Mercy (23 page)

Carl ended the conversation and peered out the windscreen, which looked as though it had been through a shower. But it wasn’t rain; he could smell what it was from inside the car. It was pig’s piss, à la carte. The springtime country menu.

Sitting on Carl’s desk was a sumptuously decorated monster of a tea apparatus, sputtering away. If Assad had thought that the oil flame would keep the mint tea good and hot until his boss returned, he was mistaken, because by now all the water in the kettle had boiled off and the bottom was making creaking noises. Carl blew out the flame and dropped heavily on to his chair, noticing the pressure in his chest again. He’d heard it all before. A warning, then relief. Then maybe another brief warning and after that: you’re dead. Bright prospects for a man who had buckets full of years that had to be poured out before he could retire.

He took out Mona Ibsen’s business card and weighed it in his hand. Twenty minutes next to her soft, warm body and he’d probably feel much better. The question was whether he’d feel just as good if he had to make do with the company of her soft, warm eyes.

He picked up the phone and punched in her number; as it rang, the pressure in his chest returned. Was it a life-affirming heartbeat or a warning of the opposite? How could he tell?

He was gasping for air as she answered the phone.

‘Carl Mørck here,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’m ready to make a full confession.’

‘Then you’d better go over to St Peter’s Church,’ she said drily.

‘No, honestly. I had a panic attack today; at least I think that’s what it was. I’m not feeling well.’

‘All right then. Monday at eleven o’clock. Should I phone in a prescription for a sedative, or can you make it through the weekend?’

‘I can make it,’ he said, although he wasn’t too sure about that as he put down the phone.

Time kept ticking away mercilessly. In less than two hours Morten would be home from his afternoon shift at the video shop.

Carl took Merete Lynggaard’s phone out of the charger and switched it on. It said: ‘Enter PIN code.’ At least the battery was still working. Good old reliable Siemens.

He punched in 1-2-3-4 and got an error message. Then he tried 4-3-2-1, and got the same message. After that he had only one shot left before he’d have to send the phone off to the experts. He opened the case file and found Merete’s birth date. Of course, she might just as well have used Uffe’s birth date. He leafed through the documents until he found it. Then again, it might also be a combination of the two, or something else altogether. He decided to combine the first two digits of their birth dates, starting with Uffe’s. He punched in the numbers.

When the display showed a smiling Uffe, with his arm around Merete’s neck, the pressure in Carl’s chest vanished for a moment. Someone else might have uttered a triumphant cheer, but Carl didn’t have the energy for that. Instead, he leaned back and hauled his feet up on the desk.

As the constriction in his chest returned, he opened the list of incoming and outgoing calls and went through all the numbers from 15 February 2002 until the day Merete Lynggaard disappeared. It was a long list. Some of them he’d have to look up in the companies’ archives. Numbers that had been changed and then changed again. It sounded tedious, but after an hour, a clear pattern emerged: during the entire period, Merete had communicated only with colleagues and spokespersons for various special-interest groups. Thirty calls alone were from her own secretariat, including the very last call, made on 1 March.

That meant that any calls from the fake Daniel Hale must have gone through the landline at Christiansborg. If there had been any calls, that is.

Carl sighed and used his foot to push a stack of papers to the middle of his desk. His right leg was itching to give Børge Bak a good kick up the backside. If the original investigative team had ever had a call list for Merete’s office phone, it must have been lost, because there was nothing like that in the case file.

Well, he’d just have to leave that issue for Assad to take care of on Monday morning, while he went to see Mona Ibsen for a therapy session.

The selection of Playmobil toys in the toy shop in Allerød wasn’t bad; on the contrary. But the prices sure were steep. He couldn’t fathom how the local citizenry could afford to bring kids into the world. He chose the absolute cheapest set he could find with more than two figures – a police car with two officers for two hundred and sixty-nine kroner and seventy-five øre, and asked for the receipt. He was pretty certain that Morten would want to come in and exchange the set, anyway.

As soon as Morten arrived home, Carl confessed what he’d done. He took the pieces that he’d borrowed out of the plastic bag and handed his lodger the newly purchased set as well. He told Morten he was more than sorry, and he would never do it again. In fact, he would never set foot in Morten’s domain when he wasn’t home. Morten reacted as Carl had expected, but it was still a surprise to see how this big, flabby example of how destructive a fatty diet and the lack of exercise could be, was able to tense up his body with such physical rage. How the human body could quiver so much with indigation or that disappointment could be expressed with so many different words. Not only had he stepped on Morten’s mega-long toes, he had apparently flattened them totally on the laminated parquet floor.

Carl was looking with dismay at the little plastic family standing on the edge of the kitchen table, wishing that this had never happened, when the pressure in his chest returned in a whole new form.

