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Chapter thirteen

A plan

Elly returned an hour later with the tape recorder and microphone.

‘Now here’s what I want you to do,’ I said to Raul. ‘We’re going to attach this microphone and tape recorder to the inside of your jacket. Just remember to stay close to Christiaans while he’s speaking.’

Then Raul rang Christiaans and arranged to see him at his house. ‘I just want to talk about something,’ said Raul cheerfully.

When he got to Christiaans’ house, Raul was going to tell him that he wanted more money for playing badly. We all hoped that Christiaans would talk, say something about what he was doing while Raul taped him. It was very dangerous for Raul, but if it worked it would give us the evidence we needed.

‘I’ll go with Raul,’ said Elly. ‘I’ll wait nearby.’

After the interview with Christiaans, Elly could also make sure that Raul didn’t get hurt. She had brought some jeans and a blouse and she now changed from her policewoman’s uniform.

‘Oh,’ I added, ‘and what about the pills? Did you find out anything?’

‘Yes, the police did find some pills in Max’s room,’ she said. ‘They were called Lanoxin. They were bought from a chemist in The Hague two weeks ago. The full bottle was sixty pills and you have to take just one a day. There were about thirty left when they found them.’

Lanoxin – Lanoxin – I knew that name from somewhere, but right now I couldn’t remember where.

Elly and Raul left. It was time for me to go and see Ronnie at Kanters.

I took a taxi to the Kanters office. When I got there, Ronnie was sitting at his computer, exactly as I had seen him yesterday. It was like he never went home. He had a computer print-out of the information I needed.

I looked at the print-out. It was very interesting reading. There were, as I had thought, regular bets against Rotterdam over the past year made by the Amsterdam Connection. There was also a large bet on Barcelona to win Wednesday’s match. The Amsterdam Connection had done it again. However, a far larger amount of money was on the Rotterdam-Ajax match taking place the next day.

I put the computer print-out in an envelope and posted it to my hotel, with my name on it. That way, whatever happened, it would arrive at the hotel tomorrow.

I went back to the hotel to wait for Elly and Raul to come back. I ordered some tea from room service and waited. I drank my tea. An hour went by. Then two hours. As time went on I became more and more worried. Where were they? We had arranged to meet back at the hotel as soon as they had the tape with the evidence on it. I tried to read, then watch TV, but I couldn’t. My mind filled up with terrible ideas of what had happened to them.

I lay on my bed and tried to relax. The name of Max’s pills came into my head again. Lanoxin. Yes! That was it! Lanoxin contains digoxin, a powerful heart drug which can kill you if you take too much of it. I had first heard about Lanoxin during a story in London. A doctor had killed his wife using it. It’s perfect for killing someone because digoxin can’t be found in (the body after about twelve hours. Perhaps someone had made Max take a lot of Lanoxin pills and killed him that way! Perhaps Bert was right after all. Perhaps Max had been dead before someone knifed him in de Pijp.

Then, finally, at about seven o’clock, there was a knock at the door. Thank God, I thought. I jumped up and opened it, expecting to see Elly and Raul. Suddenly I was pushed back into the room. A tall man in a black suit moved quickly through the door and put his hand over my mouth. It was the same man who had attacked me outside the hotel three days ago. The same dark hair and clear blue eyes.

‘Christiaans,’ I asked.

‘Keep quiet,’ he said into my ear. ‘Or I’ll kill you.’

I took that as a ‘yes’.