The Exiled (3 page)

THE POLICE STATION
in Magyarkanizsa looked like a desolate apartment block. The giant yellow box was situated on a quiet side street on the edge of the town centre, right next to the tangled woodland that continued all the way to the riverside. Somewhere down there Anna’s handbag and the dead thief had been found.

Anna waited for Ernő and Tibor in front of the station. In the small courtyard was a statue in memory of local policemen who had died during the Yugoslav war – a little monument engraved with officers’ names. A painful memory momentarily punched the air from Anna’s lungs, and tears welled in her eyes. Her eldest brother, Áron, hadn’t been a policeman. He hadn’t had the chance to be anything other than a wild young man, whose studies, and eventually his whole life, were cut short by the war. Ákos still carried inside him the pain of losing his older brother; they’d been very close, almost the same age, and always together. Anna swallowed her tears. It was hard to bring Áron fully to mind, Anna’s memory of him had faded so much. His face, his body – now they were familiar only from photographs. Anna could no longer truly remember his voice, the way he walked, his gestures or expressions. And yet the pain of losing him was like a heavy weight hanging from her shoulders. What must it feel like for Mum? she wondered. Her mother never spoke of Áron. Or of her father.

‘
Szia!
’

Anna heard the cheery greeting from across the street and looked up from the monument, where someone had lain a wreath woven from red flowers. She waved to Ernő and Tibor. Ernő looked the worse for wear.

‘
Sziasztok!
’

They walked inside the station and explained who they were to the young officer on duty, who, to Anna’s surprise, was a Hungarian. And quite good-looking. The man asked them to sit down on the brown, metal-legged chairs and wait for the detective.

‘It seems there are Hungarians working here after all,’ Anna said to Ernő and nodded towards the man sitting in the booth at the entrance. The man looked back at her, not even trying to hide his interest. Anna could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks and she quickly looked away again.

‘Sure, there are a few. Why wouldn’t there be?’

‘I was told most of the police officers were Serbs nowadays.’

‘Well, they’re in the majority, like they are in the border patrol. But as far as I know there has to be a quota of Hungarians, so some of them must be our lot. The nearest Hungarian-speaking high school is in Törökkanizsa, although that’s mostly a Serbian-speaking town.’

‘What’s that got to do with it?’ asked Anna.

‘Think about it, you’re a smart woman,’ Ernő scoffed and didn’t look like he was going to explain any further.

‘Just tell me.’

‘The government is using deliberate political decisions like that to drive our language and culture into the ground. They’re just trying to make our lives difficult. Sure, it looks great that there’s a Hungarian-speaking high school, but why isn’t it here in Kanizsa? Why did they have to locate it in a neighbouring town where there aren’t many Hungarians?’

Ernő’s tirade was interrupted by the arrival of a tall, authoritative-looking, grey-haired man in a uniform laden with medals. The chief of police himself had come to meet her. Anna was rather taken aback. The man introduced himself and apologised in awkward Hungarian that he wouldn’t be able to deal with the case in Anna’s native language. His former colleague, Kovács Gábor, had kindly agreed to assist them. Anna nodded. I know, she answered in Serbian. She knew a few words and phrases, thanks to Ákos’s old friends – Zoran in particular.

The chief of police led them to his office on the second floor, where Gábor was waiting for them. The chief picked up the phone on his desk, made a call, and a moment later there came a knock at the door and an officer in uniform brought in Anna’s handbag. The
officer was wearing gloves and the handbag had been placed in a transparent plastic bag.

‘Could you inspect it to see what is missing,’ said Gábor.

Anna looked at the chief of police and nodded. She carefully removed the bag from its protective covering. It felt strangely light. Pens, junk, receipts, her diary, eyeliner, a compact, a lighter, a tub of pastilles, chewing gum. A condom. The old men’s stares embarrassed Anna as she placed the small, square plastic package on the tabletop with her other belongings. She could sense Ernő and Tibor’s smirks on her neck and began to feel like a blushing teenager.

Her wallet was made of black, worn leather. She’d had it for years, never having the heart to replace it with a new one, even though it was old and tattered and the seam was unravelling at one corner. Anna looked inside. Driving licence, ID card, all the thousands of customer loyalty cards, but no credit card and no cash.

‘Everything seems to be here except my passport and credit card,’ she said.

