Death of a Hawker by Janwillem van de Wetering Page B

questions?''
    "No."
    "Then I'll go to the nearest pub and have six glasses of colored alcohol, and then I'll go and sleep somewhere. There'll be a girl in the pub who'll let me go home with her. I don't want to spend the night here."
    De Gier got up from the floor and left the room. He was too tired to think of any suitable repartee. He found the toilet before he returned to Esther's room and washed his face with cold water. There was a small mirror in the lavatory and he saw his own face. His hair was caked with soapstone powder and mud and there were paint spatters on his cheeks; the eyes looked lifeless, even his mustache drooped.
    "Well?" Esther asked.
    "I heard the name Bezuur."
    "Klaas Bezuur," Esther said slowly, inviting him with a gesture to sit in the easy chair again. "Yes, I should have mentioned him but I haven't seen Klaas for such a long time that I have forgotten him. He asked me to marry him once but I don't think he meant it. Abe and he were very close once, but not anymore."
    "Did they fall out?"
    "No. Klaas became rich and he had to give up working in the street market and traveling about with Abe. He had to take care of his business. He lives in a villa now, in one of the new suburbs, Buitenveldert I think."
    "I live in Buitenveldert," de Gier said.
    "Are you rich?"
    "No, I have a small flat. I expect Bezuur lives in a quarter-of-a-million bungalow."
    "That's right. I haven't been to the house although he has asked us but Abe didn't want to go. He never visited anyone unless he had a good reason, sex, or a party, or a business deal, or a book he wanted to discuss. Klaas doesn't read. He's a bit of a slob now; he was very fat and closed up the last time I saw him."
    "I'd better go," de Gier said, rubbing his face. "Tomorrow is another day. I can hardly see straight."
    She saw him to the door. He said good night and meant to walk away but stopped and stared at the canal's surface. A rat, frightened by the tall looming shape of the detective, left its hiding place and jumped. The sleek body pierced the oily surface with a small splash and de Gier watched the converging circles fading out slowly.
    "Aren't you going?" a voice asked, and he looked around. Esther stood at the open window of her room on the second floor.
    "Yes," he called back softly, "but don't stand there."
    "He can throw his ball," Esther said, "if he wants to. I don't mind."
    De Gier didn't move.
    "Rinus de Gier," Esther said, "if you aren't going you may as well come in again. We can keep each other company." Her voice was calm.
    The automatic lock clicked and de Gier climbed the two flights of stairs again. She stood at the window when he came in, and he stood behind her and touched her shoulder. "The killer is a madman," he said softly. "To stand here is to invite him."
    She didn't reply.
    "You are alone in the house. Louis told me he is sleeping out. If you like, I'll telephone Headquarters and we'll have two constables guarding the house. The riot police have gone."
    "Here," he said and gave her the toy mouse he had put in his pocket when Louis wasn't looking. Esther had left the window and was wandering through the room. She was looking at the tin animal as if she didn't know what it was.
    "A mouse," de Gier said. "You can wind it up and put it on the floor. It walks and it jumps a bit. It's yours."
    She laughed. "What's this? Shock treatment? I didn't know the police had become subtle. Are you trying to unnerve me so that I'll drop my defense and give you a valuable clue?"
    "No," de Gier said. "It's a clockwork mouse."
    "Abe used to give me things too. Seashells and bits of driftwood and dried plants. He would buy them on the market or find them on the beach somewhere and keep them in his room, and then he would suddenly come into my room, usually when he thought that I was depressed about something or other, and give me a present. I still have some of them."
    She pointed at a shelf and de Gier saw some shells, bits of white and pink