Strike Out Where Not Applicable (28 page)

They were back. Van der Valk got out of the car briskly and fished for his stick.

‘We have the item of information we need to open the oyster,' he was saying five minutes later in his office. ‘He'll probably admit he killed Fischer, now. Five minutes' work – a short signed statement. Doesn't much matter if it's true or false. I'll take it straight over to the Palais, and the Officer will be very pleased. Get a release order in the same moment for the Zwemmer girl. A nice easy one. Anybody else and there would have been publicity. A poor little devil of a painter kills someone – that's not news. And that's the way magistrates like them. I sound cynical? – never mind. While I go over with a handwritten statement you'll see
about having the boy fingerprinted and photographed, Verbiest. And you'll type up the procès verbal, afterwards. Now get the boy out of his dungeon, lad; we've no time to waste.'

He was right. From then on it would only be a matter of form. Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? Strike out if not applicable. Male/Female? …

He was home with Arlette by lunchtime. Janine had been released – Rob was waiting for her with the Ferrari and an enormous bunch of roses. The magistrate's clerk was busy issuing summonses. Marion La Touche would be asked whether Fischer had ever held information over her head she would be glad to have kept secret. Marguerite would be asked. Saskia Groenveld would be asked … The painter would be asked …

Most of it would be kept secret. It would depend on the defending lawyer. They would not get away with legitimate self-defence, but they would manage large, impressive extenuating circumstances. Nobody liked people like Bernhard, even if no money was ever demanded. They are reminded of their own little secret weaknesses, and feel uncomfortable – and pick on the handiest goat to drive into the desert. Poor Bernhard. He was dead, so he would get systematically blackened by a defence lawyer.

It was Friday. Tomorrow May the First, Fête de Travail. On the balcony of the Kremlin they would be saluting, in fur hats. In France they would be going to the races. In prison they would be thinking.

Arlette had made mayonnaise. She had hake, a lettuce salad, an early cucumber, spring onions, raw grated carrots, the famous tasteless Dutch tomatoes. They had a glass of white wine waiting for the boys, and he told her about the painter. She only said two things. One was, ‘Poor Janine. She'll get over it. Do her good, maybe. Shall I invite them to dinner?'

The other was, ‘What a fertile, fruitful, months-long source of gossip this is going to provide for that awful Maggie Sebregt.'

Nicolas Freeling(1927–2003), born Nicolas Davidson, was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels; a television series based on the character was produced for the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s.

Freeling's
The King of the Rainy Country
received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association.

In 1968 his novel
Love in Amsterdam
was adapted as the film
Amsterdam Affair
directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling as Van Der Valk.

Discover books by Nicolas Freeling published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/NicholasFreeling

A Long Silence
Criminal Conversation
Double-Barrel
Over the High Side
One Damn Think After Another
Strike Out Where Not Applicable
The King of the Rainy Country
The Widow
Tsing-Boum

For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book. The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square,
London WC1B 3DP

First published in Great Britain in 1967 by Victor Gollancz

Copyright © 1967 Nicolas Freeling

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

eISBN: 9781448214570

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