Simonsen had asked himself several times what the purpose of his visit really was, without finding a reasonable answer. Suddenly it felt imperative that he should tell her that the police, and he in particular, had made mistaken accusations against her husband. But would that be enough? Perhaps, just as she had said, it was her forgiveness he wanted, whatever that meant. He avoided answering. Suddenly she stopped her hand-wringing and struck the palm of one hand on the tabletop in front of her. Although the sound was not loud, it made him jump.
“Carl Henning and Catherine are in Ulse Cemetery, under the chestnut tree out towards the parking lot. Why don’t you go there and talk to them?”
Simonsen got to his feet and answered her quietly.
“I did not fabricate false evidence against your husband, while in all likelihood Catherine’s murderer did. And I did not kill your husband, he did that himself.”
“You were just doing your job.”
The sarcasm did not affect him. He maintained his calm.
“Yes, exactly. I was doing my job. Regrettably for you I was mistaken, which was very unfortunate. But yes, I was just doing my job.”
They let themselves out.
He sat in the back seat of the car, where he took off his shoes and put his feet up on the seat. That helped the restlessness in his legs. The Countess drove out of town. As the buildings began to thin out, she asked carefully, “Do you want to go out to that cemetery?”
“No, we’ll skip the church, but stop if you see a pub. I want a beer and a cigarette.”
She turned her head and smiled quickly at him.
“That sounds like a splendid idea.”
“And then I want another beer and cigarette.”
He smiled defiantly, almost childishly. She gave him another quick smile. Then she started looking for a pub.
CHAPTER 8
“Andreas Falkenborg!”
Konrad Simonsen’s deep voice commanded the attention of the listeners packed into his office. Pauline Berg thought that only now were her efforts of the day before validated. Arne Pedersen and the Countess were content to nod, Poul Troulsen did not react.
“Helicopter pilot, electrical engineer, presumed double murderer. That’s what we know about him at the moment, so the task for today is simple: we have to fill in his CV. Arne and Poul, you take his life here in Denmark, form groups and let them do the work. I’m especially interested in any links to Catherine Thomsen. Where did he meet her? What relationship did they have? Including the false evidence against her father, how and when he fabricated that. Also try to get a current photograph of him, and if you don’t find one, take one without him knowing. Tomorrow I’m putting a full surveillance team on him, maybe they can take a picture. If you leave HS, I want to know where you are.”
HS stands for Head square, and Konrad Simonsen normally avoided the abbreviation, which he found stilted and redundant, but right now he was too tired to care much for his language.
Pedersen nodded bleary-eyed. Troulsen raised a thumb in the air and asked at the same time, “So we have him under surveillance already?”
“Yes, more or less. We’re discreetly following what he’s doing, but not intensively.”
“Why isn’t he under intensive surveillance? He’s not a man who should be going around without supervision.”
“We’re in the process of freeing up resources. That will happen in the course of the day.”
With Troulsen satisfied, Simonsen continued.
“Countess, you get Greenland. Your primary focus is to delve into whether we can nail him to the murder of Maryann Nygaard in a way that will hold up in court. I also want to know whether he had contact with her in Denmark, or if they first met in Greenland. Use Trond Egede up there, he’s competent, but you are not allowed to ask the Americans officially. Not Thule Air Base or anywhere else, unless I specifically give instructions. And just like Arne and Poul, don’t go anywhere without my knowledge. Are you with me?”
The Countess agreed, and Simonsen turned towards Pauline Berg.
“What you accomplished yesterday was an outstanding piece of investigative work. Today you get the easier, but also the most important, assignments. First and foremost you will find out whether any witness in the Stevns case knew Andreas Falkenborg. There are a lot of them, but you will take all the people you need to help you. I would specifically like to know whether he was known by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. That would be a good way for him to approach Catherine Thomsen. Then I want you to review all the missing person cases in Denmark since 1968 that involve women in the age group fifteen to thirty-five. Get pictures and compare their appearance with Maryann Nygaard and Catherine Thomsen. If there is one that matches, compare that to the CV we are constructing on Falkenborg. Are you with me?”
Pauline Berg was happy. The most important assignments. She liked hearing that.
“It will be done.”
“The fact that the two women resembled each other may be a coincidence, but the similarity is so striking I believe it has signifi-cance. In any event, it’s our working hypothesis.”
“Agreed.”
“Good, and then one more thing—a press conference has been called at two o’clock. What do you say about going along with Arne?”
“But I’ve never done that.”
“It’s easy, you just avoid saying anything.”