“Yes, I understand how you feel, but what do you say about Helsing?r?”
“I say that I don’t believe in it that much. What about my subject combination? And then I’ll have new teachers too, not to mention new classmates.”
Pauline Berg swore to herself; it would be so much easier if the girl voluntarily found an arrangement.
“We have found traces of your picture on Andreas Falkenborg’s computer, and he has read your interview on the Internet.”
Jeanette reacted as Berg had both hoped and feared.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Yes, disgusting. But the truth is that he has his eye on you.”
“It was those retarded reporters. I didn’t want to say anything at all, but they persisted and persisted. Obviously that’s beside the point now. Is there more? I want to know.”
“When we questioned him, he said that they were breeding and putting new ugly cuttings into the world. We think he was referring to your grandmother and you.”
“I’m a new, ugly cutting. Is that how it is?”
“Yes, that’s how it is.”
Jeanette Hvidt started crying, and Pauline Berg held her quietly. Before she drove the girl home, they decided on Helsing?r. She never made it to the party.
During the drive back to Copenhagen Pauline Berg daydreamed about the honour and prestige she would achieve if she could pressure Andreas Falkenborg into irrevocable confessions. Information he could not retract, and that would hold up in court. She had the means, if she dared. But it had to succeed, because if it did not . . . “Then the shit will hit the fan, Then the shit will really hit the fan,” she chanted to herself.
It was an expression she had learned from her grandfather, and she liked saying it. It sat well on the tongue.
When she hit Lyngby, she called Simonsen. After some difficulty she got hold of him on the landline in his own apartment where he was picking up a few things. She informed him that Jeanette Hvidt would go to stay with her uncle in Helsing?r, and about the funds needed for various academic support arrangements, which he immediately accepted with the comment that he too could count. After the call she decided to stop by Police Headquarters briefly, after which she intended to devote the rest of the evening to Ernesto Madsen, although she’d had to reduce her plans considerably after she was sent to Hundested.
At Police Headquarters she ran into Arne Pedersen, who was happy to see her. And surprised.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was going to use some data.”
“Then you could have called. You knew I was here.”
“Hmm, it’s . . . Well, it’s somewhat personal. It’s for a girlfriend.”
“You’re well aware that it will cost you your job if you’re caught doing that sort of thing? It’s actually illegal, and logs are kept.”
She shrugged, unconcerned.
“Malte showed me how to get around the log months ago.”
“That doesn’t make it legal, but of course that doesn’t concern me.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t concern you.”
She smiled and had a desire to kiss him. Instead she tossed her hair back and laughed without really knowing why.
“Has anything happened?”
“No, unfortunately. I have people who are busy with Elizabeth Juutilainen alias Liz Suenson, but we won’t find her right away, not to mention link her to Andreas Falkenborg. Yes, and I’ve talked with Simon, he told me about your work in Hundested, but you know that yourself. That was a good result, by the way.”
“Thanks. Was that all?”
“Hello, you haven’t been gone more than three hours. What did you really expect?”
“Nothing, but one can always hope.”
“Oh, by the way, we have received a long official report from the Americans. It’s a bang-up piece of work they’ve done, and it must have cost a bundle, but there’s nothing sensational. We can now definitely connect Falkenborg to that helicopter trip. On the other hand it turns out that unfortunately DYE-5 was in possession of two snowmobiles, which expands the inhabitants’ action radius considerably.”
“The helicopter and the distance between DYE-5 and Maryann Nygaard’s body were otherwise the only thing that really damaged him.”
“Yes, but that part is weakened by those snowmobiles, although it’s hard to imagine that you can transport two people on such a machine.”
“We don’t have much.”
“Almost nothing. The fact is, we need a miracle, if we’re going to hold him.”
“And the fact is also that we’re not getting anywhere, isn’t that right, Arne?”
“Yes, it is. Are you coming in tomorrow?”
“Unfortunately not until Monday, I have a hair appointment in the morning and a family gathering the rest of the weekend. Simon gave me time off, unless something earthshaking happens.”
“We’ll cross our fingers for that. How did Jeanette Hvidt take it?”
“Reasonably. She cried a little, but she’s a strong girl. And then she said something that I keep thinking about: Someone has to stop him.”