Floodgate (9 page)

'Well, that's not your fault. Peter, I have no hesitation in saying that there car, be no more stunningly beautiful lady in the city of Amsterdam. 'He lowered his voice a few decibels. 'In fact I would come right out and say that she is the most stunningly beautiful in the city, but I have a wife and two daughters and these restaurants have ears. You must be about the same age as my daughters? May I ask how old you are?'
'You must excuse the Colonel,' van Effen said. 'Policemen are much given to asking questions: some Chiefs of Police never stop.' The girl was smiling at de Graaf while van Effen was speaking and, once again, van Effen could have been addressing a brick wall. 'Twenty-seven,' she said.
'Twenty-seven. Exactly the age of my elder daughter. And Miss Anne Meijer. Bears out my contention - the younger generation of Dutchmen are a poor, backward and unenterprising lot.' He looked at van Effen, as if he symbolized all that was wrong with the current generation, then looked again at the girl. 'Odd. I know I've never seen you but your voice is vaguely familiar.' He looked at van Effen again and frowned slightly. 'I look forward immensely to having dinner with you, but I thought - well, Peter, there were one or two confidential business matters that we had to discuss.'
'Indeed, sir. But when you suggested we meet at seven o'clock you made no exclusions.'
'I don't understand.'
The girl said: 'Colonel.'
:Yes, my dear?'
Am I really such a hussy, a harlot, harridan and ghastly spectacle? Or is it because you don't trust me that you want to speak privately with Peter?' De Graaf took a pace forward, caught the girl by the shoulders, removed one hand to stop a passing waiter and said: 'A jonge jenever. Large.' 'Immediately, Colonel.'
De Graaf held her shoulders again, stared intently into her face - he was probably trying to equate or associate the vision before him with the creature he had met in La Caracha - shook his head, muttered something to or about the same nameless deity and sank into the nearest chair. Van Effen was sympathetic. 'It comes as a shock, I know, sir. Happened to me the first time. A brilliant make-up artist, don't you think? If it's any consolation, sir, she also fooled me once. But no disguise this time - just a wash and brush-up. 'He looked at her consideringly. 'But, well, yes, rather good-looking.'
'Good-looking. Hah!' De Graaf took the jonge jenever from the waiter's tray and quaffed half the contents at a gulp. 'RaVishing. At my age, systems shouldn't be subjected to such shocks. Anne? Annemarie? What do I call you?'
'Whichever.'
'Anne. My dear. I said such dreadful things about you. It is not possible.'
'Of course it's not. I couldn't believe Peter when he said you had.' Van Effen waved a hand. 'A loose translation, shall we say?) 'Very loose.' Wisely, de Graaf did not pursue the subject. 'And what in heaven's name, is a girl like you doing in a job like this.' 'I thought it was an honourable profession?'
'Yes, yes, of course. But what I meant was - well
'What the Colonel means,'van Effen said,'is that you should be an international stage or screen star, presiding over a Parisian salon, or married to an American oil millionaire - billionaire, if you like - or a belted English earl. Too beautiful, that's your trouble. Isn't that it, Colonel?'
'Couldn't have put it better myself.'
'Dear me. 'Anne smiled. 'Doesn't say much for your Amsterdam girls. You mean you only employ ugly girls?'
De Graaf smiled for the first time that evening. 'I am not to be drawn. The Chief of Police is famed for his powers of recovery. But you - you - among those dreadful Krakers and dressed like a - like -' 'Harlot? Hussy?'
'If you like, yes.' He put his hand on hers. 'This is no place for a girl like you. Must get you out of it. Police is no place for you.' 'One has to earn a living, sir.'
'You? You need never earn a living. That, Anne, is a compliment.' 'I like what I'm doing.'
De Graaf didn't seem to have heard her. He was gazing at some distant object out in space. Van Effen said to the girl.
'Watch him. He's at his most cunning when he goes into a trance.' 'I am not in a trance,' de Graaf said I coldly. 'What did you say your surname was?'
'Meijcr.'
'You have a family?'
'Oh, yes. The usual. Parents, sisters, two brothers.' 'Brothers and sisters share your interest in law and order?' 'Police, you mean. No.'
'Your father?'
'Again police?' She smiled as a person smiles when recalling someone of whom they are very fond. 'I couldn't imagine it. He's in the building business.'
'Does he know what kind of business you are in?'
She hesitated. 'Well, no.'
'What do you mean, well, no? He doesn't, does he? Why?' 'Why?' She seemed to be on the defensive. 'He likes us to be independent.'
