Annemarie give no indication that she had heard a word he’d said.
Julie, polite but reserved, had gone to make coffee, Annemarie had headed
for the bath and van Effen spoke to the guard, a man called Thyssen, who
assured him that all was quiet and that the man he had relieved had had
a similarly uneventful night. Julie entered the living-room just as he
did: she was still quiet and unsmiling.
‘Julie?’
‘Yes?’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘For what?’
‘I’ve hurt my julie.’
‘You? Hurt? How?’
‘That’s right. Make it easy for me. I know you’ve been upset, most likely
still are. Annemarie told me.’
‘Did she tell you why?’
‘No. But it didn’t take my analytical mind, the one you’re always
denigrating, very long to figure it out. In retrospect, I could have been
n. ore tactful. But things on my mind, lots of things. Apart from those
things, you’re upset, Annemarie is upset because you’re upset, and I’m
upset because the two of you are upset. I’ve got to go out and see some
desperate
99
criminals and I can’t afford to be upset. I have to be careful, crafty,
cunning, calculating, watchful and ruthless and I can’t be any of those
things if I’m upset, and I’ll only be upset if you insist on remaining
upset. So you’ll have me on your conscience for the rest of your life if
something happens to me, such as being shot in the head, thrown off a high
building or drowned in a canal. Are you still upset?’.
She came close to him; linked her hands behind his neck and put her head on
his shoulder. ‘Of course I am. Not because of last night, but because of
what you’ve just said. You’re the only brother I have and I suppose I have
to love someone.’ She tightened her grip. ‘One of those days the gallant
Lieutenant is going to go out into what the gallant Lieutenant calls the
dreadful night and the gallant Lieutenant is not going to come back.’
‘This is the morning, Julie.’
‘Please. You know what I mean. I feel fey, Peter. I feet something dreadful
is going to happen today.’ She tightened her grip even more. ‘I do so wish
you weren’t going out. I’d do anything in the world to stop you. You know
that this is not the first time – that I’ve felt this way, I mean – it’s
been three or four times, and I’ve been right every time. Change your
appointment, Peter, please, darling. I know, I just know how I won’t feel
this way tomorrow.’
‘I’ll come back, Julie. I love you, you love me, I know you’d be terribly
sad if I didn’t come back, so I’ll have to come back, won’t V
‘Please, Peter. Please!’
‘Julie, Julie.’ He smoothed her hair. ‘You lot certainly do wonders for my
morale.’
‘What do you mean “you lot’T
‘Annemarie’s been at it too. Feeling fey, I mean. Prophesying death, doom
and disaster. You can imagine how this cheers me up no end. Tell you what.
A compromise. I promise you I won’t be lured astray by any bad men or go
anywhere with them from the Hunter’s Horn. I’ll listen to what they say
then make my plans accordingly. Basically, I think that I’ll arrange to
meet them again at a time and place of my own choosing, this being
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after I’ve learnt what their plans are for me – or their evil intentions.
So, a deal. If you promise me one of your cordon bleu lunches – finest
French wines, of course – for one o’clock, I’ll promise I’ll be here at
one.’
Still with her hands linked behind his neck she leaned back and looked at
him. ‘You will?’
‘Just said so. Your eyes are funny. About to weep salt tears for the
gallant Lieutenant?’
‘I was thinking about it.’She smiled. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ll think
about the lunch menu instead.’
Annemarie came in. She was wearing a bathrobe that was much too large for
her and a towel wound around her presumably still very wet hair. She smiled
and said: ‘It’s difficult to move around this house without interrupting
private conversations. Sorry I look such a fright.’
‘You can frighten me at any time,’ van Effen said cheerfully. ‘She really
isn’t too bad looking, is she, Julie?’
‘She’s the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen.’
‘In my profession you don’t get to see many girls, beautiful or otherwise.’
He looked at Julie consideringly. ‘You’re not too bad yourself. But, then,
I’m used to your face. It’s a toss-up. And who am I to quibble in – or at
– such company?’
