Dorit was scrolling through the online listings on a Tuesday evening, looking for nothing in particular, when she saw her own bike.
星期二的傍晚，多丽特正在翻看网上的二手商品信息，没特别想找什么，这时她看到了自己的自行车。
It had the same dark green frame and the same cracked left pedal. In the third photo, a strip of green tape was wound around the handlebar, exactly where she had mended a split grip last spring. The bike had been stolen from outside her office three weeks earlier.
车架是同样的深绿色，左脚踏板上也有同样的裂痕。第三张照片里，车把上缠着一圈绿色胶带，位置恰好就是去年春天她修补裂开的车把套的地方。这辆车三个星期前在她公司外面被偷了。
Her first instinct was to write to the seller and demand it back. Her second, which came a minute later, was that a thief would hardly hand it over politely. She called her friend Judit instead.
她的第一反应是给卖家写信，要求他还车。一分钟后她的第二个念头是，小偷怎么可能客客气气地把车交出来。于是她转而给朋友朱迪特打了电话。
"Don't go alone," Judit said at once. "Choose somewhere public, in daylight, and I'll come with you. If it were my bike, I'd want to see the seller before the seller saw me."
“别一个人去，”朱迪特立刻说，“选个公共场所，白天去，我陪你。要是我的车，我会想在卖家看到我之前先看到他。”
So Dorit wrote a short message, pretending to be an ordinary buyer. The seller answered within minutes and suggested the bench outside the library on Saturday at noon. The price, she noticed, was suspiciously low.
于是多丽特写了一条简短的消息，假装是个普通买家。卖家几分钟内就回复了，建议星期六中午在图书馆外面的长椅见面。她注意到，价格低得可疑。
On Saturday, Judit sat on a low wall across the square with a newspaper she wasn't reading. Dorit waited by the bench. At noon, a thin teenage boy came around the corner, wheeling her bike carefully, as though it might break.
星期六，朱迪特坐在广场对面的矮墙上，拿着一份根本没在看的报纸。多丽特等在长椅旁。中午时分，一个瘦瘦的少年从街角转了过来，小心翼翼地推着她的自行车，好像车一碰就会坏。
"Hi," he said. "Are you the one who wrote about the bike?"
“你好，”他说，“是你写信问那辆车的吗？”
Dorit looked at the tape on the handlebar and felt her anger turn into something more complicated. "That's my bike," she said. "It was stolen three weeks ago."
多丽特看着车把上的胶带，感到自己的怒气变成了某种更复杂的情绪。“这是我的车，”她说，“三个星期前被偷了。”
The boy went pale. "That can't be right. I paid sixty for it at the flea market. The man said it had belonged to his sister." He added, a little desperately, "I'm Kaveh, by the way. I only wanted to sell it because the gears keep slipping."
少年脸色发白。“不可能。我是在跳蚤市场花六十块买的。那个男人说是他姐姐的车。”他又有些急切地补了一句：“对了，我叫卡韦。我想卖掉它，只是因为变速总是打滑。”
Judit had crossed the square by then and was standing quietly beside Dorit. "Sixty, for a bike like this?" she asked.
这时朱迪特已经穿过广场，安静地站在多丽特身边。“六十块，买这样一辆车？”她问。
Kaveh stared at the pavement. "I know. I should have asked more questions."
卡韦盯着地面。“我知道。我当时应该多问几句的。”
"You might have wondered," Dorit agreed. "But you came here in daylight, with your own face, and you brought the bike. A thief wouldn't have done that." She asked to see his messages, and together they photographed the whole conversation, the seller's account name, and the serial number stamped on the frame.
“你本该起疑的，”多丽特说，“但你白天来了，露着自己的脸，还把车带来了。小偷不会这么做。”她请他给她看聊天记录，两人一起把整段对话、卖家的账号名和车架上刻的编号都拍了下来。
Kaveh offered to come to the police station, and Dorit hadn't expected that. She had half expected him to run.
卡韦主动提出陪她们去警察局，多丽特没料到这一点。她原本以为他多半会逃跑。
At the station, an officer studied the screenshots and said that the same account had been mentioned in two other reports that month. "Without this conversation," she said, "we would have had nothing to follow."
在警察局，一位警官仔细看了截图，说同一个账号这个月在另外两起报案里也被提到过。“要是没有这段对话，”她说，“我们就没有任何线索可查了。”
Outside, Dorit crouched beside the bike, took a small tool from her bag, and tightened the gear cable that had been bothering Kaveh. He watched every turn of the screw, memorizing it.
走出警察局，多丽特蹲在车旁，从包里拿出一把小工具，把一直让卡韦头疼的变速线拧紧了。他看着她把螺丝拧的每一圈，默默记在心里。
Then she swung her leg over the saddle, pushed off, and rang the bell twice, loudly enough that Judit jumped.
然后她跨上车座，蹬了出去，用力按了两下车铃，响得朱迪特跳了起来。
