The Mind-Murders by Janwillem van de Wetering Read Free Book Online Page B

agree. My colleague invited me to dinner at Beelema's, Rea was asked to come too. Borry Beelema likes to serve meals at request. He serves himself, and Zhaver and Titania dress up as cooks. Beelema believes in perfection. Caviar and champagne. Hyme, my colleague, must have discussed every detail of the party. It was meant as a trap, but I hadn't learned yet how to be caught in order to become free, FREE, damn it! They may not have known how to approach me. I'm a quiet man, or used to be. I worked, and that was all. Hyme sidled up along conventional lines and wined and dined me to soften up my resistance."
    "The price?" asked Grijpstra.
    Fortune told him.
    Grijpstra whistled. "You could retire."
    "And I didn't want to."
    They had left the kitchen and stood alongside each other, gazing out of the windows. Below them a sea of irregular roof tops was contained by a row of warehouses. A thrush, perched on the head of a gargoyle, initiated a fairly complicated statement. The silver Mercedes with the German number plate that de Gier had seen before slithered to a stop before the striped awning of the Hotel Oberon and the same fat German slammed his car door and waddled across the street.
    "You refused outright?"
    "No, I asked for time to consider the offer. I was alone, under attack by a wicked monstrosity, horribly eager to rob me of my safe routine, or so I thought. I pretended to laugh a lot, became angry, and went home."
    "With your wife."
    "Yes, then we fought."
    "Did you hit her?" Grijpstra asked pleasantly.
    "No. I repeated myself. We didn't sleep that night. She wanted to buy a car, a country house, furnish it in style. She said I could read books. I told her that I manufactured books."
    "You don't read?"
    "I do, but not too often. I told her I was being useful to society. She tore me to pieces. She proved I wasn't, that the other company could publish my trash better than I."
    "Was she right?"
    "Of course."
    Fortune thought.
    "You would sell now?" Grijpstra asked.
    Fortune grinned. "Yes, I will. I've been looking at my products again. Goat-wool socks, hallucinating mushrooms, UFO wisdom, Mr. Hyme can have it."
    "UFOs may exist."
    "Sure, but what do my authors know? They know how to spread ignorance on two hundred pages. They fantasize or lie outright and connect nonsense with fabrication."
    The thrush sang on.
    "Rea was right, but for the wrong reasons," Fortune said. "And she didn't care. I care now, and I disagree with her motivation. All she wanted was wealth, happiness, some short-range goal like that. She's a silly woman really."
    "You won't take her back?"
    "No."
    "Divorce?"
    "Yes."
    "What will the neighbors say?" Grijpstra asked solemnly.
    Fortune lit another cigarette and puffed placidly.
    "Mrs. Cabbage-Tonto? She's the only neighbor I know and she never liked Rea. Sure I'll divorce Rea, but she'll have to show up or write to me through her lawyer. 111 return her money to her; she brought a fair sum into the marriage. I invested it in the business. I'll pay her back with profits."
    "You're angry with her?"
    Fortune dropped down on the mattress.
    "No."
    "And what do you plan to do?"
    Fortune yawned. "Nothing much. Think more out of the circle, right here. This is a good place to think. Go on a trip afterward, find a quiet place, build my own cabin. I can't do that yet, but somebody may teach me."
    "Will you have a car?"
    "I'll have to learn to drive again. I could when I was in the army, that's twenty years ago. I don't have a license."
    "Your wife can't drive either?"
    "No."
    De Gier swirled his coffee. "The dog, do you think it will come back again?"
    "It did come back and I can't understand where it went. I'm sure I locked the door. It's Saturday today, yesterday I was in the canal, Rea left Thursday. I come home and it's all gone. I fall, Mrs. Cabbage takes me to the doctor. I do some shopping. Babette is at the door when I come back, pleased to see me, yapping, affectionate. I go in with the dog. On Friday I