Miss Moran's nurse was a corpulent, kind-hearted woman. She was devastated to hear of Dominique's death. She confirmed having visited Miss Moran from two to half past two for her weekly diabetes check-up. Her patient was doing fine. There was no one in or around the house. She hadn't seen any bike when she arrived at and left Miss Moran's property. The nurse had nothing further to add.
"It looks like the killer is our movie star-looking mystery man," said Farnicki pensively, looking at the passersby through his wet car window.
"It looks like it. Miss Moran knew both Agnes and the killer. I don't think she suspected him of murder, but she instantly recognised him from the description in the news article when she read the paper. She must've called him and was so careless to let him know of her discovery. Our killer is reckless. As soon as he finds out of Dominique's intentions, he decides to eliminate her. He jumps on his bike and cycles to her house, which means that he lives somewhere in the neighbourhood. He only has three and a half hours to get rid of Dominique, because he knows that on Fridays the nurse leaves her at two thirty and at six, she has an appointment with cops. Which also means that the murderer is aware of Miss Moran's plans. Most likely because she had told him about it herself, which shows that she and the killer were close. It will be easy to track him down once we check her incoming and outgoing phone calls. I'll call the telephone company so that they provide us with her telephone traffic for today and yesterday."
However, it wasn't as easy as Wojcik had expected. Only on Saturday, before her nurse came, Miss Moran had talked to at least twenty different people. The day before there were double as many.
"What on earth can an old lady tell to so many people?!" exclaimed Farnicki in astonishment, looking at the paper with the number and hour columns of Dominique's telephone calls.
"Apparently something that could get one killed," Wojcik growled.
Farnicki started with the phone calls on Thursday, while Wojcik checked the Friday ones. Edmond also tried to reach Veronique Moran, Dominique's sister, but she didn't pick up the phone. He thought of trying again later, but right at that moment his phone rang.
"Oui, bonjour. Puis-je parler avec madame Moran, s'il vous plaît?" Wojcik asked in Gaul, startling Farnicki. Ivan spoke Almain and Pan-Slavic. He assumed the Inspector knew a foreign language as well, however he didn't expect for it to be Gaul.
"Je m'appelle Edmond Wojcik. Je suis inspecteur de la police de Resovia. Il s'agit de la sœur de madame Moran," Edmond waited for Veronique to get to the telephone.
"Good evening, Miss Moran. My name is Edmond Wojcik, Inspector of the Resovian Police Department. I'm sorry to inform you that your sister, Miss Dominique Moran, was found dead today in her home at Greenwood 16."
It was silent for some time on the other end of the line. Wojcik heard Veronique's breathing become deeper.
"Miss Moran? Are you alright? Is there someone with you?"
"Yes, my husband is beside me, Inspector," she said in a shaky voice, "how did my sister die?"
"She was murdered, Miss Moran."
"Murdered?!" Veronique's trembling voice turned into a squeal.
"Someone had broken inside and strangled her with a cable. She didn't see the killer, as she was sitting with her back to him."
"Who was it?"
"We don't know it yet, Miss Moran. We're investigating right now. But we believe it's the same person who killed another woman a week ago. Miss Moran had contacted us today. It seems like she recognised the possible killer from the description in the newspaper, and she wanted to tell us something. But we were too late …"
"Who was that other woman?"
"Agnes Gott."
"Agnes?! They killed poor little Agnes, too?"
"You knew her?"
"Well, the last time I saw her was some twenty years ago," Wojcik noticed how quickly Veronique restrained herself and got to the point, "she just graduated from college and worked in our company for a short time replacing an employee who was on maternity leave. Once her contract had ended, Agnes found a job in another place, where my sister worked as an accountant. At first, we weren't aware of it, but one time my sister and I were talking about our colleagues, and Dom mentioned a young lady that started working for them. Dom was very fond of her; she said the young woman was very elegant and polite. I asked her what her name was and discovered it was the same Agnes I worked with some time ago. We both liked her. I don't remember what exactly had happened to her, but Agnes was forced to leave that place. Since then, I haven't heard from her."
"Do you remember the name of the firm your sister worked for?"
"When she worked there it was called Almain Chemie, however before that the company name was changed several times. I believe they've changed it again."
"Thank you, Ma'am. We'll check it out."
"Where is she now?" he heard her ask, holding back her tears.
"She's at the city's morgue. Miss Moran's body will be preserved until you come to pick her up."
"I'll take the first flight to Lechia," she said in a choked voice.
"I'll let the morgue know, Miss Moran."
"Thank you, Inspector. Bye."
Veronique disconnected. Wojcik hung up the phone. Farnicki was looking at him in anticipation.
"Farnicki, could you look up the company Almain Chemie for me, please? It's that toxic waste company Agnes worked at twenty years ago. The name might have changed by now."
"Of course, Sir. Did you find something?" Farnicki asked curiously, as he typed the name in a searching engine on his computer.
"I think we finally might be on to something. Both women worked in that company. It has been mentioned one too many times. Something tells me we might find answers there. How about you?"
"I have checked ten telephone numbers by now. Most of them are middle aged or retired women. None of them looks suspicious to me. Found it, Sir. Now, the firm is called AlChemie. How original," Farnicki snorted.
"Great. Write down the address. Are they open tomorrow?"
"Yes, in the morning."
"Good. We're going to bring them a visit tomorrow. Now, let's go home. It's already eight."
"But what about the telephone numbers, Sir?"
"We can do that tomorrow, besides maybe we could narrow the list down once we find out what people at AlChemie knew both Agnes and Dominique."