He rolled over onto his side and opened the window wide. The sunshine was very bright out there. Small birds were fluttering around in the shrubbery outside the kitchen door. The sky was blue, dotted here and there with tufts of scudding cloud.
Spring? he thought. What the hell am I doing here?
He recalled the previous evening. He'd stayed at the inn until eleven o'clock, and then thrown caution to the wind on the way back home. He'd simply stood up and left. Taken the main street-the chapel, Heine's, Van Klauster's-and then the narrow lane home to his cottage.
He'd had his pistol in his hand all the time, to be sure-with the safety catch off. But still…
He'd even entertained the thought of using the real bed, but something had held him back.
It was a week now. Eight days, to be precise, and as he brewed some coffee and buttered some bread in the kitchen, he decided that this would have to do. Today would have to be the last day. He would have to face up to the facts and acknowledge that he was wasting his time. It wouldn't bear fruit. He would have fuck-all to show for it, so that was that.
He might just as well have left right away, before lunch; but Korhonen had promised to show him some pictures of his new Thai girlfriend, and so he'd said he would be there tonight as well.
But after that, he'd draw the line. The realization that it had been a mistake to come here had been growing inside him for some time now-the realization that it was pointless, and that these weren't the circumstances in which she intended to confront him.
His telephone call to his wife four days ago-and her mention of the woman from Copenhagen who had been trying to contact him-had naturally been an indication and a confirmation. But not that she intended turning up here. Merely that she knew where he was.
It must have been her-he'd realized that right away: he didn't have any female business contacts in Copenhagen. Nor any male ones, come to that. But this delay… these days that passed by without anything happening. The only way he could interpret it was that she had declined his invitation. Refused to meet him on his terms.
The cowardly bitch, he thought. You murdering whore, I'll get the better of you, no matter what!
Nevertheless, he didn't relax his safety procedures this final day. Despite his recognition of the fact that his calculations had failed, he spent his accustomed hours out in the forest. Ate his meals as usual, did a bit of packing after dark, and was aware of the fact that he mustn't be reckless.
On his guard, as usual. His gun was always within reach. And he kept himself hidden.
Only one more night. Just one.
He didn't bother to think about how he would go about things in the future. He didn't have the strength, after all those efforts that had led nowhere.
He would leave here tomorrow.
He would make some new decisions tomorrow.
He listened to the eight o'clock news, then sneaked out into the darkness. Paused as usual outside the front door, pistol in hand, eyes skinned and ears cocked; then he set off for the village and the inn. The air was still warm, and it seemed to him that the spring he'd woken up to that morning had decided to stay on. At least for a few more days.
“Shouldn't we contact the police in Saaren?” said Reinhart when they'd been driving for forty kilometers and the chief inspector hadn't said a word.
“Have you forgotten who's chief of police there?” asked Van Veeteren.
“Oh my God! Yes, of course. Mergens. No, it would be best to keep him out of this.”
Van Veeteren nodded and lit his third cigarette within twenty minutes.
“What the hell would we say to him, anyway?” he said after a while. “Ask him to come down like a ton of bricks on Mrs. Biedersen, and lock her up until we get there?”
Reinhart shrugged.
“He'd like that,” he said. “No, you're right. We'll deal with this ourselves.”
“Can't you go a bit faster?” Van Veeteren wondered.
It was a quarter past eight before deBries managed to get through to Dagmar Biedersen. She had just gotten back from a shopping spree and a last-minute visit to the hairdresser, and she sounded tired. When contact was made with Van Veeteren and Reinhart, it transpired that they were only about ten minutes away from Saaren, and so it was decided that it wasn't necessary to involve other police districts at this stage.
“Good timing,” said Reinhart. “We'll go straight to her place. Tell her we'd like a couple of beers.”
“But what exactly are you implying?” wondered Mrs. Biedersen, placing two protective hands over her new hairdo.
“Can't we sit down somewhere and discuss the whole business quietly and calmly?” Van Veeteren suggested.
Reinhart led the way into the living room and sat down on a red plush sofa. The chief inspector invited Mrs. Biedersen to sit down in one of the armchairs, while he remained standing.
“We have reason to believe that your husband is in danger,” he began.
“In danger?”
“Yes. It's connected with those earlier deaths. Can you tell us where he is at the moment?”
“What? No… well, perhaps, but surely it can't be…”
“I'm afraid it can,” said Reinhart. “Where is he?”
Without warning, Dagmar Biedersen burst into tears. Something had given way inside her, and her meager chest was convulsed by sobbing. Tears came flooding forth.
Oh, hell! Van Veeteren thought.
“My dear Mrs. Biedersen,” he said, “all we want to know is where he is, so that we can sort everything out.”
She took out a handkerchief and blew her nose.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I'm being silly.”
You certainly are, Van Veeteren thought. But answer the question, for Christ's sake.
“He's probably… up at the cottage, I assume. That's where he called me from a few days ago, at least.”
“The cottage?” wondered Reinhart.
“Yes, we have a holiday cottage, or whatever you'd like to call it-it's where he grew up, in fact. We go there sometimes. He often spends time there on his own, as well…”
“Where?” asked Van Veeteren.
“Oh, excuse me. In Wahrhejm, of course.”
“Wahrhejm? And where is Wahrhejm?”
“Excuse me,” she said again. “It's between Ulming and Oostwerdingen. Just a little village. It's about a hundred kilometers from here.”
Van Veeteren thought for a moment.
“Are you sure he's there?”
“No, as I said… But I think so.”
“Is there a telephone in the cottage?”
“No, I'm afraid not. He usually phones from the inn. He likes to be undisturbed when he's up there.”
Van Veeteren sighed.
“Just our damned luck,” he said. “Would you mind leaving us alone for a couple of minutes, Mrs. Biedersen? The inspector and I need to exchange a few words.”
“Of course,” she said, and vanished into the kitchen.
“Now what?” asked Reinhart when she was out of earshot.
“I don't really know,” said Van Veeteren. “I have the feeling that it's urgent-but, of course, there's nothing to say that it really is.”
“No,” said Reinhart. “I have the same feeling, of course. But you're the boss.”
“Yes, I know that,” said Van Veeteren. “And you're the one who does whatever I say. Go and phone the police in Ulming-they must be the nearest-and tell them to get out there and nab him.”
“Nab him?”
“Yes, arrest him.”
