“I understand,” said Simone. “In my opinion, Du Barnstoker started them, but then everyone joined in. The owner more than anybody.”
“You too?”
“Me too. I looked into Mrs. Moses’s windows. I love jokes like that…” He started to launch into his morbid laugh, but then caught himself and quickly made a serious face.
“Is there anything else?”
“Well, why wouldn’t there be? I would call Kaisa from empty rooms and arrange one of my ‘wet walks.’”
“Meaning…?”
“Meaning I ran through the hallways with wet feet. Then I was going to indulge in a little haunting, but I never got around to it.”
“Lucky for the rest of us,” I said dryly. “And Moses’s watch—did you do that?”
“What about Moses’s watch? The gold one? The one shaped like a turnip?”
I wanted to hit him.
“Yes,” I said. “The turnip. Did you steal it?”
“What do you take me for?” Simone said, outraged. “What do I look like to you, some kind of hoodlum?”
“No, not a hood,” I said, maintaining my self-control. “You took one as part of a joke. You staged a ‘visit from the Thief of Baghdad.’”
“Listen, Peter,” Simone said, turning very serious. “I can see that something must have happened with that watch. I didn’t touch it. But I did see it. Everyone did, I’m sure. A huge turnip, which I know because one day Moses dropped it into his mug in front of everyone…”
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s put this aside for a moment. Now I have a question for you as a specialist.” I laid Olaf’s suitcase in front of him and opened the top. “What could this be, in your opinion?”
Simone quickly examined the device; he pulled it carefully out of the suitcase and, whistling through his teeth, began looking it over from all sides. Then he hefted it in his hands and put it just as carefully back in the suitcase.
“This isn’t my field,” he said. “Judging by how compact it is, and how well made, I’d say it’s either military or space-related. I don’t know. I can’t even guess. Where did you find it? On Olaf?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Who’d have thought!” he muttered. “That big oaf… Excuse me. What are the damned verniers for? Well, these are obviously connection jacks… A very strange aggregator…” He looked at me. “If you want, Peter, I could push the keys here and turn these wheels and screws. I’m a risk taker. But remember, this isn’t a healthy thing to be.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “Give it to me.” I closed the suitcase.
“You’re right,” Simone said approvingly, and leaned back in his chair. “It requires a specialist. I don’t even know who… By the way,” he said. “Why are you doing all this? Do you love your job that much? Why don’t you call in the experts?”
I told him briefly about the avalanche.
“It never rains…” he said morosely. “Can I go?”
“Yes,” I said. “And stay in your room. The best thing would be to go to sleep.”
He left. I took the suitcase and looked for a place where I could hide it. I couldn’t find anywhere. Military, or space, I thought. Just what I needed. A political assassination, a spy, sabotage… Come on! If they’d killed him for the suitcase, they would have taken the suitcase… Where was I supposed to put it? Then I remembered the owner’s safe and, sticking the suitcase under my arm (just to be safe), I went downstairs.
The owner had set himself up at the coffee table with his papers and an old-fashioned adding machine. His Winchester was leaning up against the wall, ready if he needed it.
“What’s new?” I asked.
He stood up to greet me.
“Nothing particularly good,” he answered with a guilty look on his face. “I had to explain to Moses what happened.”
“Why?”
“He rushed after the two of you with murder in his eyes, hissing that no one was going to break in on his wife. I didn’t know how to stop him, so I told him what was going on. I decided that would be less noisy.”
“That’s not good,” I said. “But it’s my fault. What did he do?”
“Nothing really. Bugged his eyes out at me, took a swig from his mug, didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and then began to shout—who had I lodged in his section, and how did I dare… I barely managed to get away.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “Here’s what we’ll do, Alek. Give me the key to your safe, I’ll put the suitcase in there, and the key—you’ll have to excuse me—I’ll keep with me. Second, I need to question Kaisa. Bring her into your office. Third, I could really use some coffee.”
“Come with me,” said the manager.
9.
I drank a big cup of coffee and went to question Kaisa. The coffee was excellent. But I got almost nothing out of Kaisa. First off, she kept falling asleep in her chair, and when I woke her up, she immediately asked, “What?” Second, it seemed she was completely incapable of talking about Olaf. Each time I said his name, she blushed red, began to giggle, made a complicated movement with her shoulder and covered herself with one hand. I was left with the unshakable impression that Olaf had been naughty here, and that it had happened almost immediately after dinner, when Kaisa had been clearing and washing the dishes. “But he took my beads,” she said, twittering and mooning. “He said they were a souvenir. Something to remember me by. What a troublemaker…” In the end, I told her to go to bed, and then went out in the lobby to make my way to the owner.
“What do you think about all this, Alek?” I asked.
He pushed his adding machine out of the way with relish and stretched his powerful shoulders until they cracked.
“I think, Peter, that pretty soon I’m going to have to give this inn another name.”
“How so?” I said. “And what name are you thinking of?”
“I don’t know yet,” the manager said. “But it’s bothering me a little. In a few days, this valley of mine will be swarming with reporters; I’ve got to get all my ducks in order before that happens. Naturally, everything depends on what conclusions the official investigation draws, but then the press will have to listen to the proprietor’s thoughts on what happened…”
“Does the proprietor already have thoughts on what happened?” I said, surprised.
“Well, maybe it’s not quite accurate to call them thoughts… In any case, I have experienced certain feelings that you yourself, in my opinion, haven’t arrived at yet. But you will, Peter. I have no doubt events will present themselves in the same way to you as you dig deeper into the case. You and I are just built differently. I’m a mechanic, self-taught, which means that I tend to have feelings instead of conclusions. And you—you’re a police inspector. Feelings for you arise as a result of your conclusions, when the conclusions you draw are unsatisfying. When they discourage you. That’s how I see it, Peter… So now, ask your questions.”
At that point—because I was very tired and very discouraged—I did something I hadn’t expected to do. I told him about Hinkus. He listened, nodding his bald head.
“Yes,” he said, when I had finished. “You see, even Hinkus…”
Having made this mysterious remark he told me, thoroughly and without any undue emphasis, what he’d done after the card game was over. However, he didn’t know much—for example, he’d last seen Olaf around the same time I had. At nine thirty he had gone downstairs with the Moseses, fed Lel, put him out for his walk, told Kaisa off for her tardiness… at which point I showed up. The idea to sit by the fireplace with some hot port came up. He gave Kaisa her orders and made his way to the dining room to turn off the music and lights.