The Return Read online

  Close down the case, he thought.

  Close down Chief Inspector Van Veeteren. Offer a draw, or tip the board over. Stop all these pointless activities linked to his own vanity. There’s a murderer on the loose; leave him alone!

  He paid and went back to his car. Picked out Monteverdi from the pile of CDs, and as the first notes were released from the loudspeakers, he knew that he had no intention of giving up. Not yet, in any case.

  What the hell! he muttered. Justitia or Nemesis, same thing!

  38

  “Police!”

  He held up his ID for half a second, and after three he was in the hall.

  “I want to ask you some questions about the murders of Leopold Verhaven, Marlene Nietsch and Beatrice Holden. Can we do that here, or do you want to accompany me to the police station?”

  The man hesitated, but only for a second.

  “Come this way.”

  They went into the living room. Münster took out his notebook with the questions.

  “Can you tell me what you were doing on August twenty-fourth, last year?”

  The man shrugged.

  “You must be joking. How can I be expected to remember that?”

  “It’ll be best for you if you make a try. You didn’t happen to be in Kaustin?”

  “Certainly not.”

  “Had you any reason to be hostile toward Leopold Verhaven?”

  “Hostile? Of course not.”

  “So it’s not the case that he knew about things that could be dangerous for you?”

  “What on earth could they be?”

  “Were you in Maardam on September eleventh, 1981? That’s the day when Marlene Nietsch was murdered.”

  “No. What are you getting at?”

  “Is it not the case that you were in the area around the Covered Market that morning? Kreuger Plejn and Zwille and thereabouts?”

  “No.”

  “At about half past nine, ten o’clock?”

  “No, I’ve already said no.”

  “How can you be so sure what you were doing and not doing one day thirteen years ago?”

  No answer.

  “What about Saturday April sixth, 1962, then? That was when it all started, wasn’t it?”

  “You are making insinuations. I would like you to go and leave me in peace now.”

  “Did you not call in on Beatrice Holden that Saturday afternoon? While Verhaven was out on business?”

  “I’m not going to put up with this utter rubbish.”

  “When did your love life with your wife come to an end?”

  “What the hell has that got to do with this business?”

  “You were forced to satisfy your needs elsewhere, isn’t that the case? After she was confined to bed. There must have been others as well as Beatrice Holden and Marlene Nietsch…. Why did you kill just those two?”

  He stood up.

  “Or have you killed others as well?”

  “Get out! If you think you can scare me into saying things that are not true, you can tell your superiors that they’re wasting their time.”

  Münster closed his notebook.

  “Thank you,” he said. “This has been a very enlightening conversation.”

  “Yes, it could be him,” said Münster as he sat down opposite the chief inspector.

  Van Veeteren parted the curtains.

  “Be ready in case he comes out,” he said. “You never know what he could get up to.”

  “He won’t be easy to arrest,” said Münster. “I don’t think he’s the type to break down and submit.”

  “Damn and blast!” said Van Veeteren. “Although we’ve only given him the first warning, so to speak.”

  Münster knew that was what Van Veeteren had in mind when he’d sent his assistant in advance. So that he could save himself for a more important, possibly crucial encounter.

  Good thinking, of course; but there again, it must give the murderer a chance to prepare his defense. He pointed that out, but Van Veeteren merely shrugged.

  “Very possible,” he said. “But it could also be those preparations that trip him up. In any case, he’s not in an enviable position. He knows that we know. Just think about that. He’s a rat trapped in a corner. We are the cats waiting for him to come out.”

  “We don’t have any proof,” said Münster. “We won’t get any, either.”

  “He doesn’t know that.”

  Münster thought that over.

  “But he’ll soon realize it, surely. If we know that he has three murders on his conscience, it must seem a bit odd that we don’t arrest him.”

  Van Veeteren stubbed out his cigarette in annoyance and let go of the curtains.

  “I know,” he muttered. “It’s a bit of my bowels they cut out, Münster, not my brain.”

  Silence. Van Veeteren heaved a sigh and put a toothpick in his mouth. Münster ordered a beer and took out his notebook.

  “You only asked the questions I told you to ask, I trust?” said Van Veeteren after a while.

  “Of course,” said Münster. “There’s one thing that puzzles me, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How did he know that she’d told Verhaven at the prison?”

  Van Veeteren snorted.

  “Because she told him so, of course. Just before she died, I assume. According to Sister Marianne, he went to see her that final day at the hospital.”

  “She eased her conscience in both directions?”

  “That’s one way of putting it, yes. You might think she ought to have kept quiet altogether instead. That would have saved one life, at least. But people tend to get a bit obsessed by the truth.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Münster.

  Van Veeteren downed the rest of his beer.

  “The truth can be a heavy burden to bear,” he said. “It seems impossible to bear it alone in the long run. It would be good, though, if people could learn not to pass it on any old way.”

  Münster pondered for a while.

  “I’ve never thought of it like that before,” he said, looking out the window. “But there’s a lot of truth in it, of course. He doesn’t seem to have been overcome by panic, though.”

