Read Online Little Sister by David Hewson - Free Book Online Page B

got their leathery hands to it and heaved him to the surface. Green weed and algae covered the suit and his dark hair. He did
his best to shake it free then dumped the things on the verge.
    ‘Clothes,’ he said, then kicked off the giant waders onto the grass. ‘Men’s clothes.’
    ‘This boy here’s nothing but a genius,’ Willy declared, patting him heavily on the shoulder. ‘I reckon you should snap him up swiftish before Interpol or someone nabs
him.’
    ‘That’s all there is?’ Vos asked. ‘Just clothes.’
    ‘One man’s?’ Bakker added. ‘Nothing else?’
    ‘Nothing,’ Willy agreed.
    The uniform shook his head again then pulled a long strand of weed from his hair.
    ‘So you knew?’
    ‘Course we knew,’ Tonny said. ‘We saw Mr Mallard swim in through that broken back window and come out with a pair of underpants. Got to take a look after that, haven’t
you?’
    ‘And you didn’t say?’ Vos asked.
    ‘You didn’t ask,’ Willy told him. ‘Not you.’ A nod at the uniform. ‘Specially not him. He just came along here and started yelling at us. Couldn’t get a
word in edgeways.’
    He went to the back of the tractor and came back with a pair of yellow underpants, wet and stained with weed, then threw them on the pile of clothes on the grass.
    ‘There you are. Full set.’
    The uniform climbed out of the ruined bunny suit. Tonny looked in a box on the back of the tractor and found a towel.
    ‘The airbag didn’t blow,’ the officer said. ‘The doors were closed. No sign someone was inside when it went in. I’d guess they got out and pushed the car into the
ditch. Empty.’
    ‘So where on earth is Simon Klerk?’ Vos asked.
    ‘Simon Klerk?’ Willy asked. ‘Who’s he?’
    ‘The man who owns the car,’ Bakker replied.
    The Kok brothers shrugged.
    ‘Running stark naked across Waterland?’ Tonny flicked a thumb at the young officer in uniform. ‘Though if that were the case I suspect Boy Genius here might have spotted the
chap. Him and his sort are dead good at picking up a spot of immorality here and there. A man with a bit of beer in him can’t even take a leak down an alley late one night . . .’
    Vos called Marnixstraat. No one had seen the Timmers sisters. CCTV had lost them after they left the station. There’d been no word of Simon Klerk but his wife had been screaming at
headquarters demanding action.
    ‘We can take the car out if you like,’ Willy said when he came off the call. ‘By rights we ought to. It’s blocking the channel. That’s our job. Clearing up crap
after people.’
    ‘Leave it there for the moment,’ Vos ordered, scanning the low horizon. Blue sky, green fields. Nothing much else. ‘We may need a forensic team out here. Laura?’
    She was picking through the clothes with a pen.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Where do we start?’ Vos wondered.
    For once she looked lost too.
    ‘Not here, I’d venture,’ Willy Kok said. ‘I don’t understand a thing about policing and don’t want to. But us two know these fields. These dykes. We grew up
with them. Fished every last one of them.’
    ‘Illegally,’ the uniform moaned.
    ‘Who owns the water?’ Tonny asked. ‘Who gave you the rights over what creatures live there?’
    ‘Enough—’ Vos began.
    ‘We’re telling you, mister,’ Willy continued. ‘There’s nobody here. Not in that car. Not anywhere we’ve passed along the road. You’re looking in the
wrong place.’
    ‘Wrong place,’ his brother repeated.
    Vos called Van der Berg.
    ‘Dirk,’ he said. ‘You can tell Mrs Klerk we’re still looking for her husband. We’ve got his car. He’s not here.’
    Van der Berg’s breathing wasn’t so great. Cigarettes. Beer. Lack of exercise. He sounded rougher than usual.
    ‘OK,’ the detective replied. ‘She won’t like it.’
    Vos shut his eyes, recalling the desperate, angry shrieks of Sara Klerk as she followed them down the corridor in Marken.
    ‘Be gentle with her.’
    ‘I always am.