The Weeping Girl

‘No? But wouldn’t it be an idea to talk to the staff at the Sidonis home even so? Ask how the meeting between father and daughter went. . Where she went afterwards, that kind of thing.’

‘Already taken care of.’

‘Really?’

Silence. Right, left. Breathing out, breathing in.

‘Vegesack went out there last night. Why are you poking around in this business, Inspector? Do you think I don’t know how to do my job?’

‘Forgive me,’ said Moreno. ‘Of course not. It’s just that I was a bit taken by the girl. I met her quite by chance on the train when I was on my way here. You were the one in charge of the investigation sixteen years ago, is that right?’

‘Who else?’ said Vrommel. ‘What do you do in the way of physical training?’

Talk about changing the subject, Moreno thought, and smiled genuinely.

‘Oh, I go jogging, and to the gym,’ she said.

‘Gym!’ snorted Vrommel. ‘A bloody silly newfangled racket.’

Moreno decided not to take the bait.

‘What did Vegesack have to say?’ she asked instead.

‘Nothing at all,’ said Vrommel, twisting his head so far to the right that Moreno could hear his cervical vertebrae creaking.

‘Nothing at all?’

‘He hasn’t delivered his report yet,’ said Vrommel. ‘He takes the morning off on Thursdays. Looking after his ancient mum, or something of the sort. Another bloody silly newfangled racket.’

Moreno wasn’t sure if the chief of police was attacking motherhood itself, or the fact that there were still people who accepted a certain amount of responsibility for their parents. She also began to feel that it was becoming more and more difficult to remain in the same room as Vrommel without giving him a kick between the legs or suggesting he should go and take a running jump. . So she cleared her throat and stood up instead. Thanked him for being so cooperative. So extremely cooperative.

‘No problem,’ said Vrommel. ‘Code of honour. Go and lie down in the sun now. We’ll do all that’s required of us, in accordance with the rulebook.’

Kiss my arse, thought Moreno when she had emerged into the sunlight. Code of honour! In accordance with the rule-book! Oh yes! She didn’t doubt for one second that Chief of Police Vrommel knew precisely what to do in a situation like this.

How to handle girls who disappeared then turned up again a little redder in the cheek.

She crossed over the square and sat down at a table in the pavement area of Cafe Darm. Ordered a cappuccino and freshly pressed orange juice and continued to wonder what to do next — Vegesack wasn’t due back at the police station until one o’clock, she had already established that after a chat with froken Glossmann in reception. Then she suddenly caught sight of Sigrid Lijphart sitting only a couple of tables away.

She hesitated for a moment, then took her cup and glass and asked if she might join fru Lijphart.

Of course. Fru Lijphart didn’t look as if she had slept very well that night — hardly surprising, after all. She seemed to have been crying, Moreno thought, repressing an impulse to place her hand on fru Lijphart’s arm.

She wasn’t quite sure why she had repressed that impulse, but it seemed obvious that the explanation had to do with her profession as a police officer rather than her being a woman. It wasn’t always easy to reconcile these two natures side by side within her. She had thought about that before. Many a time.

‘How are you feeling?’ she asked cautiously.

Fru Lijphart took out a handkerchief and blew her nose.

‘Not so good,’ she said.

‘I understand,’ said Moreno.

‘Do you?’ said fru Lijphart. ‘Do you have children of your own?’

Moreno shook her head. ‘Not yet.’

Yet? She gave a start and wondered why that phrase had just popped out of her mouth. Noted that whatever else it might be, it wasn’t a police expression — rather some sort of Freudian slip: so the balance between her natures seemed to have been restored.

‘I’m so worried,’ said fru Lijphart, scraping her coffee cup against the saucer. ‘So really, really worried. Something. . Something must have happened to her. Mikaela would never. . No, so many days have passed now.’

Her voice broke. Her body shuddered violently — like the after-effects of an attack of sobbing, Moreno thought — then she straightened her back and tried to collect herself.

‘I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s so hard.’

‘I understand,’ said Moreno again. ‘If I can do anything to help, just say the word.’

Fru Lijphart looked at her in surprise.

‘You are. . Are you a police officer here in Lejnice?’

Moreno smiled.

‘No, Maardam. I’m here on holiday. It’s just that I had to see the chief of police about a certain matter.’

‘I see.’

There followed a moment’s silence, and Moreno had time to ask herself what that I see might mean. If her interpretation was right, it seemed to indicate a certain degree of relief that Moreno wasn’t a member of Vrommel’s normal staff.

Very understandable, in that case.

‘Have you tried to do anything off your own bat?’ she asked.

Fru Lijphart shook her head.

‘No. I’ll meet Vrommel and that constable of his at one o’clock. . No, I don’t feel that I can go round talking to people in this town. Not after what happened. I’ve sort of turned my back on it all. . Left it behind me. I simply wouldn’t be able to look it in the face again now.’

‘I don’t suppose you know where Mikaela intended to spend the night, do you?’

Fru Lijphart looked unsure.

‘I’ve no idea,’ she said. ‘She just upped and left. Naturally. . naturally it was a sort of punishment on her part — that’s how I interpret it, at least. Punishing me for not having told her sooner. And punishing Helmut as well, perhaps. He’s my husband, Mikaela’s stepfather. A sort of demonstration, I reckon. She simply said she was going to come here and meet him, then she left. But I know that she wouldn’t keep out of touch like this. I don’t suppose everybody knows their own children inside out, but I do.’

‘So you don’t think that this is part of the demonstration? Leaving you to stew for a while?’

‘No.’ Fru Lijphart shook her head emphatically. ‘Absolutely not. Obviously I was prepared for her to stay away for a day and maybe a night as well, but not as long as this. It’s now. . it’s now nearly a week. Good Lord, why doesn’t he do something, that damned chief of police?’

Moreno thought it best not to respond to that, so she said nothing for a while and tried to look benignly neutral.

‘And you don’t want to go and talk to your ex-husband?’ she asked in due course.

Fru Lijphart gave a start as if she had just burnt her fingers.

‘To Arnold? Talk to Arnold? No, I can’t see what good that would do.’

‘You could find out what they talked about, for instance,’ said Moreno. ‘Mikaela and him.’

Fru Lijphart didn’t answer at first, looked as if she were contemplating the difference between the plague and cholera.

‘No,’ she said eventually. ‘I don’t think that whatever has happened had anything to do with that. Besides, that police constable has been to talk to him, so there’s no point in anybody else doing so.’

‘What actually happened?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Sixteen years ago. What happened?’

Fru Lijphart looked genuinely surprised.

‘You must know, surely.’