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comfortably ensconced in a matching armchair, next to a small glass table. If Miszczyk had wanted to create a homely atmosphere in her office by taking the average furnishings of the typical Polish small family house as her model, she had achieved her aim.
    “I’d like to know,” said Sobieraj, either unable, or simply not trying to hide the grievance in her voice, “why, after running my own investigations for seven years at our prosecution office, I’m being kept off Ela’s murder. And I’d like to know why Mr Szacki is to run it, whose achievements I don’t deny, but who doesn’t yet know the town and its particulars all that well. And I’d like to add that I was sorry to find out about it in this way. You could at least have warned me, Misia.”
    Miszczyk’s face looked genuinely worried in a motherly way. There was so much warmth and understanding radiating from her that Szackicould sense the smell of the nursery-school canteen. He was nice and safe – the teacher lady would be sure to solve the problem so that no one felt sad any more. And then she’d give them a hug.
    “Oh, I know, Basia, I’m sorry. But when I found out about Ela I had to act quickly. Normally this sort of case would have waited for you. But it’s not a normal situation. Ela was a close friend of yours. Grzegorz was involved with you. You were friends with them, you often met up. A lawyer could use that against us.”
    Sobieraj chewed her lip.
    “Apart from which, emotions are no help in an inquiry,” Szacki delivered the final blow, took another piece of cake and answered her murderous look with a smile.
    “You know bugger all about my emotions.”
    “It’s blissful ignorance.”
    Miszczyk clapped her hands and looked at them as if to say: “Children, children, you really must stop it now!” Szacki forced himself not to drop his gaze, but to resist the reproach in her gentle, doe-like, motherly eyes.
    “You can snipe at each other afterwards, my loves. Now I’m going to tell you about your professional position.”
    Sobieraj twitched and quickly started talking. How many of these neurotic birds had Szacki seen in his life? Legions.
    “I hope that—”
    “Basia,” Miszczyk stopped her mid-sentence, “I’m happy to hear your views and suggestions. I’m always happy to listen, you know that, don’t you? But right now I’m going to tell you about your professional position.”
    Sobieraj shut up on the instant, and Szacki looked closely at Miszczyk. She was still the mummy with gentle eyes, the smile of a children’s therapist and a voice that recalled the scent of vanilla and baking powder. But if the last remark she had made were stripped of its form, it would sound like a firm put-down.
    Miszczyk poured them all more tea.
    “I knew Ela Budnik, and I know Grzegorz too, just as everyone here does. We don’t have to like him or agree with him, but it’s hard tooverlook him. This will be – already is a major, well-known inquiry. A situation where it’s run by a friend of the victim—”
    “And of the main suspect,” put in Szacki.
    Sobieraj snorted.
    “Please watch what you say. You don’t know the man.”
    “I don’t have to. He’s the victim’s husband. At this stage that makes him the main suspect.”
    “And that’s just what I’m talking about.” Sobieraj raised her hands in triumph. “That’s why you should keep right away from this case.”
    Miszczyk waited a moment until there was silence again.
    “That is exactly why Prosecutor Szacki will not only not keep away from this case, but will run the inquiry. Because I want to avoid a situation where the corpse, the suspects and the investigator are a gang of old friends, who only the other day were making a date for a barbecue. But you’re right, Basia, that Mr Szacki is new here. That’s why you’re going to give him advice, help and information about everything to do with the city and its residents.”
    Szacki sighed with relief as a large