by David Hewson
‘Four?’ she repeated.
‘That’s what I said.’
Then they left Sanders on his own for a few minutes, watching him through the one-way pane. He looked bored, tired, depressed.
Bakker turned up with the coffee. Her jaw dropped when she saw Annie Schrijver staring through the glass at the man beyond.
‘Is the commissaris aware of—?’
‘Thanks,’ Vos said, taking the tray, and they went in.
Annie was last. Sanders never looked up until she said very quietly, very calmly, ‘Hello, Rob.’
Nothing more.
Fear and anger in his voice, he asked, ‘What is this?’
One floor up Jillian Chandra was at the computer, going through the duty rosters. Van der Berg now had a desk next to her, a screen on it too. He was staring out of the window at Elandsgracht and the short walk down to the Drie Vaten.
‘Your drinking days are over,’ she told him, barely looking up from the machine. ‘This is work. Not a social activity.’
‘Sometimes the two mix.’
‘Not any more.’ She called him over and showed him the list of available officers. ‘These are the people who can take over from Vos. Who do you recommend?’
He ran through the names and said nothing.
‘A woman officer would be good,’ she added. ‘Only one there. Isn’t that odd?’
‘She’s never worked a murder inquiry. Fraud, mostly.’
‘And Vos has worked scores. Fat good that’s done us.’
Van der Berg dragged over his chair, sat next to her, folded his arms.
‘Sometimes these things take months. Years. Sometimes you never get there at all. It’s not the fault of the officers. It’s because we’ve got a world out there that doesn’t want to talk to us even though they so much want us to deliver whatever they think of as justice. Just on our own.’
Chandra closed her eyes and laughed.
‘We’re here to make them talk. I’ve really got my work cut out in this place.’
‘Commissaris . . .’
‘Have I really not made myself clear? I am the new broom here. I sweep all before me. If I need a sacrificial offering to make that clear to all of you, high and low, then so be it.’
Van der Berg sighed and said nothing.
‘Vos has repeatedly ignored my orders. He’s a disruptive, anarchic presence in this organization.’
‘He’s also the best man most of us here have ever worked with. If you give him the chance, you’ll see.’
She scowled at that.
‘Man. It’s always man, isn’t it?’
‘Sorry. It is. Term of speech. An antiquated one, I agree.’
‘How many chances does he need? So he’s popular. All the better. Don’t worry. I won’t sack him unless he really asks for it. A job somewhere else. In uniform. Out of my hair. Out of your way.’
‘He deserves more than—’
‘I don’t give a damn what he deserves! This place will run the way I want it. Not him. Or you. Or anyone else.’
She stabbed a finger at the screen.
‘Run me through these names. Tell me who they are. What they do. What they’re like. Tomorrow’s a new day. We start again.’
Vos found a seat for Annie Schrijver, then Bakker. After that he went to the video camera on the wall and turned it off. Bakker caught his eye. He shrugged and said, ‘Let’s talk frankly. For a while. Between us.’
Annie was staring at Sanders, unflustered, challenging. He wouldn’t meet her gaze. Then, starting to sweat, he muttered, ‘I can’t believe they dragged you in here. After all they did . . .’
‘Either you tell them, Rob. Or I will.’
His face flushed. His eyes closed. Nothing but a low curse followed.
‘All those things we never said,’ she added. ‘All those years pretending the two of us could let it lie . . .’
‘There was a picture of you, Annie,’ Vos told her. ‘In Vincent de Graaf’s collection. The one he kept in the place he took women. We know you were among them.’
‘We know you woke up too,’ Bakker went on. ‘It’s all there. You, staring at the camera. As far as we know every other woman that happened to died. You didn’t. Why is that?’
‘Tell them, Rob,’ she demanded.
Silence.
‘Why won’t you?’ Annie yelled. ‘What’s stopping—?’ She went quiet too then whispered, ‘You were lying. All the time. About how I was the only one. Just a pack of fucking lies . . .’
Eyes on the table, Sanders said, ‘Get her out of here. I’ve nothing to say.’
