The G File

35

On the way out to Geraldine’s Caravan Club Beate Moerk told Probationer Stiller what she knew about the owner. It was as well to warn him what to expect, she thought. He was new to Kaalbringen, after all, and if one could prevent him from putting his foot in it, that would be an advantage, of course.

Geraldine Szczok, or Van der Hahn as she was called before her marriage, belonged to the so-called beat generation. Read too many novels by Kerouac at an early age and ran away from her well-to-do parents (dealers in shoes and leather goods) to California at the end of the fifties. She was away for a year or so, and came back to Kaalbringen with a little son, who she maintained was fathered by no less than Eddie Cochran during a night of passionate love-making in Salinas. But she had no luck in her efforts to inherit part of the fortune of the dead rock singer, and when she eventually turned up at her parents’ mansion in Walmaarstraat, carrying Eddie junior, one rainy day in February, she announced that she wanted no more to do with all that beat crap, and had every intention of settling down for good in Kaalbringen and writing a novel.

Their other child, Geraldine’s two-year-younger brother Maximilian — yes, they really were called Geraldine and Maximilian, Moerk assured him: no doubt indicative of their parents’ aspirations — had died of congenital leukaemia while she was away, and so her parents (or her mother at least) welcomed their runaway daughter and their grandson with open arms. Geraldine settled down in a wing of the mansion and began writing her novel; and when the older generation died (one after the other with a gap of only eight months) some twenty years later, she was still busy with that project.

When Geraldine reached the age of fifty she discovered that she had no money left, sold the family home, married an adventurous plumber by the name of Andrej Szczok and started the caravan site on the top of the hill a few kilometres east of Kaalbringen. After a few years Andrej disappeared in romantic circumstances with a gypsy woman, and to help her recover from that blow Geraldine invested in an unusually well-appointed caravan and settled down to live permanently on the camping site. If Beate Moerk understood it rightly, this must have been round about the beginning of the nineties.

‘She sounds like a remarkable woman,’ said Probationer Stiller. ‘How did the novel go?’

‘She hasn’t finished it yet,’ said Moerk. ‘We’d better treat her with kid gloves. They say she can be a bit temperamental.’

‘I can well imagine that,’ said Stiller, looking somewhat bemused.

Geraldine Szczok lived up to her reputation.

She was a large, well-built woman wearing goodness knows how many layers of brightly-coloured garments, well-fitting sandals, a lilac beret, and with a twenty-centimetre-long gold-coloured cigarette-holder. If Moerk’s information was correct, she must be about sixty-five by now — and it was difficult to imagine her in a care home or some similar institution ten or twenty years from now. Very difficult.

The camping site itself seemed to be neat and tidy. About ten caravans of various makes and appearance were scattered over a gently sloping field bordering on a strip of mixed deciduous woodland that stretched down the hill as far as the beach and the sea. Most of the caravans seemed to be occupied. People wearing tracksuits were playing volleyball and badminton, or washing up to the accompaniment of music from transistor radios, or simply lounging around and enjoying the midday sun with their newspapers, beer, or mugs of coffee. A few dogs were chasing one another, and some children aged about five or six were busy trying to dismantle a bicycle. At the edge of the woods a dark-skinned man was practising tai chi movements. It all looks very peaceful, Moerk thought. This is what you might call the embodiment of the quality of life.

The site owner’s own caravan was blue and canary-yellow in colour, twice the size of the next-largest, with a television aerial and satellite dish, and a plaque with the word Reception in neon green.

Sitting in a deckchair in front of it was the one and only Geraldine Szczok — with a glass of beer on the table beside her, and a ten-kilo cat on her knee.

‘Welcome!’ she said without standing up or making any other movement requiring energy. ‘I gather you are the people from the gendarmerie. Sit yourselves down!’

She took the cigarette holder out of her mouth and pointed it at two much simpler chairs. Moerk and Stiller sat down.

‘That’s right,’ said Moerk. ‘A nice place you’ve got up here.’

‘Nice?’ said Szczok. ‘You have come to the Freedom Republic, make no mistake about that.’

‘Interesting,’ said Stiller, looking around warily.

‘We need a fair amount of information, as I explained earlier,’ said Moerk. ‘It’s to do with a murder — perhaps you’ve read about it in today’s paper?’

‘I don’t read newspapers,’ said Szczok, screwing another cigarette into the holder. ‘But fire away.’

Moerk took out the photograph of Verlangen.

‘We’re told this person stayed at this camping site some time in April. Do you recognize him?’

Szczok looked at the picture for two seconds.

‘Of course I bloody recognize him,’ she said. ‘But it’s a crappy photo.’

‘I’m afraid it’s the only one we have,’ said Moerk. ‘Can you tell us anything about him?’

‘Tell and tell,’ said Szczok. ‘What do you want to know? He stayed here for just over a week, then disappeared. A shady type.’

‘He’s been murdered,’ said Moerk. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

‘So I’ve gathered,’ said Szczok.

‘It would be very useful if you could tell us anything about what he was doing while he was here,’ said Stiller. ‘Did you chat to him at all?’

