Beginning

*******

The terrifying sound of the bell roused Marta from her deep sleep. With her right hand, she instinctively reached out and struck the top of the alarm clock on the nightstand. However, it wasn't the cause of her awakening. She had no choice but to get up and find the object making that awful sound. After a painstaking search, she finally found her cell phone, which she had carelessly shoved under the bed the day before. However, the malice of inanimate things knows no bounds, and the moment she tried to answer, the phone went silent. So she returned to bed. As soon as she closed her eyes, she heard that awful sound again. Like a lioness, she pounced on her phone.

"Hello, this is Marta Kulik.

" "Hi Marta, are you very busy because I have a proposition for you?

" "And is it you, Tomasz? I'm so busy. I was just doing the most wonderful thing in the world, which is sleeping, and you interrupted me.

" "Forgive me. We absolutely must meet, and the sooner the better. I'll be at your place in half an hour."

Marta wanted to protest, but Tomek had already hung up. "I have no choice, I have to wait for this guy," she thought, placing her phone on the bedside table. She had known Tomasz for over four years. He was one of her instructors at the law school. But he wasn't like the rest. Perhaps it was because he was the youngest of the professors, or perhaps he was simply different from most people by nature. In any case, he was the only one she liked in the entire academic community. And he liked her too. And it wasn't surprising; after all, she was his best student, always prepared, observant, and ambitious. She was highly intelligent and quickly able to connect the dots and connect the dots. Sometimes even he was surprised by her reasoning. Besides, she was independent. He couldn't force his way of thinking on her. And that was what he liked most about her—she had the ability to say no to everyone and in every situation. She was incorruptible.

"Oh, you're here," Marta said, opening the door to her apartment on the fourth floor of a building on Łukasiewicza Street. "Come in! I need to make myself some strong, hot tea, otherwise I won't be able to have a coherent conversation with you. Once you've unsaddled your boots, come to the kitchen."

She was dressed in a dark blue, almost navy, dressing gown, the color of which beautifully complemented the color of her eyes, framed by thick lashes. Her long, unkempt hair fell delicately over her shoulders. To Tomasz, she seemed incredibly beautiful.

"Sit down! Would you like a sandwich?" As she spoke, she extended her left hand, which held a plate of food, toward him.

"I'd love to sample your creation. I hope I'll be able to leave your apartment afterward—without an upset stomach."

"Oh, you ungrateful creature! I'm the one worrying about whether you're hungry, and this is how you repay me. So why did you come back? I already gave you my work, and I think we can discuss it in the lecture hall.

" "Why did I come back... I wanted to see you.

" "You couldn't have waited another three hours, I would have gone to your lecture. You dragged me out of bed just to watch me. You're pissing me off. Jokes aside, either I'll find out the real reason for your visit soon, or you can go and don't expect me at the lecture, because I need to sleep off the time you wasted.

" "Easy, little one, don't get so angry. Don't you know that anger is bad for beauty. Now listen carefully. Do you know Paweł Jasiński?

" "Yes, you introduced him to me once. He's your best friend, and what's more, he's one of the richest men in Poland. His fate interests almost all lawyers and successful people." Sometimes his actions are even cited in some lectures as an example of how cleverly and legally our imperfect law can be circumvented. He recently seems to have bought a house somewhere in our neighborhood and intended to move in with his family. It was reported in the newspaper. But why are you asking about him?

"Because this early afternoon, between 2:00 and 2:20 p.m., he was murdered.

" "What do you mean, murdered," Marta repeated, surprised.

"Truth be told, the police believe it was suicide. They say he shot himself in the head. But I don't believe it. I knew him too well to be fooled so easily. Paweł wasn't the type of person who would commit suicide in any situation, so I want to investigate this matter myself. However, I'm afraid I might not be able to handle it myself, and secondly, I don't know if I'll be able to be completely objective. I'd like you to help me solve this mystery. We would work on it together as partners and completely privately; there would be no possibility of any lecturer-student arrangements." You don't have to answer me now; consider my offer carefully. This is very important to me; I owe Paweł something, and now I can finally repay my debt of gratitude, although I'd prefer him to still be alive. I'll be going now; I'll see you at practice, and then you can tell me what you've decided. Well, that's it for now.

With that, he left as suddenly as he'd arrived. Marta was left alone in her apartment. Such disappearances and reappearances without warning were his specialty. At first, it had unnerved her, but over time, she'd gotten used to it. She instinctively felt he was doing it for her own good, to teach her to make quick decisions in unusual situations. A clear question and a quick, simple answer, without beating around the bush, was all he truly wanted to teach her.

