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call on whoever is in charge here, and then he can stay to help. He's Frisian too. Once we're both into this, the job'll be easy."
    "You don't need permission. Scherjoen was killed in Amsterdam, and we're on a warm trail. Our pursuit is proper police procedure."
    "Fetch the commissaris."
    "I'm going back and I won't return," de Gier said. "I'm no good to you here. I'm from outside."
    "All right, all right," Grijpstra said pleasantly. "You can stay around. It's always nice for somebody like me to have somebody like you around. And you can have a good time. It'll be a holiday for you."
    Evening fell slowly, and thick sunbeams crossed loosening clouds. Beech branches embraced the quiet landscape. A cow lowed sleepily, and a farmer on a slow bicycle lifted a greeting hand. Grijpstra's fingers wobbled in response.
    They reached the station. "Hello," Grijpstra said. "Corporal, if you please, would you take Mrs. Sudema to Mrs. Scherjoen and my sergeant to the dike. Our car is out there and he has to return to Amsterdam."
    "Right now?" the corporal asked. "Don't you two want dinner?"
    "The sergeant is pressed for time."
    "Not at all," de Gier said. 'Tin a tourist here. I would love some dinner."
    "Back in a moment," the corporal said. "The cafe is across the street."
    Grijpstra ordered lambchops. "For two," de Gier said.
    The corporal came back with the lieutenant.
    "Is Mem feeling a little better?" Grijpstra asked.
    "Yes, Adjutant, Gyske is taking care of her."
    "Pity she has no children."
    "Douwe was her child," Lieutenant Sudema said. "He was too jealous of competition. Amazing that she could put up with the sjmunt"
    The corporal shook his head. "They do like to be abused."
    De Gier said that women may perhaps sometimes like to be abused, but that he, for one, would never abuse them.
    Grijpstra's nostrils widened. "And Jane?"
    "Sharing is not abusing."
    Grijpstra explained the perfidy of the sergeant's plans for Jane. "But she didn't fall for it," he concluded.
    "They don't very much, nowadays," the corporal said. "It's not as easy as before."
    "I've got to do the cooking," Lieutenant Sudema said. "Gyske works half days and I work full days, and I still have to do the cooking. I rather like cooking, but there's the washing up, too, and putting the dishes away. If they gain, we lose. I can't yell at her anymore, either."
    "I never yelled at my wife," Grijpstra said. "Why should I? She was deaf, and the TV at full volume."
    "You do yell," de Gier yelled. "You yell at me. You're known as the yeller."
    Grijpstra asked the lieutenant to please ask the corporal to please take the sergeant to the dike, right now.
    De Gier had to finish his coffee.
    "Bit of a bastard," the corporal asked, steering the Land Rover along narrow dikes, "that adjutant of yours?"
    "A fine fellow," de Gier said. "But never tell him I told you that."
    "And a bit of a bastard," the corporal said. 'The lieutenant is another, but he's been easing up a lot. I can thank Gyske for that."
    "If we don't bend, they'll break us," de Gier said. 'Take that Scherjoen, for instance. He didn't want to bend."
    The corporal was taller than de Gier, and wider. His chin resembled a granite rock. "They don't just want to break us," the corporal whispered.
    "Are Frisian women more fierce than ours?"
    "I won't say more," the corporal said.
    They might be listening in."
    The Land Rover parked behind the Citroen. De Gier slid behind the sleek car's wheel, and the Citroen flashed away.

\\\\\ 4 /////
    T HE COMMISSARIS, WANDERING ABOUT HIS ELEGANT OFFICE, was not content. A Frisian dies. In Amsterdam. What was the next move? Would he go to Friesland? Why look far away if it happened here?
    Because there was this new car and he wanted to drive along the Great Dike? He could indulge himself, but there was also the necessity to sniff about here. He could delegate the local search to his very best men and take off himself. The commissaris pushed out his thin lips. He attempted to