Hard Cheese by Ulf Durling

Author:Ulf Durling [Durling, Ulf]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Locked Room International
Published: 2015-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

3

I’ve been stuck in this hole now for seven years. Since I joined the police, that is. I was born and bred here and I know the town like the back of my hand. Most of what happens here is totally without interest. No action. It became more tolerable when we got TV. Not many new things happen at the office either, but it’s strange that we haven’t been able to catch Blom up till now. We’ve long suspected that he’s mixed up in unlawful bootlegging and possibly other dubious activity. This Sunday I decided the time was ripe for putting the screws on him.

He was unsteady and anxious when he entered, and that was what I had hoped for. He was sweaty as usual and was continually wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He claimed he’d been running a temperature since a day ago and that he thought that he’d caught pneumonia. He coughed in an artificial way.

‘It’s about time we got a clearer picture of one or two things, Blom. Do you prefer it to be here or at the station?’

‘Whatever the superintendent wants. I have nothing to hide.’

‘We can turn a blind eye to some things, but what’s just happened is the last straw. Now I want answers to my questions and the answers have to please me. Is that understood?’

‘You’ll be satisfied.’

‘I’ve been dissatisfied for a long time.’

‘Without any cause whatever, I can assure the superintendent.’

‘I’m a detective sergeant. Well, let’s start with why you watch your back door every night until one o’clock in the morning? Why have you put a twenty centimetre layer of gravel on the pathway? Why have you put up a window-mirror? What purpose does the espalier serve?’

‘I don’t want anyone to get into the house. Nobody unauthorized, that is.’

‘Horseshit!’

‘That’s the truth. Why would I go to great pains to keep a strict watch, if it wasn’t for the benefit of the guests?’

‘I’ll ask the questions. How does it benefit the guests if you hang out of the window in the back of the house halfway through the night?’

‘My goodness, a murderer slipped inside yesterday evening and you doubt my intentions.’

‘The truth at last! That I doubt your intentions. Very well worded, Blom! Maybe the watch is deliberately intended to be ineffective!’

‘Would I keep the doors wide open and allow a lot of riff-raff to come and go as they like?’

‘Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?’

He didn’t reply. I think he understood what I meant. He wet his lips with his tongue and his eyes avoided my steady gaze. They shifted and roamed about the room like a billiard-ball bouncing around until it hit a pocket.

‘Do you know what Melin is doing right now?’

‘No idea.’

‘Listen!’

I opened the window and at first he looked relieved when the clean, fresh air streamed into the room. Then we both heard the clatter of gravel. Blom turned pale.

‘This is a murder investigation, Blom, and because of that we have to go over your house with a fine-tooth comb from the basement to the attic.

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