Carl heaved a sigh of relief. These were the kinds of jobs he gladly farmed out to the likes of Pasgård.
“Yeah, but I haven’t got time,” Pasgård protested. “Jørgen and I have got doorbells to ring out in Sundby.”
Jacobsen glanced across at the hulk skulking at the opposite end of the room. Jørgen nodded. It was true.
“Well, Jørgen will just have to get by on his own for a couple of days,” said Jacobsen. “Right, Jørgen?”
The big guy gave a shrug. He wasn’t happy. The family waiting desperately for their son’s attackers to be brought to justice probably wouldn’t have been, either.
Jacobsen turned to Pasgård. “Two days, that ought to be enough, wouldn’t you say?”
The homicide chief had made his point.
If you’re going to piss on someone, make sure the wind’s behind you.
25
The worst thing that could ever happen had happened, and Rachel was devastated.
Satan had materialized in their midst and punished them for their wantonness. How could she have allowed a total stranger to take her two darling children, and on this holy day? Yesterday, they should have been quietly absorbed in Bible study in preparation for the bliss of the Sabbath. They should have folded their hands together in the hour of rest and allowed the spirit of the Mother of God to descend upon them and bring them peace.
And now? God had thrust His arm out at them like a thunderbolt. They had succumbed to all the temptations resisted by the sacred Virgin Mary. Flattery, the disguises of the Devil, empty words.
Their punishment had come promptly. Magdalena and Samuel had fallen into the power of the sinner. A night and a day had passed, and they could do nothing.
And Rachel felt the shame. Exactly as she had done when she had been raped and no one came to her aid. Only then she had been able to do something. Now she was powerless.
“You must raise the money, Joshua,” she implored her husband. “You must!”
He looked ill. The whites of his eyes merged with the pallor of his face. “But we haven’t got it, Rachel. I made the voluntary tax payment the day before yesterday, you know that. One million at a good rate of interest, like we always do.” He buried his face in his hands. “Like we always do, in the name of Jesus. Just like we always do!”
“Joshua, you heard what he said on the phone. If we don’t raise the money, he’ll kill them!”
“We must go to the congregation.”
“NO!” Her scream was so loud their youngest daughter began to cry in the next room. “He took our children and now you will get them back, do you understand? If you tell anyone, we’ll never see them again, ever. I’m certain.”
He turned his head toward her. “How do you know, Rachel? Perhaps he’s bluffing. Perhaps we should go to the police.”
“What do you know about the police? The police may be in the pay of the Devil. And how can you be sure he won’t find out? How can you be sure?”
“Our friends, then. People in the congregation would keep it secret. If we stand together in this, we can raise the money.”
“What if he’s there outside when you go to them? What if he has helpers among us? He was so close to us, and yet we failed to see his true self. How can you be certain there are no others like him? How, Joshua?”
She looked across at their youngest daughter, now standing in the doorway, clutching at the frame with tears running down her cheeks.
He had to find a way.
“Joshua, you must do something,” she said again, getting up from the table. She kneeled in front of her little girl and held her head in her hands.
“You mustn’t despair, Sarah. The Mother of Jesus will watch over Magdalena and Samuel. But you must pray so that they may be helped. And if this has happened because of something we did that we weren’t supposed to, then we shall receive forgiveness when we pray. That’s what you must do, my love.”
She saw the girl react at the mention of forgiveness. How her eyes yearned for it. There was something she wanted to say, but her mouth would not open.
“What’s wrong, Sarah? Is there something you want to tell Mummy?”
Sarah’s mouth twisted, and her lips began to quiver. Something was the matter.
“Does it have to do with the man?”
The girl nodded, and now her tears began to flow.
Rachel held her breath instinctively. “What is it? Tell me!”
The girl was frightened by the sudden harshness of her mother’s voice but began to speak regardless. “I did something you said I shouldn’t.”
“What was it, Sarah? Tell Mummy.”
“I looked in the photo album during the hour of rest while you were all in the kitchen with your Bibles. I’m so sorry, Mummy. I know it was wrong of me.”
“Oh, Sarah.” Rachel’s face dropped. “Is that all?”
Her daughter shook her head. “I saw the picture of the man who took Magdalena and Samuel. Is that why it happened? Is it because he’s the Devil, and I looked at him?”
Rachel inhaled deeply. This was something she didn’t know. “Are you saying there’s a photograph of him?”
Sarah sniffled. “Yes, outside the congregation hall when we all had our picture taken at Johanna’s and Dina’s initiation ceremony.”
Was he really on that photograph?
“Where is that picture, Sarah? I want you to show it to me, now!”
Obediently, the girl showed her the album and picked out the photograph.
Rachel’s heart sank. It’s useless, she said to herself. No help at all.
She considered the photo with disgust, removed it from its pocket, stroked her daughter’s hair, comforting her, telling her she was forgiven. And then she turned back into the kitchen and slapped the photograph down on the table in front of the slumped figure of her husband.
“Here’s our tormentor, Joshua.” Her finger pointed to a barely visible head in the back row. He had managed to stand half concealed behind the man in front and was looking away from the camera. If she hadn’t known it was him, it could have been anyone.
“You’re going to the tax authorities first thing in the morning to tell them that that payment you made was a mistake. Tell them we need the money back right away, otherwise we’ll go bankrupt. Do you understand me, Joshua? First thing in the morning.”
Monday came and she gazed out of the window at the dawn as it broke over Dollerup Church. Long, dazzling rays of sunlight poked through the morning mist. The proffered hand of God in all His splendor. How could He enjoin her to bear such a cross? And how could she allow herself to even ask such a question? The Lord worked in mysterious ways. She knew that.
She tightened her lips to stave off tears, folded her hands, and closed her eyes.
All night she had prayed, the way she did so often within the comfort of the congregation, but this time peace was not forthcoming. This was the testing time, Job’s hour of destiny, and the pain seemed endless.
By the time the sun lay nestled in the abundance of clouds and Joshua had driven off to the local authority to try to retrieve the business’s voluntary tax payment, her strength was almost gone.
“Josef, you must stay home from school and look after your sisters,” she had told her eldest. She needed Miriam and Sarah out of the way in order to get herself together.
When Joshua returned, he would, God willing, have the money with him. They had agreed he would pay the check into the Vestjysk Bank and instruct them to distribute the funds to their various accounts with Nordea, Danske Bank, Jyske Bank, Sparekassen Kronjylland, and Almindelig Brand Bank. All told, that would allow for cash payments of some one hundred and sixty-five thousand kroner from each bank, which ought not to provoke comment. Any new banknotes would have to be made grubby and creased and then mixed in with used notes from the other withdrawals so that the fiend who had taken their children would not suspect them of passing him marked notes.