Tumbleweed (8 page)

"No sir."

The room was very quiet.

"Did your wife know about your meetings with Mrs. van Buren?"

Mr. Holman giggled again. "Yes. My son was always telling her about the nice lady. My wife wanted to go and meet the nice lady."

"Did she meet her?"

"No."

"She was killed on Saturday night," Grijpstra said.

"Saturday night," Mr. Holman said. "That's bad.'

The policemen waited.

"I was in my office all Saturday afternoon and all Saturday evening. Only came home at eleven."

"Was there anyone with you at your office?"

"No," Mr. Holman said. "I was alone. I often work on Saturdays, best day of the week for me, no telephone, no visitors."

"Have you been in the army?" Grijpstra asked.

"No, I have a weak spine. Why?"

"I was just asking," Grijpstra said. "And you don't like sports, you were saying. You wouldn't play ball with your son."

Mr. Holman shook his head. "I am very fond of sports."

"Any particular sport?" the commissaris asked.

"Darts," Mr. Holman said. "I am good at darts. It isn't a popular sport in Holland but I like it. I have a special room in my house where we play. I am chairman of the society, you know."

"Darts is a throwing game," Grijpstra said slowly. "Can you throw this, you think?"

The stiletto gleamed in his hand; it had flicked open as he had pulled it out of his pocket.

"Sure," Mr. Holman said. "Where do you want me to throw it?"

"Into the cigar box," the commissaris said, "but wait a moment. I'll take the cigars out first."

The commissaris put the empty cigar box on a filing cabinet. "Right," he said.

Mr. Holman had got up and was balancing his feet. He half-closed his eyes, weighing the knife in his open hand. "There," he said.

The movement had been very quick. Grijpstra's stiletto had hit the cigar box squarely in the middle, and had pierced the flimsy wood. There wasn't much left of the box.

As Grijpstra began to walk toward the filing cabinet to retrieve his knife, Mr. Holman understood.

"The knife was thrown, wasn't it?" he asked in a whisper.

"It was," the commissaris said.

"I didn't kill her," Mr. Holman said, and began to cry.

The room was quiet again. Mr. Holman had left, loudly blowing his nose. He had been answering questions for more than an hour.

"Well?" the commissaris asked after a few minutes.

Grijpstra and de Gier stared at him.

"Well?" the commissaris asked again.

"Difficult," Grijpstra said.

The commissaris chose a cigar from the disorderly heap on his desk.

"Must get a new cigar box," he muttered to himself, and aloud, "You shouldn't have that stiletto, Grijpstra."

"No, sir," Grijpstra said.

"No motive," de Gier said loudly. "No motive at all. Why should he want to kill a woman who gave him cups of coffee and who gave his little boy glasses of lemonade? He wasn't a client of hers and she couldn't have blackmailed him."

"Why not?" the commissaris asked.

"He wouldn't be visiting her on Sunday morning if she was playing whore for him during the week."

"Quite," Grijpstra said.

"Perhaps he didn't have to pay," the commissaris said. "Perhaps they were lovers."

"That meatball?' de Gier said.

"Women," the commissaris said in a lecturing voice, "are not mainly attracted by a man's looks."

De Gier looked hurt and Grijpstra looked amused.

"Maybe he gave her flowers," Grijpstra said, "and recited poetry and paid her compliments."

"All right," de Gier said. "He was her lover. He sang songs to her. And then he threw a knife into her back."

"We'll have to see him again," the commissaris said. "Phone him at his office tomorrow morning and ask him to be here at three in the afternoon."

He got up and opened the door.

"He is liking this case," Grijpstra said as they walked back to their room.

"I am not," de Gier said. "Are you?"

"Yes," Grijpstra said. "It's a nice case, nice and complicated. Let's go to a cafe and have a drink and go through it again. We have a lot of information now."

"No," de Gier said.

8

T
HE RAIN WAS THICK AND COLD AND THOROUGHLY unpleasant but the commissaris, a dapper pedestrian in a black oilcloth coat and a floppy hat, didn't mind. The only concern that his brain was registering was a concern about die pain in his legs. Rain aggravated his rheumatism and his limp was obvious that morning, in spite of his efforts. He was forcing himself to breathe slowly. Slow breathing improved his resistance. He was also forcing himself to think about something that had nothing to do with his pain. He was thinking about the Secret Service and his thoughts amused him so that his expression was a mixture of joy and suffering, resulting in an odd grimace. He wondered how many people knew that the Secret Service had a local head office that was separate from its three rooms at Police Headquarters, and he wondered if there would be any people who would care.

