“Yes, and that is of course why Hampel-Koch was sent. Otherwise he would have been considered too young for such a mission. But his personal acquaintance with Atkinson was the decisive factor, for Bertil Hampel-Koch met with success where others had failed, and it is a fact that when Clark Atkinson’s book finally came out in August of 1984, the section about Jens Otto Krag was gone. I wonder whether the Danish taxpayers bought the whole first edition or whether a different solution was found.”
If she had hoped for praise for her detective work, she had miscalculated. When he had heard the whole thing, her guest resumed his customary indolent expression and simply asked, “All this you think you have found out, is there anything you have worked out alone?”
“No, I’ve had help.”
“From whom?”
“From good friends, on a somewhat unofficial basis.”
“Good friends in Denmark?”
“A particular good friend with connection to Gammel Hellerup High School, but otherwise not Danish.”
“American?”
“That almost speaks for itself.”
“We’re going to meet again tomorrow, I’ll call and tell you where and when.”
The Countess answered hesitantly, “I’ll try to—”
“Trying is not good enough. Make sure you’re available.”
CHAPTER 29
The telephone call did not come as a surprise to Konrad Simonsen. He had expected it, but not until later in the day. To top it off it was from Agnete Bahn herself and not, as he had anticipated, from one of her many lawyers. The woman was sputtering with anger, obviously her default mood, and the dialogue was thus quite a one-sided performance, as she showered him with invectives in gutter language of the worst sort, some of which Simonsen had never heard before. He listened with interest for a while and hung up when she started to repeat herself. Arne Pedersen, who had just shown up for work and as usual started the day by stopping off at Simonsen’s office, asked with curiosity, “Was that the Bahn woman? Yes, Pauline called yesterday and told me about her.”
“At full throttle. Did you get any sleep?”
“Most of the weekend, so I’m completely rested. Thanks for your help, by the way.”
Simonsen nodded. Pedersen asked, “What did she say?”
“She was scolding me. Couldn’t you hear? Do you happen to know what a rumpledick is?”
“I have no idea. But what have you done to her, Simon?”
Simonsen said affably, “Nothing, nothing at all. Besides taking good care of her.”
“Which means?”
“A couple of patrol cars, or is it three, in front of her garden gate.”
“Since when?”
“As of Friday afternoon.”
Pedersen grinned.
“And this has not improved business ?”
“Apparently not, which is actually surprising. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a good professional massage, but many customers obviously chose a different form of relaxation when they saw our cars. Actually all of her customers, from what I’ve been told.”
“How long do you intend to maintain your siege?”
“Well, I had to ask higher up. This is a slightly alternative way to use our hard-pressed resources, but so far I’ve been given five days, and maybe I’ll get five more, if I ask nicely. Although I don’t really think it will be necessary.”
“So why did you hang up on her?”
“Her tone was starting to bore me, and she’ll call again when she finds out that not even the most expensive super-lawyer can stop us making our own decisions about where we want to park in a public space. I should really write some of those swear words down before I forget them.”
Pedersen answered, “I know what you mean. I’ve been brooding the whole weekend, that is when I haven’t been sleeping, because there’s something important that I’ve forgotten.”
“You’re speaking in tongues.”
“Yes, the wife and I were at a parents’ meeting at the twins’ school on Friday. As I had managed to sleep for a couple of hours, it went pretty well, but imagine scheduling that kind of thing for a Friday evening, I don’t know what they’re thinking. Well, the twins have a new teacher, and it’s not going well with her and the class, so it was almost a crisis meeting. But there was something the teacher said, just some throwaway comment or other, and it made me think of something in our case . . . something significant . . . that I forgot about right away because a hotshot who is chairman of the board of governors, and also a conceited ass, drew attention to himself with his insufferable self-satisfaction. He really pisses me off.”
“Yes, I hear that.”
“And now I can’t remember what it was. Either what the teacher said or what it was she made me think of. Only that it was important to us.”
“The best thing you can do is stop thinking about it, and then as a rule it comes back of its own accord.”
Pedersen nodded uncertainly but did not look like someone who could take that advice.
The phone rang. Simonsen glanced at the display.
“It’s her again.”