'Me?' The commissaris looked surprised.
Fernandus shrugged. 'You'll lose her anyway.'
'Howso?'
'Because I will get you.' Fernandus addressed the tip of his cigar. 'That's why I'm really here. To warn you not to warn me. You have no idea what forces I can call into the field. You'll be smashed before you get started.'
'I've already gotten started,' the commissaris said. 'Surely you've learned by now that weariness is a warrior's best weapon. Aren't you just a trifle cocky, Willem?'
Fernandus hit his knee. 'Turn that around. Who's bluffing whom? You are the one who's in a weak position.' Fernandus snorted. 'Look at you, even physically you're in bad health. I hear about you from time to time; you're always off on some sort of sick leave. Whatever energy you may think you can apply, you'll have to draw from the State. The State is out of energy these days. The police, like any other corrective office that represents the ailing government now, malfunctions.'
The commissaris tapped his desk blotter with a letter opener, a small model of a bayonet. 'Don't underestimate your opponent, Willem. My brigade still works.'
'Does it now?' Fernandus leaned back in his chair. 'Key officers retire ahead of time, or get transferred to quiet pastures, and are replaced by nincompoops. You're the last of the Mohicans, Jan. Your tribe is dying out.'
'Wimpy, Wimpy…' The commissaris shook his head.
Fernandus bounced up. 'If your brigade functions, how come all that evidence got lost?'
'You're referring to the gun?'
'Of course I'm referring to the gun.'
'Now,' the commissaris said, 'which gun might you be referring to? The Walther PPK pistol that fired a blank in Martin IJsbreker's face, or the automatic rifle you had set up across the road? By the way, Willem'1-the commissaris smiled-'you should instruct your marksman to read his instrument's instructions. Those rifles can be set for single shots.'
Fernandus looked about the room, grinning at the oil portrait of a seventeenth-century constabulary officer, dressed in a black velvet jacket with a high lace collar, holding an ancient pistol. Fernandus pointed. 'That dignitary looks like you-twice your size, of course, but your arrogance matches his shortsighted stupidity quite well.' Fernandus dropped his hand. 'I tell you, Jan, maybe that captain wielded more power with that muzzle-loading handpiece of his than you do now, I don't care how much modern might you may be able to command. It won't take much to bring you down.'
'I didn't,' the commissaris said, 'invite you to come here to listen to your bragging. I'm warning you. If you give in now, you'll save yourself considerable trouble.'
Fernandus puffed on his cigar. 'And how should I give in?'
The commissaris balanced his letter opener on his finger. 'Close your bank, dismantle your phony tax-free Society, and admit to having committed at least one crime that's serious enough to have you locked up for three years. We're both old men now. Three years will do.'
Fernandus nodded. 'As I suspected. This is a personal matter.' He imitated the commissaris's high voice. 'We're both old men.'
The commissaris shook his head. 'I don't follow.'
Fernandus blew a perfect smoke ring.
'Are you saying I'm personally interested in bringing about your downfall?' the commissaris asked. 'I assure you I'm not.'
'You are,' Fernandus said. 'Let that go for the moment. How do you propose to attack? Before I give in, I should see how serious my situation is. You did say fair warning earlier on, I believe.'
The commissaris put his letter opener down. 'Hold it, Willem. Why should I be personally interested? Because of Martin IJsbreker's death? Admittedly I knew Martin, but I never liked the boy that much. Besides, he was on your side. Martin had shares in your pernicious bank. He directed the damned thing. He must have been active in the Society too. Crooks kill crooks, what is that to me? Maybe I'm interested in the junkies. Three young people who could have amounted to something. You abused them first, squashed them later.'
'How's that, Jan?' Fernandus studied his cigar.
The commissaris straightened up. 'Very well. I visualize a three-pronged attack on your dungeon of filth. The Tax Inspection Office will raid your bank, and my colleagues will rip your Society apart while I concentrate on the murders. That IJsbreker didn't commit suicide is proved by a vase.'
'Ah,' Fernandus said. 'A vase. Interesting. What vase?'
'A Peruvian vase,' the commissaris said. 'A valuable piece of Inca art. I saw that vase used as a paperweight to hold IJsbreker's so-called suicide note down. Allow me to digress for a moment. You will remember that Martin showed some artistic talent as a youth. He won prizes at school. We all liked to think that he would be famous one day.'
'He wasn't that good. Jan.'
'But Martin IJsbreker was artistically inclined.'
Fernandus nodded. 'Maybe so.'
'So he became a collector of art,' the commissaris said. 'Through you, Martin got himself into the money business. He combined money and art. Martin privately owned at least ten valuable paintings that you had removed.'
'I did?'
'Yes,' the commissaris said, 'and there were also quite a few vases stolen from IJsbreker's house. I saw their imprints in the dust, on a number of shelves all over the house. But one was left, used as a paperweight. What does that prove?'
'Prove?' Fernandus said. 'It proves nothing.'
'Oh, yes,' the commissaris said, 'it proves that the thieves you employed were sloppy. Unprofessional. Hired to do a one-shot deal. Expendables. You had them paid in heroin, strong heroin that killed them off the very same night.'
'That's your attack?' Fernandus asked. 'Really, Jan. Based on a vague supposition?'
'Not so vague, Willem, and certainly not when I follow up further. Once I connect the junkies to the middleman employed by you, and once I work on that middleman a bit… The artworks are still around, and can therefore be traced. You intend to sell them off at auctions so that the cash IJsbreker pilfered from your bank comes back to you. There are links, and Til find them one by one. Meanwhile, you'll be arrested on tax-evasion charges. You won't be able to interfere while some spineless lackey, presently employed by your organization, squeals.'
'No?' Fernandus asked.
'No,' the commissaris said. 'You'll gradually waft away. It won't even take long. Very soon you'll have nothing to fade into except-happily for you-death. Give in now and you'll suffer less. That's why I said that we're both old men now. Why go in for an all-out fight? It just means unnecessary fatigue.'
'Can I say something now?' Fernandus asked, happily waving his cigar.
'Go ahead.'
'If you feel old, Jan, it's because you want to feel old. I can see your self-inflicted age. Now look at me. I've gotten stronger with age. Do you have any idea how much money I control these days? Any idea what that money can buy?'
The commissaris picked up his letter opener again. 'Egotism is supposed to decrease with age.' He felt his leg. 'Ouch. We're getting rain again. I can feel it. Willem, at our age we should be mostly concerned about the welfare of others, rather than our own. What do you care about your personal wealth now?'
Fernandus puffed up his cheeks before exhaling with force. 'Your altruism tires me. Besides, it isn't true, you don't give a fly's fart about others either. Are you in pain?'
The commissaris kept rubbing his legs.
'Get yourself pensioned off, Jan. If you don't, I'll have you kicked out of office.' Fernandus moved his shiny boot. 'And I do mean kicked. Katrien won't like your shameful defeat spread all over the Courier's front page. How is Katrien?'
