Death at the Orange Locks

by Anja de Jager

  ‘It’s been hard for me too,’ Margreet said. ‘But she felt the need to come around here and have a go at me.’

  I could understand Nadia’s anger. That time we’d met, Margreet had asked me about my relationship with Arjen; she’d asked me if I’d been aware that he’d been cheating on me with her daughter. Even without knowing what we’d discussed, it would have felt like a betrayal to Nadia.

  ‘She seems to think that she can come here and say terrible things about her father. Sure, he wasn’t a saint, but who was? Let’s face it, her own husband isn’t a saint either.’ Margreet looked first at me and then at Arjen.

  He didn’t respond, and an uncomfortable silence fell.

  I had to bite my lip to stop myself from grinning. Even if I would have preferred that Margreet hadn’t done this in front of Stefanie, I liked seeing her assertive spark. It made me think she wasn’t as vulnerable as I’d assumed.

  ‘Patrick had an affair, seven years ago,’ she said, ‘and Nadia never forgave him.’

  ‘But you did?’ I asked.

  ‘We went to couple therapy,’ Margreet said. ‘It really helped us. It made a huge difference to Patrick especially. It made him understand his drinking. He told the therapist that if he drank, he felt young and attractive again. He felt like everybody loved him. Every woman in the room, but every man as well. In reality, of course, he was just a drunken middle-aged man.’ She reached for her cup of tea. ‘I ended up feeling sorry for him. And jealous maybe, because alcohol never had that effect on me. It would be great, wouldn’t it, to think you were suddenly young again.’

  ‘Did he stop drinking?’

  ‘Yes, he did. The therapist made him understand that he was only using it as a crutch. Patrick also accepted that the way he behaved when he was drunk wasn’t acceptable. I’d seen that myself; he’d get all chatty and flirty with young women.’

  ‘He did that in front of you?’

  ‘That just showed that it didn’t mean a thing,’ she said. ‘He didn’t think anything of it. But having a daughter the same age as those women made all the difference. He understood that really it was embarrassing. That he embarrassed Nadia. That he upset me. It was tough to kick the booze, but he decided it was worth it.’

  But he had definitely been drinking at the night of the company do.

  ‘Do you remember,’ she said to Arjen, ‘he didn’t touch a drop at your wedding. Sorry,’ she added, ‘I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that. Anyway, Nadia has never wanted to give her father any credit for changing his behaviour. Changing it for a while, at least.’

  ‘It didn’t last?’

  ‘He had to drink for work. He told me that he needed to build his contacts, that it was impossible otherwise.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘I think it all started again a year ago. Maybe a little longer.’

  ‘When things weren’t going so well with the company,’ Stefanie said.

  ‘I guess so. I guess that’s what it was.’

  ‘You mentioned you’d been trying to get in touch with Thomas,’ I said. ‘What did you want to talk to us about?’ Maybe she’d waited for Arjen to get here before bringing up certain topics.

  ‘It’s only practical things.’ Margreet bit her lip. ‘We’d like to organise the funeral and need to know when we can do that.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘It will be a little longer.’

  ‘Do you know how long?’

  ‘It depends on how long the investigation takes.’

  ‘Surely we can bury him?’ Her voice rose. ‘I hate to think of him there. All alone.’ She reached out and took Arjen’s hand. He squeezed it. Whatever momentary coldness there had been between them, it seemed healed by the sadness of thinking about Patrick.

  I thought about what to say. I could explain to her that we would still need his body for any forensic investigation. We could not release it until the investigation had been closed. There had been a few cases where forensic evidence at the last minute had made all the difference.

  But I wasn’t explaining this to a colleague, I was talking to a woman whose husband had been murdered, and whatever my opinion of this husband might be, he was someone she’d loved.

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ I said instead. ‘We will contact you as soon as you can bury him. I understand how important this is to you.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Okay. I shouldn’t have asked you to come here. I should let you get on with the investigation.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘You can call us.’ Staying in touch with victims’ families was an important part of what we did.

