The commissaris released the door’s latch and Tobias rushed in, forcing the door out of his hand. He ran across the room and loped off into the corridor.
“An amazing animal, madame. Very big, isn’t he?”
“Yes. But he’s getting old and is blind in one eye now and not too well. We had him operated on for cancer last year and he recovered, but the vet says that the cancer may still be there and that a second operation wouldn’t do any good. My husband is very upset about it. Tobias is like a child and we have had him fourteen years-we don’t have any real children, you see. And Tobias is so clever!”
The commissaris stirred his tea. The room was pleasant and quiet; there was no sound in the house except a rattling in the kitchen where Tobias was gulping his food and pushing its container around.
“You know why we came, don’t you, Mrs. de Bree?”
She was sitting unnaturally upright and playing with a lace handkerchief. There were tears in her mild eyes, enlarged by the thick lenses of her gold-rimmed spectacles. “Yes, sir, you came about Paul. I’m so saddened about that. I don’t know what got into my husband, he’s never done anything like that before. He won’t admit what he did to Paul, but he knows that I know. He hasn’t talked to me much since it happened. And the old ladies opposite saw him do it, Alice came to see me about it an hour ago. She said they had told the police and that they were sorry but they couldn’t help it, so I was expecting you, you see.”
“What does your husband do, Mrs. de Bree?”
“He’s retired in a way. He’s an engineer and has invented things, we have an income from royalties. Sometimes I wish he were still working.”
They heard a key turn in the front of the house and Mrs. de Bree jumped up and rushed into the corridor, shutting the door behind her. The conversation took a full five minutes and de Bree’s voice gradually lost its anger. Mrs. de Bree was crying. He came in alone.
“Mr. de Bree?”
The policemen were on their feet. De Bree pointed at their chairs and thought of something to say. Tobias was bumping the door. “My cat, I’ll let him in.”
De Bree sat down, he sighed, and all the air appeared to go out of him. The sigh seemed endless.
“I’m sorry,” the commissaris said. “But what has to be done has to be done, sir. You weren’t getting anywhere when you refused my detective entry, surely you knew mat, didn’t you?”
“Are you arresting me?”
“No.”
De Bree reached for his pipe rack and tobacco tin. The tobacco spilled as his trembling hands tried to fill the pipe. He couldn’t find a match and looked about helplessly. The commissaris gave him his lighter.
“So why did you come?” de Bree asked between puffs.
“lb obtain your confession, sir. It isn’t strictly needed, the evidence against you is conclusive, but a confession might help you, the judge will be better disposed.”
“Judge? You’ll make me go to court?”
“Yes.”
Tobias walked past de Bree’s chair and de Bree grabbed the cat’s tail. It closed with strength and the cat pulled, finding support in the carpet. De Bree’s chair moved an inch but stuck on the carpet’s edge. The cat looked around, turned, and put a paw on de Bree’s hand. It purred and its good eye opened until it was a large shiny green disk. De Bree grunted and released the tail.
“He must be very fond of you,” the commissaris said. “His nails didn’t come out.”
“He’ll never scratch me. He did once, by mistake, and drew blood and he was sorry for a week. He followed me everywhere I went. He loves me, he even hunts for me. He is always bringing me birds and mice, rats even. Once he caught a crow, a big crow. Crows are hard to catch. He brought the bird to my bed, I was ill at the time, and dropped it on the blanket. Made a mess, my wife didn’t like that, but he loves her too.”
“You like animals, don’t you?”
“I like Tobias. I don’t get on with other animals, or with people. My wife and I live very much on our own, but we don’t mind. If they don’t bother us we don’t bother diem. I have my books. I am an engineer. I have a basement where I can work. I don’t need anybody anymore.”
The commissaris had been looking at a large framed painting hanging in the shadows of the room.
“That’s Tobias,” de Bree said. “My wife did it. It isn’t painted but embroidered, in very small stitches. We found a store where an artist will do a portrait on canvas and they sell you wool so that you can embroider the portrait yourself. People usually like to make portraits like that of their children but we don’t have any. I gave my wife the canvas for her birthday. It took her months to stitch it.”
The commissaris had got up to study the gobelin. “Remarkable! An amazing likeness. Your cat has an interesting face.”
Cardozo whipped out his handkerchief and began to blow his nose furiously.
De Bree had lost interest. He was staring at the floor, his hand resting limply on the cat’s back.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Does mat help? If I say I am sorry? I’ll pay if you like. The Carnet ladies must have had some expenses, perhaps they want to put in a claim. I’ll pay for the vet and whatever you say I should pay on top of the vet’s bill for damages. I suppose I owe it to mem.”
“The judge would like to hear you say that.” The commissaris had sat down and was stirring his tea. “But why did you want to kill Paul? Death through arsenic poisoning is very unpleasant, painful. The victim suffers cramps, vomits, he may suffer for a fairly long time until the coma finally sets in. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose so. I didn’t think of it. Arsenic is the only poison I could find, they sell it to kill rats. I would have bought a better poison if it had been available.”
“But why kill the dog?”
De Bree shrugged. “There was no choice. Paul is a young strong dog. Terriers are fierce and quick on their feet. So is Tobias, but Tobias can only see on one side. The silly cat doesn’t know that the gardens around belong to others, he thinks they are all his private hunting ground. The other cats run away when they see him coming but Paul is a hunter too, and he has been out to kill Tobias for a while now. I have broken up some of their fights, but I can’t be in the garden all the time. So…”
“No.” The commissaris had put down his cup and his hands grabbed the sides of his chair. “No, sir. You should have thought of another solution. A very high fence, for instance, there’s a limit to what cats can do. A carpenter could have constructed a fence that couldn’t have been scaled by Tobias. The point is that you didn’t want to restrict your cat. You can’t deny other people the right to have a pet because their pet is a threat to yours. You could also have moved to the country. You are not economically bound to the city. You have alternatives, Mr. de Bree.”
De Bree’s eyelids sagged. “I said I was sorry.”
“Yes.”
Cardozo had brought out his notebook. “I’ll have to take your statement, sir. Would you describe what you did and tell us exactly when you did it. It can be a short statement, but it’ll have to be in your own words.”
“On Wednesday, the first of June, at about twelve hundred hours…”
De Bree’s voice was flat. Cardozo was writing furiously as the voice droned on. De Bree proved that his mind was trained in exactitude and had the ability to report logically connected events.
Cardozo read the statement back and de Bree brought out his fountain pen.
“Thank you,” the commissaris said, “and please thank your wife for her hospitality.”
“Will I have to go to jail?” de Bree asked as the policemen stepped into the street.
“It’s up to the judge, sir. I’m sorry, our task is finished now. Perhaps you should consult your lawyer when you receive the summons.”
The door closed with an almost inaudible click.