image.'
'Of doubt?' the commissaris asked. He got up, holding on to the sergeant's arm. 'Strange. A well-made piece of what I would classify as modern primitive art, dominating a miserable floating shack. Artful creativity suspended in terminal negativity. We'll have to figure out the contrast sometime soon. Shall we leave? All this moisture in the air makes me feel my legs.'
De Gier held his arm around the commissaris's shoulders while he steered the frail old man along the ramshackle gangway. 'This boat is a danger to the city's health,' the commissaris said. 'You can alert the Water Police when you're near a phone. They should drag it away forthwith. Adjutant, would you mind bringing the rhino's head along? We'll hold on to the sculpture for the time being; maybe it'll turn out to be a clue. Lock it in the trunk of your car.'
While the commissaris and the sergeant waited for the adjutant to return from the car, parked in an alley farther along, de Gier reported. The commissaris looked at the giant carp below the bridge. 'Amazing, Sergeant.'
'Alleged deliberate loss of evidence,' de Gier concluded brightly. 'There may be witnesses, however, and we could still work on possible suspects. I daresay we can still find some.'
'It's the Japanese,' the commissaris said. 'I can't understand why they're getting such a bad press in the West. We should be grateful to those dexterous people.'
'Japanese suspects, sir?'
'You too?' the commissaris asked. 'Why should we blame their diligence for our woes?' He smiled as the mouth of a large fish broke the surface and smacked its shiny fat lips. 'I'll have to bring some bread next time we're here. That carp wants to be fed. No, Sergeant, I think we should see the Japanese as our benefactors. Now that they're taking over the world's industry and our factories are slowly grinding to a stop, pollution here is bound to decrease dramatically. You see the signs everywhere. Nature is coming back. We can breathe fresh air and truly enjoy ourselves again.'
'Were you listening to me at all?' de Gier asked.
'Yes,' the commissaris said. 'Most of what you said had come to me while I was indulging in a little reverie in that unfortunate floating coffin, but your old lady is new. Her presence may open up a new avenue, I think. And I'm glad you mentioned the musicians who have been bothering her. We're badly in need of suspects, don't you agree?'
'You want Grijpstra and me to go after them, sir?'
The commissaris was absorbed in the spectacle of the carp again. De Gier cleared his throat. 'What?' the commissaris asked. 'Right, no, Sergeant, just to go after them won't be good enough. Catch them at their infernal drumming. Trying to chase an old woman out of her home seems a fiendish offense. If you can catch them at that perfidious activity, you have a better hold. Don't even mention IJsbreker's death for now. With skillful treatment, our suspects might trip themselves up.'
'The downstairs apartment was empty just now, sir.'
'Try tomorrow.' The commissaris looked at the alley. 'There's the adjutant. That rhino's head inspired me, Sergeant, I spent a long time looking at it when I was in the boat. Odd to see such good work mixed up in such a foul mess.'
Grijpstra joined them and together the three men walked to IJsbreker's mansion. De Gier played his cassette recorder on the way. The commissaris nodded when the machine clicked off. 'Why did you phone IJsbreker's number?'
'I thought there might be someone in the house,' de Gier said. 'A girlfriend, perhaps. We could have questioned her.'
'Didn't you say IJsbreker was divorced, sir?' Grijpstra asked.
'So my wife heard,' the commissaris said. 'I haven't seen Martin in years. We should talk with his ex-wife; perhaps she was still in contact with her husband.'
IJsbreker spoke again from de Gier's cassette.
'Doesn't sound at all like the voice of a man who is about to shoot himself,' the commissaris said. 'The possibility of murder is shaping up nicely, I would say.'
'A multiple murder,' Grijpstra said.
The commissaris lightly touched the adjutant's arm. 'But we have no indications yet that the bodies are connected. You're referring to the junkies, Adjutant?'
Grijpstra pointed at the houseboat. 'In sight of IJsbreker's house? Three simultaneous overdoses? It happened the same night?'
'Nan,' de Gier said. 'The shots weren't fired from that boat. It's too low. IJsbreker got hit on the third story of his house. You mean that the junkies might have been witnesses and had to be removed?'
'I don't know what I mean yet,' Grijpstra said.
'If we keep looking,' the commissaris said, 'we'll find some meaning soon, but perhaps we're not supposed to look. I do get that impression.'
\\ 6 /////
'Ah, Chief Inspector,' the Commissaris said the next morning. 'Had a good press party? I haven't seen the Courier yet. Are the journalists pleased with your elimination of that German terrorist?'
Halba, looking shabby even though his suit appeared to be brand new, stood uncomfortably on the commissaris's splendid Persian rug.
'Please sit down.' The commissaris dialed. 'Miss Antoinette, could you bring in that elegant thermos flask? I have a visitor.' He smiled at Halba. 'If you please, Miss Antoinette?' The commissaris replaced his phone. 'Got to say that now. The ladies around here are getting stronger on proper etiquette.'
'Bitches,' Halba said, almost inaudibly. His thin lips curved. 'Yes, quite. I'm sorry I didn't show up yesterday, but the mayor was in a rather boisterous mood. Took us to a pub close to City Hall and kept us there until the wee hours.'
Miss Antoinette came in and poured coffee. She passed Halba's cup. 'Mr. Halba, the bank phoned again. Your wife called, too. Some trouble about your credit card, the man at the bank said. He insisted that you call him as soon as possible, and your wife seemed very upset. The problem is insufficient funds, I believe.'
The chief inspector's left eye twitched. 'Yes, I will take care of the matter.' Miss Antoinette swiveled her hips triumphantly as she swung her tight body through the door.
The commissaris's eyebrows were still raised as he addressed his visitor again. 'Uh. Yes. There was something that has escaped me for the moment.' He stared at his hands, spread neatly on his desk. 'Ah, I've got it again. Your colleague Rood telephoned just now. About his man in the hospital. Poor fellow isn't doing at all well. But how did that melee with the German go, exactly? It's still unclear to me. The terrorist was shot dead in a telephone booth?'
'Very tricky,' Halba said, 'I'm still amazed we didn't have more trouble. Terrorists are really exceedingly hard to handle. We found him because a woman who rents rooms alerted us, saying she had a German-speaking guest who had dropped several cartridges between his bed and the wall. She let us in when the fellow was out. The woman said the German was always telephoning from a booth further along in the street, although there was a phone in her hall. We found several clips that fit an Uzi machine gun, hidden between the German's shirts in a drawer. Since we couldn't find the gun, we assumed that subject was carrying the weapon about. The short- barreled version of the Uzi can be easily hidden under a jacket. The woman's description of her guest fitted one sent to us by the West German police of a well-known terrorist.'
'Were you in charge of the initial investigation?' the commissaris asked.
'No, Rood was,' Halba said. 'Rood located the suspect in the street, but hadn't made the arrest, so I took over. Rood is mostly Narcotics now, and since I was then in charge of the Murder Brigade-'
'You murdered the suspect,' the commissaris said, 'and the investigation, according to Rood. Chief Inspector Rood had planned to follow the suspect to detect possible ramifications. We're after the entire terrorist organization, after all. Couldn't you have waited with the arrest?'
