He took off his goggles to get a better look at me. His eyes were as wild as his hair. Then he said, “I believe you. For now. What is it you want?”

“I’m trying to help a friend,” I said. “How long have you worked for Waldbaum’s?”

“Flemish!” he shouted.

“Huh?”

“You are wondering about my accent. It is Flemish. I come from Belgium. All you know from Belgium is waffles and chocolate. Now you know me.”

“Great, got it—waffles, chocolate, and you. So how long have you worked for Waldbaum’s?”

“Nineteen years. I was here when cuts were thick, and you could still get a lamb chop with a nice big fillet, back when meat was meat.” He looked off for a moment, nostalgic for the good old days, then said, “Gunther!”

“Huh?”

“You are wondering what is my name.”

“Well, not really, but thanks for telling me.” This was the only human being I’d ever met who had more trouble than me staying on the subject. “Did you always work in this store, or did you get moved around?”

“Always here,” he said.

“Good. So you were here about nine years ago when a little boy got left in a shopping cart.”

Suddenly his whole attitude changed. “No.” He turned back to the beef he had been cutting. “I was not on duty yet. I do not remember.”

“If you don’t remember, how could you know you weren’t on duty?”

He scratched his peeling neck. Little flakes fell to the cutting table. I’m never eating meat from Waldbaum’s again.

“Eczema,” he said.

“Huh?”

“You are wondering about my neck. Why I scratch.”

“What you do with your neck is your business.”

He stopped scratching and looked at me for an uncomfortably long time. “You are this little boy from the shopping cart?” he asked.

“No, but I’m his friend.”

Gunther nodded, then went to remove his smock and washed his hands. “This friend of yours. He is okay now?”

“Not really,” I told him. I thought of what story I could make up to get Gunther to spill his guts, and then I figured the truth would do the job just fine. “He thinks his mother disappeared into thin air, and he never got over it.”

Gunther sighed. “I am very sorry to hear that.” He pulled up a chair and sat down, then pulled up one for me. “Sit.”

Although I really didn’t want to, I knew I might finally be onto something. I sat down, and Gunther took his time before he spoke again.

“You have to understand, this was none of my business. I had nothing to do with it, I only saw.”

Bingo! “So you saw what happened! She didn’t disappear after all, did she?”

Gunther sighed. “She did disappear, in a manner of speaking,” he said. “And she was not the only one who disappeared that night.”