The Dinosaur Feather (30 page)

Anna studied him as he spoke. “But what if I did it?” she asked.

“Then I’ll arrest you, take you down to the station, have you put before a judge, and request you be remanded in custody; you risk a lengthy custodial sentence. But I don’t think you killed Helland or Johannes.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have too much to lose.”

They sat for a while.

“Mrs. Snedker said Lily doesn’t have a father,” Søren remarked.

“None of your business.”

Søren raised his hand as if to deflect a ball.

“Be nice,” he warned her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Though you’re right, it’s none of my business. I’m just curious.”

“Lily has a father. His name’s Thomas and he lives in Stockholm. He’s a doctor. He opted out.” Anna shrugged and looked around the room. “Out of all of it. Lily, the responsibility, and a girlfriend who turned out to be unlovable. Who wants to be stuck with a worthless shit like me?” she said harshly and glared at Søren. “He says he left me, not our child,” she muttered. “That’s what he
says.
But we haven’t seen him for two years. Satisfied?”

Søren nodded and got ready to leave.

“I want you to come to the station tomorrow and make a statement.”

Anna was surprised.

“My hunch isn’t enough. I need to interview you, as I would any other witness. When can you get there?”

“Tomorrow’s not good for me,” Anna squirmed. “I’m going to Odense.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.” Anna looked defiantly at Søren.

“What are you doing in Odense?” he asked, irritably.

Anna twirled a box of matches between her fingers.

“There’s something I need to find out. I’m going with Lily. It’s a long story,” she added and sighed when she saw the way Søren was looking at her. “Okay,” she explained. “I’ve discovered that my parents have been lying to me. On top of everything else.” She threw up her hands in despair. “They’re lying, and I don’t know why.”

“Sorry, but you’ll have to cancel,” Søren insisted.

Anna rose and looked resolutely at him. “I’ll take Lily to nursery school tomorrow morning, then I’ll come to the station to be interviewed.” She weighed her words. “Ten o’clock. I’ll be at your disposal until one o’clock. Then I’ll pick up Lily and go to Odense. I have to go. I’ll be back tomorrow night, and if you’re going to Helland’s funeral on Saturday you’ll see me there.” She closed her eyes. Johannes was dead. “Christ, Johannes.” Her face crumpled. “It makes no sense at all.”

Søren watched her in silence, then he said: “Okay. I’ll let you go to Odense between one and midnight tomorrow. But you promise not to hurt anyone or make a run for it.”

“This isn’t a joke,” Anna objected weakly.

“No,” Søren emphasized. “It isn’t. And I want you to start taking this seriously. Do you hear? Do you know where Dr. Tybjerg is?” His question came out of the blue.

Anna’s eyes flickered. If she told him where Dr. Tybjerg was, the police would pick him up immediately and her dissertation defense would be canceled.

“No,” she lied.

Søren locked eyes with her. “Okay,” he said and went on, “Is there anything at all you want to tell me now?”

Anna looked at him for a long time. “I know what killed Professor Helland. I know about the parasites.”

Søren groaned. “How?”

“The rumor’s all over the Institute of Biology,” she sent him a knowing look, “and from Professor Moritzen. She called me into her office, told me you had visited her in her cottage and why. She wants me to contact her if I hear any suggestions the parasites might have come from her department. Though I can’t imagine how anyone could know. It’s not as if the little bastards are ringed. But if you can determine their origins, or whatever, and trace them back to her stock, then she wants to know.”

“Why?” Søren asked.

“They’re closing Parasitology. Hanne has three years to complete her research, then her department will be dismantled. However, she’s convinced that the Faculty Council would love to get rid of her before her three years are up, given half a chance. They would need a reason to dismiss her, and if it turns out the parasites came from her department, if she has so little control of her stock that parasites ended up in her colleagues’ tissue, they can fire her on the spot. Obviously, she wants to be prepared and doesn’t want to go down without a fight.

“And I’m sure Mrs. Helland is lying.” Anna fed the shark, hoping he would forget all about Tybjerg.

“What makes you think so?” Søren was fascinated.

“She claims Professor Helland was fit and healthy. There were no limits to his vigor and vitality, according to his wife and that’s bullshit. I saw him, I know he was sick as a dog.” Anna told Søren about the incident in the parking lot, suddenly embarrassed that she hadn’t mentioned it earlier. “He scared the living daylights out of me, and he was clearly seriously ill,” she concluded.