It pleases the Lieutenant to be carefree and light-hearted, Julie,’
Annemarie said acidly. ‘He was anything but this morning. What have you
done to hirn?’
‘We’ve been conducting a mutual admiration party,’ van Effen said.
‘No, we haven’t. And I haven’t been appealing to his better nature either
– I wouldn’t know where to look for that. I think maybe we’re slightly
unfair to the poor man. Both you and 1, it seems, have been full of bad
omens and predicting all sorts of awful things that are going to happen to
hixn. He was just suffering from some gloom and despondency, that’s all.’
‘He wasn’t the only one,’Annemarie said. ‘Your cloud seems to have lifted
a bit, too.’
‘You’re choking me,’ van Effen said.
‘Ah!’ She unclasped her hands. ‘Peter says he isn’t going to do anything
brave today. just going to the Hunter’s Horn,
10I
meeting whoever is there, make arrangements for another meeting and then
leave. Going to find out what their plaris for him are. Thing is, he’s going
directly there – where he’ll be guarded by heaven knows how rnany armed
detectives – and coming directly back again.’
Annemarie smiled, her relief as obvious as Julle’s. ‘That is good.’The
srnil~ slowly vardshed. ‘flow do you kDow he’ll keep his word?’
‘A police officer’s word -‘van Effen began.
‘Because he’s coming back at one o’clock. For lunch. Extra special. French
wines. He knows what I’m like if anyone is late for my meals, far less
misses them. Besides, I’d never cook for him again.’
‘Banned for life? No, not that. I’ll be back. Guaranteed.’
Annemarie said: ‘Is ;ie coming for us or for the lunch’.,’
‘The lunch, oA’cours–. Us he can see any time.’
‘Not or – and,’van Effen said. ‘A peaceful hour. Imay well be called upon
to attend to something about two o’clock. The FFF, I mean.’
‘I thought,’ Annemarie said, ‘that they weren’t going to do anything until
some undisclosed time tomorrow.’
‘I was about to tell you. I was interrupted.’
Julie said: ‘Somebody interruptedyou?’
‘She did. She was eitber being fey, like you, or getting on to me about
something or other.’
‘What?’ Annemarie said.
‘How can one remernber one instance out of so many? However. The FFF
promise to entertain us at two o’clock this afternoon. Same place on the
North Holland canal north of Alkmaar as promised t1us morning – they say
the mines have been planted since yesterday, that they elected not to fire
them ard defy us to find th.-m – and also the Hagestein sluice.’
‘The what?’Julie said.
‘A sluice. Technically, I believe, a regulable weir. Concrete structure to
control the flow of water. South of Utrecht, on the lower Rhine. They may
attack one or the other, they say, or both, or neither. The old uncertainty
principle. Wc1l, time to dress for my appointment.’
102
He squeezed his sister’s shoulders, kissed her, did the same to an
astonished Annemarie, said: ‘Someone has to uphold the law,’ and left.
Julie looked at the closed door and shook her head. ‘There are times, I
feel, when someone should pass a law against him.’
Van Effen, attired as he had been for his visit the previous afternoon,
parked his car – not the Peugeot – in a side street three blocks away from
the Hunter’s Horn and made his way to the back entrance of the restaurant.
As the Hunter’s Horn was situated in a far from salubrious area this door
was kept permanently locked. Van Effen had the key. He entered, passed
into the semi-darkness of the passageway beyond and had just relocked the
door when something hard jabbed with painful force into the small of his
back.
‘Don’t move.’
Van Effen didn’t move. He said: ‘Who is it?’
‘Pofice.’
‘You have a name?’
‘Raise your hands.’A torch flicked on behind him. ‘Jan, see if he has a
gun.’
Hands fumbled at his jacket and he felt his shoulderholstered gun being
removed. Van Effen said: ‘So. My hands are up. My gun is gone. May I turn
round?’
‘Very well.’ Van Effen turned. ‘Is that the way, Sergeant Koenis, to
teach your men to search for weapons?’ He lowered his hands and hitched
up his trousers. There was an ankle holster, each with its Lilliput,