

"He wasn't watching TV, he went to bed very late and he doesn't want to talk anymore without his lawyer. You are eating?"

"Yes, Clarissa had no right to go to buy groceries at work time. So I had to confiscate some of her cookies. And I think that I need to confiscate another one." She stretched out her hand and Clarissa laughing passed her the package.

This day Schulze went home in a good mood. He was proud of the results he had achieved in the questioning. Happily patting the treasure in his pocket, he decided to pass George's Bar before he went home. In his mind his wife was already kissing him for bringing home enough money to fix the car. So he felt like celebrating his success. In the middle of the night he came home totally drunk. And broke.

The next morning he went to the lab. Hallelujah swallowed as he heard his friends voice asking for a nap again. James looked at him angrily. "Are you now coming every day? Don't you have a home to sleep at?"

"Say thank you that you have no wife"

"It's getting too much. Why don't you just stop drinking. Don't you think so to Professor? Professor?"

Hallelujah was staring at the floor, slowly realizing what was going on. Shameful memories were coming back and pain slowly started to rise.

"We need to talk," Hallelujah said after a long pause.

Schulze shook his head to get the sleep of.

"I said we need to talk!", Hallelujah commanded discomposed.

Both men started staring at the professor. It had been long since he had spoken like that. Hallelujah gripped Schulze's impatiently and pulled him toward the door. "Stop staring James, I want this analysis done!", he shouted back. James stood there starring at the door. A size less question was written in his eyes.

Hallelujah pulled Schulze through the floor. Towards the men's room. When they reached the sinks he finally released him.

"Are you crazy?", Schulze asked sleepy, "Have you seen how Paparazy was staring at us? What is wrong with you?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Remember what you did yesterday?"

"Wake me up when your moral preach is over."

"This is not funny. It was against the law. Now I can get a nice fine for covering a criminal and you can go to prison."

"I'm sorry... But take it easy. You're almost 60... You can retire soon if you loose your job."

"And what about you? If you loose your license and go to prison Emma will divorce you. Is that what you want?"

"Hallelujah calm down... It was worth it..."

"Is drinking really worth it?"

"Who told you that I spent it all on drinks?"

"Why else Emma hasn't opened the door?"

Schulze shook his head. He felt ashamed but sleepiness was slowly moving up to his brain.

"I'm sorry he said," and the feeling of guilt kept him from lifting his view of the floor.

"And what are you going to do now?"

"Take a nap and then get myself a second house key," Schulze yawned and shuffled out of the men's room.