it.'
'Why right now?'
Van Meteren laughed.
'I don't want you to bring all your friends. I am alone.'
'Alone with a head full of tricks and a forty-five revolver under your armpit,' Beuzekom said. 'I know you, you old jungle nigger. I have never underestimated you. Even without a gun you can tie me into knots.'
'I am not a nigger,' van Meteren said, and stopped smiling at the telephone. 'I am a Papuan.'
'Worse,' Beuzekom said. 'I just read a book about you guys. You decorate your huts with the skulls of your enemies.'
'I don't want your skull,' van Meteren said. 'Are you coming or aren't you coming?'
'Can I bring little Ringma?'
'Yes.'
Beuzekom breathed deeply.
'Right. We'll come. Right now. Where are you?'
'Haarlemmer Houttuinen number five.'
'Are you still living there?'
'No, I moved but I am here now and if you are here within a quarter of an hour the deal is on.'
'We'll come, Mr. Papuan,' Beuzekom said slowly, 'but no tricks! If you try, Ringma and I will try to get you. Maybe we'll fail but I swear we'll try.'
'I have never given you any reason not to trust me,' van Meteren said.
'True. You are a nice man. A friend. We'll be there.'
'See you,' van Meteren said and rang off.
'He is coming right now,' van Meteren said to the chief inspector.
'You look exhausted,' the chief inspector said. 'Right now? That's too quick, maybe. Where is de Gier?'
Van Meteren looked out of the window and made a sign.
De Gier and the three detectives came into the bar.
'O.K.,' the chief inspector said. 'I'll take Hector into the street for a little walk. De Gier takes his old position in the bushes and his two colleagues go with him. No. De Gier can go by himself and the other two can hide behind some of those parked cars. We should be able to get at our friends from as many directions as possible. Beuzekom is dangerous and Ringma probably too, and they'll be armed. They won't cry like de Kater.'
'They can be as dangerous as they like,' the young burly detective who could climb gables said. 'It saves money, now I don't have to go to the pictures.'
'Yes, yes,' said the chief inspector. 'Grijpstra, take Tarzan here to the courtyard and restrain him. He'll be yelling and prancing around in a minute. We don't want an adventure, we only want an arrest. Van Meteren stays here.'
'Yes sir,' everybody said.
De Gier was back in the bushes. The same branch was scratching his neck and the dog turds smelted worse than before for he had walked right through them this time. He was muttering to himself again but he was smiling as well. Like Tarzan, he was enjoying himself.
'I hope he attacks me,' he thought. 'I'll trip him up and break his nose. That beautiful nose in the handsome face.' He saw the arrogance on Beuzekom's face again. 'He can bleed a little this time.'
He was watching the road now. There had been an accident somewhere and the traffic was thick and slow. He couldn't see the other side of the street.
'But I'll only go for him if he provokes me,' de Gier was saying to himself.
The traffic was moving now. He saw the chief inspector. Hector had seen a cat and was barking and the chief inspector was trying to shut him up.
'There they are,' de Gier thought.
Beuzekom drove his Mercedes bus onto the pavement. The two dealers walked to the front door and rang the bell. The door opened straight away. Beuzekom, like de Kater, was carrying a suitcase.
Ringma was looking around him.
Van Meteren made an inviting gesture and Ringma followed his friend.
Three minutes passed before de Gier heard the shot. He leaped through the fence and ran across the street. A city bus, trying to avoid him, pulled over and nearly hit a car coming from the other direction. Both cars were sounding their horns but de Gier didn't hear them. Together with the two other detectives he kicked the door, which swung open, squeaking on one hinge.
Ringma was in the corridor, leaning against the wall. There was a pistol in his hand but it pointed at the floor. One of the detectives tapped Ringma's wrist and the pistol fell and was caught by the detective's hand. Beuzekom was on the floor, groaning and holding his hands between his legs.
'The bastard. He kicked me in the balls. I never thought he would. He was smiling at me when he did, smiling and talking.'
'Where is the heroin?' Grijpstra asked.
'Here,' Beuzekom groaned, 'in the suitcase. He gave it to me. It came from the Buddha over there and when I had it all and he had the money he kicked me.'
They went through his pockets and de Gier took his pistol.
'Where is van Meteren?' the chief inspector asked.
Ringma, whose hands had been handcuffed, pointed with his head.
'Through there, that door on the side.'
'No,' the chief inspector said.
\\ 19 /////
'Well, well,' the Commissaris said, 'You had a busy evening.'
'Yes sir,' the chief inspector said. 'It's a pity, sir.'
They were sitting in the back garden of the large house which the commissaris rented in the old city. The evening was warm and they could hear people in the other gardens around them, enjoying the breeze. The commissaris' wife had brought a tray with a stone jar of cold jenever and two small glasses and a tray of mixed nuts. The two officers were smoking the commissaris' small cigars. The commissaris was rubbing his right leg. He had spent the day in bed and his wife had massaged his legs with a special ointment and he felt much better, but his face still twisted at times when his legs suddenly shivered.
'Who fired the shot?' the commissaris asked.
'Ringma, sir. When van Meteren kicked Beuzekom Ringma fired to protect his friend, or perhaps to revenge him'
'Friend and lover,' the commissaris said. 'A kick in the balls you say. It is easy to kill a man that way. But Beuzekom was still talking?'
'Yes, van Meteren meant to stun him temporarily, I think. I spoke to the doctor who saw Beuzekom and his condition is reasonable, he doesn't have to go to the hospital. It'll be painful for a while, the doctor said.'
'Your health,' the commissaris said and raised his glass.
'Your health,' the chief inspector said and emptied his glass in one go.
The commissaris refilled the glasses.
'So van Meteren meant to cause a sudden commotion so that he could escape without anyone paying any attention. He knew that the police could come in any minute.'
'Yes sir. He had to do it while they were stiil inside and while we were still in hiding. If we had come in to arrest the two men, or if we had waited until they were in the street, we would still have been able to watch him. And he had to think of his two clients as well. They were both armed and aware. He had to shake them.'
'Clever,' the commissaris said. 'He probably provoked Ringma's shot as well. It would shake you and you would be rushing around trying to get the pistol and he would have more time.'
'You said he disappeared through a side door?' the commissaris asked.