  ‘And I’ll do my best to answer all your questions too,’ Margreet said, as if we’d come to an arrangement. ‘You were asking about money, weren’t you? Now that Arjen is here, he might be able to help with that.’

  ‘What money?’ Arjen asked.

  ‘Patrick made two large payments into his company’s account,’ Stefanie said. ‘One in April 2016, which might have come from the sale of the family home, and another one roughly two years later.’

  Arjen looked over at Margreet. ‘Did you know about this?’

  ‘I’m sure that’s not right,’ she said. ‘We did sell the house, but he never mentioned needing it for the company.’

  Arjen scratched the back of his head. ‘To be honest, he did ask us for an investment two years after that.’

  So Patrick had tapped up his son-in-law for cash.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Margreet said. ‘You didn’t tell me about that. Nadia never said anything.’

  ‘I didn’t give him any money at that point, so there was nothing to tell.’ Arjen looked at me. ‘He asked me again last month, and I said I’d consider it if he gave me full access to the firm’s books. I wanted to see if it was viable before I stepped in.’

  ‘Was that why you became a strategist there?’ I asked.

  Arjen shrugged. ‘It was a vague enough job title that I could ask everybody plenty of questions.’

  I was reminded of Stefanie saying how it was too late to change strategy when you needed to find ways to pay the invoices.

  ‘What did you find out?’ she asked.

  ‘I never got started. He went missing that evening.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this?’ Margreet said.

  ‘Nadia and I wanted to keep it between us until we’d made a decision. How are you coping money-wise?’ he added.

  Why was he changing the subject so quickly? What was it that he didn’t want Margreet to ask about? Or was it that he didn’t want me to ask about something? That niggle of doubt came back again.

  ‘I still can’t get into any of the bank accounts,’ she said. ‘They’ve all been frozen. I can’t even pay the phone bill, as it’s all in his name. At the bank, they asked me for proof of address and I’ve got none of the things they wanted: no credit card statement, no utility bill, no driving licence. Nothing’s in my name. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘What about the rent? When is that due?’

  ‘I don’t know. I feel so stupid that I don’t know any of this.’

  ‘If they call you about the rent, give them my number and I’ll pay it for you.’

  ‘Thanks, Arjen. Have you guys sorted out your childcare problems? You said your childminder was getting married.’

  He shot a quick glance in my direction. ‘Yes, we’re looking for someone new.’

  ‘I can always do it,’ she said. ‘I’d like to help you too.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you be too busy?’

  ‘No, not at all. The flat gets really quiet. I’m not used to it. I’d like to think about something else. Have something to do. Having the little one here would be great.’

  ‘Okay,’ Arjen said. ‘I’ll talk to Nadia.’

  That surprised me. I’d have thought he would have jumped at the chance. I realised that it was Nadia who didn’t want their daughter being looked after here. I couldn’t think why; it wasn’t as if my mother’s place was
better than this. Far from it, in fact.

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ Margreet said. ‘I should let you get on with your work. If I find anything to do with the financial situation, I’ll give you a call.’

  Stefanie handed her a card. ‘You can call me too. Either one of us. We’ll be happy to help.’

  ‘I’ll head out as well,’ Arjen said. He kissed Margreet goodbye and walked out with us towards the lift.

  ‘Congratulations, by the way,’ he said as we waited for it to arrive. ‘I heard. I meant to say that last night but completely forgot.’

  I was careful not to look at Stefanie. ‘You heard about my mother’s big decision?’

  ‘Yes, she told me.’

  The lift doors opened.

  ‘I’m coming round to the idea,’ I said. ‘I thought it was weird at first, her getting married again, but now I see it’s making her happy, so it’s all fine. I heard that you met his daughter and son-in-law.’

  ‘Ah, yes. They thought Nadia was you.’

  We stepped in, side by side, Stefanie behind us.

  ‘That didn’t go down well,’ Arjen said.

