‘It’s mainly Sunday evening I’m interested in, this time round,’ explained the chief inspector after they had settled down on garden chairs under a shady chestnut tree.
‘Sunday evening?’ said Fingher. ‘Wim, go and fetch a couple of beers. Would you like a Pilsner, Chief Inspector?’
‘I wouldn’t say no,’ said Van Veeteren, and the son went back into the house.
‘Why?’ asked Fingher. ‘What do you want to know about Sunday evening?’
‘Can you tell me what time the party from the summer camp arrived, and if anything unusual happened?’
Fingher tried to remember, and his son arrived with the beers.
‘No, everything was the same as usual, as I recall it. What do you think?’
He looked at Wim, who merely shrugged.
‘What time?’ asked Van Veeteren.
‘Seven, maybe half past. Around then. As usual.’
Wim Fingher nodded in agreement, and all three took a swig of beer. It was unusually sweet, and Van Veeteren wondered if it might be home-brewed. There were no labels on the bottles, so it wasn’t out of the question.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Was Yellinek with them?’
‘Eh? Yes, of course.’
‘And four girls?’
‘Yes, four.’
‘Do you recognize the one who was found murdered?’
Fingher nodded solemnly.
‘By Christ, yes. She’d been here several times, just like the other three. This is a right bloody mess, if only I’d had any idea I’d have…’
‘You’d have what?’ wondered Van Veeteren.
‘Huh, I’ll be buggered if I know. Castrated that damned black-coated bastard, for instance. I’m damned if I know how anybody can send their kids to a place like that. We only have Wim here, but if I had a daughter I swear I’d lock her up if there was anybody like him around…’
His anger suddenly seemed to put a lid on his words, and he fell silent. Van Veeteren took another swig and allowed a few seconds to pass before continuing.
‘Did you notice anything special about him last Sunday?’
‘That bastard,’ said Fingher. ‘No, I don’t think so. What do you say, Wim?’
Mathias emptied his glass in one swig.
‘No,’ said Wim. ‘I only saw him in passing, but he seemed the same as ever.’
‘Nothing unusual about the girls either?’
Wim shook his head. His father belched.
‘No,’ he said. ‘They just stood there holding on to the cart, as usual.’
‘Hmm,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘Will you promise to contact us if you should think of anything? Anything at all that might seem tasty.’
Tasty? he thought. I’m losing my way with words.
‘Of course,’ said Fingher, scratching his head. ‘Obviously we’ll do anything we can to help. But I have to say I’m fucked if I know what you’re after.’
Van Veeteren ignored the criticism.
‘Last Monday, then?’ he asked instead. ‘I assume Yellinek wasn’t here then, in any case.’
‘Correct,’ said Fingher. ‘Only one of the women came on Monday.’
‘No girls?’
‘Not a single one.’
‘Did she explain why?’
‘Explain? Did she hell. Just stood there looking like a fart in a bottle, trying to be posh – as if she was God’s mother’s cousin or something.’
Van Veeteren cleared his throat.
‘You’re not religious yourself, I take it, Mr Fingher.’
‘No fucking chance,’ said the farmer and belched again.
‘Same here,’ said his son.
The chief inspector emptied his glass.
‘Ah well, thank you,’ he said. ‘I won’t disturb you any longer. But do get in touch if you think of anything… As I said.’
‘Of course,’ said Fingher, and began shepherding the chief inspector back to the road.
‘Sunday evening,’ he said, fixing the twelve-year-old with his eyes.
The girl, whose name was Joanna Halle, was gazing down at the table and rubbing her wrists nervously.
‘Sound a bit more friendly, perhaps,’ whispered the young psychologist into his ear.
‘Would you like to tell me a bit about what you were doing last Sunday evening?’ Van Veeteren tried again. ‘When you were down by the rock, swimming.’
‘We were swimming,’Joanna Halle explained.
‘I see. Who, exactly?’
‘There was me and Krystyna and Belle. And Clarissa.’
‘And you were swimming?’
‘Yes,’ said the girl.
An intelligent conversation, this, Van Veeteren thought. Gliding along as if on rails.
‘Were you friends, the four of you?’
‘Yes… No, not exactly…’
‘What do you mean?’
Don’t they teach pupils how to speak in school nowadays? he wondered.
‘We were just… sort of.’
‘Really? What time was it when you were there, roughly speaking?’
‘I don’t know, but we were back at six o’clock in any case, that’s when we have dinner.’
‘Did anything special happen when you were down there by the rock?’
‘No – what do you mean, something special?’
‘I don’t know. What did you talk about?’
‘Nothing special.’
‘You didn’t fall out?’
‘Fall out?’
‘Yes. Do you understand what that means?’
‘Yes, but we don’t fall out at the Pure Life, only Other people do that.’
‘Are you telling me the truth?’
‘Clear.’
Clear? the chief inspector thought. I’d better arrest more children so that I can learn how to communicate with them.
But Marieke Bergson and the others hadn’t caused any problems of that kind, so he decided for the moment that it was Joanna Halle who was a bit hard to get through to. Not himself.
‘Were all four of you together all the time?’ he wondered.
‘Can’t remember.’
‘Do you remember how you left there?’
Joanna Halle seemed actually to be thinking for the first time.
‘I was with Krys,’ she said.
‘Krystyna Sarek?’
‘Yes.’
‘So Clarissa and Belle Moulder were together?’
‘I think so.’
‘But you don’t know?’
‘Yes, they were still there when we left. Or at least, Belle was.’
‘But you didn’t see Clarissa when you left the rock?’
‘Yes, she must have been there.’
‘Come on, you must make your mind up. Was Belle on her own or were they both there when you and Krystyna left?’
‘They were both there.’
‘Sure?’
‘Clear.’
The chief inspector sighed and glanced at the psychologist, but she looked as inscrutable as a potato in glasses. Das Ding an sich, he thought grimly. The thing in itself.
‘But you didn’t see Clarissa later on at all?’
‘No… No, I didn’t.’
‘Do you remember if you saw Yellinek at all when you got back here?’
‘Yellinek?’
‘Yes. Will it be easier if I ask every question twice?’
The psychologist glared at him.
‘No, that’s not necessary,’ said Joanna Halle. ‘No, I didn’t see Yellinek until we went to the farm.’
‘So you’re saying you were one of those who went to collect the milk last Sunday evening?’
‘Of course. It was my turn.’
She looked at him in a way he realized was meant to express mild contempt.
‘Who else was there?’
She thought for a moment.
‘Krys and the sisters.’
‘The sisters?’
‘Yes, Lene and Tilde.’
Van Veeteren nodded.
‘Let’s go back to the rock where you went swimming. Did you notice anybody else while you were there?’
‘No, we were the only ones there.’
‘No other grown-ups either?’
‘No.’
‘And nobody else you recognized?’
‘No, I said there was only us there.’
‘How long were you there?’
‘I dunno… Not all that long.’
‘Did you notice if Clarissa was worried at all?’
‘No… No, she was the same as usual.’
‘And there was nothing else about her that made you think?’
‘No.’
‘She didn’t say she wanted to be on her own, or anything like that?’
‘No.’