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

thought about calling the station, but then told herself to concentrate on her own job.
    By the time she pulled off the main road, parked and got out of the car the wind had increased, slamming in off the sea, grabbing the car door from her hand before she had a chance to close it herself.
    Who’d want to live out here?
she thought as she pressed thedoorbell, and stood back waiting for someone to answer, pulling the collar of her coat closer round her throat. The door swung in, opened by a young woman with short blond hair and hyperthyroid eyes. From behind the woman Tanya could hear the shrieks and screams of children at play.
    She’s about my age
, thought Tanya.
Are those her kids?
    She was called Geertje, she said, and she lived here with her husband and three children. She didn’t know the neighbours that well, an old couple called Van Delft, and she was shocked that they were dead. But she was adamant they didn’t have a child. Tanya thanked her, got back in her car and headed to the petrol station.
    If they didn’t have children
, she thought as she drove,
then why have a brand-new doll? Maybe it was for a grandchild, when they visited?
    Whoever had set light to the house would have had to come past the petrol station; the western approach was nothing more than a dirt track which led to bleak sands, and the North Sea. There was a chance someone there had seen something.
    A slim chance, but then her job was built on slim chances.
    The station stood alone in the landscape, and she felt the desolation again.
    If I’ve passed I could transfer out of here
, she thought as she hit the indicator.
    Turning into the forecourt she was checking for cameras, and yes, there were four. Judging by their angle and elevation at least three of them might just catch some of the road, enough to tell if a car passed sometime early inthe morning. If she was really lucky they might even have had to fill up.
    Inside the shop a young man, teenager really – with hair his parents would consider way too long and the eyes of a stoner – sat flicking through a magazine dedicated to car tyres. He looked up as Tanya approached.
    ‘Which number?’
    ‘I didn’t get any petrol, I’m with the police, I wanted to ask you some questions.’
    He swallowed, and tried to look cool.
    ‘This place is open twenty-four hours right?’
    ‘No, we like close at ten? Hardly anyone passes this way after about nine-thirty, kind of dead really. But the guy who runs it wants us to be open, just, like, in case?’
    His tone of voice showed that he didn’t agree with that particular business decision.
    ‘What about the CCTV, I notice you’ve got cameras outside?’
    ‘They’re on’ – he scratched his head – ‘all of the time. Dunno why though, I don’t think we’ve ever been robbed.’
    It’s hardly worth doing
, she tried to tell herself even as the words came out of her mouth.
    ‘I need to see the CCTV tapes.’
    ‘Errr … I’m not sure how to do that.’ His voice tightroped between the treble and bass of boy and manhood, his eyes blinking furiously.
    ‘Maybe your boss?’ she prompted.
    ‘Yeah, right. Yeah, he’ll know.’ He picked up the phone.
    ‘Yeah, it’s Harri, there’s like this policewoman here, she wants to see the CCTV tapes?’
    He listened, brows furrowed in concentration, slowlyscratching a patch of red skin just by his right ear before holding the phone out to her, which she took, catching a wave of his damp odour as she did so.
    ‘Who is this?’
    ‘I’m Gerrit Cloet, I run the petrol station. Who are you?’
    ‘Sergeant van der Mark’ – she could feel Harri’s eyes on her – ‘and I need access to your CCTV tapes.’
    ‘What’s this about?’
    ‘There was a fire on Zeedijk, I need to check if any cars passed late last night or early this morning.’
    There was a pause; she could hear sounds in the background, gunshots, theme music.
    ‘Okay, put Harri back on and I’ll talk him through how to set