He had seen the chief constable that morning, to ask for an introduction to the director of the Secret Service. The introduction had been arranged within a few minutes. And now he was on his way. He knew the address, had known it for some years but there had never been a reason to penetrate into this seat of mystery.

He stumbled on a cobblestone and supported himself against the cast-iron railing of a bridge. He cursed, a long full-blooded curse, venomously pronounced, each syllable stressed. The pain was now a little worse and he waited until he had regulated his breathing again.

He wished he could have avoided this visit but had to agree with himself that he couldn't have. The Secret Service had alerted the police, an unignorable fact. They had, in some so far unexplained way, discovered that Mrs. Maria van Buren was not the simple lone woman living on a houseboat she might have pretended to be.

The commissaris shook his head and grumbled. They still didn't know much about the dead woman.

He had arrived and looked at the dilapidated narrow gable house. He checked the number and smiled. He knew the house. He smiled again. He knew the house well. He had visited it several times, but long ago. Thirty-five years ago, before the war it had been. The house had looked better in those days. It had been a great house, quiet and dignified, furnished with dark red velours drapes and thick semitransparent lace and a wealth of Victorian furniture. It had catered to the weird tastes of some of the richest men of the capital. His suddenly activated memory produced a series of fairly sharp color photographs. He remembered the fat oily face of Madame and the luscious body of Mimi, a Javanese girl who could only be rented for short periods at an exorbitant rate for she was first choice. She had her own large room on die second floor, a room full of minors. The commissaris had spent several hours with the mirrors, enervated by the reflection of his own body shown from every possible angle. It had been on the day that old Mr. de V. had been found in that room and old Mr. de V. hadn't been a pretty sight with all the lights switched on, looking rather bulbous, like an overgrown white mushroom. He had died, of a stroke, but the doctor wasn't sure and the police were invited. The commissaris was an inspector at the time. An evening which made an impression on his inexperienced mind.

Madame dropped a heavy hint that evening and the hint had made him return, about a week later. Madame had been very good to him, giving him his choice of four ravishing girls and the use of the mirror room and she opened the bottle of champagne herself, with her pudgy bejeweled hands. He had paid for the second bottle himself but was only charged a quarter of the usual price.

The small oilcloth-covered figure on the steps of the old house straightened itself as the memories flooded its brain. A very memorable evening indeed. The girl was French, genuinely French and he had practiced his knowledge of the language on her and she had corrected his mistakes and giggled beautifully and done far more than he had expected her to do.

He had visited the house once more. A client, a foreigner fortunately, had, in a frenzy of rage and frustration, wounded a girl with a small fork. The wound wasn't serious but the client was arrested nevertheless. Client and girl had been eating small pieces of buttered toast, thickly covered with caviar, and the minute black eggs were mixed up with blood on the alabaster body of the girl. A horrible but also rather interesting sight. And now he was visiting the house again, for the fourth time. He rang the bell.

Would the present occupants know about the history of the house? They probably would not, the commissaris thought. As he waited for somebody to open the door he became more certain that they wouldn't know.

They didn't even know that he was ringing the bell. He rang again.

A slow shuffling sound approached and the door creaked open. An old man, in the city's uniform, the collar of his jacket decorated with the three crosses of the arms of Amsterdam, faced the commissaris, although "faced" was, perhaps, an exaggeration. The old man didn't really have a face. The commissaris found himself confronted with a mask, made of old yellowed putty and, again, he was reminded of the brothel of a past now so far away that it seemed dated in the dream time, which also had an aged doorman who would stare at the customers as if he didn't know why they had taken the trouble of ringing the bell.

"I have an appointment with your director," the commissaris said, and the doorman forced his back into a slight bow, and stepped back.

Perhaps the old man was dumb but his attitude indicated servility and the commissaris felt grateful, his presence had been acknowledged.

The door closed behind him and he was led up a flight of stairs toward the mirror room. He tittered and half-expected his guide to stop and ask for an explanation but their slow procedure was uninterrupted and another door opened.

The mirrors had gone.

But some of the furniture was still there and the commissaris sat down on a chair upholstered in red velours, an old chair, a chair he had sat on before, but the mood had changed. He was neither breathless nor excited. Now, he dryly stated to himself, he was bored. No other word for it. Bored.

His host had helped him out of his coat and hung it on a heavy copper hook; his hat crowned the coat. He had shaken his host's hand and they had agreed on the weather. He also knew his host's name, and his rank. A naval commander. So that's what happened to the navy, he told himself. The ships are tied up in the river, and here is their last man, an old man, for the commander was old, close to retirement, like himself.

