Read After the Silence: Inspector Rykel Book 1 (Amsterdam Quartet) for Free Online Page A

together by blood. He wanted to say that this wasn’t Andreas, sure it looked like him, but it was someone else.
    But as if reading his mind the Inspector handed him Andreas’ wallet and ID, the face still whole.
    Jaap could hear his teacher in Kyoto, Yuzuki Roshi, saying life and death were the same thing. At the time he’d thought he’d understood. Or had convinced himself he had.
    Now he knew he’d not understood at all.
    ‘What … what was he doing here?’
    The short officer shuffled nervously with one of his feet.
    ‘Actually, we were hoping you might be able to tell us.’
    Jaap looked down at the body again.
    Did the Black Tulips bring him out here? Or was he here following one of them and got caught?
he wondered as another thought broke through.
    God, I’m going to have to tell Saskia.
    He started back towards the cruiser, trying not to think of what he had to do next. But as he reached out his hand to open the car door another thought hit him.
    The break-in.
    Andreas’ text.
    What Andreas had discovered was dangerous to someone, most likely the Black Tulips.
    So they’d killed him.
    But what if they’d checked Andreas’ phone and saw the text? He shuddered and thought about what that meant. It could be that the Black Tulips had found out that Andreas was on to Friedman, and killed them both.
    But if they’d seen Andreas’ text then they’d also know that he knew …
    They didn’t steal anything
, he thought as he lowered himself into the car and nodded at the driver,
because they came to kill me too.

8
     
    Monday, 2 January
10.51
     
    ‘Look, we’ve just finished, and if there was a child, or children, or whatever, we would have found them.’
    Tanya looked at the man, his thin face, thin body, a shiny round of pink crowning his grey hair, and knew that he didn’t really care. Didn’t care that there might have been a child in there, didn’t care about the pain or the fear or the despair.
    To him and his two colleagues the bodies were just another prop, a part of their job, something to be analysed, bagged up, then forgotten about. She’d got the forensics to check after the firemen had left, she didn’t want to leave anything to chance. And Bloem would be here soon; any authority she had now would disappear.
    ‘I still think we need to check,’ she said and could see the thoughts in his head, as if his eyes were a direct tunnel straight to his brain –
Better humour her, don’t want a hysterical woman running around –
before he nodded and walked over to his two colleagues, who’d been listening in. Tanya figured they were rolling eyes at each other.
    A wind had started, coming in off the sea to the north, lifting flecks of ash into the air like tiny feathers.
    As more ash blew and Tanya turned away she had athought. There was a house, and a petrol station, about a kilometre back along Zeedijk, which she’d passed earlier.
    She glanced over, at the forensics back at work, and made a decision. It would take them at least another half-hour to go over everything again, more than enough time. And anyway, what was she going to do, stand here just to make frostbite a certainty? And was she going to confront Bloem when he arrived about her ID card? She knew it was him but of course had no proof.
    He’d already called and told her not to do anything until he got there.
    Well, tough.
    In the car she turned on the radio, the landscape so flat and desolate any distraction, even the inane chatter of the local radio, would be a comfort.
    ‘… was in fact a Homicide Inspector.’ She reached for the dial and cranked the radio up. ‘The police have so far neither officially confirmed nor denied this although we are expecting a statement shortly. Back to you in the studio.’
    ‘Thank you, Nicolotte, we’ll rejoin you for the official statement, but in the meantime let’s have some more music.’
    What was that about a Homicide Inspector?
she wondered as she clicked the radio off. She