Just a Corpse at Twilight ac-12 Read online

  De Gier sighed affirmatively.

  Grijpstra looked fatherly. "Rinus?"

  "Henk?"

  "Your attitude, does it ever make you feel guilty?" De Gier looked away.

  "You look guilty now."

  "Lorraine is a nice woman," de Gier said.

  "You don't believe subject is dead?"

  De Gier got up, walked a few steps down, came up again. "Sure, she's dead. I saw her corpse."

  "Now," Grijpstra said, "I'm only trying to ascertain whether you were out of your mind and in that state murdered Lorraine. Tell me, is this whole thing of yours here"- Grijpstra pointed at the pagoda, at heads of seals popping up out of the sea, at pine trees on cliffs, at de Gier himself-"a continuation of what you tried to do in New Guinea?"

  De Gier nodded. "The shaman reminded me ofjeremy here."

  "Shaman," Grijpstra said. "Sorcerer. Witch doctor. Did the medicine man suggest you should do drug-induced vigils?"

  "He did," de Gier said. "There was an island there he would go to. He told me he would use music, dance, sing, take his preferred drugs, seek out animals, birds. Collect rocks, shells, driftwood. Make shapes."

  "Exactly," Grijpstra said, "and your preferred drugs are bourbon and marijuana, which are easily available here, and this is an island, and your favorite music is Miles Davis's funk-jazz now and you have your own mini-trumpet, and everywhere in the pagoda I see your compositions of rocks and shells laid out, and you're trying to meet Mr. Bear, and the loons are singing."

  "You can't quite call it singing," de Gier said.

  "Something unique," Grijpstra said. "You mixed that in with all your other ingredients, and you finally work up to the final pitch.. .."

  "Maybe alcohol is not such a good idea," de Gier said. "The New Guinea shamans don't care for it but as I'd been using alcohol more or less successfully before I thought I might try…"

  Grijpstra was reverting to his police mode, being pleasant but firm. "After Lorraine fell, did you go after her and do some kicking?"

  "So Farnsworth says."

  "But he wasn't there."

  "He and Bad George watched her die on the Kathy Three."

  "And she said you had kicked her? Again and again? In her belly, so that she lost her baby?"

  "Not in so many words."

  Grijpstra nodded, as if all this were only too clear. "How about this theory to explain your motivation: Lorraine's interference with your experiment, with all that effort, first in New Guinea on the other side of the world and now here, to reach the fourth, the spiritual dimension, enraged you. The bourgeoisie, unwilling to see you escape, tries to pull you back to your original level. You fight back." Grijpstra patted de Gier's shoulder. "What do you think?"

  De Gier mumbled.

  Grijpstra kept a hand behind an ear.

  "Could be, Henk."

  "Now," Grijpstra said. "What about this theory? Would you admit to being bourgeois yourself, an ordinary, limited, petty true Dutchman? No? Bear with me a little longer. I say you're ordinary enough but you don't like that. You try to free yourself, be on your own, the lone cowboy. You can't do it, though. You submit to subterfuge, you replace your ordinary parents by a little less ordinary, but still quite ordinary folks, Katrien and the commissaris. You appoint me to replace your moralizing born-again Catholic sister as the older sibling. Meanwhile you stay what you always were, a self-seeking little boy reluctantly growing up as an emotionally retarded adult. Think of all those faxes from New Guinea-letters from summer camp, right? Trying to impress your parents and outdo your older sibling, me. It's all so obvious, Rinus. Remember that snapshot of you and the exotic girl on your moped?"

  De Gier stood over Grijpstra, swinging his fists through the air. "Outrageous, Henk… what the hell… where do you get that bull? That was a Kawasaki 2000, and the lady was Lieutenant Jennifer Jones of the Tobriands… a colleague at the time…"

  "But," Grijpstra said triumphantly, "but what happens here? You can't fool the subconscious, my boy. You always knew you were being silly. You dislike that. Now, by happenstance, you manage to impregnate Lorraine, and you're about to double your bourgeois aspect. You can't handle one of you and now there'll be two. Self-hatred can lead to suicide, but suicide, in your case, would be too heroic to expect. You can't kill yourself so you help Lorraine to have an accident so that she may lose your clone."

