‘Oh, shit,’ said the man and hung up.
Very odd, she thought when she had got into bed. Here’s me waiting for a call from that damned Ester for two days, and all that happens is that some bloody layabout rings and goes on about a different Ester.
And the feeling of unease started nagging at her once again.
In fact it was Monday morning before Ester got in touch. She sounded as perky as a parrot on pot.
‘Good morning, my lovely — I hope I didn’t wake you up?’
‘Yes, you did.’
‘I didn’t get home until late last night. I didn’t want to ring then and disturb you. How are things?’
‘I haven’t had time to find out yet,’ said Anna. ‘What time is it?’
‘Half past seven. I’m on my way to work, but I thought I’d give you a bell first. I heard your message on the answering machine. So you’re still ill, are you?’
Anna raised herself into a half-sitting position, and felt that she certainly wasn’t yet back on top form. She brushed aside some hair that had stuck fast to her forehead and cheeks, and took a firmer grip of the receiver.
‘Yes, I think I’m still ill. It’ll take at least a week, just as the doc said. Where on earth have you been? I rang several times.’
‘I know,’ said Ester. ‘I’ve been with my parents in Willby — didn’t I say I was going there?’
‘No, you didn’t,’ said Anna.
‘Huh. Ah well, never mind. I expect you want to hear about what happened on Friday evening.’
‘Among other things, yes.’
‘Well, I ended up by going to Keefer’s after all.’
‘Really?’
‘He was sitting there.’
‘And?’
‘Wearing a red tie and with Eliot on the table.’
Anna waited. Then her friend suddenly burst out laughing.
‘The fact is, it went pretty well. I’ve taken him over.’
‘Eh?’
‘Taken him over. I didn’t bother to pass on any greetings from you, I simply spent a couple of hours having dinner with him. You can have my pilot.’
‘Your pilot?’ said Anna, then sneezed straight into the receiver.
‘Bless you! Yes, the bloke with the house in Greece — he’d be absolutely right for you. We’ll do a swap, just like that.’
‘But that’s not on. You can’t. .’
‘Of course it’s on,’ insisted Ester, sounding thrilled to bits. ‘Why not? It’s already fixed, there’s no going back.’
Anna felt something that was either a fever or an attack of anger — or a combination of both — welling up inside her.
‘What the hell do you mean?’ she snarled. ‘You can’t simply take over my bloke just like that. I asked you to go there and explain that I was unable to attend. What you’ve done is a bloody disgraceful way of-’
‘Of course it is,’ said Ester, interrupting her, ‘but that’s the way it turned out. My colleague also caught the flu on Friday, so I had nobody to go to the cinema with. I thought it would be much easier to test the bloke out, seeing as I was there in any case. Why are you kicking up such a fuss? Surely it doesn’t matter, it’s too late to change anything now, and you can have my pilot. .’
‘I don’t want your bloody pilot!’
‘Why not? There’s nothing wrong with pilots. Get a grip, for God’s sake!’
Anna sat there in silence for a few seconds, trying to hold back another sneeze. But in vain.
‘Bless you!’ said Ester again. ‘We can’t do anything to change this now, surely you can see that. He has no idea that there were two of us involved in the game. I don’t think he’d be impressed if another woman turned up next time. . Don’t take it personally, but we’re not twins after all.’
‘And when is next time?’ asked Anna.
‘Not for quite some time. So if you’re in a hurry you haven’t lost anything. He’s busy until Christmas, and then I’m going away for a couple of weeks. I shan’t meet him again until January.’
‘January?’
‘Yes. I don’t understand what you’re getting upset about. If I hadn’t gone to Keefer’s you wouldn’t have got anywhere anyway. But as it is, I’m serving you up a cultured pilot on a gold tray — surely you could thank me for that. Don’t you think?’
Anna had the feeling that she didn’t have much of a defence against this attack. Ester had a point, no doubt about it. She thought for a moment again.
‘And this golden boy up in the clouds,’ she said. ‘Isn’t he going to notice anything fishy?’
‘Of course not,’ said Ester, demonstrating her early-morning good humour by laughing yet again. ‘He’s away flying, like I said. I’ve only spoken to him on the phone. Our first date is a week from now, so there’s no problem: I can fill you in on what we said on the phone, that’ll only take five minutes.’
‘Really?’ said Anna.
‘As easy as winking,’ said Ester. ‘Stop moaning, concentrate on getting fit again, and I’ll talk to you in a couple of days. I really must get to work now.’
‘All right,’ said Anna with a sigh. ‘I suppose I ought to thank you.’
‘Of course you should,’ said Ester. ‘Love and kisses.’
‘Watch out, I’m infectious,’ said Anna as she replaced the receiver.
What an ego-tripping bitch, Anna thought when she eventually got out of bed. I stake everything on a wild card with a high risk factor, and that damned Ester thinks she can just step in and steal him from under my very nose.
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
But she failed to work out any way of putting things to rights, despite spending all day thinking about it.
She didn’t even know what the bloke was called, for God’s sake. And in the end she began to realize that it would be best to give up and be satisfied with that pilot.
I hope you end up with a real shit, Ester Peerenkaas, she thought as she switched off the light for the night. That would serve you right.
During the next few years of her life she would frequently come back to that thought, and regret it deeply.
MAARDAM
JANUARY 2001
30
Inspector Baasteuwel looked for a suitable place to put his wet raincoat. As he didn’t find anywhere, he simply dropped it on the floor just inside the door.
Reinhart looked up and nodded.
‘Welcome to headquarters. Take a seat.’
‘Thank you,’ said Baasteuwel, lighting a cigarette. ‘I happened to be passing, as I said, so I thought I’d pop in and see how things are going. I see you’ve been starring on the telly. . A happy New Year, by the way.’
‘Thank you, and the same to you,’ said Reinhart. ‘As for the telly, well, it was worth a try.’
‘I actually watched the programme,’ Baasteuwel admitted. ‘And very informative it was, I must say. But I gather you haven’t had much of a response?’
‘Not a lot.’
‘But a bit, even so?’
Reinhart scratched his head while wondering what to say.
‘Chickenfeed,’ he said, examining his fingernails. ‘We had confirmation of what we already knew. That the priest was in fact pushed under the train, for instance. And that the Kammerle girl had met him — at least once. A young lad from her school had seen them together in a cafe.’
‘A cafe?’
‘Yes. You might think that was a somewhat unorthodox location for a confession, but maybe it wasn’t really a confession.’
Baasteuwel nodded.
‘So we can be pretty confident that it was the same killer in all three cases,’ said Reinhart. ‘A pretty meticulous type, it seems: he’s wiped away more or less every single fingerprint in the flat where the woman was murdered, not just his own.’
‘What does that indicate?’ wondered Baasteuwel.
‘Nothing in particular; but it could be that he’d been there quite often, and wanted to be on the safe side. .’
‘It must have taken him a hell of a time,’ said Baasteuwel. ‘Even if it’s only a small flat it must have been a devil of a job.’
‘He had plenty of time,’ said Reinhart, starting to fill his pipe with elaborate care. ‘Don’t forget that it was over a month before we came into the picture. He’d have had time to repaper the walls and install a new kitchen if that had been necessary.’