It wasn’t as if she had any real reason to feel uneasy. Afra had been wringing out the washing in the open air, and the little boy had still been sleeping peacefully in his bed. Johann had gone out to mow the meadow beside the railway embankment. Theres wanted to hurry and be back home as soon as possible, so that Afra and her father wouldn’t start quarrelling again. Over the last few weeks not a day had passed without an argument between the two of them. Sometimes it was about the child – too noisy, too spoilt. Or then again it might be Afra’s refusal to go to church. From month to month the trouble between father and daughter had been getting steadily worse. But then she had been held up; her last customer, the miller’s wife, hadn’t been able to make up her mind, and so in the end she cycled away from Einhausen much too late. Even from a distance she saw the washing still hanging on the line in the yard, and she knew that her presentiment had been correct. The policeman who came out of the house and walked towards her didn’t have to explain.