Marta had a tough day ahead of her today. Wednesday was the worst part of the week for her, the most demanding day. First, three hours of lectures, then four and a half hours of exercises in the gym, then seven and a half hours of sitting around the university without a single long break. The only thing she could enjoy that day was the exercises with Tomasz, but this time it was different. She had to tell him what she'd decided. Although she'd already made her decision, she wasn't sure if she'd made the right choice. After the exercises were over, she stayed in the classroom. She sat at her desk, waiting for Tomasz to approach her. She didn't want to go to him herself; she preferred to wait. A moment later, he arrived. He sat down next to her.

"So, have you decided yet?

" "Yes," Marta replied quietly, her voice lacking either enthusiasm or certainty.

"What's your decision?" Tomasz looked at Marta intently. "You don't have to answer; I know everything. You agree to help me, otherwise you wouldn't have stayed here, because you'd feel you had nothing to say to me. I've known you for a while.

"Yes, I agree," Marta agreed. "Now, if you want to work with me seriously, you have to tell me everything you know about this Paweł and his life.

" "Yes, I know that. But I can't right now, I have another class in ten minutes with another group. You know what, let's meet at your place tonight. What time does your class finish?

" "At six.

" "Okay, I'll be at your place, say, at eight. Maybe?

" "Maybe.

" "Well, for now."

When Marta reached her apartment, she was so tired she didn't even have the strength to undress. Just as she was, she threw herself on the bed and fell asleep. A sinking feeling in her stomach woke her. She glanced at the clock. The merciless hands showed that it was long past 7 p.m. She got up, took a quick shower, and went to the kitchen. In the fridge, she found only a few slices of dried-out yellow cheese and a single tomato. "How am I supposed to be healthy and content with life when I don't even have time to do proper shopping? It's hard, when you don't have what you like, you like what you have," she said to herself. She took the poor little vegetable out of the fridge. At that very moment, a blood-curdling ding… ding… ding… rang…. It was Tomasz banging on the door of her apartment.

"It's open, come in. I'm in the kitchen," Marta shouted as loudly as she could.

"I brought you dinner. Here are the casseroles and here are the doughnuts. What do you want?" As she spoke, he held out both hands and gently shook the paper bags up and down.

"I'll take everything. I'm terribly hungry. You just saved my only tomato from death. Go rest in your room now; you've already done a lot today. I'll join you in a moment, I'll just throw the food in the microwave."

Tomasz obediently left the kitchen. He didn't have much choice – Marta's apartment was a studio apartment. This single room had everything she needed: a bed by the window, a large kitchen bench that served as both writing and eating space and a computer desk, a large wardrobe large enough to hold her entire wardrobe, and a bookshelf that took up an entire wall, with a television in its center. One large window had openwork curtains, and a gray rug on the floor. Marta wasn't one to overly care about order. On the contrary, she believed that artistic disorder was essential for maintaining inner peace and made life much easier, so Tomasz wasn't surprised to find shoes, a purse, and some books scattered on the carpet. He bent down and picked one up. It was "The Godfather." "

I didn't know you were into such books. I thought you weren't particularly interested in crime novels," he said to Marta, who was just entering the room with a tray in her hands.

"Because they're not interested. I had to take a break from studying the Civil Code yesterday for a moment, and all I found on the shelf was this book, probably a relic from the previous tenant," she explained quickly.

They sat down for dinner together. Marta placed two plates of warm casseroles on the coffee table and a glass of hot tea. This didn't surprise Tomasz, as he knew well that she never drank while eating because, as she claimed, it was unhealthy. It dilutes the stomach acids. They ate in silence. Then the girl collected the dirty plates, made herself a cup of hot tea, and, taking her writing kit, sat down at the table opposite Tomasz.

"Now I'm listening. You can finally tell me about this whole Paweł and the murder."

"It was like this," Tomasz began, "I met Paweł in elementary school; we were in the same class. He had wealthy parents, I didn't, but that didn't matter to us. We became friends very quickly. Although our paths diverged after high school, our friendship endured. He got into economics, and I got into law. We saw each other regularly and called each other often. Paweł became independent very quickly. During his first year of college, he started trading the stock market. He succeeded; within 24 months, he earned enough to buy a failing flower shop on Klonowa Street. That's how it all began. Thanks to Paweł's efficient organization and entrepreneurship, a nationwide network of flower shops was established. Then Paweł invested in other sectors of the economy. As a result of his successful ventures, within six years he became the owner of three large companies: the "Nasturcja" flower shop chain, the "Manhattan" video and DVD rental company, and the "Tygrys" Chinese restaurant." He was also co-owner of the Pelikan construction company. Despite his wealth, he led a normal life. He lived in a small single-family home with his wife and their children, eight-year-old Artur and five-year-old Ewa. They were a wonderful, loving family. His wife, Urszula, was completely absorbed in him. He was everything to her. She did his laundry, cleaned, and cooked for him. She was overjoyed when he returned home from a business trip.