“When did you speak to Mrs. Helland?” Søren asked.

“I visited her today,” Anna admitted. “I got this.” She lifted the pendant free from her blouse and looked shyly at Søren. “Helland must have had it made for me. My graduation present. Mrs. Helland wanted to give it to me before the funeral.”

Søren was deep in thought.

“She’s lying,” Anna repeated.

“Anything else?” Søren asked, scrutinizing Anna. She had never felt so cooperative in all her life.

“I think Professor Freeman is in Denmark.”

Søren nodded slowly. He already knew that.

“How do you know?” he said.

Crap. She had this information from Dr. Tybjerg. She decided to lie.

“There’s a bird symposium at the Bella Centre,” she said. “I saw his name in the program.”

Søren bought it.

“Any chance Dr. Tybjerg’s disappearance is linked to Freeman’s arrival?” Søren suggested.

“No, how could it be?” Anna said, innocently.

“Anna,” Søren said earnestly. “I need to be clear about this. In your opinion, could Helland’s and Johannes’s deaths be linked to your dissertation? Your topic is a scientific controversy about the origin of birds, which Helland was heavily involved in, right? Helland, Tybjerg, and the Canadian scientist, Clive Freeman. But where does Johannes fit in? I can’t see it. I’m just a stupid cop, and I can’t see it. Murders are usually triggered by jealousy, drugs, money, or family issues, and I just don’t buy that someone might kill because their scientific reputation was threatened; because of a dissertation.”

Anna pondered this.

“Johannes helped me,” she said. “He is . . . was a science theorist and very talented. He helped me extract aspects of scientific theory that are relevant to controversies in biology. I’ve used those arguments to demolish Professor Freeman.” Anna suddenly looked directly at Søren. “That’s what my dissertation is about. I destroy him.” She gulped. “Johannes knew a vast amount about Karl Popper and his ideas about falsification, about Thomas Kuhn, who introduced the concept of paradigm in the 1960s, and especially about Lorraine J. Daston and her concept of scientific moral economies . . . I know, it took me weeks to grasp, so don’t feel ashamed if you think I’m speaking gibberish. The point is that plenty of vertebrate scientists and ornithologists have attacked Freeman over the years. Attacked his anatomical conclusions and his fossil analyses, and let me tell you something: he doesn’t care; he evades the issue, no matter what’s thrown at him. Before 2000, before
Sinosauropteryx
was found in China, you would often hear Freeman say, ‘Show me a feather that grew on a dinosaur, then I’ll believe your nonsense.’ And when he was finally shown a feathered dinosaur, his response was either: ‘That’s not a feather!’ or, if he couldn’t deny the structure was a feather, he would say: ‘That’s not from a dinosaur, just from a very old bird, which would, of course, have feathers!’ The problem is Freeman’s so well-versed in anatomy and physiology that it’s impossible for most people to take him on. But no one has ever tried to attack his underlying scientific principles. No one has ever proved he breaks the most fundamental scientific rules.”

“Which are?”

Anna was on the verge of giving up.

“It’s a bit complicated,” she began. “But internal contradictions, for example, are banned if you want to call your work scientific, and Freeman’s work is littered with inconsistencies. Further, he rejects generally accepted analytical methods. He’s entitled to do so, but only if he can argue convincingly for an alternative, and we don’t know if he can because he has never tried.” Anna paused and looked at Søren. One of his eyes was drooping slightly.

“I don’t believe for a moment that Professor Freeman has anything to do with this. If Freeman wants to prevent my dissertation from being published, then there are several people he needs to kill before Johannes and Helland. Me, for example. And Dr. Tybjerg.”

“Yes,” Søren said, looking at Anna. “But the reason we can’t find Tybjerg might be that he’s dead. I’m starting to think you should be put under police protection.”

“
If
there is a link between the two deaths,” Anna objected. She had absolutely no desire to have the World’s Most Irritating Detective following her round the clock. And, besides, Dr. Tybjerg wasn’t dead.

“Yes, if,” Søren said, suddenly looking very tired.

