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Chapter 47
Bruno closed the door behind him and I walked across to the window and stared down at the empty warehouse yard below. Industrial buildings always seem so lonely when they are not occupied.
He waited, assuming I was thinking through the case and apparently not wishing to interrupt my train of thought. The reality was that I was looking for a way to escape. He didn't give me long to think.
"In your professional opinion, my dear, is she telling the truth?" He spoke quietly so that they would not hear next door.
There were really only three options for me. I could say she was lying, I could say she was telling the truth or I could refuse to pass an opinion because the whole thing was so ludicrously unscientific.
If I said she was telling the truth, perhaps he would let her go.
If I said she was lying, I didn't like to think of what would happen next but it was likely to be very painful for the woman. It had happened before, in Bruno's words, and his reputation went before him which was why she was so terrified.
If I said I didn't know and couldn't give an opinion, I was washing my hands of the woman's fate when I could possibly help her. Whatever she'd done, Bruno didn't have the right to threaten her.
I turned and faced Bruno, and spoke quietly with as much conviction as I could muster.
I said that there was no doubt in my mind whatsoever that she was telling the truth.
He just stared back at me and studied my face, looking for indications that I was the one now lying. The truth was that the woman had shown several classic gestures in her body language that indicated that she was not telling the truth but I couldn't bring myself to condemn her to Bruno's brutal form of Justice.
"You're absolutely sure about that," he said. "You would bet your life on it."
I didn't want to bet my life on anything so I told him that I also considered that it is totally unprofessional even to give an opinion on such an unscientific basis. I tried to sound confident but his words had chilled me to my bones.
Bruno paced up and down a few times apparently in thought. Then he seemed to make a decision and turned resolutely towards the door leading back to the woman and her jailer.
"You can stay in here," he said, quietly.
His last words, as he closed the door behind him, to the woman were:
"She says the you are lying. She says that you know where that money is and are perfectly able to tell me."
I didn't know what to say or do. Bruno had completely misrepresented me. Should I go in there and correct him? Should I rush out of the building and try to find help for the woman. Would Bruno and his henchman still be there when I got back? Would anything I did change what Bruno was intending to do?
"She's lying," the woman's sobbed. "Why is she doing this to me."
"She's not doing it to you. The truth is that you are doing it to yourself! All you have to do is tell me where I can find the money and it will be over. You can go free. You can go back to your family and carry on your life."
"I can't tell you what I don't know."
"According to my professional advisor, you do know where the money is. You are perfectly able to tell me and bring this whole ridiculous business to an end. But because of your lies you are bringing pain on yourself that will go on for as long as you deny the truth. We now know that you know and nobody is coming to your rescue. These buildings are deserted except for us. You are completely alone."
I pressed my forehead against the cold glass of the dirty window and tried not to hear the woman's whimpers.
"You have one last chance to tell the truth."
"I don't know where that money is," she wailed and then started screaming.
"Help, help, help me. Murder ... murder ..."
Her voice died away to a mumble as if something was placed in her mouth.
There was a sound like dough being thrown onto a kitchen work surface. It was repeated and accompanied by the sound of her drumming feet.
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