somewhere.'
'It's not too hard to find,' de Gier said, pulling french fries from a paper bag. 'You head for Dokkum, turn at Britsum, and make sure you don't miss Ee and Metslawier.'
'You don't know where I'm going,' the commissaris said.
'What's de Gier saying?' Cardozo asked, chewing his hard-boiled egg.
'He's speaking Frisian again,' Grijpstra said, pulling plastic wrap off boiled meat. 'He's linguistic.'
'I learned some good Frisian last night,' de Gier said. 'Poetic too. Hylkje taught me. She acted it out, too. Want to hear?'
'Showoff,' Grijpstra said, then turned to Cardozo. 'I hope you see that now. He's not a good model for you. Real heroes never have to show they are special.'
'And he wouldn't even cook us a meal,' Cardozo said. 'How could I ever want to imitate him? He really fell through on this case. He blinded me for too long. This egg is old.'
The commissaris paid. 'Got to go now.'
De Gier followed him. 'You'll lose you way, sir. It'll be dark in a moment, and all those dikes look alike.'
'Come along, then,' the commissaris said.
The commissaris looked over his shoulder. 'Another Land Rover.' His fists hit his knees. 'Ouch. No. I won't have it. Get rid of them, de Gier. You're a good driver. Let's see what you can do.'
De Gier stopped just before the village of Metslawier. The Land Rover parked ahead. 'Evening,' the sergeant said.
'I know the way,' de Gier said. 'I swear.'
The sergeant saluted and marched off. 'Well?' the corporal in the Land Rover asked.
'A legend doesn't have to be true.'
The corporal, a man from The Hague, recently transferred but able to speak Frisian quite well by now, said that legends must be true, just because they are legends. 'You're a religious type, aren't you?'
'Like any Frisian,' the sergeant said.
'So they must be lost. Your faith supports you in believing they are. We showed them the way. We'll tell all the colleagues, and they'll all be happy.'
'I was happy before this came up,' the sergeant said, 'and I'm still happy. Policemen from below the dike are morons, whether they've lost the way or not.'
'I just wanted you to keep on being happy,' the corporal said. 'This is paradise, is it not? As soon as doubt comes up, we have to crush it.'
'You haven't lost your way here yet?' the commissaris asked in the Citroen.
'No,' de Gier said, 'but then it was all made easy for me.
'Because you weren't in on it?'
De Gier took the turn toward Ee. 'A little question, sir. Did you intentionally place me in an outside position?'
'Now whatever makes you think that?' the commissaris asked. 'Don't put me on a pedestal, how many times haven't I said that to you? You've always wanted to change me into a legend, but legends are always lies. Sane doubt, Sergeant, will serve you better than creating idols to populate your little heaven.'
'I don't believe you,' de Gier said. 'Whatever you do has to be intentional. You push someone out and he immediately starts to prove himself, and since he isn't part of the team, he has to approach the problem from a different angle, as you wanted him to.'
'And I'm admiring the proceedings of that free individual?' the commissaris asked. 'Stop carrying on so, Sergeant. Have I, anywhere during this inquiry, asked you what you might be doing?'
'You didn't have to,' de Gier said. 'You're a good observer.'
'There you go again,' the commissaris said, 'although it's true that we are now both headed in the right direction.'
'Before we get there,' de Gier said, 'you might give in. Talk to me now, and you'll be in a better position when you try to trap the man. But maybe you don't need to give your game away now. Are you still testing me?'
The commissaris stared sadly at low houses clinging to the dike. 'Who is the Frisian here? Don't be stubborn, Sergeant. I'm not testing you in any way. All I want to do is meet with the suspect and get back to Amsterdam to see if I can get some rest.'
'Ha,' de Gier said. 'The suspect can't be arrested. We'll be grabbing thin air. Isn't this a wasted trip, sir?'
'Now why can't we grab Adjutant Oppenhuyzen?' The commissaris smashed a nonexistent fly between his hands. 'We'll make him confess, that's easy enough, contact the Super Police in The Hague, and Central Detection will be here in a jiffy and nab him. True?'
'Not true,' de Gier said. 'I think you're testing me again. This, sir, is Engwierum. The adjutant's summer shed is on the next street on the right, at the end, facing the sea. Shall we go?' He parked the car.
'Hmm,' the commissaris said.
'You prefer me to park in front of the suspect's house?'
'I lose,' the commissaris said. 'You're right. I can't arrest him.'
'So why are we visiting the poor fellow?'
'I lose again,' the commissaris said. 'It might be better if you'd fill me in first. What do you know, Sergeant?'
'After you,' de Gier said. 'You made me set myself up by coming along. I give in. Won't you tell me first what you found out?'
'Very well,' the commissaris said, 'but let me lose a little. Answer this question. How wealthy is the adjutant?'
'He isn't,' de Gier said. 'Oppenhuyzen drives an old Saab. He doesn't dress well. You've seen his house in Leeuwarden in Spanish Lane, paid for out of his wages, furniture and all. The summer house is constructed from pressed sawdust sheeting.'
'Would he be stashing money in a foreign country?'
'Not the type, sir. Mrs. Oppenhuyzen doesn't like to travel, and the adjutant doesn't strike me as an adventurer either.'
'No money in an old sock?'
'I don't think so, sir.'
'Suspect visits prostitutes,' the commissaris said, 'according to Cardozo. So he does. So what? Once in a while, maybe. It's not a costly habit.'
'Sir,' de Gier said, 'I'm positive Adjutant Oppenhuyzen never accepted bribes in cash. He went to Singapore at his own expense, to visit a needle doctor. He and his wife stayed in a boardinghouse. The doctor was a friend of Wang's, the restaurant owner we met last night. A good guy, I'm sure.'
'Mr. Wang impressed me,' the commissaris said. 'He knew what I was talking about. He must be a sage.'
'Are you a sage too, sir?'
'Hmm,' the commissaris said. 'Don't get too clever, Sergeant. Attack is easy.'
'Well, maybe the suspect did accept something,' de Gier said. 'But I'm sure the Triads didn't pay for his Singapore cure.'
'Did the cure work?'
'No, sir. But Oppenhuyzen did, from time to time, have periods when he suffered no pains.'
'You can switch the engine off now,' the commissaris said.
They walked the rest of the way. 'At times there was no pain,' the commissaris said, 'so we may presume that the suspect could, on occasion, procure a strong drug. Heroin is the best painkiller known to modern medicine. Continuous and excruciating pains in the face are often diagnosed as neuralgia, perhaps an incurable disease. Morphine will do away with the pain, but our doctors don't like to prescribe the drug, and if they do, the quantities are always too small.'
'He could have used a bullet,' de Gier said. 'Bullets are often better.'
'You're too young,' the commissaris said, 'but you're excused. I would have made the same comment
