“Bigger than you.”
“If he tries to do anything to me, I’ll kill him if I can.”
Berg thought that sounded like a splendid idea, but was doubtful what she could allow herself to say, so instead she commented, “We were talking about boyfriends.”
“I don’t have one at the moment, but I can get one by Sunday if that’s what you mean. Are you thinking as a kind of bodyguard?”
“Yes, I am, and don’t say that you can manage by yourself. It’s not only about having a man taking care of you, it’s also about being two. That is, that you aren’t alone.”
Jeanette Hvidt had common sense.
“But that’s impossible, you can’t be together all the time. I mean, glued to each other day and night, who could stand that? And how long would it go on?”
Pauline Berg chose to be honest, apart from not directly saying that the investigation at the moment was at an impasse, and that the Homicide Division had produced no results worth mentioning in the past few days.
“Admittedly that’s a problem, but as you can imagine we are working at full steam. I’m talking here about many people whose sole job is to render Andreas Falkenborg harmless. We are turning over every stone in his life, and at one point or another I am convinced we will find something we can nail him with. The problem is that I can’t tell you when that will happen. Actually I want to hear whether it’s possible for you to go somewhere else for a while. A place that only you and I know about.”
The girl seriously considered the suggestion, while she finished her beer and reached for another from the plastic bag by her side. Pauline Berg considered suggesting a soft drink, but refrained. Jeanette did not seem intoxicated, nor even affected. She said, “It won’t work.”
“Because?”
“I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m one year older than the others.”
Berg nodded that of course she had. The truth was she hadn’t noticed, but she could remember how, when she was nineteen, one year more or less had major significance.
“I really have to slave to finish school, almost all the others are more academic than me. That’s just the truth. Where they only need to study for fifteen minutes, I need an hour, and even though I really worked at it, I had to do second year over. It won’t do for me to be away from school for a long time, because then I won’t be able to prepare for my exams. I’m not that smart.”
“You seem very goal-oriented. Do you know what you want to be?”
“A doctor, and I’m going to be one some day.”
“I believe that. But tell me one thing, have you considered cutting your hair short? It could be very attractive on you.”
Jeanette looked at Pauline Berg’s hair and answered soberly, “The same for you.”
Berg said temptingly, “Okay, let’s get our hair cut together, it’s a deal! I’ll find a fancy salon in Copenhagen, and you won’t pay a thing.”
The girl shook her head.
“It won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
She shook her hair away on the left side and exposed her ear. It was deformed, curled together to half size.
“I’m saving up for an operation, but it’s expensive. I’ll have to go abroad, England or Germany, so there will be accommodation and travel on top of that.”
“Good Lord, it’s not that bad.”
“Well, you don’t think so.”
“You’re not just for decoration.”
Jeanette’s reaction was surprisingly aggressive.
“Do you really think I want to show off an ear like this? Are you stupid?”
Pauline Berg ignored the insult, but dropped the haircut idea. She tried an alternative.
“If we disregard your education for a moment, do you have a place you could go?”
“Yes, I have. And you’ll have to excuse me for snapping at you, I just had a few ugly experiences when I was younger. But that’s not your fault.”
Berg placed her hand on the girl’s arm and said kindly, “That’s all right. Where could you possibly go?”
“Helsing?r, my uncle lives there, and he would be happy to have me stay with him for a while.”
A quick calculation told Berg that based on security-related as well as economic considerations this solution would be preferable. If the girl refused to leave her home, the police would be forced to protect her, and that sort of thing was very expensive. She said, “They have high schools in Helsing?r too, and we’ll arrange all the practical aspects. I can also promise you competent tutoring to ease the transition, which we can suitably define as until you have earned your diploma, regardless of whether you move back or not. How does that sound?”
All things considered Pauline Berg did not know whether she had any authority to promise this, but surely the government would save a lot of money with such an arrangement and be better served besides. Jeanette Hvidt quietly shook her lovely head.
“It’s so strange, all this, like a bad dream.”