Part 14

Anja Krebber (13/01/2002)

Mercifully the man was wearing suspenders, otherwise I would have been too busy holding up his pants to sneak out of the building through one of the back windows, Joe hard on my heels. I didn't supress a wicked grin as I imagined Haddock trying to struggle into my trousers. It would take him a little time before he was back on my trail.

Enough, hopefully, for me to temporarily vacate center stage and hunt around for the answer to a riddle that hadn't quite been posed yet. I had better ask myself some questions like: Who had the dame been? What brought her to my office? Of what significance was the cheese wrapper? And, above all: Why had the fuzz been there faster than a streak of lightning?

My conscious mind flinched away from that last one. You don't ask questions like that without being prepared for the sort of rumble that takes the whole district by its heels and shakes it thouroughly until you yourself are buried under the rubble. I wasn't too keen on taking the part of casualty in this play. Time to take out a little insurance.