14
When De Grier turned the key he could hear Oliver's nails scratching the inside of the door. He also heard the telephone.
'It never stops,' he said to Esther, stepping aside so that she could enter first, and bending down. Oliver ran straight into his hand, pressed low to the floor, intent on escape. 'Here,' de Gier said and caught him. 'Don't run away, there's nothing outside there. Just a lot of fast cars and a hot street. Here! And don't scratch.'
The telephone was still ringing. 'Yes, yes, yes,' de Gier said, and picked it up. Esther had taken the cat out of his arms and was nuzzling it, whispering into its ear. Oliver closed his eyes, went limp and purred. The nails slid back and his paws became soft playthings of fur. He pushed a paw against her nose, and kept it there.
'That's nice,' de Gier said. 'I have never seen him do that to anyone except myself. Silly cat loves you.'
'Is it silly to love me?' Esther asked, and before he had time to think of an answer, 'Who was that on the telephone? You look all grumpy.'
'The commissaris.'
'I thought he was a very pleasant man.'
'He is not,' de Gier said, 'and he shouldn't phone me. He is fussing. Did I get the schedule for tomorrow organized? Did I speak to Cardozo about it? Did I do this? Did I do that? Of course I did it all. I always do everything he tells me. Why doesn't he fuss with Grijpstra? But he had Grijpstra with him all day, they had dinner together, while I was sent on an inane errand.'
'What errand?'
'Never mind,' de Gier said. 'Take your coat off and I'll make tea. Or I can open a can of shrimp soup, I have had it in the fridge for ages, waiting for the right occasion. We can have a drop of Madeira in it and eat some hot buttered toast and a salad. And we can look at the geraniums while we eat. The one in the middle is doing very well. I've been feeding it expensive drops and it is responding. See?'
'You like your balcony, don't you?'
'It's better than a garden. I don't have to wear myself out in it. I am growing some cabbage seed now, in that pot in the corner. The little boy in the fiat upstairs gave me the seeds and they came up in a few weeks, just as he said. They are in flower too now. I used to study the buds through a magnifying glass; I could almost see them swell.'
'I thought you would be more interested in fingerprints.'
'No,' de Gier said. 'Fingerprints don't grow, they are just there, left by a fool who didn't mind what he was doing. We hardly ever find fingerprints anyway and if we find them they belong to a sweet innocent.'
She was helping him in the kitchen and sent him out, once she knew where everything was. He sat down on his bed and talked to her through the open door. She didn't take long and served the meal on a detachable board, which he pulled from the wall and which came down to about a foot from the bed's surface, suspended by hinges on one side and a chain on the other.
'Very ingenious,' she said. 'This is a very small apartment but it looks quite spacious somehow.'
'Because I have no furniture,' he said. 'Just the bed, and the chair in the other room. I don't really like having people here, they make the place overflow. Grijpstra is O.K., he doesn't move. And you, of course. It's marvelous having you here.'
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. The telephone rang again.
'It never stops,' de Gier said. 'It. The whole thing. It's still moving and I want to be out of it. There should be a way of dropping out of activity. Smashing tihe telephone would be a good start.'
'Answer it,' she said, 'and then come back to me. And to the toast, it's still hot.'
'Cardozo?' de Gier asked.
'Yes,' Cardozo said, 'your faithful assistant is reporting. I am about to start organizing the truck and the merchandise and the permit for the street market and everything, but I thought I'd better run through all the details with you once more before I started.'
De Gier sighed. 'Cardozo?'
'Yes.'
'Cardozo, it's all yours. I want you to prove yourself. Get the whole rigmarole going, Cardozo. Do more than we are asking you to do. Find out what the textiles are worth. We have to sell them at the right price tomorrow. We can't give state property away, can we?'
'No,' Cardozo said.
'Right. Besides we don't want the other hawkers to be suspicious. We have to be just right. Think about this business. Try and become a hawker. Think yourself into it. Get the thought into your subconscious. Try and dream about it tonight.'
'What are you going to do?' Cardozo asked.
'I am going to be here, right here in my flat and think with you. Don't feel alone, I am with you, right behind you, Cardozo. Every step of the way.'
'When I am carrying those heavy bales out of the police store?'
'Yes.'
'Heaving them into the van?'
'Yes.'
'That'll be nice.'
'Yes. And if there's any problem you can't solve-I don't think there will be any, for you are competent and well trained and an asset to the force-then grab the nearest telephone and dial my number. I'll advise you.'
'About how to cany those heavy bales into the van?'
'Yes. Take a deep breath before you lift them. Then stop your breath while you move your arms. Get your shoulder and stomach muscles to help. Heave-ho! You'll find it easy if you go about it the right way.'
'I am glad you have faith in me,' Cardozo said. 'Maybe I will tell the commissaris about your faith in me, sometime when I happen to run into him and we'll be chatting about this and that.'
'Oh, no, you won't,' de Gier said. 'I read the report in your file. The character report. You were picked for the murder squad because you have all the right qualities. Initiative for instance. And an inquisitive and secretive mind. And you are ambitious. You can be trusted to react properly when in a difficult spot. And you are reliable. Did you know all those things about yourself?''
'No,' Cardozo said, 'and I don't believe that report. It must have been made up by the psychologist who interviewed me. A rat-faced long-haired nervous wreck. I thought he was a suspect when I met him and I was watching him very carefully.''
'Psychology is a new science, a long-haired rat-faced science. They all look like that. They have to, or they are no good. And please stop arguing, Cardozo. Haven't you learned by now that nothing is gained by arguing?'
'Yes, sergeant,' Cardozo said. 'Sorry, sergeant. Forgot myself a moment, sergeant. Won't happen again, sergeant. Do you want me to report when I've got it all arranged, sergeant?'
'No,' de Gier said. 'That won't be necessary. I'll see you tomorrow morning, at the police garage at eight- thirty sharp. Good luck.'
He put down the telephone and went back to the bed.
'Excellent young man,' he said to Esther, 'and clever too.'
'Aren't you clever?'
'No,' de Gier said.
'Are you a good detective?'
'No.'
'Do you try to be?'
'Yes.'
'Why?' He laughed, leaned over and kissed her.
'No. I want to know. Why do you try to be a good detective?'
