Chapter 5 A Favor

07:13

It was around late October when Robert Rej felt in his old apartment at home. It was a cold month so the building administration started heating it quite early and, exactly as aunt Teresa had mentioned, it was heated so well that even cold water in the tap was warm. A few windows and all doors had to be opened to allow colder air into the flat to make it bearable, especially at night.

It was objectively lovely to sit in the armchair, next to a lamp shedding the light on the book’s print, to sip some wine, to drink coffee and to relax in his sleeping gown all Sunday when he wasn’t at work and wasn’t anywhere else.

He played his favorite classical music, not hiding from his daughters’ and his wife’s pathetic looks. (‘Other daddies just watch football matches and drink beer. Can’t you be the same?’) Now he just took life as it was. Now he was free to do what he wanted and some aspects of this freedom were without a doubt a pleasure.

It was almost nine in the evening when he heard knocking on the door. He didn’t expect anyone so he was surprised that there was someone who wanted to pay him a visit.

Still in his dressing gown, a little bit tipsy after the wine, with messy hair and a three-day imitation of a beard he opened the door.

There was an elderly man leaning against the wall, exhausted after climbing five staircases.

‘Mr. Rej? I really wanted to meet you. I was Teresa’s old acquaintance. I received the news that you have arrived. I was told that you are a police officer. I know that you helped Teresa some years ago. I also have a favor to ask.’

Robert Rej was surprised, but he let the man in. He offered a tea and followed him to his big living room and sat him on the old chair.

‘I was here years ago. Once or twice. Teresa’s father was a watchmaker. He repaired our clocks. It didn’t change much from that time.’

‘And it’s bound to stay this way. No one can afford the renovation. I did what I could. But I’m in a difficult material situation at the moment.’

‘I see. I suppose it would take a lot of money. All the windows, the installation. But these furniture! Don’t throw them away. They remind me of old times.’ the man took a sip from his cup ‘I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Jakub Krakowski, I’m a professor at the University of Warsaw. I teach sociology.’

‘But why do you want to see me? I work for the police. I don’t have much in common with university education.’

‘But you read.’ Jakub Krakowski laughed and pointed at the pile of volumes packed in various places around the room, ‘It’s a private matter. I didn’t come to you as a professor and I didn’t come to a police officer. The police are currently investigating the case, I believe. But I don’t think anything will come of it. I don’t want to offend you, but you lot are rarely successful.’

Robert Rej smiled with a mixture of embarrassment and guilt.

‘So what do you want from me?’ he asked, combing his hair with his hand.

‘At the beginning of October one of University’s professor, Grzegorz Woźniak, went missing. He had some lectures at the History Department. He was bound to retire, but he still had some classes. They didn’t find anything. He left no note. His flat didn’t bear any signs of kidnapping, there wasn’t anything missing, anything stolen. One day he just didn’t come to work. No body was found.’

‘Are the university employees informed? Was there an alarm?’

‘Alarm? No one even cared. They say that he must have gone for some time, forgot to mention it to anyone, or got lost on his way. You know, we are not particularly well-paid, people find work in other universities, they go abroad. He was an old tree which didn’t replant itself anywhere else. They didn’t care much about him.’

‘But you seem to care.’

‘I do, actually. We were once at a conference together. We didn’t know each other well. But it’s the fate we are all heading for. I’m not getting any younger, you see. I feel sorry for Woźniak. It could happen to any of us. But the incident reminded me of something. A similar event happened when I was a student, some forty years ago. There was one professor, Zygmunt Pieczka. One day he also stopped coming to classes. He was never found. His body wasn’t found, either. We graduated. People forgot about him. I graduated, then I taught at school, worked as a businessman. Ultimately I decided to go back to finish my doctorate. There was a vacancy at the University. I stayed. The case hasn’t been solved to this day. Pieczka was at the time a teacher at the History Faculty. Just like Woźniak.’

‘But it’s forty years, you told me. The fact that the crime was committed by the same person is rather impossible. Forty years is a long time.’

‘Are you forty?’

‘Not yet.’

‘I’m sixty-five. If you live as long as I do, the perspective changes. For me forty years is a blink of an eye. You are young. You’re not prejudiced. You might find some clues we weren’t able to find. You see, Pieczka was my professor. He was also my close friend. He was special. I mean, he never got married. He was very eloquent, very knowledgeable. He was... queer.’

Robert Rej blushed barely visibly under his cheeks. The first days of beard covered the fact of him still not being at ease with himself.

‘He was always afraid that someone would find out. I believed that something happened to him for this reason. It was badly seen those days. You couldn’t just hang around and kiss a boy in the street. I’m not sure you can do this these days in Poland.’

‘And Woźniak?’

‘Far from it. Married, two children.’

‘That doesn’t mean anything’ said Robert out of the blue.

‘Yes, but he cheated on his wife. Students mainly. Female students. He didn’t believe in monogamy. There were some people who would gladly see him gone. But the way, I mean, they just disappeared. One day. There are no traces, there’s nothing. There’s no sign that they were murdered. Maybe they are still alive. You see, Pieczka was dear to me. You probably wouldn’t understand. I was his student, he was my master. We were friends. Possibly, more than friends. And then he disappeared. I couldn’t do anything. I was young. I was afraid. I didn’t know who I should turn to. Soon they just closed the case. His family sold his flat. Another professor took his job.’

Robert Rej listened carefully. It was difficult not to look the old man in the eyes, but Robert sensed that there was something peculiar about this man, something appealing and sensuous. There was a sense of satisfaction when he looked at Robert, and it made him weirdly flattered.

‘I have some money. It’s not much but, I can cover the costs. And I have friends. For years I have accumulated quite a big number of friends in all departments and libraries. If you want access to any documents, registration books, internet data, I will ask all necessary people for assistance. I just need someone trusted to look at the case. I don’t trust the police. They don’t help fags and intellectuals. I mean, they rarely do.’

Robert nodded quietly. There was far more work with money-related crimes, rapes, family murders and political bribes on top of it to deal with a poor professor’s disappearance. The old man might have just gone to a friend and forgotten to mention. Plus, he was old, his value as a human was significantly smaller than that of a missing teenage girl. Or a child.

‘Fine. I’ll try to find some time. I see what I can do.’

‘Thank you. You don’t know what it means to me.’

‘I think I do, at least to some extent.’

When Jakub Krakowski left the flat, Robert Rej loosened his dressing gown. He was wet from sweating. For one thing, they really did overheat the flat. But there was also an emotional aspect to his state. He was secretly employed by another gay man to discover the mystery of yet another homosexual man’s disappearance from forty years before. When he was married, he struggled to find any gay men. They were a thing from TV, the internet, possibly fairy tales. Now they were in abundance.