'Back in a moment!' she called over her shoulder.
The Inspector nodded to Dale.
'That was not so bad; it seems a fair price for such an important book.'
Dale rolled his eyes and snorted sharply through his nose. He reached inside his coat and rummaged about, finally pulling out a pen and a small notepad. Hunching forward to lean on the low coffee table, he started to write out his personal e-mail address and the details of the agreement he had just made. He muttered the payment amount as he wrote the words and Pieter could not resist making a comment.
'I am sure you will get your money back from your government Mr. Mallory, after all, they wouldn't try to cheat you would they?'
By the time Dale had scrawled out his signature and snatched out the sheet from his notepad, Gertrude had breezed back into the room and proceeded to deposit a cardboard box onto the table before him. She saw the signed slip of paper on the table and picked it up, scanning it intently before she had satisfied herself that it was all correct and then folding it in half to slip it into one of the back pockets of her jeans.
'I will contact you with my bank details and you may transfer it when you get home. Your receipt is in the box with the book.'
Sliding the lid off the box, Dale could see that the book was inside with a hand-written slip of paper lying on the front cover, all safely ensconced within acid free tissue filler packaging. He replaced the lid and bundled his pen and notepad back into his coat pocket.
'Well, that seems to be everything,' Dale announced, keen to get away.
Pieter interjected and stood.
'Not quite Mr. Mallory.'
He turned to face Gertrude.
'Miss Verker, I will still visit you on Tuesday as we had arranged, Mrs. Korteweg's case still needs to be followed up. If you do have any problems in explaining this situation to your buyer, you can let me know on Tuesday and I will talk with them on your behalf.'
He glanced at Dale to see if there was any contention but he simply nodded in assent.
Gertrude's eyes momentarily glazed over and she appeared slightly deflated at the mention of Mrs. Korteweg's name.
'Yes, thank-you, so, I guess that I will see you Tuesday.'
She turned to Dale and forced her spirits to cheer.
'Mr. Mallory.'
Taking the implicit social cue, Dale stood and offered his hand, smiling as Gertrude took it and shook it firmly. Pieter moved first, grabbing his cap from the sofa armrest and moving to wander out through the kitchen to the front door.
Tucking the book parcel under his arm, Dale followed after the Inspector and as Gertrude fell in behind, he turned to her.
'My government does appreciate your help in this matter Miss Verker, thank-you for being co-operative.'
Gertrude slapped her buttock where the promise of her payment nestled in her back pocket.
'Mr. Mallory, the co-operation was all yours.'
She smiled genuinely as they reached the front door which Pieter had already opened, now standing just outside in the landing area.
'Let me know if your museum loses any more books, I could make a good living helping you to get them back again!'
Screwing up his lips in faux thought, Dale smiled broadly.
'I'm not sure we can afford it at your rates!'
He paused for a second or two.
'Thanks again Miss Verker, until next time.'
'Goodbye, and Mr. Mallory, call me Gertrude, next time!'
Dale caught up with Pieter as he moved away and they heard the door click shut behind them as they descended the stairs to the ground floor together.
Once outside, Dale stood on the pavement pulling his coat close across his chest and buttoning up the lapel to his neck as Inspector van Riel opened the passenger door to the police car still parked outside the main entrance to the apartment building. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, clamping the parcel to his body and anchoring it with an elbow as he shuddered from the cold air seeping through to his bones.
Instead of ducking straight inside the warm interior of the car, Pieter paused and turned, wedged into the acute opening and leaning over the top of the passenger door as the heat surged out around him from the interior. He thought for a moment and then spoke.
'One thing bothers me Mr. Mallory.'
Looking somewhat exasperated, Dale shook his head.
'I promise that I will make the payment as soon as I get home, she could have the money cleared by the beginning of next week if not as soon as I authorise it.'
'No, that is not the problem,' said Pieter, laughing as he shook his head at the piqued assumption.
'I believe you. No, you see my problem is that since I am a police officer and my job is to investigate crimes, I am naturally curious when a crime such as this book being stolen from one of your museums is
not
investigated.'
Dale was suddenly aware that Inspector van Riel was watching him very carefully.
'Well, the guys back home in the US have it all sewn up; for me it was just a case of retrieving the book itself.'
He watched the Inspector nodding and humming to himself as if seriously considering what had been stated.
'Yes, though it does seem strange that you did not ask Miss Verker about who she had bought the book from, or indeed, where it came from. I would have thought that it would be quite useful to trace the trail back to the source. Maybe there is an international trade in stolen antique books that we should look into?'
'I wouldn't know anything about that side of things Inspector,' Dale replied cautiously and shaking his head, 'as I said before, I'm just a liaison officer. I was asked to retrieve the book from Miss Verker and the embassy will take it from there. I am quite sure that if there is any further investigation required our law enforcement agencies will contact you.'
He smiled, deadpan.
'Yes, you are right,' smiled Pieter as he recognised the official brush-off, 'I am sure they will. In the mean time, if I find anything of interest I'll be sure to let you know!'
Dale exhaled a short breath through his nostrils.
'Thanks!'
'Oh, and just one more thing Mr. Mallory -'
Dale faced the policeman and expected another pointed inquisition.
'Would you like a lift back to the embassy?'
