by Håkan Nesser
Without really thinking what he was doing, he started to draw a series of circles in the margin of the evening paper on the table in front of him. He contemplated the pattern that was emerging and at the same time tried to summarize the situation:
If Verhaven really was innocent, it could be that the real murderer was the person he suspected. Furthermore, it was not impossible that the invalid Anna, who had died six months before the murder, suspected this. In any case, he had the feeling that Sister Marianne presumed that Anna was the one who had visited Verhaven in prison. . In which case, of course, it was possible that she had told him what she thought!
My God, Van Veeteren thought. What a deduction!
In schematic form, along the edge of the crumpled newspaper, the chain of thought looked even more dodgy, if that was possible. A series of clumsily drawn circles joined by fee-ble lines the size of a spider’s thread. Damn it all! Solid proof, Heller had gone on about. If he saw this, he would probably accept my resignation without further ado, Van Veeteren thought.
But even so, he knew that he was right. This is how it had happened. The murderer was surrounded. Van Veeteren had no doubt. It was obvious.
He could picture Leopold Verhaven as a young man-the
successful athlete. Fast, strong and vital; on his way to enter-ing the record books. . In the middle of the naive, optimistic 1950s. The decade of the Cold War, but also of optimism in many respects. Wasn’t that the case?
And then?
How had things turned out?
What a complete and permanent change of fortune!
Wasn’t the bottom line that Verhaven’s fate was symbolic?
What kind of a bizarre sequence of events was this, spread out over almost half a century, that had led to the man’s death, and that Van Veeteren was sitting here now trying to conjure up in his mind’s eye? What was the significance of his probing into forgotten deaths from the past? That had taken place during that failed, worn-out life?
Was this really just a straightforward part of Van Veeteren’s job?
As he sat there gazing out into the dusk that was descend-ing over the edge of the forest and the featureless section of freeway, it struck him that, in fact, everything had come to an end a long time ago. That he was the last, forgotten soldier, or actor, in a play, or war, that everybody else had left years ago, and that nobody could care less about his efforts and under-takings. No matter if they were fellow actors, opponents or spectators.
Close down the case, he thought.
Close down Chief Inspector Van Veeteren. Offer a draw, or tip the board over. Stop all these pointless activities linked to his own vanity. There’s a murderer on the loose; leave him alone!
He paid and went back to his car. Picked out Monteverdi from the pile of CDs, and as the first notes were released from the loudspeakers, he knew that he had no intention of giving up. Not yet, in any case.
What the hell! he muttered. Justitia or Nemesis, same thing!
38
“Police!”
He held up his ID for half a second, and after three he was in the hall.
“I want to ask you some questions about the murders of Leopold Verhaven, Marlene Nietsch and Beatrice Holden. Can we do that here, or do you want to accompany me to the police station?”
The man hesitated, but only for a second.
“Come this way.”
They went into the living room. Munster took out his
notebook with the questions.
“Can you tell me what you were doing on August twenty-fourth, last year?”
The man shrugged.
“You must be joking. How can I be expected to remember that?”
“It’ll be best for you if you make a try. You didn’t happen to be in Kaustin?”
“Certainly not.”
“Had you any reason to be hostile toward Leopold
Verhaven?”
“Hostile? Of course not.”
“So it’s not the case that he knew about things that could be dangerous for you?”
“What on earth could they be?”
“Were you in Maardam on September eleventh, 1981?
That’s the day when Marlene Nietsch was murdered.”
“No. What are you getting at?”
“Is it not the case that you were in the area around the Covered Market that morning? Kreuger Plejn and Zwille and thereabouts?”
“No.”
“At about half past nine, ten o’clock?”
“No, I’ve already said no.”
“How can you be so sure what you were doing and not
doing one day thirteen years ago?”
No answer.
“What about Saturday April sixth, 1962, then? That was when it all started, wasn’t it?”
“You are making insinuations. I would like you to go and leave me in peace now.”
“Did you not call in on Beatrice Holden that Saturday afternoon? While Verhaven was out on business?”
“I’m not going to put up with this utter rubbish.”
“When did your love life with your wife come to an end?”
“What the hell has that got to do with this business?”
“You were forced to satisfy your needs elsewhere, isn’t that the case? After she was confined to bed. There must have been others as well as Beatrice Holden and Marlene Nietsch. .
Why did you kill just those two?”
He stood up.
“Or have you killed others as well?”
“Get out! If you think you can scare me into saying things that are not true, you can tell your superiors that they’re wasting their time.”
Munster closed his notebook.
“Thank you,” he said. “This has been a very enlightening conversation.”
“Yes, it could be him,” said Munster as he sat down opposite the chief inspector.
Van Veeteren parted the curtains.
“Be ready in case he comes out,” he said. “You never know what he could get up to.”
“He won’t be easy to arrest,” said Munster. “I don’t think he’s the type to break down and submit.”
