by their profession: what was atypical about them was &.at they wore hoods
and gloves. Beyond that Thyssen could tell them nothing: he had been taken
into the bathroom and tied, gagged and left lying on the floor.
Van Effen went into Annemarie’s bedroom – the one that had formerly been
his – took one quick look around and returned.
‘There’s a pile of Annemarie’s clothes lying on the bed and a wardrobe
missing. They were tied, gagged and carried out in it – to anyone
watching an obvious case of legitimate furnitureremoving. They must have
been keeping tabs on me, sir, about the time you made the call to me from
the restaurant. They would have had a furniture van parked nearby and
would have moved in as soon as they saw me departing. Very neat indeed.
A most uncomfortable trip for the young ladies – but I suppose they must
have been too terr&5ed out of their wits to worry about di-scomfort.
Ironic, isn’t it, sir, that both of them this morning were full of gloom
and woe and foreboding – and prophecies of disaster. Feeling fey was what
they called it. They were both convinced that the something terrible was
going to happen to me: unfortunately for them they picked the wrong
subject for concern.’
De Graaf, a second glass of Van der Hum in his hands, paced up and down.
Even forty years in the police had left him without van Effen’s ability
to mask his emotions: anger and worry fought for dominance in his face.
‘What are those devils up to? What did they want – and who did they want?
Annemarie? Julie? Or both?’
‘Julie.’ Van Effen handed him the postcard he and Julie had looked at
earlier in the afternoon. De Graaf took it, examined both card and
envelope and said: ‘When did this arrive?’
‘Just after lunch. Julie was very upset but I just pooh-poohed it,
laughed the matter off. Clever van Effen. Brilliant van Effen.’
‘So your friends have returned, theAnnecys back in Amsterdam. Lost no
time in making their presence known and got at you in the very best way
possible. God, I’m sorry, Peter.’
‘Feel sorry for the girls. Especially for Annemarie. It was just
130
her fiendishly bad luck to be here when they came for Julie. It was that
towering genius, van Effen, of course, who had insisted that she remain
here for her own safety. The demands should be arriving quite soon. You
will not have forgotten, Sir, that the Annecys were – and doubtless still
are – specialists in blackmail.’ De Graaf shook his head and remained
silent. ‘It’s kind of you not to say so, sir, but you will also not have
forgotten that they are specialists in torture, which was the real reason
I hunted them down.’
‘We haven’t been very clever so far,’ de Graaf said. ‘Things are
uncommonly confusing.’
‘Kind of you to say “we” sir. You mean me.’ Van Effen refilled Thyssen’s
glass, did the same for his own and sank into an armchair.
After perhaps two minutes, de Graaf looked at him and said: ‘Well, surely
there’s something we should be doing? Shall we start by making enquiries
among the flat neigh bours, the people living opposite?’
‘To check on the modus operandi of the kidnappers? A waste of time,
Colonel. We wouldn’t find out any more than we already know. We’re
dealing with professionals. But even professionals can make mistakes.’
‘I haven’t seen any so far.’ The Colonel was gloomy.
‘Nor have 1. I’m assuming that Julie was the target.’ Van Effen reached
for the telephone. ‘With your permission, sir, I’ll find out. Vasco.
Sergeant Westenbrink. He was the only one who knew where Annemarie lived.
They – whoever “they” are – may have put a tail on him and found out by
methods I don’t care to think about.’
‘You think it likely? Or possible?’
Van Effen dialled a number. ‘Possible, yes. Likely, no. I don’t think
there’s anyone in Amsterdam who could follow Vasco without his being
aware of it: by the same token I don’t think that there is anyone in the
City who could be followed by Vasco and be aware of it. Vasco? Peter
here. Anyone been taking an interest in you since you left this morning?
… Talked to nobody? Annemarie and my sister Julie have been taken away
… Within the past hour and, no, we have no idea.
131
Put on your best civilian suit and come round, will you?’ Van Effen hung
up and said to deGraaf: ‘Julie it was. Nobody’s been banging Vasco with
crowbars.’
