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time.’
    ‘Don’t you think that might be the cigarettes?’ Elinborg asked politely.
    ‘So I sat by the window here, and waited for them,’ said Petrina, ignoring Elinborg’s comment. ‘I sat and waited all night, and all day Sunday, and I’m still waiting.’
    ‘For?’
    ‘For the men from the power company! I thought that was who you were.’
    ‘So you sat here at the window, watching the street. Did you think they would come at night?’
    ‘How should I know when they’ll come? And then I saw that man I told you about this morning. I thought maybe he was from them, but he walked straight past. I thought of shouting out to him.’
    ‘Had you ever seen him around here before?’
    ‘No, never.’
    ‘Could you tell me a bit more about him?’
    ‘There’s nothing to tell. Why are you asking about him?’
    ‘A crime was committed near here, and I may have to trace him.’
    ‘You can’t,’ asserted Petrina.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘You don’t know who he is,’ observed Petrina, amazed that Elinborg could be so dense.
    ‘No, and that’s why I’m asking you to help me. You said this morning he was wearing a dark jacket and a cap. Was it a leather jacket?’
    ‘I’ve no idea. But he had a hat on. A knitted woolly hat.’
    ‘Did you notice his trousers?’
    ‘Nothing special. They were those ones for running, with the legs torn up to the knee. There was nothing special about them.’
    ‘Was he driving a car?’
    ‘No. I didn’t see a car.’
    ‘Was he alone?’
    ‘Yes, he was alone. I only saw him for a moment because he moved fast, despite being lame.’
    ‘Lame?’ asked Elinborg. She did not recall hearing anything about this from the officer who had interviewed Petrina.
    ‘Yes, lame. Poor man. He had an aerial thing around his leg.’
    ‘Did he seem to be in a hurry?’
    ‘Oh, yes, but everybody hurries past here. It’s the waves. He wouldn’t want to let the waves get into his leg.’
    ‘What kind of aerial was it?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Did he limp heavily?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And he didn’t want the waves in his leg? What do you mean?’
    ‘That was why he limped. The waves were massive. Really massive waves in his leg.’
    ‘Could you feel the waves?’
    Petrina nodded. ‘Who did you say you were?’ she asked. ‘Aren’t you from the power company? Do you know what I think it is? Do you want to know? It’s all because of this uranium. Massive uranium, that comes down with the rain.’
    Elinborg smiled. She should have listened to the policemen who had said it probably wasn’t worth talking to this witness again. She thanked Petrina, and promised to telephone the power company to remind them about the electromagnetic waves which were making her life so difficult - though she doubted whether they would be the right people to help the poor lady with her headaches.
    There were no other witnesses to speak of. One middle-aged man came forward, who had been walking through Thingholt that Saturday night to his home on Njardargata. Though in the throes of a severe hangover, he wanted to state, while it was still fresh in his memory, that on the way home he had seen a woman sitting alone in a parked car. She was in the passenger seat, and it seemed to him that she had been trying to avoid attracting attention. He had no further explanation to offer. He gave them the name of the street where he had seen the car, which was some distance from the crime scene, but could give no proper description of the woman who he thought was probably about sixty and had been wearing a coat. He had no more to tell them. He remembered nothing about the car: neither its colour nor its make. He did not know much about cars, he explained.

5
    The flight was short, and the humming of the propellers was soothing. Elinborg sat in a window seat as she invariably did on domestic flights. She enjoyed seeing something of the country but this afternoon the weather was cloudy and she caught only glimpses of mountain