‘Yes, your English is fine.’
‘And then I met Anna. She comes from the same town as me, Góra Kalwaria. Both of our fathers used to work in the sports equipment industry, but the factories closed. They are no longer in our town.’
Anna Wolakowa was darker, smaller, and very quiet. She sat close to Michal, squeezing his arm occasionally.
‘We were married by our parish priest, Father Posluszny,’ she said.
‘Which church is that?’
‘Kościół pod wezwaniem Matki Bożej Ostrobramskiej i Święty Barbary. The Church Of Our Lady of Ostra Brama and St Barbara. It’s in Mansfield.’
‘I don’t know it.’
‘We were part of the Polish baby boom,’ said Anna with a smile at Michal.
‘Baby boom?’
‘During martial law in the 1980s,’ explained Michal, ‘under Jaruzelski’s military government. There was a curfew, you see. People couldn’t go out after dark, so the baby boom was the result. And when we all came of age at the same time, there weren’t enough jobs for everyone. So we had to become migrant workers. We came here to the UK.’
‘And you work at the distribution centre outside Shirebrook?’ said Fry.
‘We both do, yes,’ said Michal.
Fry knew the distribution centre had opened the year after Poland joined the European Union. Michal Wolak was just one of thousands of workers who had subsequently come in from Poland, Latvia, and other countries of Eastern Europe. It was said that they didn’t ask too many questions, and were willing to accept the terms of employment. In return, they earned more in a week than they would in a month back home.
‘This place has changed, though,’ said Michal, shaking his head sadly. ‘Now people feel frightened and threatened. Our children get problems at school. “When are you going home?” they say. “We’re sending you lot back.” It’s been the same ever since the vote.’
‘The EU Referendum?’
‘Of course. People say they have never been frightened here before. But some of them are frightened now.’
‘How do you know Krystian Zalewski?’
‘I met him at the distribution centre when he was working there. He wasn’t very good at the job. I don’t think the work suited him. He got into trouble a lot.’
‘Trouble?’
‘He broke the rules. He arrived a few minutes late, he took too long going to the toilet, he was slow in his work. If you get six strikes against you the agency has to let you go. There are plenty of others waiting for the work.’
‘You talked to Mr Zalewski?’
‘When I got the chance. He was from a different part of Poland, down in the south, near Kraków. His English was not so good, so he liked to be able to talk to someone in Polish.’
‘Was he friendly with any of the other employees?’
‘No, I wouldn’t say so. He was very quiet. Very... solitary.’
‘A loner,’ said Fry.
Michal nodded. ‘I was sorry when he left. He just couldn’t fit in. But I saw him one more time after that.’
‘Where was this?’
‘At the car wash. We have a Ford Focus. It’s quite old, but we like to keep it nice. I took it to the hand car wash one day, and I recognised one of the men there. It was Krystian.’
‘This was recently?’
‘Just last week. I didn’t know he was working at the car wash until then.’
‘Only a few days before he was killed...’
‘It seems so.’
‘Did he speak to you?’ asked Fry.
‘He said “hello”. We chatted for a while in our own language. He asked how Anna was, and whether we had a baby yet. We’ve been trying for one, you see.’
He looked at Anna, who gave him a big smile. Fry wondered from the smile if she was actually pregnant, but it didn’t feel appropriate for her to ask. The other question that came into her mind was whether they intended to have a baby here, in Shirebrook. Or in England at least. If so, what nationality would the child be brought up as? What language would it grow up speaking?
‘Krystian told me they wanted him to work night shifts at the distribution centre, and he said “no”. He thought he was being picked on after that, because they wanted to get rid of him. But I’m not sure. They’re just very strict on rules of timekeeping. Krystian wasn’t very good with time.’
‘Why didn’t he want to work night shifts? Would it mean working with someone he didn’t like, doing a different kind of job?’
‘No, it was nothing like that. It was a silly thing, I thought. Krystian just didn’t like the dark. He wanted to go to work and come home in the light. The car wash suited him, because they only get customers during daylight.’
‘That’s odd for an adult male.’
Michal shrugged. ‘Perhaps there was some reason for it. If there was, he never talked about it to me.’
‘So did Mr Zalewski ever mention having trouble with anyone?’ asked Fry.
‘Trouble with local people?’
‘Well... anyone. Had he been involved in any arguments or disputes that you know of? Was there anyone who might intend to do him harm?’
‘He didn’t say anything like that. Not at all. He was a very nice man, Krystian. He didn’t really have friends. But I don’t know of any enemies either.’
Fry noticed Anna fidgeting in her seat as if she wanted to interrupt.
‘What do you think, Anna?’ said Fry.
‘I’m sorry, but...’ she began.
‘Yes?’
‘Well, for some people here, we’re all the enemy, aren’t we?’
‘You mean there are people who resent all Polish workers.’
‘More than resent. They hate us.’
Anna’s English was better than her husband’s. She had very little accent that Fry could detect.
‘Can you identify any individuals who hate Polish workers so much that they might attack Krystian Zalewski in that alley and stab him to death?’
Anna exchanged glances with Michal.
‘We don’t know their names,’ she said. ‘We’ve seen them, though.’
‘Here in Shirebrook?’
‘We don’t know if they live here. We just see them sometimes. They stand outside a pub, or one of the shops, and they stare at us as we go past. It’s quite... intimidating.’
‘One of the shops?’ said Fry. ‘Any particular shop?’
‘It’s difficult to say. They’re usually there after dark, when the shutters are all down. A group of men. They dress in black, sometimes with leather jackets.’
‘There is one shop,’ put in Michal. ‘I’ve never been inside, so I don’t know what it sells. Even when it’s open, it looks empty. There are posters in the window.’
‘Posters? For heavy rock concerts?’
‘Heavy rock...?’ said Michal, with a look at Anna.
‘Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden,’ she said.
‘Ah yes. And Rammstein.’
‘That’s what I’m thinking of,’ said Fry.
‘The posters are so big that you can hardly see through the window without getting very close,’ said Michal. ‘I wouldn’t dare to do that.’
‘If we see those men, we walk the other way round the market square to get home,’ said Anna.
‘Have you heard of any actual attacks on Polish people?’
‘Not that anyone talks about. They may keep it to themselves.’
‘That’s the wrong thing to do,’ said Fry. ‘You must tell someone. Tell the police if it happens to you. Will you promise me that?’
‘Of course.’
‘There’s a Public Space Protection Order in force, so they shouldn’t be gathering in groups and intimidating people.’
‘Oh, we know about that order,’ said Anna. ‘They say it was our fault.’
‘There was a problem with Polish men drinking in the street.’
Anna became animated for the first time.