Watch and be watched? You in your nice suit. Hike your tie.'
'Oh, dear,' the commissaris said. 'Katrien bought me this tie. You should be careful with your fantasies, dear. Celine Guldemeester had fantasies too. Living them out might not be as harmless as she thought.'
'Yes.' She released his knee. 'I forgot. I met Celine at the club.'
'Is she happy now?' the commissaris asked.
'She was a bit drunk.' Miss Antoinette giggled. 'Like I am now. I don't like being drunk, but just a little is fun. I wish I could be drunk like this all the time. Celine kept talking about de Gier. She just loves deGier.'
'Yes,' the commissaris said.
'I don't love deGier.'
'No?' the commissaris said. 'Why not? Most women seem to like de Gier.'
'He's too healthy,' Miss Antoinette said. 'Healthy men are always so stupid. I only like handicapped men. I don't like men who can do anything they want to do. They don't need me.'
'Is that why you like old men?'
'Willem needs me.' Miss Antoinette smiled.
'You don't love Willem,' the commissaris said. 'That's impossible.' He looked fierce. 'So what else did you and Willem do?'
'Well…' Miss Antoinette pursed her moist lips and pushed a lock of hair away from her eye. 'Not much. When I still had the dress on, he sat on my lap, which was awkward, for he's rather heavy. He kissed me a bit and caressed me, sort of. Rather sneakily, I thought.' Her shoulders trembled above the low blouse. 'Willem is very sneaky.'
'Yes,' the commissaris said.
'Would you be sneaky if you sat on my lap? You're not heavy.'
'No,' the commissaris said. 'Not if I was aware that you didn't like that type of activity. Bert? Could I have another, if you please?'
'I didn't altogether dislike it,' Miss Antoinette said. 'I'm sometimes sneaky myself. And then we had a bath.'
'Together?'
'Yes.' She laughed. 'In a sunken tub. Enormous, black marble, and the water swirled, and we were both admirals and we had fleets of nutshells.'
The commissaris looked around. Bert had poured the jenever but seemed now lost in thought. 'I'll get it.' Miss Antoinette pranced past the commissaris. She came back. 'You didn't look. I walk differently now. Willem likes that. I sway.'
'Willem can look,' the commissaris said. 'What else happened, dear? Never mind the sex, I think I can visualize that part of your encounter well enough. Any information I can use?'
'At the club,' Miss Antoinette said, 'Willem and that silly baron who looks just like de Gier talked about a man called Ryder. I met Ryder too. A big fat guy who looks like a frog. Ronnie Ryder.'
'The fellow who owns all the clothing stores?'
'Yes,' Miss Antoinette said. 'Willem explained it to me later, when we were nutshell admirals. I let him win. You've got to make waves, and when a nutshell capsizes, you've lost it.'
'Yes,' the commissaris said. 'I know, but Willem cheats. He throws water in your eyes and then he quickly sinks a few.'
'How do you know?' Miss Antoinette said. 'Amazing, he kept doing that to me too. But that Ryder fellow cheats too. It seems that Ryder had lost a lot of money when his cheating went wrong, and Willem's bank took over the debts, but all the goods in the stores belong to Willem now. The baron is arranging sales in all the stores and races around to empty the registers, and Ryder doesn't want that.'
'Well-known gambit,' the commissaris said. 'They'll collect all the cash, which is more than whatever Ryder owes the bank now. He'll go bankrupt anyway, and Willem makes a cool million.'
'Yes, but Ryder got wise to that. Ryder and Willem were supposed to be close friends, but Ryder knows now that they're shaking him down, so he hired some lawyers and they got quite a bit of cash back for him. Some contract trouble, Willem said. But he still wants the money and now pretends that he and Ronnie are friends again so that Ronnie will come to the club and lose the money at roulette. He's coming every night and they keep allowing him to win. So far, that is.'
The commissaris nodded. 'Another old trick. When is Ronnie going to lose the lot?'
'Next week, I think,' Miss Antoinette said. 'I'll let you know. Maybe that's when you should raid the club.'
'Yes,' the commissaris said. 'Exactly. Thank you.'
She tittered. 'All the money will be on the table. They don't have chips in the club. All the gambling is for cash. It'll be a fortune.'
The commissaris checked his watch. 'Not yet.' He looked again. 'No, my watch is slow, I think.' He lit a cigar.
Miss Antoinette's slender fingers touched his hand. 'Do you know what Celine asked me? If I had left you as well. Celine has a crush on you too.'
'On de Gier,' the commissaris said.
Miss Antoinette bent farther toward him. 'That's physical. The part she really loves de Gier took from you.' She pulled a lipstick and a mirror from her handbag and busied herself for a while. She looked up. 'And Celine feels she has betrayed that part by working for Fernandus. She wants support. If I betrayed you too, she doesn't have to feel too bad.' Miss Antoinette dropped her mirror back into her bag. She smiled happily at the commissaris. 'But I'm still yours.'
'Exaggerations,' the commissaris said. 'You project more onto me than I could ever be worth. Your father died young?'
'My father is a fool,' Miss Antoinette said briskly. 'He only believes in work. Dad bores me. I won't even go to his birthday parties anymore.' She smiled. 'He's not manly.'
The commissaris looked furiously at his cigar. 'No, dear. De Gier is a real man, he shoots bull's-eyes only, has a black belt in judo, rides motorcycles and whatnot. I never achieved anything in the manly field. I'm just sly.' He threw ash from his cigar. 'And self-centered. Why can't you see that?'
'If'-Miss Antoinette raised a finger-'if you were sly, there would be a purpose to your slyness. You use whatever comes up and you always use it right.' Her hand was on his again. 'You fascinate us.'
'Tell Katrien,' the commissaris said. He grinned. 'Now if she would say that.' He thought. 'Well, she has said it at times.' He tipped his cigar carefully into the ashtray. 'So Celine likes de Gier?'
'If you ask me,' Miss Antoinette said, 'Celine joined the Society's club on the chance that de Gier might visit there. She couldn't get him at her home. De Gier is too straitlaced for that, but if he happened to stray into the club she could catch him.'
Bert shuffled close, holding the jug. The commissaris held his hand above his glass.
Miss Antoinette laughed. 'That Willem. What a pity you weren't there to see it. When he sat on my lap? And was fondling my breasts? You know what he said?'
The commissaris coughed. She waited. 'What did he say, dear?' the commissaris said between coughs.
'If Jannie could see me now.' Miss Antoinette was laughing again. 'Don't you think that's crazy?'
\\ 19 /////
'Always sohomething,' Carl said, trying to bend a ragged shingle, 'never mahade a tuhurtle's shehell before.'
The commissaris held up the turtle. 'Sit still, friend, you're supposed to be a model.'
'You can puhut him dohown,' Carl said, squatting on the commissaris's back porch. Mrs. Jongs, standing behind the two men, cleaned windows. The commissaris's wife called from inside the house. 'Jan, Adjutant Grijpstra is here.'
'Hello, Adjutant,' the commissaris said, beckoning Grijpstra toward the porch. 'How's the head? Still
