Free Sun of the Sleepless by Patrick Horne Page A

streets. He also gave me his opinion on the lack of discipline in modern parenting, no respect for books, that kind of thing. He thought that the easiest thing to do was to pay up and deal with it afterwards, get the guy out of the shop. He ended up giving him a couple of hundred Euros.'
    'Cheap history!' Rey snorted derisively. He looked at Frans' blank face. 'Something that the dealer said to me in the shop. That thieving little fucker probably spent it on spliffs and beer!'
    'Well, I suppose it is lucky for us that he only considered the value of priceless to be two hundred Euros, eh? Anyway, our dealer, he had guessed that it was stolen and so had no intention of selling it on through his shop but he couldn't find any library marks or identification stamps in the book so he couldn't try to track down the owner himself. The images in the book, the text, it made him think that it was Masonic but he didn't want to involve his Lodge in case there was some bad publicity, they can be quite conservative over here. Likewise, he didn't want to call the police in case the guy came back with friends to damage his shop, or worse, so, he sold it to the girl just to get rid of it. He says that he actually made a loss on it.'
    'Alright, but did he identify our man?'
    'Ha! He certainly did!' Frans exclaimed, rolling his eyes. 'You see, our man comes from an era when only criminals and sailors had tattoos and only women and pirates wore earrings. This young guy's piercings sealed Janssens' first impressions of him as soon as he walked into the shop.'
    'Identifiable tattoos and piercings?'
    'He has three studs going through his right eyebrow, dark shaved hair with a tattoo behind the left ear; a crescent with a star. Our learned Mason recognised it as an Islamic symbol but thought that the guy wore it for show rather than faith! He thinks he is North African, maybe Moroccan, late teens he guessed. He also gave a description of his clothes and, best of all, he mentioned a ring he was wearing on his left hand!'
    'A silver ring?'
    'Exactly! He noticed it because the guy's other rings were big gold chunky things, also, he commented on the death's head motif. I think that we have enough to find our young offender, especially since he told me that he has seen him hanging out at a coffee-shop a couple of streets away. My friend, I think we will be celebrating soon enough!'
    Gertrude woke with a start from the nap she had drifted into and it took a second or two for her to get her bearings. She had obviously been asleep for a while since it was now fully dark outside, but she could not see the face of the wall clock to tell what time it was since she had not put the lights on when she had finally settled down on the sofa. She had wanted to catch some sleep in an effort to subdue the morose feelings that had gripped her all afternoon.
    She considered that it could not be too late because it was the telephone bleating softly that had woken her and usually, nobody called her at night.
    Groggily sitting upright, she reached out and grabbed the receiver from the small table at the end of the sofa.
    ' Met Gertrude Verker .'
    The voice that responded was relaxed and soothingly gentle.
    'Yes, Miss Verker, this is Inspector van Riel, Den Haag Politie . I'm calling in regard to the accident this morning. You provided a witness statement?'
    Gertrude rubbed a hand over her face to focus her mind, 'Yes, sorry, I was asleep, what time is it?'
    'Oh, sorry to have woken you, it is not too late, just coming up to nineteen hundred hours. I wanted to catch you before I finished work for the day; people are rarely home during the day time.'
    'Yes, yes, sorry, the accident, Mrs. Korteweg, well, I just needed to get a little rest. How may I help?'
    'Of course, I understand,' the Inspector reassured. 'It can be very stressful to witness such things and of course, especially when you know the person involved. In fact, that is why I am calling.'
    'This is about Mrs.