They took a shower and ate the continental breakfast that was offered by the hostel. Lena sprayed her hair with some dry shampoo, took out her mini set of makeup and, after a few-minute grooming, she looked better than the day before. These were of course appearances, as she put on the same sweater again because they didn’t really think of taking the change of clothes.
‘I wear the same underwear,’she complained ‘I didn’t even have time to wash them.’
‘Don’t be such a lady. Are you planning to have some one night stand here? We have better things to do...’
‘You always assume the worst. I’m talking about hygiene, you expect sex. Let’s better check the second conference.’
As their expectations were correct, no participant of the train journey was taking part in the second conference. The whole event might have been fascinating, as it touched upon the subject of funeral traditions, but no employee of the University wanted to bless it with their presence. Robert and Lena with mixed feelings were looking at the pictures of buried corpses, ornamented coffins and body preserving techniques for half an hour, with the addition of post-mortal pictures of the children, married couples and the whole families plagued by some disease. Fun as it all might have seemed, they didn’t even bother to stay longer to make sure that their hunches were correct. What they were certain about was that they weren’t here to participate in scientific works and neither of them was interested in digging deeper.
They decided to return to Warsaw by an earlier train and go back straight to Krakowski’s apartment to discuss their recent discoveries.
Robert had to introduce Lena to the professor, as it was increasingly difficult to bring her along everywhere he went and not raise anyone’s suspicious looks.
‘She’s my friend. And a partner in investigation. We work together.’
‘Does he pay you?’ Krakowski asked Lena.
‘He should!’ Lena laughed.
‘I will at some point. Do you know these people?’ Robert showed him the list of names.
‘Kieliszek, Kania, Sobczak, no not really. But I do know Dudziak and Stanek from comparative studies. Stanek lost a grant last year. He complained a lot about University policy. Dudziak is a funny fellow, he writes the most ridiculous theses. I don’t understand a word of his discourses. But somehow they managed to stay among the professors’ squad.’
‘That’s something! You mentioned that Tamka wasn’t the best academic. Maybe the fact that they are really hopeless at their work...’
‘Yeah. But Kieliszek is actually good. I don’t think she’s accidentally a lecturer. She might be boring, I’m not really interested in her subject, but generally speaking, she’s really good.’ Lena interrupted Robert in the middle of a sentence.
‘Fine. But there’s still a connection. They all come to Cracov every other weekend. Tamka used to come with them, and even if they don’t know anything about his disappearance, they are definitely doing something there.’
‘Haven’t you thought that they might have another job?’, Krakowski calmly offered a solution.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You said that they all come to Cracov every second weekend and they do this as a group. Maybe they work for some other company. Or have classes at some private higher education center in the form of extramural studies, for example. They don’t have to work only for the University. One of them lost a grant, maybe others also need some extra money. Tamka might have been doing something along the lines. I worked for a couple of years for a big corporation before I decided to be a full-time lecturer. I bought a flat. Later on, I could do what I enjoyed doing the most.’
Robert and Lena looked at him as if he said something so obvious that it was unforgivable.
‘I’m just saying that their stay in Cracov might be less suspicious than it looks like. I’m more curious what is the connection between Tamka’s disappearance, the disappearance of Wozniak, and the loss of my dear friend Zygmunt Pieczka. Three professors. Three disappearances.’
Now Lena stood dumb-founded.
‘Who is Zygmunt Pieczka?’
Robert had no other choice but to reveal to her all the details of the case.
