A Long Silence Read Online Free PDF Page A

with a nest egg of a few thousand pounds in bank notes had had the brilliant notion of foxing burglars by keeping it in the dustbin. In an unhappy moment the dustbin had been put out for emptying … From the municipal garbage truck to a collective dump, to the ‘garbage train’ – a tidy Dutch phenomenon – to a dump on waste land far far away in the wilds of Friesland, these misfortunate people had engaged in a dogged pursuit worthy of a film by Erich von Stroheim. For day after day the whole family had haunted the enormous dump, which had since been tidied and levelled by neurotic bulldozers … helped by many eager amateur treasure-hunters. Van der Valk, a great believer in ‘getting to know a man by his garbage’, had made sociological observations about the habits of Amsterdammers which had staggered even him, and written a witty report on the subject which had not been appreciated by his superiors, nor by Arlette, who hadsent all his clothes to the cleaners, because ‘I’d never get the smell out’.
    â€˜Lovely,’ pursued Saint with enjoyment. ‘I’ve only just rumbled that all unwitting I’d contributed something rather nice to the same worthy cause. But of course you hadn’t noticed – how could you? No, of course you don’t understand. You see, Dick, I had one of these tiresome people – this is rather a good lesson for you in customer psychology – who always feel that they must be cleverer than the dealer. They have an obscure need to score points. In fact he’s quite sane about his subject, which is Chinese pottery: that T’ang horse went to him, which Louis bought specially from Spinks in London. Well, to oblige him I sold him a watch from Patek Philippe, rather nice. And of course he comes back and says it’s not right, and I sent it to the workshop, who had it on the electronic counter thing for a fortnight, and of course it’s perfect, but knowing this old loony I’m perfectly aware that this is just an act because he and people like him do these tricks with a vague notion of putting us in our place. I fixed him up with a Perregaux model he was perfectly happy with, and as I now recall’ there was enjoyment in Saint’s voice ‘I slipped the other, which was perfect, into an old box and heaven knows why – all my fault – I dropped it absentmindedly into that drawer. And now’ in accents of classical tragedy ‘it’s been flung out and has been swept away by the bulldozer. Louis would be most upset; we mustn’t tell him. A pity – it was a pretty one.’
    â€˜You don’t think there’d still be a chance of finding it?’ asked Dick.
    â€˜No no, alas, not a hope. I’d be ready to give a handsome reward to some honest dustbin man who turned it in – but there’s no chance of that. If you’d found it I’d have given it you, actually – no good to us any more, I wrote it off as a trading loss. Didn’t matter because just between us, Louis did rather well with the horse.’
    â€˜Well, as a matter of fact – ’
    â€˜Don’t tell me you found it,’ said Saint, clasping his hands in a dramatic attitude of prayer.
    â€˜I thought it was junk, slung like that – I mean I felt sure you’d never tell me to throw it away if it was any good.’
    â€˜So you slung it?’ sadly.
    â€˜Well actually I thought the strap might be worth keeping – it seemed good still.’
    â€˜But my dear Dick – don’t keep me in suspense – you’ve got it?’
    â€˜Well yes, actually: I don’t know why I never mentioned it, I suppose I thought it was just not possible it could be any good.’
    â€˜But isn’t that wonderful. You keep it, my dear Dick, and bloody good luck, the thing’s perfect.’
    â€˜But don’t you want it back?’
    â€˜No, no, no, as I told you, I