  De Gier squeezed his face with both hands. His distorted features stared at Grijpstra.

  "Yes?" Grijpstra asked.

  "Dr. Shrinkski," de Gier said. "Go fuck yourself, Dr. Shrinkski."

  Chapter 7

  Ishmael, who showed up later in the afternoon, making his dinghy go backward by pushing the oars with short frantic movements, said it was a piece of cake. Always confront the enemy. Live free or die. Buy American. Reduce the deficit. The attitude doesn't always work but isn't bad in simple cases. He used de Gier's CB in the pagoda's living room. "This is Ishmael, Sheriff. Are you listening? Over."

  The answer came through clearly. "Deputy Billy here. How may I help?"

  "A question," Ishmael said. "You know I know a bit of the law, but I don't know all of the law."

  "You don't know all of the law," Billy echoed.

  Ishmael, turning the microphone off, looked at Grijpstra. "There's this book, How to Take Care of Your Own Divorce in Maine, but it's hard to read. I can read the book, so I help folks out some. I've been doing that. Billy knows."

  "Ishmael?" the radio asked.

  "Also did a spell in the military police, Billy Boy knows that too."

  Ishmael clicked onhis microphone. "I was telling Krip here about the Constitution, Billy Boy. We the people. Maybe we better switch out of the open channel. This may take some time. Meet me on channel eighty?"

  Ishmael turned the radio's dial and switched on the mike.

  "Billy Boy?"

  "Right here."

  "Tell me, Deputy, ifpeople have a complaint about you folks where should they take it? State police? The attorney general in Augusta? I'm a bit rusty on that."

  "You got a complaint about the sheriffs office?"

  "On behalf of an esteemed and well-connected tourist from a friendly white Protestant country," Ishmael said. "Remember Kripstra?"

  "Just a minute now," Billy Boy said. "You hold on."

  Hairy Harry's benign voice, avuncular, sounding concerned about others' welfare, made Grijpstra jump. "Sheriff here. What's this complaint, Ishy?"

  "Criminal negligence," Ishmael said. "Is that the right term?" Ishmael released the microphone's button and smiled at Grijpstra.

  "Sounds good to me, Ishy. You have a for-instance?"

  "It's like the example you had last winter, Harry. The raped college girl who got left at the roadside, with five inches of snow and the temperature in the low teens and this Portland couple came by in the rental and they didn't stop and the girl froze to death. But they did phone you much later, from a motel somewhere. Remember charging that couple with criminal negligence? Recall the court case?"

  "It's summer now," the sheriff said.

  "Yep." Ishmael winked at Grijpstra. "Summer. You're right, Harry. But kind ofchilly, especially on the water. And we had quite a wind, more ofit oflshore, and we had low tide rushing out like Boston traffic and we had our confused friendly tourist in a bare dory, trying to get to Squid Island, but being swept out to nowhere, and then we had you and Billy Boy, Jameson's finest, in the exercise of your duty to serve and protect, in a powerboat designed and equipped to do just that, financed by us taxpayers." Ishmael paused. "And then what happened?"

  "How's Kripstra doing?" the sheriff asked.

  "Badly shaken, Harry."

  "Witnesses who would support this complaint?" the sheriff asked.

  "Recall, Sheriff, that when you returned to shore you went to Beth's Diner, and talked to Beth herself, and to Aki too, and you said Kripstra didn't want any assistance. They didn't believe you, as any reasonable witness subpoenaed by the prosecution wouldn't.
So what do we have now? Aki in court. Stating under oath that she radioed the skipper of the Kathy Three to save said tourist. And now we have old salts Flash and Bad George in court too, describing said tourist's condition. And now the district attorney questions victim Kripstra here, a former law enforcement officer, a skilled and reliable detective-adjutant out of the right side of Europe."

  Ishmael watched the momentarily quiet CB.

  "Hairy Harry? Over?"

  "Yes, Ishmael," the sheriff said softly.

  "So where do we go? The attorney general? You have a number I can call, Hairy Harry?"

  "That won't be necessary," the sheriff said. "Tell the complainant from the right side of Europe that we're truly sorry. Me and Billy Boy thought that a citizen of a watery country like Holland might be used to… well… never mind now. Ishy, we were wrong. Tell Kripstra he doesn't have to come in tomorrow. Tell him he's our guest. Tell him to make sure that nothing happens to him that Billy and I don't want to happen to confused tourists. That'll be it for today."