Morten was so busy declaring that Carl would have to find himself a new lodger, that he didn’t notice Carl’s distress. Not until he collapsed on the floor with cramps from his neck to his navel. This time the pains were not confined to Carl’s chest. His skin felt too tight, his muscles were surging with blood circulation, and he had stomach-muscle spasms that forced his internal organs up against his spine. It didn’t really hurt, but he almost couldn’t breathe.

In a matter of seconds Morten was bending over him, his eyes wide, asking Carl if he needed a glass of water. A glass of water? What good would that do? Carl thought as his pulse danced to its own irregular beat. Was Morten planning to pour the water over him so his body would have a nice little reminder of a sudden summer shower? Or was he thinking of forcing the water down his throat between his clenched teeth, which at the moment were whistling from the low pressure in his pinioned lungs?

‘Yeah, thanks, Morten,’ Carl forced himself to say. Anything so they could at least meet halfway, there in the middle of the kitchen floor.

By the time Morten had recovered enough to settle into the most squashed corner of the sofa, his sense of alarm had been replaced by a more pragmatic attitude.

If an otherwise level-headed guy like Carl could accompany his apology with such a dramatic breakdown, then he must have really meant it.

‘OK. So we agree to forget all about this little episode, right, Carl?’ said Morten, looking solemn.

Carl nodded. He’d agree to anything that would give him some peace and quiet and a few hours to recover before Mona Ibsen started digging around inside him.

32

2007

Carl had hidden a couple of half-empty bottles of whisky and gin behind some books on the living-room bookshelf – booze that Jesper hadn’t yet sniffed out and magnanimously contributed to one of his improvised parties.

Carl drank most of both bottles before a sense of calm finally descended over him, and the weekend’s endless hours were spent in a deep, deep sleep. Only three times in two days did he get up to grab from the fridge whatever it had to offer. Jesper wasn’t home, and Morten had left to visit his parents in Næstved, so who cared if the food was past its expiry date and the menu was an awkward mishmash of ingredients?

When Monday arrived, it was Jesper’s turn to try to rouse Carl out of bed for a change. ‘Get up, Carl. What’s with you? I need money for food. There’s nothing left in the fucking fridge.’

Carl looked at his stepson with eyes that refused to comprehend, let alone accept, the daylight. ‘What time is it?’ he mumbled. For a moment he couldn’t even remember what day it was.

‘Come on, Carl. I’m going to be late as hell.’

He glanced at the alarm clock that Vigga had so generously left for him. This was a women who had no respect for the extent of the night-time hours.

He stared at the clock, suddenly wide awake. It was ten minutes past ten. In less than fifty minutes he needed to be sitting on a chair, looking into the exquisite eyes of psychologist Mona Ibsen.

‘So you’re having a hard time getting out of bed these days?’ she ascertained, casting a quick glance at her watch. ‘I can see that you’re still sleeping badly,’ she went on, as if she’d been corresponding with his pillow.

He was annoyed. Maybe it would have helped if he’d had time for a shower before he rushed out the door. I hope I don’t stink, he thought, turning his face slightly towards his armpit.

She looked at him calmly as she sat across from him, hands resting in her lap, legs crossed, and clad in black velvet trousers. Her hair was cut in wisps, shorter than before, her eyebrows a thundering black. All in all quite terrifying.

He told her about his collapse out in Farmer Shite’s fields, perhaps expecting some show of sympathy.

Instead, she went straight for the jugular. ‘Do you feel that you failed your colleagues during the shooting episode?’

Carl swallowed hard a few times, and rambled on about how he could have taken out his gun faster and about instincts that might have become blunted by years spent dealing with criminal elements.

‘You feel that you failed your friends. That’s my opinion. And in that case, you’re going to continue to suffer unless you acknowledge that things couldn’t have happened any other way.’

‘Things could always have happened differently,’ he said.

She ignored his remark. ‘You should know that I’m also treating Hardy Henningsen. Which means I’m seeing the case from two sides, and I should have recused myself. But there are no regulations requiring me to, so I need to ask if you wish to continue talking to me, now that you know this. You have to realize that I can’t say anything about what Hardy has told me, just as whatever you tell me will naturally also remain confidential.’

‘That’s OK,’ said Carl, but he didn’t really mean it. If it weren’t for her downy-fine cheeks and lips that simply cried out to be kissed, he would have stood up and told her to go to hell. ‘But I’m going to ask Hardy about it,’ he said. ‘Hardy and I can’t have secrets from each other; that just won’t work.’

She nodded and straightened her back. ‘Have you ever found yourself in other situations you felt you couldn’t handle?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘When?’

