Free Borkmann's Point by Håkan Nesser Page A

Simmel.
    6
) A courting couple, of which the lady for certain
reasons wished to remain anonymous and therefore
preferred to confirm the man’s account by telephone
rather than appearing in person at the police station, had
been sitting, or more likely semi-recumbent, in a car down
by the marina between approximately 2300 and 0100, and
at 2330 or thereabouts had seen a man smoking at the edge
of the quay, scarcely more than ten yards away from their
car. Both were more or less convinced that it was Ernst
Simmel.
    7
) Up in Hoistraat, three new witnesses (to add to the
other two) had seen the murdered man on the way from
The Blue Ship. In addition, all three had observed one
or possibly two unaccompanied male persons; in all
probability this was a case of witnesses observing one
another.
    8
) One lone witness had seen an unaccompanied man
come out of Hoistraat and walk down Michel’s Steps
sometime between 2310 and 2315, in all probability Ernst
Simmel. It is true that the distance between the witness
and the person observed was some twenty yards; but since
the man was under a streetlight at the time, the witness
had been able to register a fairly clear picture of him. The
most interesting aspect of this picture was probably that
the man in question had been wearing a hat with a broad
brim, which had kept his face shaded. This was one of the
facts suggesting that this sighting was actually of the
murderer; if that really was the case, it was the only direct
sighting thus far. No male person wearing a hat had
figured in any of the other reports submitted by the
citizens of Kaalbringen frequenting their town by night.
    The name of the witness was Vincent Peerhoovens,
and unfortunately he had been somewhat inebriated at
the time of his observation and hence not entirely
reliable—a fact he freely admitted and one that was
confirmed by several of the other witnesses. Nevertheless,
his account must naturally be regarded as extremely
interesting with regard to further investigations.
    9
) Perhaps the most significant piece of evidence to
emerge on this Sunday—which had been Chief Inspector
Bausen’s view, at least, when he passed comment on the
material summarized by Kropke—came from four young
people in their early teens who had been strolling through
the woods from the harbor toward Rikken—in other
words, the very path the investigation was concerned
with. They appeared to have passed by the scene of the
murder shortly after 2340. Since Ernst Simmel had been
smoking a cigarette down by the marina about ten
minutes earlier, according to witness number six, and
since none of the young people appeared to have seen
him, it could be concluded that when they passed the
scene of the crime, the murderer had just struck and was
presumably crouching over his victim in the bushes,
waiting for them to go away. (On realizing this, one of the
girls had burst into a fit of hysterical sobs—the very girl,
incidentally, for whose sake they had avoided contacting
the police sooner. Her father was the pastor at the local
Assembly of God; and at the time in question, she ought
to have been at home in bed at her friend’s house [another
of the girls in the party of young people] instead of
wandering about in the woods with a group of boys.)
    Whatever, this piece of evidence suggested that the
time of the murder could most probably be fixed at 2340—
give or take a minute or so.
“That’s about it, more or less,” said Kropke, closing his notebook.
    “We ought to give Meuritz a cigar,” said Van Veeteren. “It
looks as if he was spot-on regarding the time of death. What I
want to know is how the murderer managed to cross the
square. I mean, there were—let me see—six or seven people
there at the critical moment.”
    “Eight,” said Kropke. “At least eight. He probably walked
along the arcade. There’s a line of columns along the western
side of the square, the