"So you're telling me Paweł was perfect. He had no problems, no one wanted to kill him. He lived a peaceful and happy life, and then, suddenly, disaster struck," Marta interrupted, a little irritated by his sugary tale.

"That's not quite the case. Keep listening and don't interrupt, and you'll learn something that might interest you as a detective. Well, I don't know exactly what happened, because when Paweł has problems, he's reluctant to talk about them, but about six months ago, he had problems with the other co-owner of Pelikan." They had a huge argument, probably about changes in the company's management. The guy wanted to bring in a new member, which Paweł didn't agree to. He claimed the move would put a huge financial burden on the company and they would go into debt. Besides, he'd been bored with his quiet family life for some time. He decided something was still missing and found himself a mistress. As soon as I found out, I tried to talk him out of the affair. After six months of telling him over and over again that he was doing something wrong, I managed to convert him. Fortunately, his wife didn't suspect a thing, and everything returned to its previous state. I don't know any more details about his life. This will have to suffice for now.

"It's a beautiful story, a bit spicy towards the end, but I can buy it," Marta opined. "Perhaps you know the names of the people you mentioned earlier?

" "You mean Paweł's mistress and partner?"

"Yes, those are the ones. What did you think I was asking for? Personal information about sports stars."

"Of course I know. His partner's name is Mateusz Kociakowski, and his ex-lover's name is Paulina Lubiniecka. She's a decent girl; she just foolishly fell in love with Paweł. I can also tell you that she's one of Paweł's employees. He did a lot for her. Paulina comes from a poor family. She's very resourceful and easily got into her dream university program. Not wanting to give up her chance at an education, she decided to earn her own money for her studies, as she couldn't rely on her parents for financial support. However, finding a suitable job wasn't easy. When she was disappointed and despaired of her future, she sat down on a park bench and burst into tears. It happened that Paweł was passing by. He felt sorry for the crying girl. When he learned the reason for her sadness, he decided to help her. He hired Paulina as a saleswoman in his flower shop. Paulina still works there and lives with her parents. I think that's all. If you have any questions, I'm here."

There was silence. Marta was deep in thought. After a moment, she nodded.

"Tell me more about the accident itself. That is, under what conditions the crime occurred. Where it was committed, and what Paweł was doing moments before.

" The deceased Paweł was found by a housekeeper who works at his house. He was sitting in a chair at his desk, his head and right arm lying limply on the counter, holding a gun in his hand. His left arm hung at his side. Scattered on the desk were some documents relating to the Pelikan company. The door to his room was locked, but that's not surprising, because Paweł always locked the door when he worked so no one would disturb him. That's all I know.

"Was the hand with the gun lying very close to the deceased's head, and was the door locked?" Marta asked curiously.

"The door was simply locked, not locked. Yes, the hand was lying right next to Paweł's skull—there wasn't much of a gap, maybe a centimeter or so. Why are you asking?"

Tomasz didn't receive an answer to this question. It was well after one o'clock when Tomasz left Marta's apartment. Despite her exhaustion, Marta couldn't sleep. She lay in bed, thinking about today's conversation. She wondered who she should talk to first. She didn't know why, but she felt a certain sympathy for this poor girl who had decided to take fate into her own hands, perhaps because they were somewhat similar. Marta was also self-supporting. She had been working as a legal advisor at a Warsaw law firm for a year. She had an internship there after her third year and then landed a permanent position. They needed a new employee at the time, and they already knew Marta a little. However, she knew she couldn't rely on her subjective assessment. She sat down on the bed and turned on the bedside lamp. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the table to make a list of suspects. She listed Mateusz Kociakowski, Paulina Lubiniecka, Urszula Jasińska, and the housekeeper. She realized the list could grow, but for now, that was all she could do. She decided they would talk to the housekeeper first, but there was one problem: she didn't want this conversation to take place at the Jasińskis' house, because it might scare his wife if she were afraid of discovering the truth. Marta already knew it wasn't suicide.