Free Just a Corpse at Twilight by Janwillem van de Wetering Page A

commissaris's inflamed leg joints were a trifle better. True? Would Grijpstra care for lobster for dinner?
    Grijpstra shoveled down fried noodles and pickles. He felt a bit better, he could maybe imagine that he didn't dislike de Gier. This was like long ago, when he avoided Mrs. Grijpstra by staying over at de Gier's suburban apartment, which faced parks front and back. De Gier was a good cook, using herbs he grew on his balcony, serving choice dishes with a welcoming flourish.
    Grijpstra's tone of voice was almost pleading, "So how come you said I could row the distance and when I tried I almost died?"
    "From the Point," de Gier said, "it's only a quarter of a mile." He explained, "There's a peninsula south of Jameson and it bends this way." Hadn't Grijpstra seen the Point from Ishmael's plane? Ishmael lived at the Point. Didn't Ishmael show it to him from his airplane?
    "I never got that," Grijpstra said. "There's the harbor just outside Beth's Diner, there are dories. Your island is visible from the harbor. . . ."
    "No," de Gier explained. From Jameson Harbor to Squid Island was quite a few miles. Nobody in his right mind would ever try it. Only the stupid maybe.
    "Stu-pid?" Grijpstra asked, lowering his fork, pointing his fork.
    Well, kind of silly, de Gier said. And then somebody at the diner, probably Aki, was supposed to . . . lovely Aki, Akiapola'au. . . named after the vulture finch of her native islands of Hawaii . . .
    "Vulture finch." Grijpstra glared. "No such thing."
    "Please," de Gier said. "Change your coordinates. We aren't at home. Mr. Bear visits this island, and there's such a thing as a vulture finch in Hawaii." De Gier smiled. "You liked the lady? Aren't you pleased you came? Something else, eh?"
    Grijpstra had carried his bowl of noodles to the window and was looking at the peninsula shore, which was, indeed, close. He was eating again.
    "You liked Akiapola'au?"
    "The vulture finch is lesbian," Grijpstra said.
    De Gier stared.
    "Isn't she?" Grijpstra asked. "So is Beth. I saw it. I always do."
    "So?"
    Grijpstra shrugged.
    "Are you a sexist now?" de Gier asked.
    "Please," Grijpstra said. "We've gone through this before. I was New Age before the Age was New. Sexism means that one sex thinks it's superior to the other. That's negative. I'm definitive."
    "You're negative," de Gier said. "I asked whether you like Aki and you say, 'She's lesbian.'"
    "Not that way." Grijpstra stopped slurping noodles.
    "I said,'She's lesbian.'"
    "With that kind smile?"
    Grijpstra stopped slurping again. He swallowed. "With that kind smile."
    "So you like Akiapola'au?"
    "I like Akiapola'au fine."
    "And Beth?"
    Grijpstra nodded. "I like Beth fine too." He pointed his fork at de Gier. "It's you I don't happen to care for right now."
    "I care for you," de Gier said. "I hadmade arrangements. If I wasn't at the restaurant whenyou arrived—and I probably wouldn't be since I didn't know how long Ishmael would take to get you here from Boston—then Beth was to call the Kathy Three. If she couldn't raise Flash and Bad George, either Beth herself or Aki was supposed to drive you to the Point, and you could row yourself from there. Beth told you so. She was busy, she askedyou to wait a few minutes, but you wandered off, and then there you were rowing out into the bay, with a gale buildingupandlowtidesuckinglikecrazy.ShesentthesherifF after you, but he came back, saying you didn't want to be picked up, which she found hard to believe, so she eventually managed to raise the Kathy Three."
    "So you're telling me I was in good hands?" Grijpstra reported on his meeting with the sheriffs powerboat.
    De Gier was nodding.
    "What are you nodding for?"
    "Another complication I didn't foresee," de Gier said.
    "There's drug traffic here. Maybe they think I'm interested.
    Now maybe they think you're interested too."
    "Who's they?"
    "Probably everybody," de Gier said. "There's marijuana growing on all the islands and there's more coming in by boat,