Then he started thinking about relativism. About whether other people’s unhappiness actually made his own unhappiness greater or less — whether the world really was constituted in such a penny-pinching and cheese-paring way that this relativism was the only basis on which good and evil could be judged: but then something seemed to be intent on distracting him. .
A few fake coughs and a cautious ‘hello’ penetrated his consciousness from the other room. He wondered briefly if he should respond or not. But then he stood up and acknowledged his presence.
Six months later he was still not sure if that had been the right thing to do.
The man was in his thirties. Tall and thin, and with a face that did its best to remain unseen behind a long fringe, a dark beard and dark glasses. He seemed to be enveloped by an aura of nervous unease, rather like BO, and Van Veeteren couldn’t help thinking about similarities with a suspect trying to pull himself together before a crucial interrogation.
‘Hello there,’ he said. ‘Can I help you with anything?’
‘I hope so,’ said the man, holding out his hand. ‘Assuming you are Van Veeteren, that is. My name is Gassel. Tomas Gassel.’
Van Veeteren shook his hand, and confirmed that he was who he was.
‘Please forgive me for contacting you like this. What I have to say is a bit on the delicate side. Do you have a moment?’
Van Veeteren checked his watch.
‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I have an appointment at the dentist’s half an hour from now. I was just about to shut up shop for the day, in fact.’
‘I understand. Perhaps tomorrow would suit you better?’
Van Veeteren shook his head.
‘I’m afraid not. I’m going away on holiday tomorrow. What is it you want?’
Gassel hesitated.
‘I need to talk to you. But a couple of minutes won’t be enough. The fact is that I find myself in a situation that I can’t cope with. Not professionally, nor as a private person.’
‘What do you mean by “professionally”?’
Gassel looked at him in surprise for a moment. Then he stretched his neck and brushed his beard to one side. Van Veeteren saw the man’s dog collar.
‘Oh, I see.’
‘Please excuse me. I forget that my status isn’t obvious. I’m a curate in the parish of Leimaar here in Maardam.’
‘I see,’ said Van Veeteren, waiting for what came next.
Gassel adjusted his beard and cleared his throat.
‘The fact is that I need somebody to talk to. To consult, if you prefer. I find myself in a situation in which. . in which my vow of silence is in conflict with what my moral conscience tells me I ought to do. To put it in simple terms. Time has passed, and I’m afraid that something very unpleasant might happen if I don’t do something about it. Something very nasty and. . criminal.’
Van Veeteren searched around for a toothpick in his breast pocket, but then remembered that he’d given them up eighteen months ago.
‘But why are you turning to me? Surely you must have a vicar in Leimaar who must be better placed to help you than somebody like me?’
Gassel shook his head.
‘You might think so. But we’re not exactly on the same wavelength on matters like this, Pastor Brunner and I. Unfortunately. Obviously, I’ve thought about it a lot, and. . No, it’s not possible to handle it in that way. You’ve got to believe me.’
‘But why should I be able to handle it any better? As far as I recall we’ve never met before.’
‘Forgive me,’ said Gassel, somewhat awkwardly. ‘I’d better explain how it is that I know about you. I know that you’ve resigned from the police force — that’s the key fact. I’ve given her a sacrosanct promise not to go to the police with the information I have at my disposal. If I hadn’t promised her that, I’d never have found out anything about what was going on — even, of course, if I’d been able to work out that something very nasty was afoot. Very nasty indeed. I got your name from Sister Marianne in Groenstadt — I don’t know if you remember her. She’s only met you once, but she remembers you very well and recommended that I should try to talk to you. . Marianne is an aunt of mine. My mother’s elder sister.’
Van Veeteren frowned. Transported himself rapidly back six years in time, and suddenly saw in his mind’s eye the spartan whitewashed room where he had sat for an hour, talking to the old woman. Sister Marianne. . The Roman Catholic Sister of Mercy and the newly operated-on Detective Chief Inspector who between them, very slowly — and filled with deep, mutual respect — resolved the final unanswered questions in the Leopold Verhaven case. The double murderer who wasn’t in fact a double murderer. An innocent man who had been in prison for twenty-four years — oh yes, he certainly remembered Sister Marianne.
And he also recalled the final act in the Verhaven case. No matter how much he would have preferred to forget it.
I knew it would come back to haunt me, he thought. I knew it would turn up again one of these days.
But in this way? Was he really going to have to pay his debts via this worried young priest?
That’s absurd, he thought. Preposterous. I’m pulling on too many strings. There’s such a thing as coincidence as well, it’s not only a matter of these confounded patterns all the time.
‘Do you remember her?’ Gassel wondered.
Van Veeteren sighed and looked at the clock.
‘Oh yes, of course I do. I remember your aunt very well. An impressive lady, no doubt about that. But I’m afraid that time is running out. And I’m far from convinced that I can be of any help to you. For many years my capacity has been somewhat overestimated.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ said Gassel.
‘Huh,’ muttered Van Veeteren. ‘Be that as it may. But in any case, I simply don’t have the time today, and tomorrow I’m off to Rome for three weeks. But if you are prepared to wait that long, of course I can listen to what you have to say when I get back to Maardam. But don’t be under the illusion that I shall be able to help you.’
Gassel contemplated the bookshelves while he seemed to be thinking that over. Then he shrugged and looked unhappy.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘I can’t see any alternative. When exactly will you be back?’
‘On the seventh of October,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘That’s a Saturday.’
Gassel took a little notebook out of his inside pocket and wrote that down.
‘Thank you for listening to what I had to say, in any case,’ he said. ‘I just hope nothing awful happens between now and then.’
Then he shook hands once more and left the shop. Van Veeteren watched the tall, stooping man walk past the window and out into the alley.
A young priest in a quandary, he thought. Seeking help from an agnostic ex-detective chief inspector. God moves in a mysterious way.
Then he went out, locked the shop door and hurried off to the dentist’s in Meijkstraat.
5
Monica Kammerle sat waiting outside the school welfare officer’s office.
While she was waiting, she wondered why she was in fact sitting there. To be honest there were two reasons, but they weren’t really connected. Not directly, at least.
In the first place she had promised that priest to go to the school welfare officer and talk to her about her situation. He had both nagged at her and appealed to her, and in the end she had agreed to go along with it. Not that she was going to tell the welfare officer everything — that was what Pastor Gassel had intended, of course, but she was not going to go quite that far. If she had really wanted to do that, there would have been no need to call in at the church — he ought to have realized that. And there was professional secrecy and there was professional secrecy, that was something she had gathered long ago.
The whole business had disturbed him deeply, that was obvious. She had tried to explain that quite a lot might look worse from the outside than it did from the inside, but he had dismissed any such thought.