‘He saved me.’ Annie was looking at Vos and Bakker. ‘Kind of. That I think is true. First time he’d played that game. Or so he reckoned. I believed him. I wanted to. They spiked my beer and took me somewhere. Did whatever. And when I woke up . . .’
She frowned, remembering.
‘I saw this face. That one who went to jail.’
‘De Graaf?’ Vos asked.
‘Him. I saw . . . he had a knife. My head was all over the place. I just thought . . . that’s it.’
Her hands flew across the table and seized Sanders’ arms.
‘Tell them. Tell them I didn’t imagine it, Rob. You saved me. If it wasn’t for you he’d have killed me . . .’
‘I didn’t know!’ Sanders yelled. ‘He never told me he was going to . . .’
He looked at her across the table, pleading, unable to find the words.
‘You’re saying he never told you he’d kill any woman who woke up?’ Vos asked. ‘Who could identify any of you?’
No answer.
‘What did you think would happen, Rob?’ Bakker wondered. ‘You’d all just shake hands and go home—’
‘I thought we just put them to sleep.’ Red-faced, he looked at Vos and Bakker. ‘That’s all. They stayed that way. Then we let them go. It was a bit of fun and nonsense.’
‘Fun and nonsense?’ Bakker echoed. ‘Fun and nonsense? You drugged those women until they passed out. Then you raped them. Raped Annie . . .’
‘I didn’t touch her! It was him. De Graaf. I watched and then she . . . opened her eyes. He got a knife out.’ A line of sweat stood out on his forehead. ‘I told him. I wasn’t up for that. I’d punch his lights out if he tried.’ He stabbed a finger at his chest. ‘It was me that got her out of there! It’s something, isn’t it?’
Annie wouldn’t let him avoid her eyes.
‘First time, you said. First and last, and it was a shock. You were so . . . sorry. So furious with yourself. And I didn’t know where to turn.’
Bakker bent down and glared at him, waited until he looked back.
‘So you found your own way to keep her quiet. Told her you loved her. How it was all a big mistake. Never happened before. Never would again. But best not go the police, eh? That way your new boyfriend would only end up in jail and . . .’
‘I did love her!’ he yelled. Then more softly, ‘I do . . .’
‘Two months ago,’ Annie said very plainly, turning to Vos, ‘he finished with me. Said it wasn’t working. That was it. We’d kept breaking up. There was always an argument about something or other. But this was for good, he said. I knew. He was hanging round the bars.’ She leaned across the table. ‘You and your friends were out again, weren’t you? Back to your old tricks—’
‘Annie, Annie, Annie!’ There were tears in his eyes and that stopped her. ‘No. Please. It wasn’t that . . .’
‘What was it then?’
He tried to take her hands across the table. She snatched them away.
‘Jef Braat got out of jail. He kept following me. Taunting me whenever I saw him. Saying he had a new mate and they were going back to the old days. If I didn’t join them they’d come for me. They knew . . .’ He stared at Annie. ‘They knew about us. I was trying to protect you.’
Bakker laughed a short dry laugh.
‘But not enough to tell us, eh? You just dumped her. Ran away.’
�
��He did,’ Annie said. ‘But I wouldn’t let him. I’d call. Nag. Sneak him into my room when Dad was out doing deliveries. I told Hoogland to run the stall. I was going to be busy. Never said no to that, did you? Not when no one knew.’
He kept quiet.
‘This is important, Rob,’ Vos said. ‘It wasn’t just De Graaf and Jonker and Braat, was it? There was someone else. Someone . . . on a par with De Graaf. Important—’
‘Yeah,’ Sanders agreed. ‘But I never met him. Three times, that’s all I did it, and the last one I said I’d punch that bastard’s lights out if he didn’t leave Annie alone. Braat and Ruud had gone by then. The other one never came. They said he picked his times. Busy man. Just when he felt like—’
‘Who—?’