Szczok looked him up and down with a deep furrow between her made-up eyebrows. As if she were surprised that he could talk.

‘He didn’t have much to say for himself,’ she said. ‘And I leave people in peace if they want to be in peace.’

‘But I expect you have his name at least,’ said Moerk. ‘Date of arrival and suchlike.’

‘Of course. It’s in the book.’

‘The book?’

‘In there.’

She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

‘If you’d like to have a look at it, maybe the constable could nip in and fetch it? It’s on the shelf over the fridge. Black.’

Stiller nodded and disappeared into the caravan. Szczok lit her cigarette and adjusted her beret. Stiller returned after ten seconds with a thick, black notebook, A4 size.

‘Vamos a ver,’ said Szczok, shooing away the cat and taking hold of the book. She leafed through the pages for a while. Stiller sat down again, Moerk produced her own notebook and waited.

‘Here we are! Henry Sommers, yes, that’s him. Arrived on the ninth of April, and left about ten days later. He paid in advance for a week, but if he’s dead now that’s nothing to get upset about. .’

‘Sommers?’ said Stiller. ‘So he didn’t use his real name, then.’

‘In the Freedom Republic you can use any name you like,’ declared Szczok, taking a swig of beer. ‘Would my gendarme friends like a beer?’

Moerk and Stiller shook their heads.

‘No, thank you,’ said Moerk. ‘Which of the caravans did he live in?’

‘The one that burned down.’

‘Burned down?’ said Stiller.

‘Burned down, yes.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that the bloody caravan burned down, of course.’

Stiller looked at Moerk. Moerk looked at Stiller. Then she cleared her throat.

‘Are you saying that the caravan in which Maarten Verlangen. . or Henry Sommers if you prefer. . lived — that it burned down?’

‘Exactly. You’ve hit the nail on the head, Constable. Congratulations.’

‘When did it happen?’ asked Stiller.

Szczok shrugged.

‘A few days after he’d disappeared. Round about the twentieth of April, I would think.’

‘Why?’

‘Why did it burn down?’

‘Yes.’

‘How the devil should I know? Presumably there was some cock-up with the electricity. Or the Calor gas. Or maybe somebody set fire to it.’

‘I assume you reported it?’

She shook her head.

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘Why?’

‘I didn’t want to. I don’t like busybody fire authorities coming here and nosey-parkering about.’

‘What about the insurance people?’ wondered Stiller.

‘It wasn’t insured. It was the worst caravan on the whole site — he wanted it because it was cheapest. I’m glad to be rid of it.’

‘How did you discover the fire?’ Moerk asked.

‘I woke up, of course,’ said Szczok, annoyed. ‘It was the middle of the night, and it was burning so fiercely that there was a roaring noise. The whole caravan was in flames, I got up and ran out with the extinguisher. . It didn’t help much, and I didn’t have a single guest. But then it started raining, and it was all over by dawn.’

‘Was. . was there anything at all left of it?’ asked Stiller.

‘Nothing at all. A black mark on the ground and a pile of ashes that fitted into two wheelbarrows. Humboldt helped me to clear up.’

‘Who’s Humboldt?’

‘A neighbour. The farmer from over there — he occasionally comes round to help.’

She pointed with her thumb again.

‘Damn and blast!’ said Moerk.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I said damn and blast, if you don’t mind. We’re only human, we police officers.’

‘Pretty subhuman, I’ve always thought,’ said Szczok. Leaned her head back and poured the rest of the beer down her throat. Then she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and smiled.

Or looked pleased, at least. Goodness knows why.

‘We had hoped we might find something he’d left behind,’ said Moerk after a short pause. ‘But you say everything has gone. Presumably all his belongings were still in the caravan when it burnt down?’

‘As far as I know. I didn’t set foot inside it. I suppose I thought he might come back — he’d only been missing for a few days. And we didn’t rummage around in all the ash and soot, neither Humboldt nor I.’

Moerk sighed and turned over a page in her notebook.

‘Did you speak to him much while he was here?’

‘No, hardly a word.’

‘Did he say why he wanted to stay here?’

‘Yes: because it was cheap. He’d seen my advert down at the railway station.’

‘I understand. But what was he going to do here in Kaalbringen? Did he say anything about that?’

‘No. And I don’t poke my nose into other people’s business.’

‘So we’ve gathered. But he must surely have said something?. . Or implied something?’

‘Yes, he said he needed a roof over his head for a week. When the week was up he said he needed the caravan for a few more days. We agreed that he could pay the balance of what he owed me when he left.’

‘And you didn’t get any indication of what he was doing here?’

‘No.’

‘Did he have any visitors?’

‘Not as far as I’m aware.’

‘Did he say where he’d come from?’

‘No.’

‘And he gave his name as Henry Sommers, did he?’

‘Yes. It’s written down here in the book.’

She tapped at the black cover with her knuckles.

‘How did he spend his days? Was he here at the site, or did he go off somewhere else?’

She thought for a moment.