He noted, without any surprise, that his host's feet were covered by slippers, worn and shabby. He also noted that the commander's face reminded him of the face of a turtle, a dried-out face with patient eyes embedded in heavy folds. The commissaris liked turtles and kept one in his garden. He called it ''Turtle" but it would never come when he called it by its name. He approved of his turtle's supreme indifference and fed it well, with fresh lettuce leaves, put out on the center of the small lawn of his garden, every night without fail.

"Yes," the turtle was saying now, "the van Buren case. Poor woman has been murdered, I hear."

"So she has," the commissaris agreed.

"Sad," the turtle replied.

"Very," the commissaris answered.

They didn't stare at each other. The turtle's look had turned inward and the commissaris had closed his eyes. His legs hurt him very badly now and all his energy was directed toward the rhythm of his breathing.

A clock ticked slowly on the wall. The door opened and closed. A pot of coffee, a sugar bowl, a jug of cream, and two cups and saucers had appeared on the turtle's desk, all dating back to the days of the brothel but the commissaris was no longer amused; he had accepted the fuse of past and

The turtle inhaled, waited, and began to speak.

"We would like to be of help."

The commissaris breathed, very quietly, counting to himself, up to four for inhaling, up to six for exhaling.

"But I am afraid there is little we can do."

The commissaris continued counting.

"You see, we don't know much."

The pain was under control now, and the commissaris fumbled in his pockets.

"A cigar?"

"Please."

The cigar was lit.

The turtle spoke without any prompting, eager to share his knowledge.

"Mrs. van Buren was friendly with several men. The American intelligence people informed us about her possible importance; it seemed she had befriended an officer, an expert on atomic warfare. We were asked to keep her under observation."

"Yes," the commissaris said.

"But we get many requests like that and we don't always do as we are told."

"No."

"But then Brussels also pulled the bell. The same Mrs. van Buren had entered into a relationship with one of their men, a diplomat charged with security, security of the state."

"So you thought there was something in it," the commissaris said.

The turtle smiled. The commissaris didn't feel obliged to say anything.

"We don't think much," the turtle ventured.

"No."

"No," the turtle said. "We don't. But we do our job."

"So you contacted us."

"Yes," the turtle said.

The silence lasted and the commissaris got up. "That was all?" he asked, feeling that he was committed to make sure.

"Yes," the turtle said.

"It may be that Mrs. van Buren's death had nothing to do with secrets," the commissaris said feebly, feeling somewhat caught.

"It may be," the turtle said. "Have some more coffee before you go. The weather is still awful."

The commissaris emptied his second cup and shook hands. The turtle's hand felt as it should feel, dry and leathery.

The commissaris felt that he should ask the question. "Have you been here long? In this house I mean?"

"Ten years," the turtle said.

"Property of the state, is it?"

"Of course," the turtle said. "Why?"

"Just wondered. I wonder how she got it?"

"Bought it, I imagine," the turtle replied kindly.

The turtle had been right, the weather was still awful. The commissaris rang the bell again and asked the doorman to phone for a taxi. He waited in the corridor but the taxi didn't arrive.

"Never mind," he said in the end. "I suppose they are busy, everybody wants a cab with this rain. Tell the driver, if he does arrive, that I couldn't wait."

The doorman saluted and the door opened and closed again.

* * *

"I am getting a lot of information," the commissaris told himself as he walked back to Headquarters, "and all of it is negative. We are getting nowhere."

The conclusion cheered him; he had been wishing for a difficult case.

He thought of his time limit. The chief inspector would be back within ten days. It would be awkward to have to tell his assistant that a murderer was still wandering about. But he shrugged the thought off. He would proceed as dictated by the rules. No hurry. Hurry is a fundamental error. Where did I get that? the commissaris asked himself. He remembered, he had got it from a Chinese story, a wise story. He had begun to read books about ancient China at about the same time that his rheumatism had started to fire the nerves of his legs. "Pain and wisdom," he thought. "Perhaps there is some connection."

The idea occurred to him that perhaps he should be grateful for his pain, it was leading him to discoveries, but, as he slowly turned the next corner and began to follow another canal, he rejected the conclusion. He would rather have no wisdom and no pain. He walked for another quarter of an hour thinking of the days when he had no wisdom. He saw himself entering the brothel again, on an evening in September of 1938, a young man, freshly bathed and filled with anticipation. The night of the room with the mirrors, the champagne, and the girl with the narrow hips and the full breasts.

"Morning, sir," a uniformed sergeant at Headquarters said. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine," the commissaris said. "Lovely day."