I had dressed inconspicuously, in jeans, a beige shirt, a brown leather jacket and sunglasses. But when I emerged from the woods into the neighbourhood, with empty Sunday streets and the occasional family sitting on their terrace under an umbrella, I felt as if all eyes were trained on me; the eyes of the families and other eyes, concealed behind windows. I was the only person on the streets.

I avoided the direct route through the neighbourhood where Schwind could have seen me, but I got lost in the winding side streets, and arrived at the Gundlach house a few minutes after five. The parking space in front of the garage was empty. I hid across the street, between garbage bins and a lilac bush, and waited. I had a view of the driveway, the house, the garage with one door open, one closed, the Mercedes parked in the garage, and on the driveway, a cat lounging in the sun. A couple of small pines grew on the lawn that sloped down from the street to the house, and I planned the zigzag I would run over the lawn, from tree to tree to the car. If someone came by, if someone looked out of the house on the other side of the street – I would have to hide behind the car so quickly they could not be sure they had actually seen me.

I heard Schwind’s VW bus from a way off; the exhaust was broken. The van was going fast, coughing, sputtering, it zoomed in from the street and sped up the driveway, scaring off the cat, and abruptly came to a halt in front of the door. No one got out, and after a while the van backed up, made a wide turn around the parking area, backed up again, then finally parked in front of the door, facing the street. The doors opened and they both got out. She was silent, and he ranted. I heard “What does that mean?” and “You and your ideas.” Then the front door opened and Gundlach greeted his guests and invited them in.

Now, I said to myself. Anyone who had been drawn to the window by Schwind’s noisy VW would be going back to their business by now. I ran across the street, hid behind the first pine, ran again, stumbled, fell, crawled behind the next pine, stood up and ran, limped, hobbled past the last tree to the bus. I opened the door and crouched on the seat so I could not be seen from outside, but could also not see outside. I put the keys in the ignition. I waited.