  “No,” said Van Veeteren with a sigh. “We may need to take some special measures in this case. But you can go home now. I’ll sit here for a while and do a bit of thinking.”

  Münster hesitated.

  “I hope you’ll let me know if I can do anything else to help. I take it the case hasn’t been reopened?”

  “It’s closed and boarded up,” said Van Veeteren. “Anyway, thanks.”

  Münster left the bar, and as he crossed the street on the way to his car, he found himself feeling sorry for the chief inspector again. That was the second time in a short period—only a month or so—so perhaps there was some truth in what people say:

  The older they get, the more human they seem to appear.

  Mind you, they were talking about mountain gorillas, weren’t they?

  39

  The Club’s premises were in a basement at the end of a narrow alley that started at Cronin Square and finished with a fireproof gable. On all maps of the town, and according to the filthy and barely readable nameplate above Wildt’s antiquarian bookshop, it was called Zuygers Steeg. But it was always known locally as Butcher’s Alley, after an unusually brutal murder at the end of the 1890s, when body parts of two prostitutes were found scattered over practically the full twenty yards comprising the stunted street. The parts were found by a young chaplain from the cathedral, who had to be locked away in the Majorna asylum in Willemsburg. The murderer was never caught, despite a large-scale hunt.

  Van Veeteren seldom managed to get as far as the Club without being reminded of the story, and he didn’t succeed in doing so this evening either.

  Perhaps things were worse in the old days, despite everything, he thought as he ducked to avoid hitting his head on the lintel and entered the lugubrious vault.

&nb
sp; Mahler was sitting furthest in as usual, in the secluded corner under the Dürer print, and he had already set up the pieces. Van Veeteren sat down with a sigh.

  “Oh dear,” said Mahler, digging into his tousled beard with his fingers. “Was it as bad as that?”

  “What?” said Van Veeteren.

  “What! Being butchered, of course! The green men going about their bloody business.”

  “Oh, that,” said Van Veeteren. “A mere bagatelle.”

  Mahler looked puzzled for a moment.

  “Then what the hell’s worrying you? You’ve been resurrected, early summer is at its colorful peak, the whole of nature is squirming with pleasure at the celebration of exuberant life that is almost upon us. What the devil do you mean by coming here and sighing?”

  “I have a problem,” said Van Veeteren, opening with his queen’s pawn.

  “I have a thousand,” said Mahler. “Cheers, and welcome back to the world of the living!”

  They drank, and Mahler pored over the chessboard. The chief inspector lit a cigarette and waited. Of all the people he had ever played chess with since he started as a teenager, he had never come across a single opponent who played in the way Mahler did. After an introductory period of intense concentration that could last as long as ten or twelve minutes—before the first move, that is—he would then play more than thirty moves without thinking for more than a minute altogether. Then, before the endgame was embarked upon, he generally allowed himself another in-depth analysis lasting for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, then finished off the game at breakneck speed—irrespective of whether he was playing for a win, a draw or an honorable defeat.

  He could give no plausible reason for his method, apart from maintaining that it was a question of rhythm.

  “Sometimes it can feel that making the move at the right time is more important than the quality of the move itself,” he had maintained. “If you see what I mean.”

  Van Veeteren hadn’t the slightest idea what he meant.

  “It’s the same with poems,” the old poet had revealed. “I often sit staring into space for ages, maybe half an hour or more—then I pick up my pen and write down the whole poem. As quick as a flash, there mustn’t be a pause.”

  “What goes on inside your head, then?” Van Veeteren wanted to know. “While you’re charging your batteries?”

  Mahler had no idea either, it seemed.

  “I daren’t try to analyze it,” he said. “Certain things will not tolerate introspection. That kills them off.”

  Van Veeteren thought about that as he took a swig of beer and waited for Mahler’s move.

  Action without thinking, he thought.

  Is that what it looked like?

  Perhaps there are a few points of contact after all?

  “Well?” said Mahler, when they had agreed on a draw after less than forty-five minutes. “What’s the matter?”

  “A murderer,” said Van Veeteren.

  “I thought you were on sick leave for the rest of this month?”

  “I am,” said Van Veeteren. “It’s just that I find it hard to turn my back on things. And also to turn a blind eye.”

  “What’s the problem with this murderer, then?”

  “I can’t nail him.”

  “Do you know who he is?”

  Van Veeteren nodded.

  “But you have no proof?”

  “Not a thing.”

  Mahler leaned back and lit a cigar.

  “It can’t be the first time you’ve been in this position?”

  “I can usually manage to shoo ’em in.”

  Mahler burst out laughing.

  “Shoo ’em in! I like it! And why can’t you do that this time, then?”

  Van Veeteren sighed.

  “Does the name Leopold Verhaven mean anything to you?”

  Mahler turned serious.

  “Verhaven? Yes, of course. A notorious murderer. Of women. Wasn’t he murdered himself, or something of the sort? I read about it in the paper not long ago.”

  “He was innocent,” said Van Veeteren.