“I know the cysticerci were between three to four months old,” Anna continued. “I think this means even though Johannes and Helland died in the same week, they were technically killed at two completely different times. Johannes yesterday”—she swallowed—“and Helland possibly as far back as June or July.”

“We won’t know until tomorrow whether Johannes was also infected with cysticerci,” Søren said quietly. Anna stared at him.

“Who is the man who has waited for you twice, Anna?” Søren suddenly asked.

“How do you know about him?”

“Mrs. Snedker told me,” Søren said.

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “But I know it’s not Freeman. Maggie says he was young.”

“Haven’t you wondered about it?”

“At first I was convinced it must have been Johannes,” she said, “and I texted him to find out. When it turned out not to be him, then I started wondering. But if . . . if his killer has his cell,” Anna gulped, “maybe Johannes really was here, and the text messages are lying. . . . Perhaps Johannes came to tell me something? But then, why would he run away? That doesn’t make any sense.” She looked away.

Søren rose. “Tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” he said, pointing at her, “and don’t be late.”

Anna shook her head.

When she had closed the door after him, she gave him the finger.

Thirty seconds later, someone rattled Anna’s mail slot. Anna opened the door.

“So, what’s the latest?” Maggie whispered. Anna could hear that Søren hadn’t even reached the ground floor yet.

“Maggie, I’m exhausted,” Anna whispered back. “Tomorrow.”

Maggie looked disappointed and had turned around when something occurred to Anna.

“Maggie,” she said, taking the old lady’s hand. It was velvety. “If the man who waited for me comes back, then . . .” She looked gravely at her. “Then I want you to call the police.”

Maggie looked momentarily frightened, then she said, “I’ll tell you one thing, you’re a much more exciting neighbor than Mrs. Lerby. When she lived here, nothing ever happened.”

Anna smiled feebly and said goodnight. She sat down in her living room, barely able to keep her eyes open. For the first five minutes she just sat there. Johannes was dead. Her brain refused to accept it. She couldn’t tell Jens and Cecilie. They would freak out completely and refuse to allow her ever to set foot in the university again. Jens would stomp up and down and threaten to expose the department in the press. Then she remembered neither of them was talking to her. She kicked off her shoes.

She wanted to cry, but her chest tightened and no tears came. She mourned Johannes. Then she called Karen.

Karen picked up the telephone immediately and was thrilled when she realized who it was. She wasn’t the least frosty or guarded, as Anna had feared. Karen chatted away. She was a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and had lived in Copenhagen since August. She loved it, Copenhagen was a great city, and she had made lots of friends in no time. She knew where Anna lived but hadn’t called her. She admitted, frankly, that she needed to summon the courage after all these years, but last Tuesday she had bumped into Cecilie in the street. Cecilie had told her Anna was super-busy and one of her supervisors had died. Cecilie had promised to e-mail Karen with the date of Anna’s dissertation defense, and they had arranged for Karen to be there. As a graduation present.

“Imagine, you’re a real biologist now!” Karen exclaimed. “I’m so proud of you!”

Karen wanted to know everything about Lily. Brown hair, red hair, Anna’s color? What did she like? Could Karen buy her a present? A doll? Or a Spiderman apron so they could make models out of clay together? Anna was filled with regret. Why hadn’t she kept in touch with Karen? It seemed beyond silly, and Anna had an uncomfortable feeling it was her who had chosen not to see Karen, rather than the other way around. Her throat tightened and she responded monosyllabically to Karen’s joyful outbursts. Finally, Karen asked how she really was, apart from busy.

And the whole story poured out of her. Thomas, their shipwrecked relationship, Cecilie picking up the pieces, but who now stuck to her life like a barnacle, her graduate work at the department of Cell Biology and Comparative Zoology, about her supervisor and a fellow student, who both appeared to have been murdered. At this point, Anna burst into tears and Karen insisted on coming over—there’s no way you can be alone right now, she said, horrified.

“I don’t want to be by myself, either,” Anna sobbed. “But would you be able to come over tomorrow evening instead, please?” she asked in a small voice. “Would you like to stay with us over the weekend? Help me with Lily, so I don’t have to call Cecilie? I don’t want to call Cecilie. I feel so ashamed.” Karen agreed without a moment’s hesitation. She would love to come; there was nothing she would rather do. “I’ve missed you so much,” Anna said and hung up before Karen had time to reply.