‘Right now.’ He sent her a penetrating look.

She ignored it. Cold broad.

‘What would you give to still have Anker and Hardy around?’ she asked, and then quickly fired off four more questions that stirred up a strange feeling of grief inside Carl. With every question she looked him in the eye and then wrote down his answers on her notepad. It felt as if she wanted to push him to the edge. As if he would have to fall dramatically before she was prepared to reach out and catch him.

She noticed that his nose was running before he did. She lifted her gaze to look at him, and then took note of the moisture that had started collecting in his eyes.

Don’t blink, dammit, or the tears will fall, he told himself, not understanding what was going on inside him. He wasn’t afraid to cry, and he had nothing against her seeing his tears; he just didn’t know why it was happening at this particular moment.

‘Go ahead and cry,’ she said in the same worldly-wise manner that someone might use to encourage a gluttonous infant to burp.

When they ended the session twenty minutes later, Carl had had enough of spilling his guts. Mona Ibsen, on the other hand, seemed satisfied as she shook his hand and gave him another appointment. She assured him again that the outcome of the shooting incident couldn’t have been prevented, and that he would undoubtedly regain his sense of equilibrium after a few more sessions.

He nodded. In a certain sense he did feel better. Maybe because her scent overshadowed his own, and because her handshake felt so light and soft and warm.

‘Call me if there’s anything you want to talk about, Carl. It doesn’t matter whether it’s something big or small. It might be important for the work we’ll be doing together. You never know.’

‘Well, then, I’ve already got a question for you,’ he said, trying to draw her attention to his sinewy and purportedly sexy hands. Hands that had often won high praise from the ladies.

She noticed his posturing, and smiled for the first time. Behind her soft lips were teeth even whiter than Lis’s up on the second floor. A rare sight in an age where red wine and caffeinated beverages made most people’s teeth look like smoked glass.

‘So what’s the question?’ she asked.

He pulled himself together. It was now or never. ‘Are you currently involved with someone?’ He was startled how clumsy that sounded, but it was too late to take back his words. ‘Sorry,’ he said, shaking his head. He was having a hard time figuring out how to go on. ‘I just wanted to ask if you might be receptive to a dinner invitation some day.’

Her smile stiffened. Gone were the white teeth and the silky skin.

‘I think you need to get back on your feet before you engage in that sort of offensive, Carl. And you’d be wise to choose your victims with greater care.’

He felt disappointment settling throughout his entire endocrine system as she turned her back and opened the door to the hallway. Damn it all, anyway. ‘If you don’t think you’re a good choice,’ he grumbled, ‘then you have no idea what an amazing effect you have on the opposite sex.’

She turned around and held out her hand to show him the ring on her finger.

‘Oh yes, I’m aware of it,’ she said, retreating from the field of battle.

He was left standing there, shoulders drooping. In his own eyes he was one of the best detectives the kingdom of Denmark had ever produced, so he wondered how in the world he’d managed to overlook something so elementary.

Someone from the Godhavn children’s home called to tell Carl they’d got hold of the retired teacher, John Rasmussen, and that on the following day he’d be in Copenhagen to visit his sister. He wanted to pass on the message that he’d always been interested in seeing police headquarters, so he’d be happy to pay Carl a visit between ten and ten thirty, if that was OK. Carl couldn’t call him back, because it was the home’s policy not to give out private phone numbers, but he could leave a message if he wouldn’t be able to meet with Rasmussen.

It wasn’t until after Carl put down the phone that he returned to reality. His failed efforts with Mona Ibsen had disconnected certain parts of his brain, and the job of reconnecting them had only just started. So the teacher from Godhavn, who’d been on holiday in the Canary Islands, was going to come and see him. It might have been reassuring to hear that the man actually remembered the boy known as Atomos before Carl agreed to play tour guide at police headquarters. But what the hell.

He took a deep breath and tried to chuck Mona Ibsen and her catlike eyes out of his system. There were plenty of threads in the Lynggaard case that needed to be tied up, so he’d better get started before self-pity sank its claws into him.

One of the first tasks was to ask Helle Andersen, the home help from Stevns to take a look at the photos he’d borrowed from Dennis Knudsen’s house. Maybe she too could be persuaded to come down to headquarters for a tour guided by a deputy detective superintendent. Anything so he wouldn’t have to drive across the Tryggevælde River again.

He called her number and got hold of her husband who claimed to still be on sick leave with unbelievably bad pain in his back, but who otherwise sounded surprisingly fit. He said ‘Hi, Carl’ as if they’d gone to Scout camp together and eaten out of the same pail.