Dale Mallory and Inspector Pieter van Riel parted ways on good humoured if somewhat naturally suspicious terms. They exchanged a waved farewell to each other and Dale wandered off in the direction of the tram stop at which he had arrived, flicking his hand up in casual salute as the police car with the two officers in it pulled away from the kerb and cruised past him with a friendly beep of the horn. Neither the chatting policemen nor the chilled US Embassy official paid any attention to an attractive young black woman wearing a white fur hat over her bleached blonde hair standing on the opposite side of the street, casually watching their departure.
With a lead of some twenty-five metres, Dale had no idea that the woman had pulled out her mobile phone and had started to follow him as she dialled a number. She spoke quickly as the call was answered.
'Hi, it's your sister, I have some bad news for you!' she exclaimed hurriedly.
A gruff voice responded.
'What's up?'
The woman thought for a moment.
'You know that girl you had a date with on Monday of next week? Well I've just seen her with another guy at her flat and when he left I think he was carrying a present that was meant for you. He had a guy called Bill with him. I think I'll go round this guy's house for coffee and see what the story is, I'll let you know what happens.'
Rey sighed; 'Bill' was an abbreviation of the English slang 'Old Bill' which meant 'The Police'. Clearly, whoever it was that now had
Dirigo Lux
in their possession also had official contacts. At least Akosua had the guy in her sights and could follow him to wherever he was headed.
'Alright, thanks for letting me know. Call me when you know who she is cheating with, thanks Sis.'
'No worries Bro!'
The conversation was not hard to decode, however, it was cumbersomely phrased specifically to appear nondescript to any automated signals intelligence gathering system such as Echelon, operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK-USA Security Agreement and available to eavesdrop on the vast majority of telecommunications throughout Europe.
Akosua pocketed her phone and kept her distance until she could see that Dale was now waiting at a tram stop. She could hear the rumbling steel wheels of an approaching tram and halted, fumbling about in her shoulder bag to create a pause just long enough for the tram to start slowing down for the stop, allowing her to hurry up to the doors so that she would arrive after Dale had boarded the tram, if that was his intention.
Her guess was right and her timing was perfect; she scurried to close the gap and hopped aboard as the doors were closing. She stamped her
Strippenkaart
tram ticket in anticipation of covering a couple of zones and sat down in the rear carriage where she could see Dale sitting farther forward in the centre carriage with the package resting on his lap.
Rumbling away from the coastal strip, the tram started on its cruise through the expensive suburbs consisting of large houses and neatly trimmed but rather bare gardens. They were well into early evening and the sky had already darkened with the wind now beginning to get stronger, blowing uncompromising gusts from the North.
Akosua guessed that there might not be too many people cycling the roads and walking the streets for much longer and she realised that it would become more difficult to remain inconspicuous if her target was headed for a quiet part of the city.
She kept looking along the carriage as she blindly rummaged about in her shoulder bag, eventually feeling the alpaca wool hat she was groping for and pulling it out along with a light coloured knitted scarf. She knew that her white fur hat was an obvious piece of apparel and so surreptitiously slipped it off and stuffed it into her bag before pulling on the multicoloured Peruvian knitwear, tugging down the ear-flaps to keep her warm and wrapping the scarf around her neck. To finalise the change, she leaned forward, narrowed her shoulders and quickly slipped off her slim-line leather jacket. She had prepared for an eventuality such as this and had worn a reversible jacket, casually scooping the arms inside out before flipping the jacket about, threading her limbs in and shrugging it back on again. She rearranged the scarf to make herself more comfortable and relaxed a little.
Unless Dale had specifically noticed her and had paid particular attention to her face, half hidden as it had been beneath the fur hat, she would conceivably look like an entirely different woman. It was surprising how a change of head-wear and the colour of a jacket could completely alter a person's appearance although she had decided against wearing the spectacles with plain glass lenses that she carried with her. The plain lenses were set in a frame that contrasted noticeably with her features and made her face take on a completely different shape. They acted as a disguise almost by themselves, however, she was confident that her new appearance would suffice.
The tram was headed toward the central station and as they neared the junction with Korte Voorhout Akosua was suddenly flooded with the recollection of events that had occurred there only yesterday. She glanced along the tram corridor again and saw that Dale was edging sideways from his seat to stand up. A thought was beginning to materialise for her, this tram stop, this place, something other than the collection of events of yesterday was significant about it.
Dale finally stood up as the tram slowed to a stop, grabbing a handrail to maintain his balance before the air compressors gasped to open the doors. He hopped down to the kerb and Akosua slid herself out from her seat, wavering near the exit and not wanting to dismount straight into Dale's path should he hesitate near the tram; the Malieveld stop was a small platform with only one entry and exit ramp at the driver's end of the tram.
Akosua stood at her door until the last possible moment, watching Dale as he sauntered to wait at a pedestrian crossing to the opposite side of the road. The doors started to close just as the traffic lights changed, accompanied by a rapid hammering sound indicating to both blind as well as sighted pedestrians that the crossing was now safe.
Bouncing out onto the pavement through the gap of the closing doors, Akosua rapidly started to cut across the road after Dale, watching her target skip over the last couple of metres of the crossing before he started striding along the path with the parcel tucked under his arm.
She kept pace and when he came to the main junction he turned into Korte Voorhout rather than crossing the top of the multi-lane boulevard, providing her with the opportunity to jog to make up the small lead and pause behind the wall of the corner building before she peeped around and eventually saw him duck into a small alleyway that led behind a large grey building.
The thought was electric when it came, it made her tense and sent a thrilling tremble up her spine as she realised where Dale was headed even before she saw him make the turn. The grey building was the US Embassy.