Thursday, November 3rd 2016, the crime scene, Rodou 32, Athens
I let Tobias drive again, because it makes him very happy. He flourishes and becomes talkative. “That’s so exiting!”, he says.
“It’s your first time, am I right?”, I ask him.
“Yes, unfortunately. Therefore, this time I can learn from you, instead you learning from me.”, jokes Tobias.
The navigation system commands him to turn right and accompanied by a voice from the stereo promising us no worries we drive through the streets of Athens. Today the weather isn’t as nice as yesterday, grey clouds cover the sky. Still it doesn’t keep the people from wandering the streets. We can see the forensics’ bus from afar and some onlookers standing outside the barricade of the crime scene.
Tobias parcs the car at the side of the street. The house has two floors with a three-room-flat, there in the entrance stands a slightly shocked couple watching the forensics doing their work. They don’t look interesting for a middle-aged couple. Their clothing style reminds me of most tourists from abroad.
“Hello.”, I greet the two. They turn around and Tobias shoves his warrant card under their noses, he seems nervous.
I decide it’s best to start with the “victim interrogation”, or however I should call it, until the forensics are done.
“Is there some place to sit down for the interrogation?”, I ask the couple. They nod and direct us behind the house into the little garden, which basically only exist of the terrace.
The man takes four plastic chairs and places them a few meters from the house on an empty property covered with grass. If the sun was shining and we weren’t here for such reason it would have been a nice place. Tobias crosses legs and pulls out his notepad from his pocket, waiting for my questions. Either he is too nervous to say anything, or he wants me to talk, because he isn’t good with other people. Also, I have more experience.
First, we record their names and then they elaborate on what exactly happened, because I decide that I want to compare their statement with the information the forensics will find out.
“We didn’t notice much of the break-in.”, Sebastianos Poliatos begins, while holding the hand of his wife. “In the middle of the night, I woke up by a faint sound. Since I was very weary, I fell asleep soon after. I was unaware, that someone was breaking in at the moment. The noise could have been my son going to the bathroom or someone on the street. The next morning our African figurines in the living room where missing.”
I tilt my head, an old habit.
“Nothing else was stolen? No money or jewellery, for example?”
“No, this was a surprise for us too. Normally they’ll take everything they can sell and leave chaos. Right? I don’t have that much experience like you do.” He raises a hand in defence.
I shake my head. “Every thief has their own tactic and motives. It depends on the premise and possibilities they have.” At least that’s what I learned in my apprenticeship, I added in my thoughts. At once Tobias has scribbled it all down. We thank them for their time, as they have nothing more to add and tell them to stay put for further questions.
Meanwhile the forensics are tracking down all the evidence they can find of our culprit or culprits. I approach a woman, which is currently inspecting the terrace door.
“Excuse me madam, are there any clues we can view?” The woman gives us a questioning look. Tobias slowly pulls out the warrant card from his suit pocket, now she seems to understand.
“Sure, I will show you everything.” She leads us into the living room. There, several clues are numbered by little signs next to them.
“Our investigation went so far, that we can assume, that the burglars broke in through the terrace door. It was obviously not only one person, because we found different shoeprints. You two probably noticed the rain last night. The streets are wet and it’s muddy on the side of the house, since the sun didn’t shine today the shoeprints are still visible outside. Unfortunately, we only have three clear ones.”
I didn’t realize the rain at night at all, but I did saw some wet spots on the streets.
“But why are there so many thieves just to steal these figurines?”
“Answering this question is your job.” She smiled and walks over to the dresser where the African art was supposedly standing. Now there are six clean spots within the dust.
“Here someone discovered a fingerprint, when we search the database we might find one of the culprits, if they are registered.”
She didn’t have more to say. We will have to wait for the results, but these new findings raise up further questions. We go back to our clients, if that’s the right thing to call them, they keep standing and waiting outside in case we have more questions. Tobias still hasn’t said a word, I hope he only has a mental blackout today.
“Can we ask you a few more questions?”, I inquire.
“Of course, Officer.” I’m surprised to hear someone call me by this title, but it sounds good.
“The figurines, where did you got them from?”
Miss Poliatos answers me: “I think African art is beautiful. It’s timeless, it radiates a sense of peace and it’s not made of a complex structure. Unfortunately, originals are very expensive. I’ve got the statues for a cheap price on the flea market, so they must be fake.”
I agree with her. Next to me Toby is shifting around in his seat, it seems that he wants to say something. He pulls me to the side and we go about fifteen meters away from the house. The couple watches us, clueless about what we are doing.
“I’m sorry Marcos. I feel like as if I am not up to the task, like my brain isn’t working anymore. I don’t know which questions I should ask or what’s the next step to take. Unfortunately, I am not very practical. You know, at the Academy I was able to write essays of fifteen pages, but presenting my work was never an option for me.”
Tobias looks at the ground, he takes the notepad and skims over his notes, to bear the upcoming silence.
“The essay was 20-pages long.”, I say.
He lifts his head.
“You will learn, Toby.”, I continue. “These people probably won’t judge you too hard. They will not notice any mistake you make and they believe you know what you are doing anyway. Well, yeah and that’s right you know what you are doing. You should not think less of yourself than you are.”
From one moment to another he appears to be more confident, he smiles and shakes his head as if he had to get rid of a silly thought. Sometimes I wish Tobias didn’t had so many doubts about things. He hides them from other people, but at least he knows, that he can tell me anytime and he does.
We go back to our clients, Tobias up ahead.
“Excuse us.”, he says. “We had to consult with one another. I noticed that only the six figurines from the shelf in the living room are missing. What about the other artworks you have in the kitchen or hanging at the wall? Are all of them really still there?”
They look at each other. “We didn’t notice anything else. Can we take another look?”, Hellen, Sebastianos wife asks. With our permission they both return to their house and come back a few minute later. In the meantime, I had enough time to scold my own stupidity. The other artworks in the house slipped my mind completely. I didn’t examine my surroundings at all. The couple says that indeed a mask, that is usually hanging in the hallway, is missing too. Only a clean spot was left.
Hellen holds a photo and presents it to me. A boy is happily smiling in the camera, a moment before he blows out the candles on his birthday cake. In the background the bronze figurines are standing on their allocated space. They each represent different men, big, small, some dressed, some not so much with bows, spears or jugs.
“We though this might help you, since you don’t know how they look like.” This really is a big help for us, because it’s hard searching something you have never seen.
“What about your son has he possibly noticed anything from the break-in?”, Tobias asks.
They both shake their head and explain, that they asked him already and that he is at school. Before we leave we exchange telephone numbers and e-mail addresses with the couple and the woman from the forensics, which introduced herself as Miss Szymanska. I thank them all for their help and suggest to Tobias to begin phase two.
This phase is called: Evaluation, reflection and gathering information.
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