“Damn and blast!” said Van Veeteren. “Although we’ve
only given him the first warning, so to speak.”
Munster knew that was what Van Veeteren had in mind
when he’d sent his assistant in advance. So that he could save himself for a more important, possibly crucial encounter.
Good thinking, of course; but there again, it must give the murderer a chance to prepare his defense. He pointed that out, but Van Veeteren merely shrugged.
“Very possible,” he said. “But it could also be those preparations that trip him up. In any case, he’s not in an enviable position. He knows that we know. Just think about that. He’s a rat trapped in a corner. We are the cats waiting for him to come out.”
“We don’t have any proof,” said Munster. “We won’t get any, either.”
“He doesn’t know that.”
Munster thought that over.
“But he’ll soon realize it, surely. If we know that he has three murders on his conscience, it must seem a bit odd that we don’t arrest him.”
Van Veeteren stubbed out his cigarette in annoyance and let go of the curtains.
“I know,” he muttered. “It’s a bit of my bowels they cut out, Munster, not my brain.”
Silence. Van Veeteren heaved a sigh and put a toothpick in his mouth. Munster ordered a beer and took out his notebook.
“You only asked the questions I told you to ask, I trust?”
said Van Veeteren after a while.
“Of course,” said Munster. “There’s one thing that puzzles me, though.”
“What’s that?”
“How did he know that she’d told Verhaven at the prison?”
Van Veeteren snorted.
“Because she told him so, of course. Just before she died, I assume. According to Sister Marianne, he went to see her that final day at t
he hospital.”
“She eased her conscience in both directions?”
“That’s one way of putting it, yes. You might think she ought to have kept quiet altogether instead. That would have saved one life, at least. But people tend to get a bit obsessed by the truth.”
“What do you mean?” asked Munster.
Van Veeteren downed the rest of his beer.
“The truth can be a heavy burden to bear,” he said. “It seems impossible to bear it alone in the long run. It would be good, though, if people could learn not to pass it on any old way.”
Munster pondered for a while.
“I’ve never thought of it like that before,” he said, looking out the window. “But there’s a lot of truth in it, of course. He doesn’t seem to have been overcome by panic, though.”
“No,” said Van Veeteren with a sigh. “We may need to take some special measures in this case. But you can go home now.
I’ll sit here for a while and do a bit of thinking.”
Munster hesitated.
“I hope you’ll let me know if I can do anything else to help.
I take it the case hasn’t been reopened?”
“It’s closed and boarded up,” said Van Veeteren. “Anyway, thanks.”
Munster left the bar, and as he crossed the street on the way to his car, he found himself feeling sorry for the chief inspector again. That was the second time in a short period-
only a month or so-so perhaps there was some truth in what people say:
The older they get, the more human they seem to appear.
Mind you, they were talking about mountain gorillas,
weren’t they?
39
The Club’s premises were in a basement at the end of a narrow alley that started at Cronin Square and finished with a fireproof gable. On all maps of the town, and according to the filthy and barely readable nameplate above Wildt’s anti-quarian bookshop, it was called Zuygers Steeg. But it was always known locally as Butcher’s Alley, after an unusually brutal murder at the end of the 1890s, when body parts of two prostitutes were found scattered over practically the full twenty yards comprising the stunted street. The parts were found by a young chaplain from the cathedral, who had to be locked away in the Majorna asylum in Willemsburg. The murderer was never caught, despite a large-scale hunt.
Van Veeteren seldom managed to get as far as the Club without being reminded of the story, and he didn’t succeed in doing so this evening either.
Perhaps things were worse in the old days, despite everything, he thought as he ducked to avoid hitting his head on the lintel and entered the lugubrious vault.
Mahler was sitting furthest in as usual, in the secluded corner under the Durer print, and he had already set up the pieces. Van Veeteren sat down with a sigh.
“Oh dear,” said Mahler, digging into his tousled beard with his fingers. “Was it as bad as that?”
“What?” said Van Veeteren.
“What! Being butchered, of course! The green men going about their bloody business.”
“Oh, that,” said Van Veeteren. “A mere bagatelle.”
Mahler looked puzzled for a moment.
“Then what the hell’s worrying you? You’ve been resurrected, early summer is at its colorful peak, the whole of nature is squirming with pleasure at the celebration of exuber-ant life that is almost upon us. What the devil do you mean by coming here and sighing?”
“I have a problem,” said Van Veeteren, opening with his queen’s pawn.
“I have a thousand,” said Mahler. “Cheers, and welcome back to the world of the living!”
They drank, and Mahler pored over the chessboard. The chief inspector lit a cigarette and waited. Of all the people he had ever played chess with since he started as a teen-ager, he had never come across a single opponent who played in the way Mahler did. After an introductory period of intense concentration that could last as long as ten or twelve minutes-before the first move, that is-he would then play more than thirty moves without thinking for more than a minute altogether. Then, before the endgame was embarked upon, he generally allowed himself another in-depth analysis lasting for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, then finished off the game at breakneck speed-irrespective of whether he was playing for a win, a draw or an honorable defeat.
