Page 19 of Views
“Are you... are you like some kind of FBI?”
“Yes. Something like that,” Michael grumbles. “I’m basically Special Agent Dale Cooper.”
“Who?” asks Emily.
Yasira rolls her eyes at Michael before turning back to the girl. “Your teacher told us that you’re friends with Lena.”
“Well,” says Emily. “Sort of. We were friends for a long time, but...”
“But not anymore?” asks Yasira when the girl doesn’t continue.
“She’s changed somehow.”
“When did this change start?” asks Michael. “With the death of her mother?”
“Nah,” says Emily. “Of course that really hit her hard and all. But we were still really tight then. She was at my place a lot and cried.Icried a lot too. Man, that was so sad. But that’s like a year and a half ago or something.”
“When did you notice a change in Lena’s behavior?” asks Yasira.
“Well, I don’t know. About half a year ago, I’d say. That’s when we kind of drifted apart. You know?”
“Was there a reason for that?”
“Well, we didn’t have a fight or anything, if that’s what you mean.” Emily’s still speaking hesitantly. “It just happened that way. I mean, Lena stopped returning my calls and everything. Always had something else to do.”
“What did she have to do?” asks Michael.
“I don’t really know. She never told me. I mean, I think she had a boyfriend and whatnot. A guy from outside the school. Rumors say he was done with school and all that. But I never met him.”
“Could it have been one of the men from the video?” asks Michael.
“Whoa, no. I don’t think so,” replies Emily. “But of course I don’t know for sure.”
Yasira asks Emily for access to the class chat. She skims through the conversations. Lena rarely participated. Otherwise, the usual. Gossip, memes, and dumb jokes. Yasira exports the chat and sends a copy to her team for closer inspection. Let the Katjas deal with it.
Afterwards, Yasira and Michael talk to the other students in the class. All of them are suitably shocked. All of them are of little help. Lena was increasingly perceived by many as a loner. There are only rumors about Lena’s boyfriend. No one has seen him. Nor does anyone know any of the men in the video. No one had a date with Lena on Saturday evening. No one happens to know her phone’s code.
As they leave the school and get back into the car, Yasira says: “We need to find this boyfriend.”
Michael just nods. What else should he say? Of course they have to find the boyfriend. That goes without saying.
They’ve barely been driving five minutes through the city—which feels surprisingly empty compared to Berlin—when her colleague pulls into the parking lot of a restaurant.
He looks at Yasira with wide eyes and whispers, “I want to butter an Indian chick...”
Then he grins broadly. “Sorry—Indian chicken, of course.”
Yasira rolls her eyes. “That was really low, Michael. Even for you.”
Yasira lets Michael’s somewhat sexist, quite embarrassing jokes slide because she’s suspected for quite some time now that he’s just using them to cover up his homosexuality. She’s not quite sure on what she bases this assumption. Of course, he never comes to work with painted fingernails. It’s more of a feeling. It’s probably not the things Michael does that gave her the idea, but rather the things he doesn’t do. He has no particular interest in the Hot Chicks With Guns calendar in Karsten Seiler’s office. He doesn’t brag about his conquests, in fact he never talks about his relationships at all. He has never hit on Yasira when drunk at a Christmas party. Another unique trait. And of course he loves Freddy Mercury. On the other hand... Who in their right mind doesn’t?
They get out of the car and enter the Indian restaurant.
A gay police officer is almost as rare as a gay professional football player. Yasira believes that Michael’s possible concerns about coming out are unfounded. At least in their department. He’s not a patrol cop or a village sheriff. Besides, he lives and works in Berlin. Then again... Maybe his homosexuality would stand in the way of a promotion at some point. Not officially, of course. But in practice. Who can say?
Yasira will certainly not raise the issue with him. You don’t just ask a woman with a big belly when she’s due, after all, she might not be pregnant and then you have a very unpleasant conversation to deal with.
Michael orders a large portion of chicken. “And make it spicy, please!”