‘I think it varied. But he was away quite a bit, I believe.’

‘Am I right in thinking you didn’t have many guests round about that time?’

‘Hardly a soul. A few of the caravans were occupied at the weekends, but that’s all. That’s the way it usually is in April. . But now it’s full, as you can see.’

She gestured proudly at all the caravans.

‘Yes, so I see,’ said Moerk. ‘But the other guests — the ones who stayed here while Henry Sommers was living in his caravan: I assume they are all noted down in your book?’

‘Of course. Not many of them, as I said — and it can be a bit sensitive as well.’

‘Sensitive?’

‘Yes. And I’m not all that bothered when it comes to names. As long as they write something down.’

‘Why can it be sensitive?’

‘Some of them might be married, others might not be.’

‘I understand,’ said Moerk. ‘But I’m afraid we must ask you for the names even so. Obviously we shall be as discreet as possible. Could we take a look at the remains as well?’

‘The remains?’

‘The place where the caravan used to stand.’

Szczok leaned back in her chair and chuckled.

‘Of course you can, for Christ’s sake. It’s that grey patch over there in the corner.’

She pointed in the direction of a couple playing badminton. Then she leaned over to her left and fished out another bottle of beer from the bucket standing by the caravan wall. It was obvious that she was beginning to get a certain amount of pleasure from the visit, despite everything. From the discussion with the forces of law and order outside the Freedom Republic. Moerk sighed and stood up.

‘I’ll go and take a look.’

It won’t do any harm for Stiller to look after himself for five minutes, she thought.

When they left Geraldine’s Caravan Club a quarter of an hour later, Inspector Moerk felt somewhat resigned.

‘Well, that didn’t produce much that will be of any use to us,’ she said.

‘No,’ said Stiller. ‘Not much at all. What did it look like where the caravan had been standing?’

‘A greyish-brown patch on the grass,’ said Moerk. ‘That’s all. It’s typical that she didn’t even bother to report it. It could well have been arson, but I don’t suppose we’ll ever know now. Did you get anything out of her when you were alone with her?’

‘The names of two people who were here at the same time as Verlangen,’ said Stiller, tapping his chest where he had a pocket containing his notebook. ‘I assume they were both married to different partners, but they’d stayed with her before. Nothing much apart from that. . We spoke mostly about her book.’

‘What?’

‘Her novel — the one she started writing forty years ago.’

‘Oh, that. . What did she have to say about that, then?’

Stiller cleared his throat in some embarrassment.

‘She claimed it would soon be finished. She asked if I’d like to read it before she sends it to a publisher. . Apparently it’s over two thousand one hundred pages.’

‘Good Lord! Two thousand. .’

‘. . one hundred, yes. I said I’d read it — maybe I spoke too soon, but I didn’t want to offend her.’

‘Congratulations,’ said Moerk. ‘So you know what you’re going to be doing every night for the next year.’

Stiller nodded.

‘It’s no big deal. I read quite a lot anyway — and maybe she’ll forget about it in any case.’

Moerk looked furtively at him from the side as she backed the car out of its parking place, and thought that perhaps he had more strings to his bow than she had suspected thus far. This probationer.

‘What are you doing?’ said Ulrike Fremdli.

‘I beg your pardon?’ said Van Veeteren, taking off his headphones. ‘What did you say?’

‘I wondered what you’re doing. It’s a quarter past three.’

‘I couldn’t sleep,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘I’m lying here, listening to Penderecki.’

‘Really?’ said Ulrike.

Van Veeteren sat up and made room for her on the sofa. She sat down.

‘What does that mean?’

‘What does what mean?’

‘“Really?” — The way you said it.’

‘How did I say it?’

‘A bit like Archimedes in the bath tub. It sounded as if you had just understood something.’

‘There’s quite a lot I understand — you must have noticed that by now.’

She yawned and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

‘Yes, of course,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘But this presumably had something to do with my sleeplessness.’

‘Naturally.’

‘Naturally?’

‘You’re not so stupid as to be unaware yourself about why you can’t sleep, surely? And not so stupid that you think I don’t understand. . Not that latter point, at least.’

Van Veeteren thought for a moment.

‘You have a point there.’

‘Of course I have. What are you going to do about it?’

‘I don’t really know. Have you any good suggestions?’

‘There is only one solution. Why imagine anything else?’

‘You think so?’

‘You know full well there is. Don’t be silly,’

‘I’m never silly. But all right, a few days — if you insist.’

‘I don’t insist.’

‘No? Then I suppose I’ll have to make the decision off my own bat, then.’

Ulrike burst out laughing and put him in a stranglehold.

‘But we’d better sleep on it first,’ said Van Veeteren, wriggling free. ‘To be honest, I have some misgivings.’

Ulrike became serious.

‘Me too,’ she said, and all at once — for a fraction of a second — she looked so nakedly serious that his heart missed a beat.

As if. . As if death had paid them a brief visit at that late hour, but then decided to leave them in peace for a bit longer.

Nasty, he thought. Who is it, allowing us to lift the veil slightly in this way?