She poured a little water in her empty wine glass and drank it.
“But then Maryann found out that she was pregnant, three or four weeks after he had left, and abortion was ruled out. She’d had an abortion once before, and mentally she couldn’t take it. So she wrote a letter to the father. She did not have his address, only his name, she thought, so she addressed the letter to GGS, where he said he came from.”
“GGS?”
“Greenland’s Geological Surveys, it was under the Greenland Ministry at the time. The department was housed on ?ster Voldgade along with the other geological institutions. Today GGS has merged with its Danish sister organisation. Well, the letter was returned, no one knew any Steen Hansen apparently. Maryann was down in the dumps for a couple of days, but then she thought of writing to the base commander at Thule. That was not normally something you did, but on the other hand, what else could she do? She explained the situation and asked that he forward her letter to Steen Hansen, if he could. She also sent a picture of him. It was just a snapshot, but all in all her persistence paid off because two weeks later Steen called her. Yes, he was married and had a child, the jerk, but he had backbone enough to contact her.”
“Why didn’t she want to tell you his real name?”
“I don’t know, she didn’t want to say. I recall that it irritated me. We also nagged her about that, but there was no getting her to budge. And then she disappeared, of course, and after that I had a really bad conscience because maybe she had gone away by choice, if you understand.”
The Countess understood only too well.
“Still, for a long time I hoped as I said that she would come back. Things did not really add up because she was simply not that depressed. She withdrew into herself, but two days before her trip to the ice cap we talked about baby clothes and that sort of thing. But that’s really all I wanted to tell you, and I can’t see how it will help you very much.”
“Maybe it will, maybe not. This fake Steen Hansen, what did he look like?”
“Very ordinary. Light hair, crew-cut, not that tall, in his early thirties. The truth is, I don’t really remember him. I only spoke to him a few times.”
“Any distinguishing features?”
“Not that I remember, apart from his hair that is. I mean, he was probably the only Danish man who had such short hair. All the others at that time had long hair, at least below the ears. Oh, yes, and . . . there was actually one other thing about him, now I remember it. He talked in an unnaturally high voice like a girl’s, a falsetto it’s called. Someone called him the Castrato . . . well, as a nickname, that is. Everyone got a nickname, even after a few days, and . . . ”
The Countess tuned out the professor’s words for a moment. She had never before known a witness, twice within a minute, give her information that almost made her fall off her chair. This time, however, she subdued her reaction and admonished herself that the lead about a voice was subject to interpretation and had to be backed up, and that could be damned hard to do. She concentrated again on the conversation.
“Is there anything else you know about him?”
“Well, he gave her his cap, but that probably doesn’t have any great significance.”
“Just tell me.”
Allinna squinted briefly and then said serenely, “Well, he had one of those knitted caps with interlaced fleur-de-lis in different colours. His mother had made it for him, he said, but that was definitely not true because there was a manufacturer’s tag inside. Well, whatever, Maryann loved that cap, and so he gave it to her.”
“As a memento?”
“Yes, maybe. She was very happy about it anyway. Personally I thought it was hideous, too many colours in it. I recall that once she was standing in front of a mirror with it on, and I must have commented on it. And then she said something along the lines of it probably could attract a few males if ever she was short of money for rent. Well, that was only in jest, but she wore it a lot, and I know that she had it on when she disappeared because I brooded about that for days afterwards. For me it made her disappearance even sadder, though that doesn’t make any real sense.”