Chapter 19 Connections

00:52

Robert Rej was looking at the pile of notes regarding Grzegorz Woźniak and Zygmunt Pieczka. Both were history professors with significant accomplishments in their fields. Both disappeared with no trace, no goodbye letter, no witnesses whatsoever. Both had significantly different personal lives and both were divided by forty years of time, during which everything could have happened. This left the common denominator ‘both’ as a possibility.

‘Do you remember Pieczka’s flat?’ Robert interrogated Jakub Krakowski in his own flat just as they returned from Cracov ‘Was there anything special about it?’

‘It was a modest flat. He had a lot of books, editorials. He was always curious about things, I fell for this. He had so many answers. The more questions you asked him, the more passionate he was to seek answers. When he talked about history it was as if he forgot about everything else.’

‘Was Woźniak equally passionate?’

‘I wouldn’t say passionate. But he was very scrupulous. He paid attention to details. He could fail a student for one incorrect date. Names, dates, places, they had to be in order. At the same time, you could see him wearing the same sweater for a month. And I’m not sure whether he washed it.’

‘Fine. They were both really good at what they were doing. Exceptionally good. Maybe it was some crime based on jealousy. Or a grudge. You mentioned that Woźniak could fail a student for one wrong date. He could have enemies.’

‘In this reasoning, we can all have enemies. I’m sure I wrongly assessed some students in the past. We all make mistakes. We are only people.’

Robert searched for other things that might connect two professors. Pieczka was homosexual. Woźniak was happily switching lovers. Robert contacted two of them, whom he found in Woźniak’s photographs from staff trips and conferences. The women were now married with children and didn’t want to talk about Woźniak in front of their husbands, keeping their past at bay. They asked for some more intimate surrounding. One met Robert in a library, the second one - in a pub.

‘We had an affair. I was a student. He enchanted me somehow. We just had sex at his place. He wasn’t a great lover, but he made sure that you were satisfied. We were on and off for a while. But after some time I decided that it had no future. He was still married. His wife didn’t live with him, they were separated. I don’t think he was ready for a relationship. After that, we lost touch.’

The second woman was fond of talking about Woźniak.

‘You know, for some students, he was a son of a bitch. He could fail half of the year. I liked him, though. Students didn’t think much of me, either. I tried to teach them something, to be demanding. It makes you less popular. You have a choice: to be nice or to be good. We sometimes met at his place, sipped wine, complained about work or read students’ works aloud. We had a few laughs. After we got drunk, we made love a couple of times, but we obviously weren’t made for each other. We would be a hopeless couple. Some time later I met my husband.’

‘And Woźniak? Did he have any more lovers?’

‘I’m sure he had. He was a great lover potential. You trusted him. You could tell him all your secrets and be sure that they wouldn’t be revealed. He was also really helpful to students who actually wanted to accomplish something. He really loved these passionate about history. It’s increasingly rare.’

Robert thought about Lena who hadn’t read a history book for years. On the other hand, she had other interests and she had good taste in clothes and interior design, so she was surely of some worth.

‘One more thing. Do you think that he might have committed suicide?’

‘Not suicide, I’m sure. He found it the greatest cowardice. He was fond of warriors, deaths at the battlefields. And he wouldn’t have left without saying something. Even when he left for holiday, he told us exactly where he was going. He left the address, the phone number. He was very precise. I really wonder what happened to him. You know, the old sentiment.’

The last thing Robert decided to do was to contact Woźniak’s ex-wife, who was unwilling to talk at first, but after some persuasion, she invited Robert home.

‘What do you want to know? We separated years ago. I’m afraid there isn’t much I can tell you about him.’

‘What kind of person was he?’

‘Person? This sounds strange. We got married when we were really young. I was working at the bakery, he was still a student. He was reading something, I was taking care of the children. He was ambitious. After some years I felt that his academic life was for him far more important than me and the children. He took part in conferences, he had some publications. He avoided us, to be fair, as if he was ashamed. Then there were these girls at the University. Students mainly. I knew that he had affairs. My mother advised me to leave.’

‘Have you maintained contact with him afterward?’

‘I invited him to my second wedding. We didn’t hate each other, we weren’t just good for each other. We didn’t understand what the other one was doing. With my second husband, we opened our own bakery. We had a nice life. We built a house. And Grzegorz was still living in his small place. But if it hadn’t been for him, my daughters wouldn’t have been educated. One daughter was a doctor, the second became a lawyer. He pushed them. I wouldn’t push them in this direction. I would just tell them to marry and have children. They had choices. He taught them about different possibilities.’

‘Have you got any idea what might have happened to him? Did he have any enemies? Debts?’

‘Debts?’, the woman laughed ‘He only spent money on history books. When we separated he wore the same sweater for decades. There wasn’t a person so parsimonious with money. But he helped my daughters when they were studying. Best dressed girls at the university! He was generous to them. He really loved his daughters.’

Robert felt a small pang of jealousy when he listened about how Woźniak was good to his children. He bought them high street clothes, even though his own wardrobe was half-empty.

‘I don’t know much about his life. He was always at work, checking some theses, dissertations, having lectures. I never studied anything. I finished my education just after vocational school. For me, it was too snobbish, impractical. It didn’t really bring you any good money, did it? For me, it was a waste of time. But he didn’t think this way, we grew apart.’

‘So you haven’t been in touch for the past years?’

‘Not really. I learned to stop carrying about him. When we were married, I had no control over what he was doing. I always felt insecure. Now I don’t want to think about it. Whatever it is, it is too complicated for me.’

‘And your daughters? Maybe they keep in touch with him? You told me they had a good relationship.’

‘My daughters are dead. Cancer. They died over a decade ago. You don’t want to see your children go before you, do you? After that, I didn’t feel like contacting him. We didn’t have anything in common.’

‘They both died?’

‘Not at the same time. My younger had a breast cancer. She passed when she was thirty-five. The older suffered from ovarian cancer. I can show you their pictures. They didn’t have children.’

For some time Robert was looking at the family album and admiring with fake interest the family life of Woźniak. There wasn’t any grudge on the part of his family. There weren’t any bad feelings on the side of past lovers. Those who really knew him didn’t say anything bad about him. He just gave bad impressions. He was too much of a perfectionist.

The visit left Robert with conclusions that didn’t make him feel good about his own personal life.

Having left Woźniak’s ex-wife, he called his own ex-wife.

‘How are girls?’ he asked out of the blue.

‘Fine. Why do you ask?’

‘I want to take them to my place for Easter. To spend some time with them on my terms. Will that be a problem?’

He heard his wife say something in English to her partner.

‘No. It’s not a problem. I think they would be happy about a trip to Poland. They miss the country.’

Robert hung up and somehow he felt better.

Next thing he wanted to do was to refresh some of his past connections and ask some of his old friends for help. That was also an opportunity to brush up on his German, as it was getting rusty.