'What?'
'Nothing, a squirrel.'
The girl snuggled into his arm. 'Go to sleep, Rinus. You have a long trip ahead of you.'
'Yes. I am asleep.'
She sat up. 'You are not. Okay, I'll be awake with you. Would you like some tea?'
'No thank you.'
Her finger followed his mustache. 'You still don't want me to do anything for you, do you? You're not alone now. I'll go down and make tea and bring it back. I bought some Dutch cheese in the city and crackers. We can have a midnight snack.'
He looked at his watch. 'It isn't midnight.'
'Oh, don't be so difficult. Are you pleased to go back?'
'A little.'
'Will you miss me?'
He stroked her hair. He wanted her to go back to sleep. He wanted to look at the flowing pine needles on the wail.
'I can come over to Amsterdam. Would you like me to stay with you for a while?'
A cloud passed the moon and the needles became blurted, then disappeared. He sat up and lit a cigarette. She took it away from him and he lit another.
'Madelin,' he said patiently. 'Don't come to Amsterdam. And if you do, do not come to see me. Perhaps I am a romantic figure to you here, but it is different over there. I live in an apartment the size of this bedroom, and it is divided into two rooms, a hall, a kitchen, and a shower. My balcony is two feet square and its only decoration right now will be a concrete flowerpot the size of a bucket, filled with gray mud.'
'In the spring,' she said. 'I'll come in the spring.'
'In the spring the place will still be too small. I have no furniture but a bed and one chair. My table is a board that hinges off the wall. If Tabriz is in the kitchen I have to wait for her to get out before I can go in.'
Her breast touched his arm. 'Who is Tabriz?'
'A nine-pound cat that looks as if she weighs twenty pounds, but the difference is hair. She has seven main colors and a thousand shades in between. The colors don't blend, and her one eye looks the wrong way. She is the ugliest cat you've ever seen.'
'I like cats.'
De Gier turned on his side and put the tip of his finger on the girl's small straight nose. He pressed lightly and it flattened out a little. 'Madelin. I am a sergeant in die Amsterdam Municipal Police. I earn tuppence halfpenny a month, and the halfpenny is kept by the police for a fund. I don't have a car but ride a bicycle that is so decrepit it won't hold a passenger. I use public transport and spend an hour each day waiting for the bus and the streetcar. Even the patrol car I drive is dented. I am a plainclothes cop and when I walk around the city I am just another shadow.'
'Do you mind?'
'No. I don't mind.'
'If you do you can stay here. I'd like you to stay here. Father will retire and I don't plan to run the business. Real estate is easy.'
'No.'
'You could be about all day. We'll have a cleric to take care of the paperwork. The busy season only lasts a few months. The rest of the year you'll be free to wander and read and do whatever you like. The fox wasn't joking when he said that he wants to make you an honorary member. You could join some of our experiments, or think up your own and we would join you. The sheriff likes you.'
De Gier laughed. 'Will you make him a member too?'
'Why not?'
'No.'
She giggled. 'You don't want the job because you dislike my father. But he did help. He gave your commissioner a check for sixty-five thousand dollars yesterday. Maybe you don't like him, but the business is worthwhile, a small but profitable line. He's always saying that, and he's right.'
De Gier grunted. 'The house was appraised at ninety, and the commissaris threw in the car.'
She shrugged. 'Yes, under ideal circumstances, but the cape has a bad name now. It won't be so easy to talk anybody into living there.'
She lay down and pulled the blanket up to her chin. 'Sixty-five wasn't a bad price. Your commissaris drove a hard bargain, and if father hadn't felt guilty he wouldn't have given in. He'll be lucky if he can sell at that price. Did I tell you that I have news of Janet?'
'No.'
'I spoke to a psychiatrist who works at the state mental hospital. Psychiatrists aren't supposed to discuss their patients, but he's a good friend. Janet is behaving very crazily, and there's no doubt that she'll be declared incurably insane and moved to a private clinic in Massachusetts.
Shame.'
'Shame? That horrible woman?'
'I was thinking about your commissioner. The cut on his cheek still shows. It must have been an awful scene when she was chasing him around her porch. Good thing you were around.'
'He would have got away. He's been chased before. Even by a bulldozer. He's always been able to outwit the enemy.'
'Did he outwit the bulldozer?'
'He had some help,' de Gier admitted.
'You?'
'No. Another bulldozer.'
'Tell me.'
'Not now, Madelin. I am almost asleep. Let's stay this way.'
She bit his ear and he squeaked with pain.
'So you do hurt, do you? In spite of all your damned cool. Is there nothing I can do for you? Don't you have some secret wish I can fulfill?'
He looked at the telephone on the floor near the bed. 'Yes, I do have a wish.'
'I'll do it.' She was sitting up again and her hair brushed into his face.
'I'd like to make a phone call to Amsterdam.'
She sighed. 'Go ahead. The Dutch are a stolid, small-minded race. Isn't that what Janet told your commissaris?'
De Gier had finished dialing.
'Police headquarters.'
'Hello, dear.'
'Is that you, sergeant?' the female constable asked. 'I haven't heard your voice in weeks. Are you in the building?'
'No, I am outside. Can you put me through to Adjutant Grijpstra please?'
'Sure. Bring me a candy bar when you come in. Bitter sweet. I'll pay you.'
'Tomorrow. I can't come in today.'
'Don't forget. I'll connect you now.'
'Grijpstra,' a deep voice said gruffly.
'Morning. Have you had coffee yet?'
'De Gier! Where are you?'
'Jameson, Maine, U.S.A.'
'Still there? When will you be back? How is the commissaris? You've been away two full weeks, you know. What's keeping you?'
'We'll be back tomorrow. The commissaris is reasonably well. He was limping badly, but he has spent the last few days in his sister's bath.'
'So what have you been doing?'