'Would he approve of what you are doing? And that was no answer you gave me. Would he approve of his darling daughter mingling with the Krakers?' 'Is this what it's like to be a suspect, sit, and to be grilled? Am I supposed to have done something wrong?'
'Of course not. Would he approve?' The entranced Colonel of a few minutes previously could have belonged to another world.
'No.'
'You put me in a quandary. I don't like you being in this. You, apparently, do. Your father wouldn't. To whom should I listen - you or your father?'
'The question hardly arises, sir. You don't know my father.' 'Child!'
'What does that mean. I don't understand.'
'I know your father. Very well. We've been friends for over thirty years.'
'Impossible! You can't know him. You've only just met me and you didn't even know me.' She was no actress and was visibly upset. 'This is - this is a trick of some kind.'
'Annemarie. 'van Effen touched her arm. 'If the Colonel says he's a friend of your father, then he is. Come on, sir.'
'I know. When next you write or phone, Anne - if you ever do - give my warmest regards to David Joseph Karlmann Meijer.'
Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth as if to speak, closed it again and turned to van Effen. 'I think it's my turn for a jonge jenever.' De Graaf looked at van Effen. 'My old friend David - we've gone sailing, fishing, skiing, hunting over the years - we were even up exploring the Amazon before this young lady here was born - owns a huge construction company. He also owns one of the biggest cement factories in the Netherlands, oil refineries, tankers, an electronics firm and God knows what else. "One has to cam a living, sir,"' he mimicked. 'Earn a living! Cruel, cruel landlord throwing the poor orphan out into the snow. Ah!' He turned to look at the maitre d' at his elbow. 'Good evening. The young people will choose for me. But, first, another jonge jenever. 'He looked at Annemarie. 'Must have something to cry into. They say gin is best.' After the orders had been taken and the maitre d' and his minions departed, van Effen said: 'You have a scenario, sir, and you don't like what you see.'
'I don't like it at all. Two things. If anything happens to this young lady - well, David Meijer's wrath is fearful to behold -and it's considerably worse to be the object of it. Secondly, disguise or no disguise, Anne's identity may be discovered. It can happen, as you know all too well, Peter: a slip of the tongue, an unguarded reference, some careless action, there are too many possibilities. What a windfall for a penniless Kraker or even worse, a professional kidnapper. Her father would pay five, ten million guilders to get her back. Do you like it, Peter?'
Van Effen made to speak, then glanced at the waiter who stood by his side. 'Lieutenant van Effen. Phone.'
Van Effen excused himself. De Graaf said: 'Well, do you like it?' 'Not the way you put it but - I don't want to seem impertinent, sir, to disagree with my boss, but I think you put it too strongly. I've been doing this kind of work for some months in Rotterdam and nothing has ever happened to me there. And while there may be no Krakers down there, the criminal element are a great deal tougher than they are here. I'm sorry, Colonel, but I think you exaggerate the dangers. I'm rather good at disguises - you as much as said so yourself. I have a gun. Best, of course, is that no one in Amsterdam knows me.'
'I know you.'
'That's different. Peter says that you know everyone - and you must admit that it was a very remote chance that you knew my father.' 'I could have found out easily enough. Peter knows?' 'Only my name. Not who I am, not until you spoke about it just now. I must say he didn't seem particularly surprised.' She smiled. 'He could, of course, have been unconcerned or uninterested.'
'You're fishing, for compliments, my dear.' She made to protest but he held up his hand. 'In your case, indifference is impossible. The Lieutenant cares very much for people. 'That doesn't mean he goes around showing it all the time. It's a learned habit. I know he didn't know. I'm equally sure Julie does.'
'Ah. Julie. Your favourite lady in all Amsterdam?'
'I now have two favourite ladies in all Amsterdam. With the usual provisos, of course.'
'Your wife and daughters, of course.'
'Of course. Don't stall. You're very good at stalling, you know, Anne, at diverting me from the topic at hand, which is you, and don't give me those big innocent eyes.'
'Julie knows,' she said. 'How did you know that, sir' 'Because I know Julie. Because she's clever. Because she's a woman. Living so close to you she's bound to notice things that others wouldn't. Clothes, jewellery, personal possessions -things the average working girl wouldn't have. Even the way you speak. Fine by me if Julie knows, she'd never tell anyone, I'll bet she's never even told her brother. You like living there?' 'Very much. And Julie, also very much. I think she likes me, too. I have the honour to sleep in the bedroom that used to be Peter's. I believe he left about six years ago.' She frowned. 'I asked her why he'd left, it couldn't have been an argument, they're obviously terribly fond of each other, but she wouldn't tell me, just said I'd have to ask Peter.'
