Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

Zöe Beck everyone else. Silvana said that she believed him, as did her father and the police. My mother didn’t believe a word of it, and she wasn’t the only one. I heard her continue to whisper secretly with acquaintances, either on the phone or on the sidewalk: Somebody claimed to have seen Silvana’smother one place or the other. Someone else knew that she was hiding in Herr Schneider’s apartment, and that Herr Schneider’s return to school was only part of an elaborate scheme. Once Silvana’s mother was pulled dead out of the Judenteich that Friday morning, no one said anything more about elaborate schemes. Now it was suicide. She had

jumped to bring an end to the scandal. It wasn’t just the old people who were saying that. The younger ones had picked it up as well: She simply couldn’t take it anymore that everyone was saying such bad things about her. We read in the newspaper that ultimately they couldn’t determine if the woman’s drowning had been an accident, murder or suicide. After several weeks, the investigation was closed, and Papa said it was nonsense for them to act as if they had actually been trying hard over the past weeks to figure out the truth. What actually took place on that May night between Thursday and Friday at the Judenteich was never clarified. They also never determined where Silvana’s mother

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