Part 13 (1/2)

Her eyes widened and she looked quickly around. Despite the near torrential rain there were a fair number of people around and a flower and vegetable open-air market only metres away. She looked again at the young man, who was smiling, a rather pleasant smile despite his overall appearance. 'Please don't worry, miss. Hardly the place where anyone would think to carry out a kidnapping. You must be Annemarie - there couldn't be two people answering the description I was given. I'm Detective Rudolph Engel.'He brought a badge from his pocket and showed it to her. 'I could, of course, have stolen this. Lieutenant van Effen wants to see you. He's in his car.'

'Why should I believe you? Why did he send you? He knew where I was. He could have come to see me. What car does he have?' 'A black Peugeot.'

'You would know that, wouldn't you?'

'Yes.' The young man was patient. 'When you've worked under someone for five years you do know something about him. The Lieutenant said to me, ”Miss Meijer is very suspicious. Mention the Amazon, her father, the Colonel and someone's 'lack of courage'.” I have no idea what he meant.'

'I do.' She took his arm. 'I'm sorry.'

Van Effen, relaxed behind the wheel of his car, was this morning sporting a homburg hat and a big, black, square beard of the type favoured by Sephardic Jews. He looked round as Annemarie opened the pa.s.senger door and looked in.

'Good morning, my dear.'

'Good morning, he says. What are you doing here?'

'Sheltering from the rain. It's coming down in buckets. You must have noticed. Come in, come in.'

She sat down and looked at him accusingly. 'Five metres, you said. Never more than five metres; away. Sixty seconds in every minute. That's what you said. Where were you? Your promise to look after me! Fine promise.' 'Man proposes, G.o.d disposes.' If van Effen was remorse stricken, he concealed it well. 'Besides, you were being looked after. By proxy. Don't tell me you didn't see a rather elderly gentleman hanging around, slightly stooped, grey beard, grey coat and a white stick. He was looking after you.'

'I saw him. That creature! He couldn't have looked after a kitten.' 'Whatever that means. That creature is young, fit, a judo expert and a very accurate shot.'

'Beards,' she almost muttered. 'Beards, moustaches, that's all they can think of. Disguises! Well, thank you, someone was there, but you broke your promise.'

'It was politic to do so. I was close behind and you were less than a hundred metres from your rendezvous when I caught sight of no other than Mr Paderiwski following you even more closely than I was. Mr Paderiwski is shrewd, observant and doesn't like me, which is a nasty combination. He might just have recognized me, especially when I was in close attendance on you. I had taken the precaution of taking two of my detectives with me - think nothing of the fact that we obviously care so much about you - and I decided discretion was the better part of foolhardiness. Hence the switch.'

Engel said through van Effen's open window: 'Anything further, sir?' 'No. Not here. Don't lose sight of our friend.'

'Well, I've already seen him, sir. There can't be another bald, pepper and salt beard with a squint around.'

'Julius Caesar?' Annemarie said.

'None other. I didn't tell. Rudolph here what his name was. He wouldn't have believed me. A close but not too close eye on our Julius. And make sure there are always a few people around. I'd rather lose him than lose you. Don't forget what happened to your two colleagues yesterday.' 'I won't forget, sir. 'The expression on his face was testimony enough to that. He turned and walked away into the rain.

'Mollified?' Van Effen started the engine and drove off. 'A bit.' She smiled a little. 'Did you have to tell him I was a coward?' 'I did not. Someone was, I said.'

'It doesn't matter, because I am. I don't like riding around in this car, for instance.'

'It takes time to get seats fixed. And what's that got to do 'Please. I mean that this car is known. To criminals, I mean.' 'Pfui. There's a couple of hundred like this in the city.' She said sweetly: 'There's a couple of hundred with the same licence plates?'

'What's that got to do with anything? You know the licence number of this car?'

'More or less. Rotterdam. Three nines. We are trained to be observant, remember?'

'But not observant enough to notice that these were clip-on plates, not screwed. Today, this car is registered in Paris with a big 'F' at the side to prove it. I have access to an unlimited number of plates.' She made a face but said nothing. 'You should be interested in more important things. Such as the latest antics of the FFF.'

'Yes?'

'There were no antics. They didn't blow the d.y.k.e of the North Holland ca.n.a.l. They called in to both the papers and the police less than ten minutes ago. Positively hugging themselves, they are. Said they never promised they would blow the ca.n.a.l -which is quite true - only that there would be considerable activity in that area at nine o'clock this morning. There were, they reported, scenes of very considerable activity which is again quite true. All rescue and repair teams were there, waiting, as were considerable numbers of police and army, not to mention air force helicopters. They claimed to have taken a good number of aerial photographs of the scenes, just for keepsakes.'

'You believe that, too?'