The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan

Author:Chris Ewan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 2007-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

21

After we’d eaten in a nearby patisserie, we parted company and I went in search of Marieke once more. I found her working behind the bar in Café de Brug, her hair tied up in a tortoise-shell clip and a white apron secured about her trim waist. She seemed skittish when I walked in, unsure how to react for perhaps the first time since we’d met. It took her a few moments to decide what attitude to adopt and in the end she reverted to what seemed to be her default setting – moody.

There was just one other customer inside the bar, an old man in a thick horsehair jacket who had a tailored woollen hat and a tot of rum on the table before him. We shared a nod when I walked in but he failed to focus his milky eyes upon me. He was licking his lips and staring at his rum, looking as if he might tempt himself with a sip for the entire afternoon.

“I’d like a beer,” I told her. “And don’t look at me that way. I’m not the worst mistake you ever made.”

Wordlessly, she took down a small glass from the shelf above the bar and began to fill it from the pump. The beer formed a foaming head and she wiped the froth from the rim of the glass with a plastic spatula. I took a mouthful and watched her watching me. She hadn’t expected this and I could tell she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was I just some dumb Englishman who’d become infatuated with her or was I here for something else?

“It’s good beer,” I said. “And the glass is clean and the service is impeccable. You should be proud of yourself.”

That got a sneer. At least it broke up the scowl for a while.

“How many years do you figure you have ahead of yourself here? Two or three, maybe, before you quit and let some rich guy with a hole for a brain marry you?”

A sneer and a scowl. Who’d have thought it.

“I mean, that has to be the plan, doesn’t it? Assuming you really have missed out on these diamonds.”

Amazing, isn’t it, what just one word can do to a person’s face? Marieke’s turned utterly blank. The bitterness and distrust just evaporated, leaving her stunned, as if her face was re-booting while it waited for the next set of instructions to be transmitted to the network of muscles beneath her skin. She didn’t stay that way for long, but it was enough to tell me I was on the right tracks.

“Michael got away with them, didn’t he? The rumour was he stole a fortune all those years ago, so who knows what it’s worth now, right?”

She pouted, and tried glancing out of the window in a carefree manner, not willing to commit just yet.

“What I don’t get is how the monkeys fit into it all. Or why you need all three of them. You feel like sharing?”

“Why should I?”

“It could be in your interest.

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