  ‘I can imagine,’ I said. ‘When you left the Clipper that night, did you see anybody?’

  ‘Do I need an alibi?’ There was a jovial tone to Arjen’s voice.

  Yes, you do, I wanted to say. ‘Was there anybody waiting for Patrick, I mean? Anybody you’d seen at the company.’

  ‘I don’t think so. I probably wouldn’t have recognised them anyway.’

  ‘And this second payment, the one Patrick asked you for, you don’t know anything about that either?’

  ‘I can’t think of anything they sold at that time. I’m worried about Margreet: she could be in a tough spot financially.’

  ‘Are you going to look after the company?’

  ‘No, I have no real interest in it. I wanted to help Patrick, but that was it. Lighting isn’t my thing.’

  ‘They’ve got problems paying their bills,’ Stefanie said.

  ‘It might have to be closed down. I could help wind it up, but that’s it.’

  ‘I think Karin Lems would appreciate some guidance,’ she said. ‘She was in a real state today. I gave her some tips, but it’s a big responsibility for her alone.’

  ‘I could help, or Nadia. We’ll talk about it.’ Arjen pulled his hand through his hair. ‘Anyway, thanks, Lotte.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘I thought you were going to tell her about the girl. That’s why I came over. Thanks for keeping quiet.’

  ‘I’m not keeping quiet. I would tell her if it was important for the investigation that she knew. At the moment, it isn’t. I won’t shatter her illusions unless I have to. But I think you should tell her that her husband wasn’t quite what she thought he was.’

  We left the small box of the lift and exited onto the shared garden in the middle.

  ‘He wasn’t as bad as you think,’ Arjen said.

  ‘Arjen, he sexually harassed one of the women working for him.’

  ‘He kissed her. Sure, that isn’t great, and I don’t want Margreet or Nadia to know, but he was having an affair with her.’

  ‘An affair?’ I couldn’t keep the incredulity out of my voice.

  ‘That’s what he told me, at least.’

  I stopped walking and swallowed down the saliva that had suddenly rushed into my mouth. ‘He told you? When did he tell you that?’

  ‘Never mind when.’

  I realised he wasn’t seeing me as a police detective at all. He still thought these conversations were private chats, and that he could choose what to tell me and what to keep silent about. ‘When did he say that?’ I asked again. I needed to know when he’d had a chance to discuss Therese with Patrick.

  Stefanie stared at me. I remembered her asking me what I’d do if I realised my ex was guilty. I still didn’t believe that, but I was starting to understand why Thomas saw him as a suspect.

  I would have continued the conversation; I probably would have made it clear to him that when you were talking to a police officer, it really was the best policy to be honest if you had nothing to hide.

  If I’d had more time.

  But I didn’t.

  Because at that very moment, Thomas’s car came speeding around the corner. He stopped beside us and he and Charlie jumped out.

  I could only watch as Thomas read Arjen his rights and arrested my ex-husband on suspicion of the murder of Patrick van der Linde.

  Chapter 26

  I walked back to the office. I didn’t want to sit in a car with Stefanie and listen to her gloat about how she’d been right. I had to consider what to do, and walking back to the police station would give me at least forty minutes of thinking time.

  As I strode along the canal, I realised that forty minutes wouldn’t be enough to come up with a way to fix this mess. I stopped at the side of the water, spotted an empty bench and sat down. A father and his little son played along the edge. The kid tottered and teetered on his tiny feet in their tiny shoes. The dad waited, clearly in no rush on this sunny afternoon, and let the kid explore and point to his heart’s content. He knelt down to take a photo at child height.

  The first thought that popped into my head was that I needed to get Arjen out. The next was that I shouldn’t think like that, even though I couldn’t believe Arjen had murdered Patrick. But I also had to accept that Thomas and Charlie wouldn’t have arrested him if there’d been no evidence. It was just that I didn’t know what that evidence was. They’d barred me from anything involving my exhusband, stopping me from taking part in a crucial section of the investigation just like the red-and-white-striped traffic barrier was supposed to stop cars driving along the canal’s edge.