Listening to him was like sitting next to an old aunt who’d never snagged a husband. Of course he’d be happy to get Helle to come to the phone if she were at home. No, she was always busy with her clients until at least … But wait a minute, he thought he heard her car in the driveway. She’d bought herself a new one, by the way, and he could always hear the difference between a 1.3-and a 1.6-litre engine. And it was true what the man on TV said; damned if those Suzukis didn’t deliver what they promised. At any rate it was great to get rid of their old Opel for a good price. The husband’s voice churned on and on while his wife could be heard announcing her arrival in the background with a shrill: ‘Hi, O-o-o-le! Are you home? Did you stack up the firewood?’

Lucky for Ole that Social Services didn’t hear that question.

Helle Andersen was cordial and obliging when she finally caught her breath. Carl thanked her for talking to Assad the other day and then asked if she would be able to receive by email some photos he’d scanned.

‘Right now?’ she asked, and in the next breath was probably going to explain why this wasn’t the most favourable moment. ‘I’ve brought home a couple of pizzas.’ Here it came. ‘Ole likes them with lettuce on top, and it’s not much fun when the lettuce has a chance to sink into the cheese.’

Carl had to wait twenty minutes before she called him back, and it sounded as if she hadn’t quite swallowed the last mouthful.

‘Did you get the email I sent?’

‘Yes,’ she told him. She was sitting there looking at the three files.

‘Click on the first one and tell me what you see.’

‘That’s Daniel Hale. Your assistant already showed me a picture of him. But I’ve never seen him before.’

‘Then click on the second file. What about that one?’

‘Who’s that?’

‘That’s what I’m asking you. His name is Dennis Knudsen. Have you ever seen him before? Maybe a few years older than in the picture?’

She laughed. ‘Not wearing a silly cap like that, at any rate. No, I’ve never seen him before. I’m sure of it. He reminds me of my cousin Gorm, but Gorm is at least twice as fat.’

It seemed to be a family trait.

‘What about the third picture? It shows a person talking to Merete at Christiansborg shortly before she disappeared. I know you can only see him from the back, but is there anything about him that seems familiar? His clothes, hair, posture, height, body type, anything at all?’

She paused for a moment, which was a good sign.

‘I’m not sure, since the picture only shows him from the back, as you said. But I may have seen him before. Where did you think I would have seen him?’

‘That’s what I was hoping you’d tell me.’

Come on, Helle, thought Carl. How many possibilities could there be?

‘I know you’re thinking about the man who delivered the letter. I did see him from behind, but he had on very different clothes, so it’s not easy to tell. He looks familiar, but I can’t say for sure.’

‘Then you shouldn’t say anything, dear,’ said the allegedly back-damaged pizza eater in the background.

Carl had to make an effort not to sigh. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I have one last photo that I’d like to send you.’ He clicked on his email.

‘It’s here,’ she said ten seconds later.

‘Tell me what you see.’

‘I see a picture of the guy who was also in the second picture, I think. Dennis Knudsen. Wasn’t that his name? Here he’s only a boy, but that funny expression on his face is unmistakable. What odd cheeks he has. Yes, I’ll bet he drove go-karts when he was a boy. My cousin Gorm did too, strangely enough.’

That was probably before he weighed a thousand pounds, Carl was tempted to say. ‘Take a look at the other boy standing behind Dennis. Do you recognize him?’

There was silence on the phone. Not even the malingerer husband said a word. Carl waited. Patience was supposedly a virtue for detectives. So it was just a matter of living up to this maxim.

‘This is really creepy,’ Helle Andersen said at last. Her voice seemed to have shrunk. ‘That’s him. I’m positive that’s him.’

‘The man who brought the letter to you at Merete’s house? Is that who you mean?’

‘Yes.’ Another pause, as if she needed to gauge the photo against the ravages of time. ‘Is he the man you’re looking for? Do you think he had something to do with what happened to Merete? Should I be scared of him?’ She sounded genuinely worried. And maybe at one time she would have had reason to be.

‘It was five years ago, so you have nothing to fear, Helle. Take it easy.’ He heard her sigh. ‘So you think this is the same man who brought the letter. Are you sure now?’

‘It has to be. Yes, I’m sure of it. His eyes are so distinctive, you know what I mean? Oh, this is making me feel weird.’

It’s probably just the pizza, thought Carl as he thanked the woman and put down the phone. Then he leaned back in his chair.

He looked at the tabloid photos of Merete Lynggaard that were lying on top of the case folder. Right now Carl felt more strongly than ever that he was the link between the victim and perpetrator in this case. For the first time he felt that he was on the right track. This Atomos had lost his grip on life during childhood and grown up to do the devil’s work, to use a colourful phrase. The evil inside him had led him to Merete; the question was why and where and how? Maybe Carl would never find the answers, but he was going to try.