movie which was on the TV and about what scares people and I said that I can't bear shit. He laughed, the silly bastard laughed, and he said that it would be unlikely that they would ever show a shitfilmon TV.'
'And then you said that that's all they show on the telly,' de Gier said. De Gier was looking much better.
'How do you know? You weren't there when Zilver was talking to me.'
'It's the obvious thing to say.'
'Oh, so I only say the obvious, hey? You have exclusive rights to intellectual conversation?'
'That'll be enough of that,' the commissaris said, and selected a cigar from the small tin on his desk. He bent down so that Grijpstra had to search his pockets for his lighter.
'Thank you, Grijpstra. So our idea to have a sniff at the street market paid off. I am glad you got yourselves invited to that party. Zilver must have underestimated your drunkenness last night. Obviously he thought you would have forgotten what you said to him. This is a direct link. We may as well try to follow it up.'
'Not much to charge the man with, sir,' Grijpstra said, 'if we can ever prove it was he. Dirtying the public thoroughfare is a minor offense. We can't even arrest him if we do prove the charge. He must have done it in the early hours, after he went home from the party.'
'He wanted to shake you,' the commissaris said. 'He knows you and de Gier are charged with the Rogge case, and poor Elizabeth's death as well. The two cases go together, of course. If he can shake the hounds the fox will get away.'
'He must be the fox himself,' de Gier said.
'Possibly,' the commissaris said, 'but not necessarily. Louis Zilver dislikes the police. He told me that his grandparents were taken from their house by the Dutch police, during the war. The police must have handed them over to the Germans and the Germans put them on transport to Germany and eventually killed them. But he blames us, the Amsterdam Municipal Police, and rightly so. If he can get at you and the adjutant, he repays some of the debt he thinks he has to his grandparents.'
'I was a boy at the time, sir.'
'Yes, but your personal guilt has nothing to do with it. Hatred is never rational, especially a deep hatred such as Zilver must be suffering from. I was jailed and tortured by the Germans during the war and I have to force myself now to give directions to young German students who have lost their way. I associate the way they speak and behave with the young SS soldiers who once knocked six of my teeth out. That was over thirty years ago; the students weren't even born then.'
'But we are trying to solve the murder of his friend,' Grijpstra said. 'If he bothers us it must be because he has killed Abe himself.'
The commissaris shook his head and raised a finger. 'He was in the house when Abe died, wasn't he? Esther Rogge said so. And Zilver said Esther was in the house. If Zilver killed Abe Rogge, Esther, the victim's sister, must have been his associate. I think we all agree by now that the killer was outside, most probably on the roof of that wrecked houseboat opposite the Rogge house.'
'Zilver could have nipped out, sir,' de Gier said, 'and nipped in again afterward. I would like your permission to arrest him and hold him for questioning. We have a serious reason to suspect him now. We can hold him for six hours if you give the word.'
'Yes,' Grijpstra said. 'I agree, sir.'
'Just because of the droppings and the bloody rat?'
'I have another reason, sir,' Grijpstra said slowly. They all looked at the adjutant, who had stood up and was staring out of the window, his hands deep in his pockets.
'You can tell us, Grijpstra,' the commissaris said.
'The painting in Abe Rogge's room, sir. Perhaps you remember the painting. It shows two men in a boat, a small boat surrounded by foamy water. It must have been late at night, the sky is nearly as blue as the sea, a blackish blue. Maybe there was a moon-sky and sea almost merge and the boat is the central point in the painting.'
'Yes, yes,' the commissaris said. 'Go on, and look at us when you are talking.'
'Sorry sir.' Grijpstra turned around. 'But the main point of that painting not the boat or the sea or the light, but the feeling of friendship. Those two men are very close, as close as people can be. They are drawn as two lines, but the lines join.'
'So?'
'I don't mean a homosexual relationship.'
'No,' the commissaris said. 'I know what you mean, and you are right, I think. I saw that painting too.'
'Bezuur told us that the two men were himself and Rogge. He got all blubbery about it. Do you remember, sir?'
'Yes. Yes, he was obviously suffering. Quite genuinely I thought.'
'Yes, sir. Rogge had dropped him or fought with him or broken the relationship in some other way. I believe Esther told de Gier that her brother just stopped seeing him. But Bezuur didn't crack up, for he had other interests, his father's business, which he inherited, and great wealth. But Zilver would have had nothing if Rogge had dropped him.'
'Yes,' the commissaris said. 'True. A mentally disturbed young man who relied completely on his stronger partner. But did we have any suggestion that Rogge was going to, or had already, broken his relationship with Zilver?'
'No sir,' de Gier suddenly said. 'Or at least, not that I know of. But if he had it would certainly have upset Louis Zilver, and Zilver is capable of extraordinary activity when he gets upset. He proved that this morning, didn't he?'
'So,' the commissaris said slowly. 'You two are suggesting that Rogge told Zilver to go away, leave the house, get out of the partnership on the street market, and so forth. Esther said that Rogge would drop people the minute they began to bore him. He didn't need anybody apparently, and he could always find new company. A throng of admiring women, for instance. Flicked his fingers and they wagged their tails, so Tilda told us. The other lady confirmed the fact too. That Kops woman, the surrealist, huh!' He shuddered. 'Silly woman that. But never mind. She told Zilver to get lost and Zilver reacted drastically!'
'Indeed,' Grijpstra said. 'Esther also told us that Rogge like to upset people, show them up for what they really are, prick their vanity. He must have done that to Zilver too. Maybe he did it once too often. And suddenly, without anyone being around to notice it. A single remark perhaps. Esther apparently doesn't suspect Zilver, because she didn't know that Abe had told him off. Zilver must have killed Rogge almost immediately after the incident happened.'
'Now, now,' the commissaris said. 'And what about the device? He must have used a hellish machine, as de Gier pointed out before. An ingenious unusual weapon. Did he have it in his cupboard? And did he run to his room after Abe told him off? Did he grab the weapon, rush outside, use it and run back to his room again?'
'Sir,' de Gier said.
'Yes, de Gier?'
'It must have been an ordinary thing, sir. A hellish machine which looks like an ordinary utensil.'
The commissaris thought. He also grunted. 'Yes. Because he had it outside in the street and the riot police didn't notice anything amiss,' the commissaris said slowly.
'Zilver isn't normal, sir,' Grijpstra said. 'He is probably insane. This dogshit and bloody rat business proves it. No sane person would go to such lengths as he must have done early this morning. Poor fellow can't be blamed, I suppose. The war, and what happened to his grandparents and all that. If he is our man we'll have to turn him over to the city psychiatrists. But I think this is the moment to grab him. He'll probably know we are after him and he'll be defensive and frightened and ready to talk.'
'True,' the commissaris said.
'So can we have a warrant for his arrest, sir?'
'No,' the commissaris said. 'I am not convinced that he committed a murder, or two murders. Whoever killed Rogge killed Elizabeth. And whoever killed Elizabeth is ready to kill again. Maybe you are right, but I doubt it.'
'So do we forget the incident, sir?' There was no emotion in Grijpstra's voice. He was rubbing the stubbles on his chin.
'Certainly not. You and I are going to see him.'
