The Rattle-Rat

\\\\\ 27 /////

It was snowing. The Commissarislooked out his window. He was rubbing his leg. De Gier stood next to him. "Slithering-about weather," the commissaris said. "Pluggedup-noses weather. We'll have a whole winter of it again. Thaw, quick freezes, mud, I don't feel like putting up with it again. Cheer me up, Sergeant."

"Hylkje?" de Gier asked. "Do you remember the young lady?"

"Yes." The commissaris smiled. "Such a lovely woman, and that huge motorcycle, the Frisian adventure, Sergeant. Some of our better hours."

"She was here for the weekend, sir."

"Aha," the commissaris said. "I'm glad to hear that. You'd better look into that aspect of your life, Rinus. Soon you'll be old and you'll be complaining. She might want to listen to your complaints."

"I can't visualize that," de Gier said. "She can, but I never see it."

"Take her to New Guinea," the commissaris said, "in a flat-bottomed sailboat. Share your great adventure. I waited too long, but you could replace me."

"She told me about Adjutant Oppenhuyzen," de Gier said. "He's cured of his disease. Do you remember the Chinese doctor that you said he should visit?"

"No?" the commissaris asked. "True? That's great. I'm very pleased. I thought that might work out. The doctor is supposed to be brilliant. He was recommended by my medical friends when I was looking into the possible source of the pain in Adjutant Oppenhuyzen's cheeks."

"Yes, sir. It seems that the adjutant had a chronic infection of the jaw, of which the neuralgia was symptomatic. Symptomatic neuralgia can be cured if the infection is taken away. The doctor had Oppenhuyzen's teeth pulled, then he scraped his jawbones and prescribed antibiotics. The neuralgic pains didn't come back."

"Then he can fix up his house," the commissaris said.

De Gier scratched his bottom.

"That's an irritating habit you have there," the commissaris said. "What's up now?"

De Gier looked out the window.

"You want the adjutant to be punished?" the commissaris asked. "You're not playing guardian angel, are you now?"

"A man commits murder," de Gier said. "We've all agreed that's bad. We've made up laws to punish murder. We've appointed hooligans like me to catch murderers. So why is murder suddenly all right?"

"We've also agreed," the commissaris said, "that we will not convict a man on his own confession if there's no proof that he committed the crime. Cops don't run around catching cops-that's another agreement we made."

"You could have turned the hounds of Central Detection loose, sir."

"Hmm," the commissaris said.

"So where will this all end?"

"In a bad place," the commissaris said.

"I don't see that, sir."

"You see what you see, Sergeant." The commissaris dropped into his desk chair and made it turn all the way around. "And what does the adjutant see, when he shaves his painless cheeks every morning, the good adjutant?"

"He sees a killer," De Gier said. "Can he live with the killer?"

"He'll kill him, I think," the commissaris said.