but de Gier hit again in a blur of vindictive fury. Mtiller's breath escaped in a burst of foul air; after that he sobbed. Then he fell, taking his time, spreading his monstrous body between a tree trunk and de Gier's feet. The sergeant stepped back.
Grijpstra was on his knees, holding Asta's leg.
'I'm all right,' she said. 'He caught me on the side. It hurts but the knee'U still work. Help me up please.'
She held on to Grijpstra and hobbled over to de Gier.
'The case, it's floating away, we've got to get it. You can lower me down and I'll pick it up. Here, hold my gun.'
De Gier lay down and Grijpstra held his feet. Asta grabbed the low railing at the end of the cobblestones and lowered her body gently. She touched the case with the point of her shoe and maneuvered it toward her.
'Don't drop me, sergeant.' The case was between her feet. 'Pull me up now.'
Grijpstra handcuffed Mtiller while de Gier and Asta opened the case; it contained sixteen small plastic bags. Asta undid one and sniffed at the powder; she passed the bag to de Gier.
'Probably cocaine, the laboratory'll know. You did well, Asta.'
She looked round. Grijpstra was slapping Muller's cheeks slowly and methodically with both hands.
'Is he coming to?'
'In a minute, not yet.'
She kissed de Gier, just touching his lips. 'Did I really do well? I wasn't sure. The connection between Mtiller and Boronski was drugs. There would be drugs in the hotel. Mtiller knew we were after him. He had to get rid of the evidence; he didn't want to leave it in the hotel, for we might have traced it back to him. He thought he would dump it into the canal, a little bag at a time. He would wait until dark. If I could catch him with the drug in his possession, I could arrest him. Right?'
'Wrong, you wanted to do it on your own. We never work by ourselves, not if we can help it. You should have asked me or the adjutant to assist you. We're supposed to work as a team.'
'Yes, I'm sorry.'
'It's a long road,' de Gier whispered, 'and there's nothing at the end, but we can have company on the way.'
'Yes.'
He saw her lower lip tremble and embraced her. She was talking, but her face pressed against his chest, and he couldn't hear what she said. He held her at arm's length. 'Say that again?'
She was crying now. 'Please don't think I wanted the credit of the arrest. It was that you looked so happy on your balcony with Tabriz. I thought the two of you should rest for a while. Please tell the commissaris you made the arrest.'
'That's all right.' He gave her her gun and his handkerchief. 'Cops don't cry, not much anyway. How's he doing, Grijpstra?'
'Awake, and he wants to get up.'
Together they pushed and pulled until Mtiller was in balance. They led him back, and Grijpstra telephoned for a car at Cafe Beelema. De Gier parked the wheezing Miiller against the bridge railing while he bought Asta a herring. The car, a minibus driven by Karate, arrived within minutes.
'Where to, sergeant?'
'To Headquarters. Tell the turnkeys to make him comfortable. We'll interrogate him later tonight.'
'Right. If you have a minute, you and the adjutant might go over to our station. Sergeant Jurriaans wants to talk to you.'
'No,' de Gier said, 'I've had enough for tonight. Some other time.'
'You'd better go, sergeant, me and the chief did a little work for you tonight.'
'Tell me what you did.'
'No. The chief wants to tell you himself.'
The bus drove off.
Grijpstra came out of the cafe, wiping beer froth off his mouth.
'Why did you let that bus go? I don't want to walk back to Headquarters.'
'I have my bicycle,' de Gier said, 'but Asta wants to go with me and it won't carry two passengers. There's also a proposition from the station here, which is around the corner. Jurriaans wants to see us.'
'Good. He can have us driven home.'
They walked slowly, Asta in the middle.
'See?' Asta said, pointing at a disorderly heap of feathers. 'This is where the Chinese throws out his garbage, and there's nothing we can do about it. It isn't just feathers, there's blood and meat too.'
'Good for rats,' Grijpstra said, steering her around a temporary fence. 'This part of town'll never get organized. What are they blacktopping this area for? What's wrong with cobblestones?'
Asta tried not to limp. De Gier supported her elbow.
'You realize that we are still nowhere,' Grijpstra said. 'So Herr Miiller is a drug dealer and we can prove it. That's nice. But drugs is not our department. That the Hamburg police will be pleased has nothing to do with us either. First we had a murder and no corpse, it added up to zero. Now we have a corpse and no murder. Zero equals zero.'
De Gier grinned. His arm slipped around Asta's shoulders. 'There's nothing more glorious than zero, adjutant. You can multiply it at will, you can divide it at will, and it will always be the same. We can lose ourselves in nothing and go as far as we like; we'll never hit the other end of it.'
The adjutant hadn't thought of a reply yet when Sergeant Jurriaans welcomed his guests with outstretched arms, beaming at the bedraggled group that reluctantly entered his small office.
7
'You look tired,' Jurriaans said. 'Are they overworking you already?'
Asta lit a cigarette. Her hand trembled.
'No, I fell and hurt my knee; otherwise I'm having a good time.'
'How do you like de Gier?'
De Gier reached for the match Grijpstra was about to strike; he put it in his mouth.
'This is not a social call, colleague. Please come to the point.'
Asta smiled. 'I love him. I love you too. My soul is torn.'
Jurriaans nodded. 'I'd advise you to lean his way, even if he's short-tempered. Married men are easy to deal with, but they've lost their spunk; the stress of the home situation takes its toll. Married men also carry guilt which clogs up the atmosphere. Take him and come to me for comfort. I'll always be around for I can't get away.'
De Gier's teeth snapped through his match and he took another from Grijpstra's hand. Grijpstra gave him his matchbox and took Jurriaans's lighter. He lit his cigar and slipped the lighter into his pocket.
'Why are we here?'
'You're here because your chase has come to an end. I've liberated you. If you like, I'll tell you about it, after you return my lighter, of course.'
Grijpstra replaced the lighter.
Jurriaans sat back. He cleared his throat.
'Well, where shall I start? I can't start at the beginning, for I don't know where it is. My interference came so much later, and it wasn't even mine, for Karate saw him. He saw the Prime Punk, and we subsequently arrested him. About two hours ago I tried to get hold of you, but I couldn't trace you. I wanted you to hear the Chief Punk confess, but he'll repeat his performance if you like, and if you don't, I have his signed statement.'
'Who?' Grijpstra asked.
'He is a mugger and he robs cars. He's quick and sly and an expert, but Karate was quicker. Karate and I were driving about tonight; with Ketchup on leave and Asta in the higher spheres I'm even more short-staffed than usual and besides I was bored. A bit of active duty cheers me up sometimes. We drove through the Red Mill Alley,