  “Verhaven was innocent?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he’s been in jail for…God knows how long.”

  “Twenty-four years,” said Van Veeteren.

  “He’s been in jail for that damn length of time, and you’re claiming that he’s innocent?”

  Van Veeteren nodded.

  “Was innocent. He’s dead, as you said. And it seems that it’s not only the real murderer who would like to draw a line under the whole business, if you follow me….”

  Mahler said nothing for some seconds.

  “Huh,” he said eventually. He drew on his cigar and spilled ash into his beard. “I think I get it. The big shots?”

  Van Veeteren shrugged.

  “It’s not all that bad, I hope, but however you look at it, there’s no chance of getting proceedings under way unless we’re standing on solid ground. Very solid ground.”

  “But can’t you dig out some proof? Isn’t that what usually happens? You know who did it, but you have to work your butts off to turn the knowledge into proof, afterward? I thought that was how the police usually went about things.”

  “Yes, you’re right, of course,” said Van Veeteren. “But it looks pretty hopeless in his case. Time has run out on the first murder; we’re not allowed to open it again. And if the second one is to be reopened, we either have to produce cast-iron proof more solid than the defenses at Fort Knox, or he has to confess and stick with that confession. And we’re nowhere near either of those setups.”

  “What about the murder of Verhaven? The same killer yet again?”

  “Very much so. No, there’s not an ounce of technical proof there either. We don’t know when he died. Nor how. Nor where.”

  He shrugged again.

  “That’s about it, all in all.”

  “But you know who the murderer is?” said Mahler, raising his bushy eyebrows to register doubt.

  “We’re absolutely certain,” said Van Veeteren.

  Mahler turned the board around and started setting up the pieces for another game.

  “How can you be so certain that you won’t be able to make him confess? Don’t try and tell me you don’t resort to third-degree stuff when you have to?”

  Van Veeteren lit another cigarette.

  “I’ve been following him for two days,” he said. “Not furtively, of course, but making it obvious. So that he couldn’t avoid noticing. That usually puts anybody you care to name out of his stride, but not this character. He seems to be enjoying it. Gives me a nod now and then. Laughs up his sleeve. He seems to be certain that we haven’t got a shred of evidence that could nail him. I haven’t confronted him yet, but I’d be amazed if he lost his cool. And even if he did, he’d find it again before the trial started, and we’d be back to square one, having made all that effort for nothing….”

  “Hmm,” said Mahler. “What are you going to do, then? It sounds a bit on the awkward side, I have to admit.”

  Van Veeteren didn’t answer at first, but Mahler was determined to get a response.

  “Well?”

  “I’ve given him an ultimatum,” the chief inspector said eventually. “Would you like another beer?”

  “Of course. What kind of an ultimatum?”

  Van Veeteren stood up, made his way to the bar and returned after a while with two new, frothy tankards.

  “What kind of an ultimatum?” asked Mahler again, after they’d drunk each other’s health.

  “I’ve given him an opportunity, that’s all. To bow out like a gentleman.”

  “Meaning?”

  “To commit suicide.”

  Mahler seemed almost moved.

  “But what if he isn’t a gentleman? There seems to be a lot of evidence to suggest that he isn’t.”

  “Then I’ll make public what I know. He has a daughter and two grandchildren. If he merely shrugs and turns away, I’ll tell her that her
father has three murders on his conscience, and I’ll make sure she’s convinced that it’s the truth. His wife held her tongue for the whole of her life for this very reason…. Or so I think.”

  Mahler thought it over.

  “Yes, sounds good,” he said. “Do you think it’ll work?”

  Van Veeteren pulled a face.

  “The devil only knows,” he said. “We’ll find out tomorrow at noon. I’m going to pay him a visit then.”

  “You cunning bastard!” said Mahler. “You have your methods; I have to grant you that.”

  He took another swig, then started to study the board again. After barely a moment’s thought, he advanced his king’s pawn two squares.

  “Not much of a job, the one you’ve got,” he said.

  “Serves me right,” said Van Veeteren.

  “Yes, I expect it does,” said Mahler.

  An hour and a half later, Mahler had turned a single-pawn advantage into a win after just over sixty moves. He bent down and produced a small, flat parcel from the briefcase he had on the floor beside him.

  “You can have this as consolation,” he said. “Hot off the press this afternoon, so it’s as fresh as it comes.”

  Van Veeteren tore off the wrapping paper.

  Recitative from the Back of Beyond, it said.

  “Many thanks,” he said. “Just what I need, I suspect.”

  “You never know,” said Mahler, looking at his watch. “About time to call it a day, methinks. You can start with page thirty-six. I reckon you might find something there that rings a bell.”

  Van Veeteren split open the pages of the thin collection of poems after taking a shower and settling into bed. The clock radio on his bedside table said a couple of minutes after half-past twelve, and he decided to make do for the time being with the author’s recommendation. Poetry was not something you lapped up at any old time, especially not Mahler’s fastidious verses, and he could feel slumber lurking behind his eyelashes.

  The poem was called “January Night” and was only seven lines long.