The Widow (35 page)

‘Please.'

‘Your man is out of all danger and will be up and about in a couple of weeks. A small cut, say five centimetres and not too deep, along the inner surface tissue of his left thigh. It'll knit up nicely and leave a barely perceptible scar. The genital area is untouched. He will walk perfectly normally; there's no real muscle or tendon injury. I've seen worse with flying glass. Would you like me to light a cigarette for you? Can I get you anything to drink? You fell on your hand, and opened up that nasty cut, but it sets you back a day or two at most; otherwise you're untouched. You're a bit sleepy from shock and a librium or something – want me to go on? Or wait till you're quite recovered?'

‘No, now. I'd like some black coffee.' He went and got it.

‘Paper cup was the best I could do. Let me help you sit up. I'll try to make it short. We couldn't get anything much on
that man: he was well covered up. You guessed it. He owns that flower shop. Right, a man with a red Maserati, who has a nice house in Switzerland and much too much money. We had to smoke him out. Your evidence about the razor cut was insufficient: no identity and he had twenty alibis. We brought him in, the boss questioned him. Leaked him a lot of what you'd told us, but the truth, and he knew it, was that we couldn't touch him. Goes off back to Switzerland. We had to hope he would come back. He's a vengeful beast. We had, or rather the Germans had, a totally unexplained razor attack on a man in Munich. That helped tie it in: there was a small coincidence in the pattern. The Swiss of course wouldn't have extradited him. We could only hope to tempt him back here.

‘That done, we had to keep right out of sight, or of course he wouldn't have approached you. This is why Papi and the girl were rather far away. And we had to wait for what is legally termed the beginnings of execution. Not enough to have him hanging about with a knife in his pocket. That's just a misdemeanour. We had absolutely to have something really to throw at him. On the narcotics there's nothing whatsoever – they're very sly, these people, never go near it. So blows and wounds with intent to cause death. We would not, I beg you to believe, have placed your life at risk in this way if there had been any other chance: I shouldn't be telling you this. We had three men, all excellent shots. Your going back by the other path threw us out of gear a little. However …'

‘All is well that ends well remains our favourite cliché,' sipping hot and not-too-weak Nescafé. Arlette accepted this offering with gratitude.

‘You are both greatly to be congratulated for the courage with which you tackled him. A thing like a bayonet – would give anyone pause. We are most grateful. That girl Corinne wouldn't have forgiven herself. She didn't lose her head; she was unsighted by you, and she had to run, and worried this would spoil her aim; she took him low down and made a good job, but were it not for your tackling him, it might have ended much worse. There is small consolation in killing a killer. I
could have expressed that better,' giving her his palm to use as an ashtray, blowing it off as dust.

‘You got yourself into a scrape we were too late to pull you out of in the first place. After that, you were in too far. We don't use people as bait when it's not what they're paid for.'

‘Man – do stop excusing yourself.'

‘You did choose this job yourself, the boss tells me,' smiling. ‘It does carry risks you don't foresee, from time to time. Not all just good advice to little girls who've run away from home.'

‘Oh yes, I realized that. The risk was mine.'

‘Well,' jovially, ‘I imagine the lesson has not been lost upon you.'

‘No,' said Arlette slowly.

‘You won't perhaps be in a hurry to start again?' jovial.

‘Oh yes,' said Arlette. ‘I'd start again.'

He took her cigarette end and crushed it carefully out on his heel.

Nicolas Freeling(1927–2003), born Nicolas Davidson, was a British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels; a television series based on the character was produced for the British ITV network by Thames Television during the 1970s, and revived in the 1990s.

Freeling's
The King of the Rainy Country
received a 1967 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Novel. He also won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association.

In 1968 his novel
Love in Amsterdam
was adapted as the film
Amsterdam Affair
directed by Gerry O'Hara and starring Wolfgang Kieling as Van Der Valk.

Discover books by Nicolas Freeling published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/NicholasFreeling

A Long Silence
Criminal Conversation
Double-Barrel
Over the High Side
One Damn Thing After Another
Strike Out Where Not Applicable
The King of the Rainy Country
The Widow
Tsing-Boum

For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book. The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square,
London WC1B 3DP

First published in Great Britain in 1979 William Heinemann Ltd

Copyright © 1979 Nicolas Freeling

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

eISBN: 9781448214600

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