‘Don’t know.’ He groaned and leaned on his elbows. ‘Do you think they’d have told the likes of me? I was just a beginner, a hanger-on. I think maybe Vincent wanted to kill Annie exactly because of that. It was kind of a . . . a test for me. If I’d passed I’d have met the other one. But I didn’t and I never saw any of them again until Braat poked his head into the Mariposa a few weeks back, grinning at me. He said the old days were back and I was in, whether I wanted it or not.’ He tried to catch Annie’s eye. ‘I thought they’d come for me. Not you. If I’d known that bastard was going to do something to you, Annie, I swear . . .’
‘You’d have done what?’ she snapped. ‘Told me? Everything? Don’t lie.’
‘Where does Jordi Hoogland come in?’ Vos asked.
She was the one who answered.
‘Tuesday Rob came round again. I begged him. We went to my room. Jordi was outside. That bastard had started spying on us. I should have guessed. When Rob was gone me and him had a big argument. About work. He reckoned he wanted more money if he was going to cover for me on the stall every time Rob turned up.’
She glanced at the door.
‘I told him to get lost. Went out for a drink with that American afterwards because I was pissed off with everything. Rob sleeping with me behind everyone’s back and pretending it never happened. Me for begging him to keep coming round. Next thing . . .’ A shrug. A sigh. ‘Jordi Hoogland didn’t dare go running to my dad. He didn’t know which way that would fall out. But he was muttering about doing something to fix Rob.’
Bakker asked him straight out, ‘Where did you lose that hat?’
He hesitated for a moment then said, ‘I couldn’t find it when I left Annie’s. I was dead worried. If Bert had seen it . . . Didn’t dare go back to look.’
Vos told Bakker to get a statement officer into the room.
‘What’s going to happen?’ Sanders asked.
‘You’re going to go through this all again for the record. What happened last week. What happened four years ago. Then you’re going to sign it.’
Sanders laughed then nodded at the dead camera on the wall.
‘What kind of idiot do you think I am?’
Marly Kloosterman chose a plain brown jacket, a fawn shirt and jeans, then wandered along the canal and crossed over into the wasteland where the party was starting up. It was for charity, they said. Something to do with animals. Fancy dress was suggested, not required. Most of those there had complied though, so she found herself surrounded by people with face paint, in costume, zebras and tigers, pandas and monkeys. And a few from fantasy movies just to add some spice to the mix.
She’d only moved to the area six months before after selling the apartment when the divorce settlement finally came through. A few people among the locals she knew but not well. Now they wore disguises it was hard even to guess who they were.
A man in a zebra costume came and tried to chat her up. She smiled, said nothing and after a while he got the message.
No wolves anywhere. Not that she could see.
She went to the little stage they’d set up by the water. It was almost opposite her houseboat. The band was playing jaunty pop. A few costume animals were starting to dance badly in front of them. For a moment she wanted to laugh. Then she checked her phone for messages, saw none, took out the plastic glass she’d brought with her and the small bottle of ready-mixed gin and tonic she’d brought. Poured some and took a sip.
‘I can’t believe you’re drinking that dreadful muck,’ said a low, amused voice behind her. ‘Mine’s so much better.’
She turned and saw him. A tall figure, grey leggings, grey overshoes, a white circle for the belly, long arms behind his back. And a comic wolf mask, fake fur round the head, large pointy ears, a black shiny nose, sharp white plastic incisors dropping from a grinning scarlet mouth.
He twirled round, a balletic movement.
‘Got this specially for you. I hope you like it.’
‘Oh my, Mr Wolf. What big eyes you have.’
‘All the better to see you with, my dear.’
Except they weren’t big. Just holes in the fabric, two dark, glinting shapes behind them.
She reached up and flipped one of the canines. It was nothing but flimsy plastic.
‘And what big teeth.’
‘All the better to eat you with.’
Though muffled by the mask he had the cultured, ironic voice she recognized. Hard to hear with the band so she took hold of the grey fabric on his chest and led him away to a quieter spot near the water, not far from the staff entrance into the zoo.
A monkey squawked somewhere and she wasn’t sure if it was for real or one of the party guests having fun.
‘I don’t know why I’m doing this,’ she said.
He tugged at the costume.
‘Same here. Let’s go.’
‘You’re a very tenacious man.’
