The G File

49

Rooth was woken up by church bells.

At least he thought — for one lovely and hope-filled second — that they were church bells. He had been dreaming about his own marriage to a slightly olive-skinned woman by the name of Beatrice — she shared so many traits with his old classmate from grammar school, Belinda Freyer, with whom he had been in love for as long as he could remember — and it was in the middle of the ceremony, in a crammed full church, with jubilant heavenly choirs and a bride dressed in white, that the telephone rang.

He fumbled over the bedside table, switched on a lamp and discovered that it was no more than 6.15.

Who the hell rings at a quarter past six in the morning? he thought.

And what the hell is the significance of dreaming about church bells at that time?

He discovered that the telephone was quite some way away on the narrow desk. He thrust aside the duvet and heaved himself up, and it was just as he heard Münster’s voice in the receiver and saw his own chalk-white face in the mirror over the desk — at precisely that very brief split second — that the penny dropped and he identified the missing link that had been hovering somewhere in the back of his mind for several days.

That detail.

Everything went black before his eyes.

‘Hang on a moment,’ he said to Münster.

He leaned forward, and took a grip on himself.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Rooth. ‘I had a little dizzy fit. I think I jumped up too quickly. .’

‘I understand,’ said Münster. ‘I know it’s damnably early in the morning, but we have a problem.’

‘Really?’ said Rooth. ‘A problem?’

‘Van Veeteren hasn’t come home to Maardam. It seems. . well, it seems as if something has happened to him.’

Rooth glared at his face again. It was not a pretty sight, but he couldn’t give a toss about that at the moment.

‘The Chief Inspector?’ he said. ‘Not come home? What are you saying?’

‘Bausen rang a quarter of an hour ago,’ Münster said. ‘He’d spoken to Ulrike Fremdli down in Maardam. . No, something has obviously happened. He left here shortly after lunch yesterday: all the hospitals and so on have been checked. But he’s. . well, he’s simply disappeared.’

Rooth could feel the synapses groping after one another in his brain. Digging and rummaging away after a link. Van Veeteren had disappeared. . and he had suddenly realized what it was that he’d seen but hadn’t been able to see the significance of. .

Could it. .?

Why should. .?

The digging and rummaging came to a halt and uncovered a message.

‘Bloody hell!’ he said. ‘Let me think for a second. . I think I’ve hit upon something.’

‘Hit upon something?’

Münster sounded doubtful.

‘Yes.’

‘Out with it then! This is beginning to look like. . like I don’t know what.’

‘Come in to me two minutes from now and I’ll explain everything,’ said Rooth. ‘Bloody hell!’

Then he hung up and checked the colour of his face in the mirror one more time.

Then he washed himself very quickly and started to get dressed.

‘I feel awful,’ said Münster. ‘This is ridiculous. I don’t know if I’m awake or dreaming.’

‘You have your clothes on in any case,’ said Rooth. ‘We’d better assume that we’re both awake.’

‘Okay. What was it you’d hit upon?’

Rooth buttoned up his shirt ostentatiously and put on his shoes before answering. Münster watched him impatiently. For a brief bizarre second he considered assisting him, but decided not to.

‘Fru Nolan,’ said Rooth. ‘There’s something about Elizabeth Nolan that doesn’t add up.’

‘Why?’

‘I said there was something nagging away at the back of my mind, and when you rang I realized what it was.’

‘When I rang?’

‘Precisely then, yes. I jumped up out of bed to answer the phone, and everything went black before my eyes. But I happened to see my face in the mirror. It was white, or a sort of grey.’

‘Really?’ said Münster. ‘And?’

‘And then I thought about fru Nolan. When she came running out of the house. . after she had found her husband dead in the bath. It was Moerk and I who had been sitting outside-’

‘Yes, I know that,’ said Münster. ‘But what didn’t add up?’

Rooth cleared his throat.

‘The colour,’ he said.

‘The colour?’

‘The colour, yes. She passed out and lay there on the lawn. . I took a quick look at her before I continued into the house. She was red in the face.’

‘Really?’

‘Really? Is that all you can come up with? I must say you disappoint me. How can you be red in the face when you’ve fainted? If all the blood leaves your face, you go pale for God’s sake!’

Münster stared at him for three seconds. Rooth stared back.

‘So you mean that. .’

‘I mean that she was play-acting. She didn’t pass out at all, dammit! There’s something dodgy about Elizabeth Nolan, and if Van Veeteren has disappeared now, it could well be that-’

‘Good God!’ interrupted Münster, taking his mobile out of his pocket. ‘That must mean that. .’

He didn’t complete the sentence. Fell silent and rang Bausen’s number. Bausen answered after one ring, but Münster had time to wonder why he had chosen Bausen rather than deKlerk.

Perhaps it was simply because that number was still in the phone after the call twenty minutes ago?

Or perhaps there was some other reason.

It didn’t take long to fill Bausen in. Münster explained that he and Rooth were about to leave for Wackerstraat, and he asked Bausen to inform deKlerk and Inspector Moerk.

Bausen sounded as flabbergasted as Münster felt.

So they thought Van Veeteren had gone to see Elizabeth Nolan rather than going straight home to Maardam, did they? What did that mean?

Münster replied that he had no idea what it meant, nor what might have happened — but as he said that he felt himself overcome by a sort of icy cold wave so strong that for a moment he wondered if he was having a heart attack.

Then he realized that it must have been something mental — he wasn’t even fifty years old yet — said goodbye to Bausen and hung up.

Rooth was fully dressed by now and ready to leave.

‘Tell me what this means,’ said Münster. ‘If you are right, that is. Does it mean that. . that Jaan G. Hennan didn’t in fact kill himself, or. . or what the hell are you trying to say?’

‘I’m not trying to say anything at all,’ said Rooth. ‘I’m just trying to get ready to see how things look out there at the Nolans’ house. Okay? Are you coming with me, or do you want to go back to bed?’

‘All right,’ said Münster. ‘What are we waiting for?’