Our author has known Benni and Björn since school. Then she learns that the two are said to have shot a woman on the A9 in Brandenburg. That can't be! Or is it?
It's one of those sentences that people actually only say in movies: “Sit down.” One day in the fall of 2023 I heard it for the first time in real life when I was on the phone with someone I knew. I'm looking for Benni, a mutual friend, but I haven't been able to reach him for a while. The acquaintance quickly gets to the point: Benni is in custody. “Google ‘dead teacher on the A9’.”
I come across a headline from the Picture-Newspaper: “This dachshund dad hired killers for his ex.” It sounds as absurd as it gets Picture can think up. I click on the link. Instead of Benni, I discover another familiar face, despite the black bar over his eyes: Björn. I have known Benni and Björn for almost 30 years; we were in a class at the Waldorf school. It was a nice time. Long ago.