She knocked back more of the gin and tonic. He watched then reached into the pockets of his costume and brought out a bottle full of scarlet liquid.
‘This is better. Spritz. With Campari. Not that orange Aperol filth. I make it myself.’
‘Are we in Venice then?’
The wolf’s head nodded towards the water.
‘Got the canals.’
She finished the gin and held out the plastic glass.
‘This has been a shit day,’ Marly Kloosterman said. ‘Got nothing I really wanted. This is a bad thing for a doctor to say. But God I feel like getting drunk.’
He laughed at that and poured out a big slug of the scarlet concoction. Spritz was a curious drink, she thought, one that never tasted the same outside the Veneto.
It was booze all the same.
Hoogland looked up from the table, saw Annie Schrijver, loosed off a couple of curses and said, ‘Did that little bitch put me in here? Whatever she said . . . it’s a lie. It always is.’
He was wearing a green lumberjack shirt over a grubby white vest. Tatty old jeans. His right eye was black and yellow with bruises, swollen.
Annie looked ready to go for him. Vos put out a hand and kept her back.
‘Simple question,’ he said. ‘You spied on Annie and Rob Sanders. Last Tuesday . . .’
‘Spied? Hard to miss it. Those two going at each other like dogs on heat. Me outside trying to sell flowers when she was supposed to be there. Jesus . . .’
‘Did you enjoy it, Jordi?’ Annie yelled. ‘Help you remember what it’s like? With a woman who wasn’t unconscious when you—’
He was on his feet then, waving a fist.
‘I didn’t do any of that stuff. Never. Talk to that boyfriend of yours. Not me.’
Bakker raced between them and pushed him back into his seat.
‘But you knew about it, didn’t you?’ she said. ‘Knew it was going on—’
‘Half the men who hung around the bars knew what that lot were up to. Didn’t know about the killing part, mind. Not my fault it took so long for you idiots to find out about that.’
‘Tuesday. What did you do?’ Vos asked.
A sly look at all three of them.
‘Nothing you can drag me in court over.’
‘What?’ Bakker demanded.
He
laughed and looked at Annie Schrijver.
‘I met Jef Braat over the weekend. He kept asking about them. Said a mate of his, an American, fancied her. I told him what a slag she was. Two, three times a week . . .’ He scowled at her. ‘When Bert was out she’d get Rob Sanders round and shag the life out of him while I covered for them. Every time that dirty bastard came round he walked out of the place grinning at me like I was an idiot for covering for her. And them supposed to be finished.’
He licked his lips and asked for a coffee.
‘You get coffee after we’ve had the story.’
‘Huh.’ Hoogland turned shifty. ‘Jef hated Sanders’ guts. Don’t know why exactly. History there, I guess. He said him and the American and some new mate of theirs were up to something. They could play a trick on Rob. Give him a little aggravation.’
Hoogland sat back and smirked.
‘Next time he does it make sure you get something off him, Jef says. Tuesday that’s what I do.’
Vos nodded.
‘You took his hat and gave it to Braat?’
‘It was a joke.’ Hoogland opened his arms. ‘Jef said he’d get it back. Wasn’t like stealing.’
Annie shook her head and muttered, ‘You sorry piece of shit . . .’
‘After which,’ Vos went on, ‘this American friend picked her up, drugged her, took her to Braat’s boat. Did what they felt like and planned to leave Sanders’ hat wherever they were going to leave her. Scores settled with two people you hated, Jordi. Proud of yourself?’
Hoogland’s coarse face flushed with fury.
‘I didn’t know any of that. Or they had their eyes on her. I just . . .’ He shrugged. ‘While she was pulling her knickers on I grabbed that hat and went off for a beer. What happened after that. Well . . .’ Hands behind his head, he grinned at them. ‘Nothing to do with me. Took a man’s hat, for a laugh. That’s all. As far as I knew they were going to give it him back. Can I go now?’
‘No. You can wait here,’ Vos told him and got them out of the room.
‘What are you going to do?’ Annie asked in the corridor.
‘Not a lot I can do. It’s a hat. I don’t think Rob Sanders is going to complain or sign a confession, is he?’ Watching her he added,