  The little kid was fascinated by the barrier, as if it was placed there especially for his entertainment. He didn’t look at the water at all. It was possible that the red of the barrier was more interesting than the grey-green of the canal. But he was also paying more attention to what was there to stop him than to what gave him freedom. Watching him run his chubby little hands across the traffic barrier made me think that I should also study my obstacle carefully and consider how to approach it.

  I couldn’t go in screaming or accusing. I couldn’t go in all defensive either, but neither could I tell them that they were doing a good job and praise them for arresting the obvious murderer. I needed to find out what they had on Arjen and then weigh up that evidence against what I knew about Arjen as a person.

  If I couldn’t lift my barrier, I had to sneak along the side of it. I nodded to a seagull floating on the water. I had a strategy. I had figured out what I was going to do.

  ‘I’m really disappointed in you guys,’ I said before I’d even taken my coat off.

  Thomas and Charlie sprang apart as if they were a cheating couple and I was the wife who had come home. I was surprised that they were here instead of in the interview room. They must be waiting for Arjen’s lawyer to turn up. It gave me the chance to ask them some questions.

  ‘I couldn’t tell you,’ Thomas said. ‘You must understand that.’

  ‘I thought we were working on this investigation together,’ I said. ‘That means you should tell me when you’re about to arrest a suspect, not spring it on me. That’s not how this works.’

  ‘I couldn’t take the risk.’ On his face I saw guilt. It was mirrored on Charlie’s, and he was worse at hiding it than Thomas. He felt guilty for having excluded the person who had got him this job.

  That look on Charlie’s face made me think of how Arjen had looked when they’d arrested him. What I’d seen wasn’t guilt, but confusion. He hadn’t expected to be arrested; he was utterly surprised. Not because he hadn’t thought he’d be caught, but because he’d had nothing to do with Patrick’s murder. He’d been defensive a few days earlier when he’d been trying to conceal Patrick’s philandering. Wouldn’t he have been even more so during the arrest if he’d had something to hide?

  ‘The risk
of what?’ I said. ‘Of me telling you that this was a mistake? That he’s not the type of person to have murdered someone?’ I was more adamant than I’d intended.

  ‘This.’ Thomas pointed a finger at me. ‘The risk of you behaving like this. I knew you were going to say something like that.’

  ‘Like what?’ I could feel my blood pressure rising and struggled to keep my voice under control. Do not shout, I told myself. To show anger would be counterproductive.

  ‘You’re pissed off.’

  ‘Only because you arrested a suspect without telling me. I was wondering what the two of you were talking about, why you were excluding me. Now I know. You wanted to make this arrest without the voice of reason stopping you.’

  ‘The voice of reason?’ Thomas laughed.

  I could have hit him. Instead I offered a placating smile, as if his reaction wasn’t hurtful. ‘I know him well; I can be useful,’ I said.

  ‘I know you can never be objective where your exhusband is concerned,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t sure if you would want to think him guilty or innocent, but either way, I was certain that your personal view of him would get in the way. I didn’t want to put you in a difficult position. Wasn’t that why you said from the beginning that you didn’t want to be involved in this investigation? I know you’re pissed off, and you’re not going to believe me, but I was trying to be considerate.’

  I took a deep breath and counted to ten before I spoke. ‘How certain are you?’

  ‘We wouldn’t have got an arrest warrant based on nothing,’ Thomas said. ‘A witness saw them arguing behind the restaurant after everybody else had left. We found two wine glasses: one with Patrick van der Linde’s fingerprints and one with Arjen’s.’

  So that was when Patrick had told him that he’d had an affair with Therese. I sat down heavily on my chair. I didn’t want it to be possible. I’d thought he had nothing left to hide. ‘He told me he went straight home.’

  ‘That’s what he said to us too, when we brought him in for questioning,’ Charlie said. ‘That he lied about it, on top of the forensic evidence, really doesn’t look good.’