He could give no plausible reason for his method, apart from maintaining that it was a question of rhythm.
“Sometimes it can feel that making the move at the right time is more important than the quality of the move itself,” he had maintained. “If you see what I mean.”
Van Veeteren hadn’t the slightest idea what he meant.
“It’s the same with poems,” the old poet had revealed. “I often sit staring into space for ages, maybe half an hour or more-then I pick up my pen and write down the whole
poem. As quick as a flash, there mustn’t be a pause.”
“What goes on inside your head, then?” Van Veeteren
wanted to know. “While you’re charging your batteries?”
Mahler had no idea either, it seemed.
“I daren’t try to analyze it,” he said. “Certain things will not tolerate introspection. That kills them off.”
Van Veeteren thought about that as he took a swig of beer and waited for Mahler’s move.
Action without thinking, he thought.
Is that what it looked like?
Perhaps there are a few points of contact after all?
“Well?” said Mahler, when they had agreed on a draw after less than forty-five minutes. “What’s the matter?”
“A murderer,” said Van Veeteren.
“I thought you were on sick leave for the rest of this month?”
“I am,” said Van Veeteren. “It’s just that I find it hard to turn my back on things. And also to turn a blind eye.”
“What’s the problem with this murderer, then?”
“I can’t nail him.”
“Do you know who he is?”
Van Veeteren nodded.
“But you have no proof?”
“Not a thing.”
Mahler leaned back and lit a cigar.
“It can’t be the first time you’ve been in this position?”
“I can usually manage to shoo ’em in.”
Mahler burst out laughing.
“Shoo ’em in! I like it! And why can’t you do that this time, then?”
Van Veeteren sighed.
“Does the name Leopold Verhaven mean anything to you?”
Mahler turned serious.
“Verhaven? Yes, of course. A notorious murderer. Of women. Wasn’t he murdered himself, or something of the sort?
I read about it in the paper not long ago.”
“He was innocent,” said Van Veeteren.
“Verhaven was innocent?”
“Yes.”
“But he’s been in jail for. . God knows how long.”
“Twenty-four years,” said Van Veeteren.
“He’s been in jail for that damn length of time, and you’re claiming that he’s innocent?”
Van Veeteren nodded.
“Was innocent. He’s dead, as you said. And it seems that it’s not only the real murderer who would like to draw a line under the whole business, if you follow me. . ”
Mahler said nothing for some seconds.
“Huh,” he said eventually. He drew on his cigar and spilled ash into his beard. “I think I get it. The big shots?”
Van Veeteren shrugged.
“It’s not all that bad, I hope, but however you look at it, there’s no chance of getting proceedings under way unless we’re standing on solid ground. Very solid ground.”
“But can’t you dig out some proof? Isn’t that what usually happens? You know who did it, but you have to work your butts off to turn the knowledge into proof, afterward? I thought that was how the police usually went about things.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course,” said Van Veeteren. “But it looks
pretty hopeless in his case. Time has run out on the first murder; we’re not allowed to open it again. And if the second one is to be reopened, we either have to produce cast-iron proof more solid than the defenses at Fort Knox, or he has to confess and stick with that confession. And we’re nowhere near either of those setups.”
“What about the murder of Verhaven? The same killer yet again?”
“Very much so. No, there’s not an ounce of technical proof there either. We don’t know when he died. Nor how. Nor where.”
He shrugged again.
“That’s about it, all in all.”
“But you know who the murderer is?” said Mahler, raising his bushy eyebrows to register doubt.
“We’re absolutely certain,” said Van Veeteren.
Mahler turned the board around and started setting up the pieces for another game.
“How can you be so certain that you won’t be able to make him confess? Don’t try and tell me you don’t resort to third-degree stuff when you have to?”
Van Veeteren lit another cigarette.
“I’ve been following him for two days,” he said. “Not furtively, of course, but making it obvious. So that he couldn’t avoid noticing. That usually puts anybody you care to name out of his stride, but not this character. He seems to be enjoying it. Gives me a nod now and then. Laughs up his sleeve. He seems to be certain that we haven’t got a shred of evidence that could nail him. I haven’t confronted him yet, but I’d be amazed if he lost his cool. And even if he did, he’d find it again before the trial started, and we’d be back to square one, having made all that effort for nothing. . ”
“Hmm,” said Mahler. “What are you going to do, then? It sounds a bit on the awkward side, I have to admit.”
Van Veeteren didn’t answer at first, but Mahler was determined to get a response.
“Well?”
“I’ve given him an ultimatum,” the chief inspector said eventually. “Would you like another beer?”
“Of course. What kind of an ultimatum?”
Van Veeteren stood up, made his way to the bar and
returned after a while with two new, frothy tankards.
“What kind of an ultimatum?” asked Mahler again, after they’d drunk each other’s health.
