‘We just went to fetch her,’ Benno said casually, attempting to maintain his status in front of the angry secretary. ‘Out at Jakob’s. She was like that when we found her.’
‘Yes,’ Storm piped up. ‘There’s no way we’re taking the rap for this. The girl was already lying on the floor screaming when we came in.’
Lisbeth gently pulled Paneeraq close and could feel the child shaking all over. She turned her attention to Benno. ‘And how did you get in?’
He shrugged. ‘She was lying on the floor without moving, so we broke down the door.’
‘Standard procedure,’ Storm added. ‘We were sent to pick her up, and she was just lying there on the floor. How were we to know what he had done to her?’
‘Have you completely lost your minds?’ Lisbeth was whispering in order not to frighten Paneeraq even more. ‘Have you no idea how traumatic that would have been to a child?’
She got up slowly and guided Paneeraq carefully to her chair and desk. ‘Now, you sit here for a moment,’ she said softly, pulling open a drawer and finding some chocolate. ‘I’ll get you some cocoa in a minute, and afterwards I’ll take you home with me. This isn’t a place for children.’
‘But we…’ Benno cleared his throat. ‘She’s in our care, and we need to get her seen by a doctor today.’
On hearing this, Paneeraq flinched.
Lisbeth squeezed Paneeraq’s arm and shook her head dismissively. ‘Just ignore them. I’ll go and get your cocoa now, and we’ll leave very soon.’
Paneeraq nodded. Her eyes had started to liven up a little.
‘If I hear either of you say another word to that girl, I’ll bloody well kill you.’
Benno looked at the small, incensed woman. ‘Listen, we were only doing our job.’
‘Your job? What kind of a job is it to scare the living daylights out of an already broken little girl? Eh? Can you tell me that? Have you really no idea what this child has suffered? Not just for one night, but for years.’
Benno stared down at the wooden floor, as if an answer could be found in its cracks.
‘You’re only a secretary,’ Storm sneered. ‘So perhaps you should let us do our job—especially if you want to keep your own.’
‘Oh, shit,’ Benno grunted with resignation as he stepped in front of Storm and felt Lisbeth’s blow hit his chest with full force. For a moment he was winded, but he kept his gaze fixed on the irate woman’s eyes. ‘That’s enough for now,’ he said with a quick nod, then he turned around, grabbed Storm by the arm and dragged him into the office.
Lisbeth could hear Storm complaining bitterly, but she could also hear Benno, who, in an even louder voice, shouted, ‘Just shut your mouth!’
She waited to make sure that the two men were not coming back, then rushed to Mortensen’s office, where she knocked while pushing open the door without waiting for an answer.
‘Mrs Ludvigsen,’ the small man exclaimed in surprise. ‘You nearly gave me a heart attack.’
‘I apologise, sir,’ she said, her voice trembling. Lisbeth was so angry that the words got stuck in her throat. ‘But Benno and Storm have just terrified a little girl who is already utterly broken. What the hell is it that you men don’t understand about girls and women who have been destroyed by men? Do you think we just wake up the morning after we’ve been raped and everything is fine? Can you really not imagine that it hurts forever, and we’re eaten up by anguish and grief every hour of the day and night?’
Mortensen stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray and rubbed his pale chin. ‘I know what you’re saying,’ he said. ‘But we must never let personal feelings cloud our objectivity as law enforcement officers.’
‘We’re talking about a little girl. A child!’ Lisbeth threw up her hands. ‘There’s nothing objective about that. She needs love, and your men are stomping all over her like a herd of elephants.’
‘I was referring to the objectivity between you and Pedersen,’ Mortensen said. ‘We couldn’t leave the girl with him—it wasn’t lawful. And being a police officer, he should have known better. Besides, the whole investigation has taken a very unfortunate turn for Pedersen, and the worst-case scenario is that the girl might have been staying with her parents’ killer. So you see, we had absolutely no choice other than to pick her up. You have to understand that. I promise to have a word with Benno and Storm, so we can establish whether they acted in accordance with procedure.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, forcing herself to stay in control. ‘I would appreciate that.’
He nodded with a dry smile. ‘Is there anything else?’
She shook her head. ‘Yes… I’ll take the girl back to my place now. She needs a bath, clean clothes and some TLC. If you try to stop me, I’ll go straight to the papers with everything I know. And the same applies if you sack me.’
Mortensen drummed his fingers on a small brown notebook that lay on the desk in front of him. ‘You don’t scare easily,’ he said with a nod. ‘I like that.’
49
The smoke from Mortensen’s cigars was so thick that Jakob couldn’t remember the stench in the small office ever being worse. There were three half-smoked cigars in the ashtray and one dangling between Mortensen’s yellow fingers. Around the ashtray were stacks of files, loose sheets of paper, newspapers, a few pots with pens and an old, grey typewriter. Jakob’s notebook lay in the centre of the ash-stained green blotting pad. Mortensen’s fingers rested on the closed cover.
‘Pedersen, Pedersen,’ his boss sighed behind the grey and yellow fog. ‘What the hell am I supposed to make of all this?’ He aimed two probing eyes at Jakob.
Jakob shrugged.
‘Yes, I took the liberty of flicking through your notebook, seeing as it was lying around here at the office. I had started to realise that it might be worth having a look at it.’
He paused again to allow for objections, but Jakob remained silent.
‘It contains four names,’ Mortensen sighed. ‘You wrote down four names. Yes, I acknowledge that there are many other names on your lists, but you have identified these four men as being particularly evil. Four men who are now all dead.’ He turned his head slightly, without taking his eyes off Jakob. ‘We can agree on that, can’t we?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That it’s your notebook, and that you appointed yourself judge, jury and executioner of these four men.’
‘That they are four men who repeatedly raped their own daughters—yes, on that we can agree.’
‘And you wrote the list, didn’t you?’
‘It’s in my notebook, yes.’ Jakob looked down and adjusted his shirt nervously. ‘But listen—’
‘And you stated publicly that you would be willing to kill Anguteeraq Poulsen,’ Mortensen cut him off. ‘And in secret and against my express orders, you took in his daughter the night before her parents’ murder—am I right?’
‘Her name is Paneeraq.’ Jakob looked up at Mortensen again. ‘What have you done to her?’
Mortensen rubbed his septum. ‘The air is so bloody dry up here.’
‘Where’s Paneeraq?’
‘She’s in safe hands now.’
‘Not if she’s in this building,’ Jakob snapped. ‘This whole town is rotten to the core.’
‘Pedersen…’ Mortensen summoned his attention. ‘She’s in safe hands, trust me. She has no family left, but I can promise you that she’s safe. I can’t tell you where she is, obviously, as we don’t want you running straight over there. You’ve become obsessed with this case.’ He cleared his throat and hawked violently. Drummed his fingers on the notebook a few times. ‘This reads like the work of a madman. Not a police officer.’ He looked up. ‘What the hell is this? Poetry and conspiracies all muddled together? What has got into you? Has the darkness finally pushed you over the edge? We have four flayed bodies, but you’re busy philosophising about the taste of the ice cap and conspiring against our leading civil servants.’