He stared straight ahead gloomily. His mother meant well, but she had no idea. Loukili was a snake, and the rest of them weren’t much better. The neighborhood officers could be just as bitter and prejudiced as certain teachers. They had probably started out brimming with idealism, but something had gone very wrong along the way. And they wouldn’t pass up any opportunity to take it out on you. “Those guys only look out for themselves. They couldn’t give a shit about kids like me.”

“But I was there with you, wasn’t I?”

“You’re nothing but a gullible little mother, as far as they’re concerned. They’re probably making fun of you behind your back.”

She said nothing for a few seconds. Then exclaimed, “How can I go to work now while you’re in so much trouble?”

“That’s exactly why I never tell you anything. You get too stressed out.” He glanced across at her. “I’ll take care of it, Mom.”

“What on earth have you been doing, anyway?” she asked quietly. “You’ve been hanging around with all the wrong people.”

Until a few days ago, a remark like that from his mother would have made his back go up. Always the same comments. But now he saw that she was right. Even his friends had warned him about Brian; they had started avoiding him as his friendship with Brian had developed.

“That boy is dangerous, you said?”

He nodded, looking straight ahead at the road.

“How dangerous?”

“I don’t know.”

8

8

Marjan and a nurse Helen vaguely knew—skinny, with short, spiky brown hair that stuck out in all directions—looked at her in shock.

Helen smiled, but her lips were trembling so violently that it was impossible not to notice. She did her utmost to think of a witty remark—something that would dispel the tension—but her head felt like it was filled with molasses.

Marjan broke the silence. “I thought you weren’t a surgical assistant anymore.”

Helen understood: one of the tasks of a surgical assistant was to dispose of waste, but recovery nurses had no business here. “Not for a while now, no.” She coughed a few times, as if she had something stuck in her throat. “Well, I have to—”

“What is it you do nowadays?”

There was no point in lying. “I’m in the recovery room.”

Marjan exchanged a knowing look with the woman next to her.

“Sorry, but I have to go. My pea soup is waiting for me.” She smiled faintly as she pushed past the women and headed down the corridor.

9

9

Ralf’s mother already had one foot out of the car. “Maybe I’ll go back to the police station on my own once I get out of work.”

“Don’t, Mom.”

“It can’t hurt to talk to them, can it?”