Page 21 of Views
Schöffler nods, almost in tears.
“And did you...” Michael begins.
“Of course I saw the video!” Schöffler snaps at him, only to apologize immediately afterwards. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Yasira can’t decide whether his despair stems from Lena’s fate or his own.
“Lena’s disappearance was hell for me,” says Schöffler, with his voice breaking. “You have to believe me.”
“Why didn’t you contact the police?” asks Michael.
“Well, she’s only sixteen and I’m twenty-seven. That’s illegal, isn’t it?”
Yasira nods. What Schöffler has just said is nonsense, but an astonishing number of people believe it. Maybe for the best.
“So you kept your relationship a secret?” she asks.
“Lena was afraid of what her father would say.”
Understandable, thinks Yasira. If her daughter came home with a twenty-seven-year-old, she’d tear into both of them.
“Where did you meet?” asks Michael.
“Only here, actually.”
“I meant, where did you first meet?”
“Oh... uh... at a party... in a, uh, disco.”
“When?” asks Yasira.
“Well... in spring.”
“Are you employed?” asks Michael.
“I’m currently looking...”
“When Lena came to see you,” asks Yasira. “How did that happen? I mean, how did she get here?”
“Mostly I picked her up,” says Schöffler.
“Mostly?”
“Sometimes she hitchhiked.”
Michael sighs. Yasira clutches her head.
“Hitchhiked?”she asks.“Seriously?”
This isn’t a case from the eighties. What the fuck?
“There are just very few buses to Heimstedt,” Schöffler defends himself. “And sometimes I didn’t have time to pick her up. Or my ride was acting up again. What were we supposed to do?”
Yasira sighs.
“Therideyou mentioned is the old Corsa outside your door?” asks Michael.
Schöffler nods.
