the exception of those who encountered her formidable disapproval. She was
one of those rare people who radiated happiness, a quality that more than
tended to conceal the fact that below it all lay a fine intelligence.
Cabinet Ministers do not habitually employ dimwitted secretaries and Julie
was a Cabinet Minister’s secretary, private, personal, confidential and
discreet.
She was also very hospitable and wanted to cook them a meal as soon as they
had entered. It was easy to believe that this multi-talciited young lady
was also a cordon bleu chef, which, in fact, she was. She then offered
sandwiches and desisted only when she learned that they had already eaten.
‘The Dikker en Thijs, was it? Well, the police always did know how to look
after themselves. For a working girl, it’s new herring, red cabbage and
sausage.’
‘For this particular working girl,’ van Effen said, ‘it’s the ministerial
canteen. A gourmet’s paradise, so I’m told -we cops aren’t allowed near the
place, of course. Julie, alas, has no will-power – well, you’ve only to
look.’ Julie, had in fact, as nearly perfect a figure as it was possible to
imagine. She treated this badinage with a lofty contempt, ruffled his hair
in the passing and went to the kitchen to prepare some coffee and a cafd
schnapps.
Annemarie looked after her departing form, turned to van Effen and smiled.
‘She can wrap you round her little finger any time, can’t she?’
‘Any time and any day,’van E.111fen said cheerfully. ‘And, alas, she knows
it. “Minx” is the word for her. Something I have to
85
show you, in case you’re in the house alone.’ He led her to a picture on
the wall and pushed it to one side to reveal a red button set flush with
the wallpaper. ‘What’s known to the trade as a personal attack button. If’
you think you’re in danger, suspect it or even sense it, you press this
button. A patrcl car will be here within five minutes.’
She tried to make light of it. ‘Every housewife in Amsterdam should havc
orie of those.’
‘As there are a hundred thousand housewives in Amserdam – maybe two for
all I know – it would come a mite expensive.’
‘Of course.’ Slhe looked at him and didn’t or couldn’t smile any more.
‘I’ve been with the two of you a few times now and one would have to be
blind and deaf not to realize that you’re just potty about your kid
sister.’
‘Tut, tut. I can but sigh. Is it so obvious?’
‘I hadn’t finished. You didn’t have that insta~ed just because you love
her. She’s in danger, isn’t she?’
‘Danger?’He caught her by the shoulders, so tightly that she winced.
‘Sorry.’ He eased hi s grip but left his hands where they were. ‘Now do
you know?’
‘Well, she is, isn’t she? In danger, I mean.’
‘Who told you? Julie?’
‘No. I
‘The Colonel?’
‘Yes. This evening.’ She looked at him, her gaze moving from one eye to
the other. ‘You’re not angry, are you?’
‘No. No, my dear, I’m not angry. just worried. I’m not a healthy person
to know.’
‘Julie knows about the danger?’
‘Of course.’
‘Does she know about the postcards?’ He looked at her th~ughtfully and
didn’t change his expression as she put her hands on his shoulders and
made as if to shake him in exasperation; which was a silly thing to do
as van Efffen was built along very solid lines. ‘Well, does she?’
‘Yes. It would be difficult for her not to. The postcards come to this
address. One of the Annecy brothers’ ways of getting to me.’
86
‘Dear God. This – this is dreadful. How – how can she be so -so happy?’
She put her head against his shoulder as if she was suddenly tired. ‘How
can she?’
‘The old saying, I suppose. Better to laugh than to cry. You’re not about
to cry, are you?’
‘No.
‘The old saying doesn’t quite apply here. She always was a happy child.
Only, now she has to work at it.’
Julie came in with coffee, stopped abruptly and cleared her throat.
‘Isn’t it a little early in the evening -‘ She laid the tray down. ‘I
hope the deafness is a temporary affliction. I said -‘She stopped again,
the expression on her face showing her concern, moved swiftly to where
they stood, put an arm round Annemarie and gently turned her head until
she could see her face. ‘Tears. Full of tears.’ She pulled a lace
handkerchief from her sleeve cuff. ‘What’s this ruffian been up to?’