'Did you ask him?'
'No.' She shook her head very firmly. 'One doesn't ask the Lieutenant personal questions.'
'I agree that he does rather give that impression. He's quite approachable really. No secret about his departure - he left to get married. Marianne. Loveliest girl in Amsterdam, even although I do say it about my own niece.'
'She's your niece?'
'Was.' De Graaf's voice was sombre. 'Even in those days Peter was the best, most able cop in the city; far better than I am but for God's sake don't tell him so. He broke up a particularly vicious gang of people who specialized in a nice mixture of blackmail and torture. Four brothers, they were, the Annecys. God knows where they got their name from. Peter put two of them away for fifteen years. The other two just vanished. Shortly after the conviction of the two brothers, someone, almost certainly one or both of the two brothers that had not been brought to justice, placed in Peter's weekend canal boat a huge bomb wired up to the ignition switch - same technique as was used by the murderers who assassinated Lord Mountbatten. As it happened, Peter wasn't aboard his boat that weekend. But Marianne and their two children were.' 'Dear God' The girl's hands were clenched. 'How awful. How - how dreadful!'
'And every three months or so since that time he receives a postcard from one of the two surviving Annecy brothers. Never any message. just a drawing of a noose and a coffin, a reminder that he's living on borrowed time. Charming, isn't it?'
'Horrible! just horrible! He must be worried to death. I know I would. Wondering every night when I go to sleep - if I could sleep - whether I would wake up in the morning.'
'I don't think he worries much - if he did he'd never show it -and I know he sleeps very well. But that's the reason - although he never mentions it - why he doesn't return to live with Julie.
He doesn't want her to be around when the bomb comes through his window.' 'What a way to five! Why doesn't he emigrate somewhere, live under an assumed name?'
'If you ever get to know Peter van Effen -- really know him, I mean - you'll wonder why you ever asked that question. Anne, you have an enchanting smile. Let me see it again.'
She gave a puzzled half-smile. 'I don't understand.' 'He's coming back. Let me see how good an actress you are.' And, indeed, when van Effen returned to the table she was smiling, a person at ease with the world. When she looked up and saw the expression - more accurately, the total lack of expression - on his face she stopped smiling.
'About to ruin our dinner, are you, Peter?'de Graaf shook his head. 'And such a splendid meal we've ordered.'
'Not quite.' Van Effen smiled faintly. 'Alright put us off our third bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy or whatever. Perhaps even the second bottle? First, let me put you briefly in the picture as to what happened earlier today. Yes, sir, I'll have some wine, I feel I could do with a mild restorative. I've been offered a. job - at, I'm sure, a far higher salary plus than I'm ever likely to get in this police force - to blow something up. What, I don't know. Could be the Amsterdam-Rotterdam bank for all I know. Maybe a boat, bridge, barge, barracks, maybe anything. Haven't been told yet. 'As you know, Vasco had brought those two characters to the Hunter's Horn this afternoon. Prosperous and respectable citizens, but, then, no successful criminal ever looks like one. We were all very cagey and crafty, toing-and-froing, sparring and giving nothing away for most of the time. Then they made me this definite offer of a job and I accepted. They said they would have to report back to their superiors but would definitely contact me tomorrow and give me details of the job to be done and what my rewards would be for this. Vasco was to be the courier. So we shook hands like gentlemen and parted with expressions of goodwill and mutual trust. 'I had two sets of tails waiting at a discreet distance from the Hunter's Horn. I've had a report
'Goodwill and mutual trust?' Annemarie said.
De Graaf waved a hand. 'We tend to use figurative terms in our profession. Proceed, Peter.'
'I've had news of both sets of tails. The first say that they lost Agnelli and Paderiwski - that's what they called themselves -, 'Good God!' de Graaf said. 'Agnelli and Paderiwski. A famous industrialist and a famous pianist. Aren't they original?'
'That's what I thought. Lost them in a traffic jam, they say. Claimed that they hadn't been sported. Pure accident. The report about the other two makes me wonder, to say the least.'
' "About" the other two?'de Graaf said. 'Not "from"?' 'About. They were found in a darkened alley. Barely able to call for help, barely conscious. Unable to move and both in agony. Both men had had both kneecaps smashed. A sign used in Sicily and certain American cities that some people don't like being followed and that those who were doing the following won't be doing it again for same time to come. They won't on those knee-capped - no guns. Iron bars. They're under surgery. Neither man will he able to walk for months, neither will ever be able to walk properly again. Nice, isn't it, sir. And a new development in our fair city. Another instance, one supposes, of the steady advance of American culture.'