He wanted to continue but the father interrupted him. "Christ will keep my soul," he said softly.
The mother touched de Gier's arm. "Maybe you cured my husband," she said softly. "He isn't alone anymore."
"I never have to see you again," the father said. "I'd like to of course, but it isn't necessary. As long as I know that you sit there, somewhere in the city, and listen to your music. This is a good moment. They happen at times. You don't expect them and they happen. When you do they don't happen. Mother! More beer!"
The mother brought more beer. Constanze had sat down, very gracefully. "She wants me to look at her," he thought, "but I prefer watching her father."
"You have had these moments before?" he asked.
"Yes," the father said, "as a child. I never quite understood them. Something occurs, you notice something, and suddenly the moment is there. You can't explain it, maybe you don't want to explain it. I remember when it happened for the first time. I saw a hornbill in the zoo. Some people call them rhinoceros-birds. It looked so weird that suddenly my whole life changed. I saw my life differently. I knew it would change back again and become boring again, ordinary, everyday life. But that moment it was all different. The logic had been knocked out of it. The 'this happens because of that and that happens because of that.' All gone. I never forgot. Now I sometimes go to the zoo to see the hornbill. I walk straight up to its cage and watch it for a while and then I walk straight to the gate. I don't look at the other birds and animals. Just a glance at the camels. They are weird too, but the other animals all can be explained. Not the hornbill. Nobody can explain a hornbill to me. That's the beauty of it, maybe."
"You aren't drunk, father?" Constanze asked. She turned to de Gier. "When he talks about the hombill he is usually drunk, very drunk. We'll have to carry him to bed. He is heavy."
"No, dear," the father said. "You go to town with the gentleman and enjoy yourself. I am not drunk and I won't get drunk. Not tonight anyway."
De Gier said goodbye and waited for Constanze to go through the door. He looked around before he left the room but the father was gazing out of the window, with a peaceful expression on his flabby face.
"That was nice of you," Constanze said and leant against de Gier. "You should come again. Nobody can cheer him up anymore. He isn't too bad tonight. Sometimes he groans and doesn't know his own wife. He keeps on saying that everything is black and then he begins to mumble. He can curse for hours. He isn't angry then, he just repeats the curses. Over and over again. I couldn't live in this house anymore. When Yvette is here he gets a bit better. He took her to the zoo this morning."
"To look at the hornbill," de Gier thought. "Join the navy and see the sea, join the police and see the soul. I must tell Grijpstra, this would have interested him. Mayber Grijpstra should have a look at the hornbill sometimes."
"Is that your car?" Constanze asked.
"Yes," de Gier said. "I saved up for it. Tuppence a day, and I never stopped saving for a hundred years."
"Really"
"Not really. I borrowed it. I have a bicycle, an old bicycle. And when I'm on duty I drive a VW."
"Oh," Constanze said, "you don't need a car to take me out. I am used to nothing. Piet had a car but he used it to take his girlfriends out. I worked in the kitchen and looked after the child."
"Don't you have a friend with a car in Paris?" de Gier asked. "You are a beautiful woman. You can't tell me the men in Paris haven't noticed."
Constanze was quiet for a while. "I only left Piet some months ago. In Paris I have to work. My mother's brother owns a wholesale company and he gave me a job. I lived in his house for a while and they are very strict people. I only got a little flat last week, and when I leave work I have to pick up the child at a creche. I haven't gotten around to men yet."
"Hmmpf, hmmpf," de Gier said.
"You said that last night," Constanze said. "Is it your war cry?"
"Yes," de Gier said, "a war cry."
"Do you want to have me?" Constanze asked.
De Gier blushed and Constanze giggled.
"Who is trying to make who?" de Gier thought and went on blushing. He put his hand on hers; she didn't pull her hand away.
"Did you bring your sandwiches?" he asked, pointing at the plastic bag she had put between them.
Constanze blushed. "Yes," she said, "but not because I thought you wouldn't feed me. It's some bread and cheese my mother gave to my father when he went to the zoo this morning. He brought mem back again. I was going to ask you to drive to the park later this evening. I always went there as a child and I would like to see it again before I return to Paris."
"Are we going to feed the ducks?" de Gier asked.
"No," she said, "it's a secret. You'll see. He took her to the Chinese restaurant on the Nieuwedijk. The owner bowed behind his counter and the waiter smiled. Constanze noticed the friendly reception.
"Do they know you here?" she asked.
"They do. We made a bit of a mess here yesterday."
"What happened?"
"We arrested a man we were looking for and my colleague accidentally ran into the waiter. In fact, he ran over him. There were noodles all over the place." De Gier grinned. "Pity I was out on the street when it happened, had to go after my man."
"You can't be very popular here."
"It's all right. The police are very popular. But they'll still sell us a meal."
The owner served them himself.
"Shrimps," the owner said, "very nice. Very fresh. With fried rice. And special soup. Real Chinese soup, not on the menu. And a glass of wine. Wine on the house. Yes?"
"Yes," Constanze said, "that sounds nice."
The owner bowed and smiled. He lit Constanze's cigarette and snapped his fingers at the waiter. The waiter ran to the kitchen, ignoring the other customers.
"You get special service," Constanze said. "How does it feel to be powerful?"
"I don't feel powerful," de Gier said. "A policeman is the public's servant."
"Ha," Constanze said.
"It's true, you know. I learned it at the police school. I believed it then. Later I forgot. But I learned it again. It's quite true."
"You are serious, aren't you?" Constanze asked.
"Yes."
"Let's not be serious."
"All right."
"Are you ever in uniform?"
"Yes," de Gier said. "Maybe once a month for a few days. When they are very busy at the stations and short of sergeants. Come and see me at the Warmoesstraat."
Constanze laughed. "I am having dinner with a police sergeant."
"Not now. I am just me. The Chinese owner thinks I am, and the waiter thinks I am, but I am not. I am a man who is having dinner with a woman."
She changed the subject and they chatted for a while. De Gier steered the conversation toward van Meteren. She talked easily.
"Oh, he's nice. He was the only one in that house I could rely on. Always gentle and pleasant, and always busy with something. He never hung around. And he wasn't part of the house, he kept his distance but he would always help if anyone wanted help."
"Busy?" de Gier asked. "Busy with what?"
"He studied."
"At the university? Did he take evening classes?"
"He would have liked to, I think," Constanze said, "but he didn't have the right qualifications although I am sure he is very intelligent. He read history, Dutch history. He used to borrow books from the library, he probably still does, and the librarians were helping him, telling him what to read and finding books for him."
De Gier shook his head. "History?"
"Yes," Constanze said. "Why? Why not history? He knows everything about Holland there is to know, I think. And he has been everywhere. He knows every city and every village. He planned trips and then he would go on his motorcycle. Weekends, and holidays and all the time he could get from his boss. He wasn't enjoying his job much, I think, although he didn't complain."