‘This ruffian hasn’t been up to anything,’ van Effen said mildly.
‘Annemarie knows everything, Julie. Marianne, the kids, you, me, the
Annecys.’
‘The Colonel, I’ll be bound.’
‘You’ll be bound right.’
Julie said: ‘I know, Annemarie. It’s a shock. To come all at once, it’s
a shock. At least it came to me bit by bit. Come. I have the sovereign
remedy. A double schnapps in your coffee.’
‘You’re very kind. If I could be excused -‘ She turned and walked quickly
from the room.
‘Well.’ There was a demanding note in Julie’s voice. ‘Don’t you see what
you’ve done?’
‘Me?’ Van Effen was genuinely perplexed. ‘What am I supposed to have done
now? It was the Colonel -2
‘It’s not what you have done. It’s what you haven’t done.’ She put her
hands on his shoulders and her voice went soft. ‘It’s what you haven’t
seen.’
‘I see. I mean, I don’t see.’ Van Effen was cautious. ‘What haven’t I
seen?’
‘You clown.’ Julie shook her head. ‘Annemarie. Her heart is in her face,
in her eyes. That girl’s in love with you.’
‘What! You’re not well, that’s what it is.’
87
‘My beloved, brilliant dolt of a brother. But don’t believe me. Ask her to
marry you now. A special licence – which you can obtain at the drop of a
hat ~ and you’d be married by midnight.’
Van Effen looked slightly dazed. ‘Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?’
‘No, I’m not. I’m absolutely certain.’
‘But she hardly knows me.’
‘I’m aware of that. After all, you’ve only met her, what -twenty, thirty,
forty times?’ She shook her head. ‘The feared interrogator, the writer of
books on psychology, the man who can lay bare the innermost secrets of any
mind with one piercing glance – well, a hundred per cent for theory, zero
for practice.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk. Specialist in marriage counselling -or should
I say match-making? Ha! Six marriage proposals for certain – could have
been twenty for all I know – and you turned them all down. There indeed
speaks the voice of experience.’
‘Don’t try to change the subject.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘Yes, indeed, there
speaks the voice of experience. I didn’t love any of them. She is deeply in
love with you. I don’t quite understand why.’
‘I need a schnapps.’Van Effen opened a nearby cupboard.
‘I’ve just brought you a cafiE schnapps.’
‘First of al I, I need a schnapps. Then I need a caft schnapps.’
– ‘Not a psychiatrist? Why do you think she’s so upset?’
‘She’s soft-hearted, that’s why.’
‘You should make a splendid match. Soft heart. Soft head.’ She took his
head -between her hands and studied his eyes carefully. ‘The hawk-eyed
detective lieucenant. What you need is a pair of glasses. And you’ve missed
your cue, haven’t you? Half a dozen times, at least.’
‘What cue?’
‘Oh dear. That wary hunted look makes you more criminal than cop. What cue?
“I wouldn’t marry her if she were the last girl in the world” should have
been your answer to the cue. Standard reaction, I believe.’ She smiled
again. ‘But of course, you’re not standard.’
88
‘Oh, shut up.’
‘A well reasoned answer.’ She sat and took up her coffee. ‘Mental myopia.
I believe it’s incurable.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure you’ll find the answer.’ Van Effen was his old
self, calm, assured, relaxed and very much back on balance. ‘I don’t
particularly care for cool, clinical, slightly superior, slightly amused
doctors, but I have to admit you’ve effectively worked a cure in my case.
You’ve cured me of any interest I might ever have had in that young lady.
Or maybe that was what you wanted. I don’t know.’ She was looking at him
with parted lips and uncomprehending eyes. ‘I don’t need -I don’t want, I
should say – help, advice oir sympathy from you, and not just because
they’re uncalled-for, unhelpful, unwanted or unsolicited but because I’m
perfectly capable of managing my own life without the assistance of a
meddlesome young sister. I’ll go check if the guard is here.’
He went out leaving Julie to stare numbly at the door he’d closed behind
him, disconsolate and disbelieving, and she was still in the sam e
position, still gazing sightlessly at the door, the same expression of hurt
and bafflement on her face when Annemarie came into the room. Annemarie