‘Arid you’ve asked him to join you?’
‘Us, sir. He’s far too valuable a man to be lying low and doing nothing.
And, with your pern-iission, sit, I’d like to try to recruit George.’-
‘Your La Caracha friend? You said yourself he wasn’t very good at merging
into backgrounds.’
‘That’s for Vasco. George, on the mental side as you saw for yourself,
is very acute and knows the criminal mind probably better than anyone I
know: on the physical side he’s a splendid insurance policy. So,
progress. A very little, but progress nonetheless. I think it’s now
fairly safe to say that the Annecy brothers and the would-be blowers-up
of the royal palace are working in cahoots, or how else would the Annecys
know that Rudolph Engel, who had been following oile of the palace gang’s
intermediaries, had been done in and delivered to the morgue?’
‘The palace gang, as you call them, could have done the kidnapping. The
Annecys could have told them.’
‘Two things, sir. What possible motive could Agnelli and his friends have
in abducting Lieutenant van Effen’s sister? None. The Annecys have a very
powerful motive. The second thing is that it doesn’t matter a damn
whether the Annecys gave Agnelli this address or not: the point is that
they sure as hell know each other.’
‘And how does this knowledge help us, Peter?’
‘At the moment, it doesn’t. And it may even actually put us at a
disadvantage. They’re not clowns and may well have figured out that we
have figured out and exercise extra precautions because of that –
Precautions against what, I can’t imagine.’
‘Neither can 1. We’re doing nothing. There’s nothing, as far as I can
see, that we can do.’
‘One or two small things, perhaps. Alfred van Rees, to start with.’
‘What’s van Rees got to do with Agnelli and the Annecys?’
‘Nothing. A s far as we know. But we would at least be doing
132
something about something. I suggest two tails on van Rees. One to keep
an eye on van Rees, the other to keep an eye on the first tail. just
consider how lucky Mas Voight is to be still alive. Then I suggest we
investigate van Rees’s bank statements.’
‘Whatever for?’
‘This pillar of the R.-jkswaterstaat may be giving the dykeblowers
information that they couldn’t get elsewhere. Selling, not giving. Could
be, of course, that if he’s picking up some money that he shouldn’t, he
might have it stashed away in another account under another name. But
criminals – especially people who are not habitual criminals, and I
assume van Rees is not – often overlook the obvious.’
‘Can’t be done. Illegal. Man hasn’t even been charged, far less convicted
of anything.’
‘They’ve got Julie and Annemarie.’
‘So. What connection do they have with van Rees?’
‘None. Again, as far as we know. Although I was just thinking of one of
the last things Julie said to me, that how extraordinarily odd it was
that the dyke-breakers, the palace bombers and ihe Annecy brothers should
all happen along at the same tim.-. Could be a coincidence. Cou!d be too
much of a coincidence. Or nothing. Maybe I just hate the whole wide
criminal world. Forget it, sir. just a suggestion.’
The phone ran,-,. Van Effen picked it up, listened, said thank you and
hung up. ‘This should cheer us all up. There’s going to be a radio
broadcast of the FFF’s latest communiqu6 in about ten minutes.’
‘Inevitable, I suppose. Your suggestion, Peter. Normally, I should
dismiss it out of hand. But your suggestions have an extraordinary habit
of turning up something.’ He smiled without any hurnour. ‘Maybe you share
– what’s the word? – this precognition with your sister. We’ll put those
two tails on van Rees – my God, the very idea of putting tails on van
Rees – ard have his liquid assets discreetly investigated. I shal!
probably be arraigned before Parliament for this. Drag you down with me,
of course.’ He reached for the phone. ‘Let me handle this.’
After he had arranged matters in his customary imperious fashion and put
the phone down, van Effen said: ‘Th2aik you.
133
Tell me, sir, do your linguistic friends at the University have all the
tapes? Including the one I brought from the Hunter’s Horn?’ De Graaf nodded.