‘Then you’ll have to contact the consulate and your bank, as you probably know already,’ said the chief of police. Gábor interpreted, though Anna understood the chief well enough.

‘Well, I’ve already cancelled the credit card. How can I contact the consulate? Do you have a phone number for them?’

The men glanced at each other.

‘There must be information online,’ said Gábor. ‘When are you going back to Finland?’

‘June the twenty-fifth.’

‘There’s plenty of time, though I’d advise you to take care of this sooner rather than later, to make sure you get your travel documents in order before you leave. You never know how long these things can take.’

The chief of police cast his eyes across everyone in the room before speaking.

‘I need you all to tell me exactly what happened last night. Each of you in turn. Let’s start with the boys; Anna, you can go last.’

‘Can I say something first?’ Anna asked.

‘What?’

Anna noticed a hint of irritation on the chief ’s face. She had spoken in the full knowledge that it was inappropriate to challenge the order that he had specified. From the very moment he had walked into the foyer in his shiny cap, Anna sensed he didn’t take her seriously. She wanted to show him that nobody walked over her. She wanted to needle him.

‘I’d like to see the body,’ she said.

‘I’m afraid that’s impossible. Besides, it isn’t here. We have no facilities to store bodies,’ said the chief, Kovács Gábor duly interpreting.

‘Where is it then?’

‘The body will be transferred to the coroner’s office in Novi Sad as soon as possible, once our own technicians have conducted an external examination. This should happen in the next few days, if not sooner.’

‘Yes, but where is the body
now
? Where will the examination take place?’ Neither of the policemen responded.

‘Are you leading this investigation?’ asked Anna.

‘No.’

‘Who is, then?’

‘He’ll contact you later.’

Really? thought Anna.

‘I want to see the body,’ she repeated.

‘Why?’ asked Gábor.

‘Wouldn’t it make sense to be sure this is the same man who stole my handbag? I think I’m the only reliable witness. Admittedly, I only saw him from behind, but I noted his size and what clothes he was wearing.’

‘He was found lying next to your bag,’ said the chief of police.

‘And if he’d been found next to a boat, would that automatically make him a fisherman? Or if he was near a church would you assume he was a priest? Or behind a hospital—’

‘Very well, you’re right,’ said the chief. ‘I’ll try and arrange something.’

‘Thank you, that would be excellent. And what about the little girl?’

‘What little girl?’

‘Last night at the wine fair. She was involved in the theft, the whole sequence of events. They’ve probably done things like this before, it all happened so smoothly. I’m not sure which one of them shoved me, but they both ran off immediately afterwards and headed in different directions. And both of them seemed to be carrying a bag.’

‘We know nothing about a girl, but I’ll make sure to tell the team working on the case. This could be important,’ said the chief. ‘One thing we can be sure about is that the boy – well, he was a grown man – wasn’t a local.’

‘How do you know that? Surely you don’t know every resident of Kanizsa. This isn’t that small a town,’ said Anna.

‘Of course we don’t know everybody, but local people don’t steal handbags in front of dozens of witnesses. We have enough experience of these things that we’re quite sure about it. And, for that matter, the local gypsies are generally decent folk.’

Anna could feel the irritation bubbling up inside her. Again they’d pulled out the gypsy card. Unbelievably prejudiced.

‘Fine, I trust your experience. But the man must have been lying low somewhere and, wherever it is, the girl is still there. Shouldn’t we be looking for her? Maybe she knows what happened to the man.’

‘Anna,’ Kovács Gábor interrupted. ‘This is only a stolen handbag. At the end of the day you’ve only lost your passport and your credit card.’

‘Only a stolen handbag! A young man died soon after he and a little girl stole my bag. This is about quite a bit more than just my handbag.’

Kovács Gábor and the chief of police exchanged glances. Anna saw in their expressions all the thoughts they weren’t saying out loud. Does this woman think she knows better than us? Is this woman going to get difficult? Woman, woman, woman. Worse still, a
woman who had grown up abroad. The men’s faces said more than a thousand words.

‘Say something, then,’ Anna snapped to Ernő and Tibor.

‘We … I … Anna, listen, it was just some nameless gypsy,’ Ernő said, almost under his breath.

‘Some nameless gypsy? Why do you keep on using the word gypsy over and over? Don’t you know it’s an offensive term? They are Romani. And what the hell difference does it make what ethnic group he belonged to? They are human beings, and a human being is dead!’