  "Good," de Gier said when Ishmael put the microphone down.

  "Thank you," Grijpstra said.

  Ishmael rowed back to the Point, taking Grijpstra along. The Tao-guided Wall Street investment banker had had no time to sink a telephone cable between shore and Squid Island and Grijpstra remembered he had made a promise.

  Chapter 8

  "Are you ready?" Katrien asked, her finger on the tape recorder that Nellie had brought in a few minutes earlier.

  The commissaris, in a silk robe, exuding a pleasant fragrance of after-shave, sat in his study. A large map ofthe northern section of the Maine coast was stick-pinned to a board on his desk. His right hand, holding a sharpened pencil, hovered over the first page of a new notebook.

  "I heard the tape," Katrien said. "Nellie played it for me. She asked all your questions. Don't you think Grijpstra will be annoyed if he finds out we're doing this?"

  "No," the commissaris said. "I thought I would try and use Nellie-type questions but that would be complicated. I had to use my own. He answered them so he doesn't mind."

  Katrien pressed the recorder's button.

  "Nellie?" Grijpstra asked.

  "Oh, HenkieLuwie, I'm so pleased you called. Are you all right?"

  "Just dandy, dear, just dandy."

  "Did you get to de Gier?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you miss me?"

  Katrien interrupted the tape. "She had to ask that too."

  "That's fine," the commissaris said, waving at the interruption as if it were a mosquito. "That's fine, dear."

  Katrien pushed the recorder on again. "So how is Rinus?" Nellie asked.

  "Not so good."

  "Is he crazy?"

  "Not now."

  "You think he was crazy?"

  "He's been doing this New Guinea Papuan bone-through-the-nose stuff," Grijpstra said. "But that sorcerer who taught him, that shaman he's always talking about, that fellow probably knows what he's doing by himself on his island, and de Gier's level is more like a group thing out there in the bush…"

  "… under the banyan tree?" Nellie asked. "That's what Rinus said in his letters from New Guinea. Doesn't that sound romantic? I saw a banyan tree in the zoo, in the greenhouse. It's beautiful, with all those air roots…"

  "… it's regular Christmas trees here…"

  "… but Christmas trees are magic too, Henkie-t Luwie, we have them right here in Holland, you don't have to go all that way to.. ."

  "Listen," Grijpstra said, "this is a pay phone, you have to call me back. Write this down-01 207…"

  The recorder kept clicking, then came on again.

  "HenkieLuwie? Isn't this horribly expensive? Are you billing de Gier?"

  "Don't worry about money."

  "I do worry. HenkieLuwie?"

  "Yes?"

  "Was de Gier crazy?"

  "He could have been when he attacked subject. He has said as much."

  "Does he remember kicking poor Lorraine?"

  Katrien switched off. "Isn't Nellie clever?"

  The commissaris waved impatiently. "The corpse, Nellie, the corpse

  …"

  "HenkieLuwie? Is de Gier sure he saw Lorraine's corpse?"

  "Yes," Grijpstra said. "Everybody here is of some origin or other, from someplace eke I mean, and Lorraine was Swedish, and she had that hair, very fair, almost white. Angel hair?"

  "You like that, Henk? I could bleach mine a bit more."

  "No Nellie, please. And she had those feet."

  "Swedish feet?"

  "Special feet. Very slender."

  "The judges liked my feet. But my breasts…"

  "Regular breasts," Grijpstra said. "And the breasts were not exposed. Bad George was carrying the body rolled up in a blood-soaked blanket."

  "You're sure it was blood?" Nellie asked.

  "Could have been water," Grijpstra said. "It was dark, de Gier was out of his mind. They told him it was blood and he freaked out as usual. Mr. 'Murder Brigade Detective.' Tsksh. Jesus." Grijpstra snarled. "So we have recognizable hair hanging out one side of the blood-soaked blanket and recognizable bare feet hanging out the other and the body was dead."

  "Wasn't de Gier too drunk to be sure?"

