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why it won't work? Because the people at Curious Notions have already admitted your father's part in the
scheme. So if you deny it, you must be lying, eh?"
Now the look Lucy and her mother shared was one of horror. "No, they're the liars!" Lucy said. She tried
to imagine why the people at Curious Notions would tell that kind of lie. What did they have against her
father? He wasn't competition. He didn't sell what they did. He couldn't even fix what they sold. It made no
sense.
"Don't you worry," the German said cheerfully. "We'll get some answers out of him, even if we don't get
them out of you." He spoke to his own men: "Well? What about it?"
They shrugged. "Doesn't look like anything, boss."
"You see?" Lucy's mother said. "We're innocent. We haven't done anything, and neither has my husband."
"No, that is not how it seems to me," the Feldgendarmerie man answered. "I will tell you how it seems to
me. It seems like this. We have found no evidence -ja, this is true. But does this mean you are not guilty?
That I find very unlikely. So it must mean you are very clever. You think you have outwitted us. For the
time being, you may even be right. We shall see, though, what further questioning of Herr Charles Woo will
bring."
"You're nuts!" Lucy burst out. "Can't you see that no evidence means we haven't done anything?"
"Everyone has done something." The Feldgendarmerie man spoke with great assurance. "My job is finding
out what it might be."
A slow, happy smile crossed his face. "I am very good at my job, too."
After that, he clicked his heels, of all things, as if Lucy and her mother were German noblewomen. He and
the goons he led stamped out of the apartment. Lucy stared at her mother. Her mother was staring back.
Again, they both said the same thing at the same time: "What are we going to do?"
"Hire a lawyer?" Lucy asked, trying to answer the desperate question.
Her mother laughed. The sound was so high and shrill, it wasn't far from hysteria. "Where would we get
the money? And even if we had it, why would the Germans pay any attention to what a lawyer says? It
sounds like they think we're some kind of spies. How's that for ridiculous?" She laughed again, sounding
even wilder than before.
"I'll tell you what's ridiculous," Lucy said grimly. "What's ridiculous is the people at Curious Notions saying
they got their stuff from Father. Why would they do that? It's a lie. Father wants to know where they get it
himself."
"Who knows if they even did?" her mother said. "That German might have made it up just to confuse us."
Lucy hadn't thought of that. After a few seconds, she shook her head. "No, that's too crazy, Mother. There
is something funny about Curious Notions. Father noticed. Would it be any big surprise if the
Feldgendarmerie noticed, too?"
"What difference does it make?" Bitterness filled her mother's voice. "They've got your father. That's the
only thing that matters. If we had the money, we might pay them to let him go. But they'd just laugh at the
sort of bribe we're able to give. They'd throw us in jail for insulting them."
She was bound to be right. E you had enough money, you could get away with anything. The Woos had
never had enough money. There were Chinese moneylenders who might give them enough this once. Lucy
knew why her mother hadn't said anything about them. Better to be in trouble with the Germans than with
the moneylenders. The Germans would kill you, and without a second thought. The moneylenders would kill
your children, gloat about it, and then kill you. Father wouldn't deal with them no matter what.
But did no matter what really stretch this far?
"They just look like ordinary people." Lucy knew she sounded bewildered. "We're ordinary people, too.
Why would they want to pick on us?"
"Who cares what they look like?" her mother answered. "They've got some scheme going. We must have
got in the way. If you're little, that's all it takes. People who are big think they can step on you, and they're
usually right."
How could you argue with that? Everything that went on proved how true it was. "It's not fair," Lucy said.
"What is?" her mother replied, another question without an answer. Mechanically, she started picking
clothes up off the floor, folding them, and putting them back in drawers. Just as mechanically, Lucy helped [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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