Little Sister Read Online Free

To
misbehave—’
    ‘Misbehave?’ Veerman’s index finger stabbed at the file. ‘You call that misbehaving?’
    Visser groaned.
    ‘They were distraught children. They acted on the spur of the moment after witnessing the aftermath of a gruesome and dreadful crime. We’ve been observing them closely for eighteen
months. They’ve been punished enough. It’s our duty now to at least try to give them a chance of rehabilitation.’
    ‘They’re smart as hell,’ the director interrupted. ‘You said that yourself. This could all be an act.’
    ‘For what purpose?’ she wondered. ‘They came in here as children. They’ve been good as gold lately. Marken’s an institution for severely disturbed adolescents. Kim
and Mia have turned twenty-one. Either we hand them over to an adult mental institution or we make other arrangements.’ She hesitated to make sure he understood what came next. ‘If we
pass them on to someone else that will be marked down against us, you know. They’ll say we had those girls for ten years and didn’t do a damned thing for them. They’d be right
too. There’ll be questions asked. Do we want that?’
    Veerman didn’t answer.
    ‘I think,’ she added, ‘your response is coloured by the nature of the crime. Men attack women in the vilest of ways all the time. We’re used to it. We accept
it.’
    ‘Accept it?’ Veerman glared at her. ‘Are you serious?’
    ‘I meant that we accept the fact it happens. But when a woman fights back . . .when two young girls do that especially.’ She pulled out the photo again. ‘Yes. They cut off his
cock. And that’s what you all found so shocking, isn’t it? If it hadn’t been for that they’d have been out of here years ago.’
    He brushed the picture back into the file then said, ‘Do you have any idea what will happen if you’re wrong? If you let that pair out into the world and they go bad again?’
    ‘It won’t—’
    ‘But if it does, Irene. We’d be dead here. You. Me. Everything.’
    ‘It won’t,’ she insisted. ‘I guarantee it. Simon will watch their every move. I won’t allow them back to Volendam. That would be dangerous. We’ll just keep
them in the house in the Museum Quarter. Watch them. See how it goes.’
    ‘For how long?’ Veerman wondered.
    ‘For as long as it takes,’ Klerk said. ‘I’m not saying they’re cured. But they’re close to it. They’re nice kids.’
    ‘They’re twenty-one,’ the director objected. ‘Not kids any more.’
    ‘I know.’ The nurse laughed. ‘I forget that sometimes. They come across as so young. Naive.’ He thought for a moment then said it anyway. ‘Innocent.’
    ‘And they do sing beautifully,’ Visser added. ‘I think that could be good therapy for them. If we could put them in touch with an amateur choir or something.’
    ‘I don’t like it.’
    ‘Obviously,’ she said. ‘But we can’t keep them locked up here forever. The ministry’s got civil rights people asking awkward questions about mental health
committals already. All we need is for them to make the girls—’
    ‘They’re not girls!’
    ‘All we need is for them to make the Timmers sisters a test case and then we’ll have everyone on us. Lawyers. The media. You name it.’ She leaned back and looked out of the
window. ‘That would be a shame, Henk. It’s quiet here. Beautiful. We can work . . . undisturbed. I know you like that. We all do.’
    The papers were in front of him on the desk. All he had to do was sign.
    ‘I want to ask them a question,’ Veerman said. ‘Get them in here. If they answer right you can have what you want.’
    ‘What question?’ the nurse asked.
    The director pushed his glasses up his nose and glared at him.
    ‘That’s for them. Not you.’

5
    Simon Klerk stuck his head round the door. The girls stopped singing. They could still hear a third voice dying in their heads.
    ‘Can we go?’ Kim asked.
    ‘Soon,’ he said. ‘The director wants to talk to