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Life Begins on Friday
167
CAPITAL’S POLICE.
Friday, 19 December: An Eventful Day
Section 4
There are two things in life of
which you are never bored:
looking at falling snow flakes
and gazing at the flames in
a fireplace. At dawn that
Saturday, Mr Costache was
able to do both of these
at once. It had started to
snow and for a while he had
looked out of the window
onto Victory Avenue. Now
he was looking at the
flames. He had finished his
Turkish coffee, laced with
French brandy, to help him
forget his annoyance at
the disappearance of the
case, and he had glanced
at the announcement in
Universul
, taking note,
without surprise, that it
had been placed between
two stupid advertisements.
What prestige could the
Police preserve if its
requests were placed next
to an advertisement for
a confectioner’s? And it
was not even a renowned
confectioner’s, like old man
Fialkowski’s, but one that
was here today and gone
tomorrow. Then he came
across the news item about
the man found in the snow:
‘The man under arrest who
was found unconscious
yesterday almost frozen
near Băneasa Forest (by the
lakes) has declared that his
name is Dan I. Kretzu, that
he is a...’ and observed two
things:
primo
, that they
had spelled his name with