Anna forced herself to swallow her anger. She was only too aware how people treated the Roma here and throughout Eastern Europe, but people’s attitudes still shocked and angered her. She had often thought that, despite their difficulties, Finnish Roma were lucky compared to their southern brethren.

‘To be honest, we can’t be sure the thief was a gypsy. Whole gangs of people have started appearing round here lately,’ said the chief of police. ‘But it goes without saying that we will look into this death thoroughly.’

‘He’d clearly slipped and stumbled into the water while he was rummaging through your bag, grabbed on to the tree trunk and drowned,’ Gábor added. ‘Your things were strewn across the ground.’

‘Have you seen the photographs from the scene?’

Gábor nodded.

‘I want to see them too.’

‘I’ll try and arrange that,’ said the chief. ‘But I can’t promise anything. If I’m honest, I don’t think it will be possible. There are strict regulations regarding our work, as I’m sure there are in Finland too.’

‘I could identify the thief from those photographs. Don’t you realise I’m a witness?’

‘We will call you as a witness if the investigation requires it,’ said the chief of police in a voice that didn’t allow any room for argument.

‘Where exactly was he found?’ Anna asked in just as firm a voice. ‘I want to see the location of the body.’

‘It’s quite hard to get there. There is thick vegetation and the ground is muddy.’

‘I don’t mind. I clamber through plenty of mud in my job. I want to look at the scene. What if my passport and credit card are still in the bushes? Was the surrounding area thoroughly inspected? Who found the body?’

Anna was surprised at her own words. This was exactly the kind of thing that only this morning she’d sworn not to get involved with. Now she felt she had no other option. Holiday or not, she didn’t trust this man decked out in medals and a shiny cap.

‘Calm down, miss,’ the chief of police boomed. ‘A fisherman saw the body lying by the shore from his boat early this morning. The area has been inspected. Two items of value to you are missing. You’ll have time to get another passport before going back to Finland.’

‘So where are these two items? If they weren’t found at the site, the man must have gone through my bag before he got there and given or sold my valuables to someone else. Either that or the fisherman has taken them.’

‘The fisherman didn’t even get out of his boat. He called us from the middle of the Tisza and went back to his business. He is a local, professional fisherman, a good man; and he’s found drowned bodies before. I can assure you he hasn’t taken your passport.’

‘Can I have his name?’

‘I’m afraid he’s asked to remain anonymous. He just wants to be left to fish the river in peace. He is afraid.’

‘Of what?’

‘Smugglers – the mafia. They move around on the river and hide out on the shore. No upstanding citizens want to stand up to them.’

Anna thought for a moment. ‘Perhaps the girl has my passport and credit card. We have to find her.’

‘If a young girl is somehow involved in this case, she will already have left Kanizsa, you can be sure of that.’

‘Why on earth would the thief rummage through my bag among the bushes in the pitch dark if he had already passed on my money,
passport and Visa card? This isn’t as straightforward as you’re trying to suggest.’

‘Anna, dear,’ said Gábor.

‘I’m not your dear,’ she snapped.

Ernő gently frowned at Anna. Tibor guffawed and tried to cover his laughter in a pretend coughing fit.

‘Listen to me, Anna,’ Gábor continued, smiling, fatherly and patient.

Anna took a deep breath and tried to hold her tongue.

‘I know this might sound terrible, cruel even, but there’s an endless stream of Syrians, Iranians, Somalis, Iraqis, Kosovan gypsies and people from who knows where being smuggled through here into the EU all the time. It’s becoming a real problem for us. Every now and then we find unidentified bodies drowned in the river. We don’t have the resources to investigate every case individually. Besides, it’s Hungary and the EU that should be taking on these cases; that’s where these refugees are heading. We don’t get a penny from the EU, and yet they expect us to serve as some kind of buffer. You’re right to say this is about something far greater than your handbag and travel documents. This is about how the EU responds to the people smuggling taking place along the river and the escalating refugee crisis in Serbia. They all come here and wait for any opportunity to slip across the border. You should see the camps near Szabadka. Believe me, Anna dear, this is such an enormous problem, you won’t be able to do anything about it, not even with your Finnish education. And that is the end of the matter. Get yourself a new passport, enjoy your holiday and forget all about it. Of course, the boy’s death is very unfortunate, but let us worry about that.’