  "No," Grijpstra said. "I do believe that angel-haired slender-footed body was dead. De Gier is too insistent. And don't forget he has seen hundreds of corpses in his time. There's something about dead bodies that makes them change into objects. Leftovers. Castofis. De Gier may have been crazy but he knows about being dead."

  Katrien switched offthe recorder. "That's bad, Jan. No? I think that sounds bad."

  "I'd like to hear the bad part again," the commissaris said. He was listening carefully when Katrien replayed the tape, leaning toward the recorder.

  "… but he knows about being dead," Grijpstra's hoarse voice said.

  "Again, Jan?" Katrien asked.

  "No, just carry on, dear."

  "So what are you going to do, HenkieLuwie?" Nellie asked.

  "Find that corpse," Grijpstra said. "Flash and Bad George are trying some extortion. Rinus has been spending a lot ofmoney so they think he's loaded. They gave him a big bill for saving me too, left it on the doorstep of the pagoda. You should see this place, Nellie. American wealth…"

  "Saved you from what?" Nellie asked shrilly.

  "Oh, I started rowing to Squid Island from the wrong place and there was a bit of a wind so they came looking for me and the dog spotted me-nice dog, Nellie, we should keep a dog too."

  "Puppies poop and rip up carpets," Nellie said. "What makes you think that corpse is still there? Wouldn't they have burned it? Or dumped it overboard?"

  "Extortionists do not destroy the evidence implicating their victim."

  "So you find Lorraine's body," Nellie said. "Then what will you do?"

  "I don't know, Nellie."

  "You can't help a killer to escape."

  "Something else," Grijpstra said. "There's a lot of drug traffic here. Imported and locally grown."

  "Not your business, huh, HenkieLuwie?"

  "The sheriff's business," Grijpstra said.

  "I should say so," Nellie said.

  "That's not quite what I meant… Oh, by the way, Nellie, if you see the commissaris tell him that this hermit he and de Gier knew here, Jeremy, got old and sick and rowed himself into nowhere, but there's a disciple, a man called Ishmael."

  "I don't like hermits, Henk. Hermits don't have enough to lose."

  The commissaris winked at Katrien. She made a movement to stop the tape. He shook his head.

  "Ishmael seems to be helpful," Grijpstra said. "And there's a woman who works in the restaurant here, a friend of Rinuss, who'll drive me to Boston to change my money. She's from Hawaii and she wants to go to Boston to see an exhibition of Hawaiian historical paintings.

  …"

  "Henk!"

  "I can't drive myself," Grijpstra said, "I get too sleepy, you know that."

  "How
old is this Aki, Henk?"

  "Thirty-ish?"

  "No! From Hawaii! They all swing their hips, and they're immoral. Remember that movie? How they crawled all over the sailors? And made them stay with them and that poor captain had to go home alone?"

  "Aki's gay, Nellie. She lives with Beth, Beth owns the restaurant. It's all right, Nellie."

  Katrien switched off the recorder. "After that, they're fighting. Poor Nellie. She's very upset about that gorgeous Hawaiian lady, Jan." She caressed his bald head, a little heavy-handedly. "Too bad you couldn't go."

  Chapter 9

  De Gier had gone ashore later in his own dinghy, a hand-crafted nutshell made out of thin cedar strips that sat high on the water. He joined Beth and Aki, plus Ishmael and Grijpstra, at the restaurant, where he arranged the journey to Boston. "Aki's car is a rustbucket, the doors are full of rainwater. They slosh when you bang them shut. You'd better take my car."

  The rental, a shiny new four-door "Ford product," as Beth and Aki called it, impressed Grijpstra. Grijpstra remembered, from "World War Two days in Holland, the time when there were no cars except German army vehicles. He also recalled the first American cars coming in after liberation: large shiny chariots that zoomed quietly on Holland's deserted highways, superior inventions from an advanced planet, benevolent robots symbolizing a luxurious beauty that had been beyond a child's imagination.

  "Wow!" Grijpstra said when he first saw de Gier's rental. "Nice wheels."

  "All yours," de Gier said.

  "You guys must be rich," Aki said as she drove the car, cruise-controlled at sixty-five miles an hour, on Interstate 95, a highway that appeared like an endless park to Grijpstra. "Rinus just keeps that car sitting at the Point? At what? At forty bucks a day?"