“Yes, it’s affected us all, Assad. After all, we do miss her.” Something of an understatement. In fact, Carl felt her absence very strongly.
The only thing Carl didn’t miss was Rose’s aversion to cigarettes. He took one from the pack before turning to Assad again. “How’s it going with finding Rose’s old school friend, Assad? Any luck?”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ve found her.”
He threw some color printouts on the desk of a smiling, voluptuous, elfin woman with luscious locks, dressed entirely in purple. “Kinua von Kunstwerk” was written above the photo in big letters, together with a paragraph about her latest exhibition.
“She’s a painter, Carl.”
“With a very creative pseudonym, I’ll say.”
“I believe she’s very famous in Germany, but I’m not sure why.” He backed up his opinion by pointing at a photo from her latest exhibition. It certainly packed a punch.
“Shit,” Carl said immediately.
“She lives in Flensburg, Carl. Shall I drive down there?”
“No, we’ll drive together,” he said slightly absentmindedly, caught up with what was happening on the TV screen. The news crawl under the live coverage was more breaking than usual.
“Have you been informed about this, Assad?” he asked.
“I had no idea.”
“Hey, have you seen that?” Gordon said from the doorway, where he was pointing at the TV screen. “They’ve been reporting it for about an hour now. And Lis says it’s complete chaos upstairs.”
He stood restlessly in the doorway like some sort of salsa dancer. “They’re having a briefing about it as we speak. What do you think?” He looked at them pleadingly. “Shouldn’t we get up there?”
“You know what? I think you should go if you’re so keen, Gordon. But remember that they aren’t our cases.”
He looked disappointed. Clearly he didn’t agree.
Carl smiled. Gordon had really come on in leaps and bounds lately. Not only had he started to display fearlessness; he also had ambition.
“I think we should go up there,” he continued.
Carl laughed and stood up. “All right, then, come on. We only live once,” he said.
—
At least twenty disapproving faces turned toward them as they burst into the homicide briefing.
“Sorry, folks, but we just saw it on TV,” said Carl. “Just pretend we’re not here.”
Pasg?rd snorted. “That’ll be damn difficult,” he said. Some of the investigators around him nodded in agreement.
Lars Bj?rn raised his hand. “Your attention, everyone! With respect for our friends from the cellar . . . ,” he said, pausing for effect and causing several of those present to shake their heads, “. . . I will sum up briefly.”
He looked directly at Carl. “We’ve found the red Peugeot that in all likelihood was used in the attacks on Michelle Hansen on May 20th and Senta Berger on May 22nd. It was one of our men from the now disbanded unit that used to look for stolen cars for insurance companies who found it with the window smashed on the driver’s side and the ignition forced. It was parked around the corner from Rantzausgade on Griffenfeldsgade with an old parking meter ticket on the dashboard and a dozen parking tickets under the wipers. So we can easily establish when it was parked there. The technicians have found traces of blood and hair on the hood, but it appears to have been cleaned for traces on the inside. We will have to wait to hear more on that front.”
“Parked for a whole week in central Copenhagen without being spotted. Wow! All credit to our people patrolling the streets,” grunted Carl.
“If you could spare us your sarcastic outbursts, you’re welcome to stay,” said Lars Bj?rn.
He turned toward the flat-screen on the wall and clicked to the next image.
“Two and a half hours ago at approximately twenty minutes to one, the aforementioned Michelle Hansen was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Stationsvej in Stenl?se. The image shows the scene of the incident. According to two schoolchildren who came walking down from the station, the vehicle was a black Honda Civic, which immediately after the incident turned right across Stationspladsen and disappeared. The description of both vehicle and driver are very vague, of course, due to the children’s age—the oldest is only ten—and the shock caused by witnessing the hit-and-run. But the children described the driver of the vehicle as being ‘not very tall,’ to quote them directly.”
He turned toward his team. “The situation, ladies and gentlemen, is that if we connect the earlier hit-and-runs with this latest one, we are dealing with premeditated murders. The question remains whether he intends to commit more murders. If the answer is yes, then it’s a matter of life and death that we stop the killer. Understood?”
Assad looked at Carl and shrugged. Apparently it would take more than a serial killer on the loose to faze him.
“The last twenty-four hours have been more than eventful, and I am sorry to say that we will therefore need to pull people off the investigation into Rigmor Zimmermann’s murder, and that includes you and Gert, Pasg?rd.”
“Poor Rigmor,” whispered Carl, just loudly enough that Pasg?rd sent him daggers.
“After the latest hit-and-run involving Michelle Hansen, we conclude that the murder was committed with intent, but that the circumstances surrounding the murder point in different directions. Among other things, Michelle Hansen’s handbag was found to contain twenty thousand kroner in used notes, and we know from her bank account what a bad state her finances were in. Further, Michelle Hansen is identical to the woman who was standing outside Victoria nightclub last night chatting with her ex-boyfriend, the bouncer Patrick Pettersson, while there was a robbery in the manager’s office. So it is plausible to assume that she might have had a connection to the robbery. Any questions?”
“Is this Patrick Pettersson still in custody?” asked Terje Ploug.
Carl nodded. If Ploug was the one assigned to lead the investigation, then all he could say was, poor Patrick. Ploug knew his job. Yes, he had bad breath, but if you kept a few feet back from him, you couldn’t wish for a better or more competent partner.
“No, Pettersson was temporarily released at eleven thirty-two, first and foremost because his explanation of his movements yesterday was confirmed by the security cameras. But of course we aren’t just letting him off the hook and have confiscated his passport as a precaution. A search warrant for his apartment is on its way. He remains a suspect on many fronts, but as of yet, we have nothing on him.”
“So, in theory, Pettersson could be the driver of the vehicle that hit Michelle Hansen?” continued Ploug.
“Yes, that is correct.”