Read Online The Maine Massacre by Janwillem van de Wetering - Free Book Online

officers."
    "Police officers, adjutant, not nursemaids."
    "Yes, sir."
    "I am amazed, adjutant, absolutely amazed."
    "I am sorry, sir. We'll pay it back somehow."
    "You better, unless we can find the sergeant something to do here, something that will keep him so busy that he'll have no time to push me around in a pram."
    "Yes, sir," Grijpstra said. "I am sure you can find him something to do."
    "Sleep well, adjutant. Sorry to have woken you up."
    "Yes, sir, thank you, sir, goodbye, sir."
    Grijpstra put the phone down carefully and stuck out his tongue.
    "What was that?" his wife asked. "Do you have to go out? Was that the commissaris? What did he want?"
    "He wanted to joke with me."
    "At five o'clock in the morning? Was he drunk?"
    "No, dear, just sarcastic."
    "They are always putting you down and you are such a hardworking man and you've been with the department for such along time."
    "Don't overdo it," Grijpstra said. "Go to sleep. Since when have you been on my side?"

5
    T HE SERGEANT HAD A HEADACHE AND A DRY MOUTH when he woke up, but he could have felt worse. It was 10:00 A.M. He wasn't too sure where he was, but it came back to him. America, Jameson, sheriff, jailhouse. More details came to mind, and he remembered where the bathroom was. He had a long shower and shaved. He put on his denim suit and found the right scarf to go with the new pale blue shirt. He zipped on his ankle-length suede boots. He smiled and bowed at the mirror, but the bow brought back his headache.
    America, he thought. The commissaris. The commissaris on Cape Orca. Cape Accident. A murder case. He sat down on the bed and held his head. It couldn't be. It was quite impossible that he had strayed into a murder case. But then he remembered that Grijpstra had once strayed into a murder case. The adjutant had been on holiday, somewhere far back in the provinces, on the German border. The adjutant was drinking coffee in the corner of the bar in a third-rate hotel and two local men had come in and begun to whisper together. Grijpstra had listened in from behind his newspaper. The adjutant had enjoyed his holiday. He had worked with the local police and they had solved a case that hadn't been a case to start with. The victim had been buried months before Grijpstra went on his holiday. The lady had died of asthma. Only she hadn't. She had been slowly poisoned by relatives. Clever Grijpstra.
    Clever Sergeant de Gier. But did he want to be clever? The question split through his throbbing skull. The answer split back. He did not want to be clever. He wanted to make sure that the commissaris survived his mission and he wanted to see America. He got up and looked out the window. He saw snow on the branches of several trees, on the ground, on roofs, and on the ice of the bay below. Well, fine. American snow. And it doesn't snow in Holland; the climate has changed. It used to snow, but it doesn't anymore. He was seeing a novelty. Exotic faraway snow, and he was right in the middle of it.
    He found the sheriff in the room below. The sheriff's boots rested on the shelf between the radio and the telephones.
    "How are you feeling? Headache?"
    "A little."
    "You went through half a bottle of bourbon. If you had drunk half a bottle of anything else you wouldn't have a head at all now, you'd have a big sore. Coffee?"
    Albert came in to pour the coffee.
    "Breakfast, sergeant?"
    "Yes," de Gier said. "Breakfast, that would be nice."
    "What would you like?"
    De Gier tried to think.
    "We have no eggs," the sheriff said to Albert. "But there's fresh bread and a bit of bacon and some parsley on top and a raw tomato. More coffee. That'll clear your head, sergeant."
    Breakfast came as ordered, and de Gier ate and felt better.
    "You remember our conversation of last night?"
    "I do."
    "Cape Orca?"
    "Yes."
    "Are you still interested?"
    De Gier cleaned his plate with the last piece of toast. "Was I interested last night?"
    "Yes, we both were. I still am, but I'm a little more used to