From Bruges with Love
Page 25
Brouwers poured himself a cognac and opened the safe. He selected an Israeli revolver from the arsenal he stored it in, a collector’s item worth twenty-five thousand francs. Brouwers threw back the cognac, pressed the barrel of the revolver against the roof of his mouth, and pulled the trigger. His last thought was about the future owners of the villa. His brains would be splattered all over the wall and they would have to repaper the living room.
Van In shook Versavel and woke him up. “Work to be done, Guido.”
Hannelore hung up the phone. She had first called Beekman and then the director of the prison. “We can question Aerts in fifteen minutes,” she said enthusiastically.
William Aerts was accompanied to the visitors’ room by three prison guards. He had suddenly acquired dangerous criminal status. Aerts abhorred the hollow sound of his own footsteps. He was about to face Van In, and the time of the interrogation hadn’t been chosen at random. The commissioner knew that he’d lied. The entire movie replayed in his head as he walked through the corridors of the prison. Provoost had called him that evening. There had been an accident. Dani was dead. William had to get rid of the body, and Vandaele had agreed to pay him one hundred thousand francs for his services.
William dragged the corpse to his car and opened the trunk. When he was about to slam it shut again, he heard a groan. Dani was still alive. William made him an offer. If he kept his mouth shut and went back to the Netherlands, he would give him one hundred thousand. Everything went fine until Dani reappeared six months later and demanded more money for another operation. If William refused to pay, Dani threatened to put pressure on Provoost. In an attack of panic William grabbed hold of the transsexual and in the scuffle broke his neck. He buried the corpse on the grounds of the Love. He was now free to continue blackmailing Provoost and Brys.
Van In parked the Twingo in front of the prison. There was a clear sky above, with thousands of stars doing their best to dispel the darkness.
“By the way,” said Hannelore when she got out of the car. “I forgot something in all the commotion.”
Van In locked both doors. “Did you leave the iron on?” he asked with a grin.
Hannelore knew her husband. She liked his unique sense of humor and the way he reacted in exceptional circumstances. “No,” she smiled. “The result of the amniocentesis was negative. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll have a healthy baby in a few months.”
Van In took a last cigarette from the pack. The smoke made his eyes water. Or did he imagine it?
About the Author
Pieter Aspe is the author of the Pieter Van In Mysteries. Aspe lives in Bruges, Belgium, and is one of the most popular contemporary writers in the Flemish language. His novels have sold over one million copies in Europe alone.
Brian Doyle was born in Scotland in 1956 and is currently a professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium. In addition to teaching, he has translated a wide variety of books from Dutch and Flemish into English. In addition to the Pieter Van In Mysteries, his recent book projects include Jef Geeraerts’s The Public Prosecutor (2009), Jacqueline van Maarsen’s Inheriting Anne Frank (2010), Christiaan Weijts’s The Window Dresser (2009), Tessa de Loo’s The Book of Doubt (2011), Paul Glaser’s Dancing with the Enemy (2013), and Bob Van Laerhoven’s Baudelaire’s Revenge (2014). He also translates poetry and literary nonfiction.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Translated from De kinderen van Chronos, copyright © 1997 by Pieter Aspe
Translation copyright © 2015 by Brian Doyle
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
978-1-4976-7468-4
Published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
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