‘Did Abelsen do it?’ Jakob looked towards the window and craned his neck.
Ulrik nodded. ‘And the fisherman.’
Matthew had rolled onto his back and could feel his mobile buzz again.
‘A police car with some of your colleagues has just pulled up,’ Jakob announced in a voice louder than anything else he had said so far. He nodded in the direction of the window. ‘They’re here to interview Matthew and Tupaarnaq.’
‘Shit,’ Ulrik said. He pushed the curtain aside so that he could look down into the yard. ‘I… I…’ He quickly scanned the room, and then disappeared through the door.
Jakob got up from the armchair and made his way to Matthew. He bent down and cut the strips with a knife that had been lying in a fruit bowl on the coffee table.
‘Where’s Tupaarnaq?’ Matthew said quietly as he felt the tight plastic strips come away. At last his arms were free to move again.
‘Ulrik took her away while you were unconscious. I don’t know where she is, or why he came back without her.’
‘I think I know where she might be.’ Matthew stood up, rubbing his wrists. ‘They’re in your old house.’ He glanced towards the door. ‘We haven’t got time to explain all that to Ottesen now. Ulrik is in meltdown… He might very well kill her immediately.’
‘If you go back to the stairs you came up, you can continue up another floor, then run to the end of the gallery and take another staircase down to the yard.’
As Matthew raced down the stairs at the far end of the apartment block, his mobile rang again. This time he managed to answer it.
‘Hi, Matthew. What’s happening?’
‘I can’t explain it now, Leiff. I’m on my way to Abelsen’s house. Ulrik has gone mental, and I think he’s going to kill his sister and Abelsen.’ Matthew gasped for air as he sprinted down HJ Rinkip Aqqutaa. ‘Jakob… the police officer from ’73… he’s alive… and he claims that Ulrik’s father isn’t his real father, and that it was Tupaarnaq’s own father who killed the family back in Tasiilaq… And now… Ulrik has lost his mind.’
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m approaching Gertrud Rasks Vej… I’m heading for Abelsen’s house.’
‘Okay—are you able to listen while you run?’
‘Yes…’
‘The police went to Lyberth’s home to go through his things in connection with his murder.’ Leiff paused. ‘By the way, I believe that Ulrik is currently suspended. He has been under a lot of stress. Anyway, that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you. No, they found some old papers at Lyberth’s place. Nothing relating to your case, but still relevant. Abelsen didn’t move to Greenland from Denmark, as everyone thought. His father was a Danish doctor who worked here in the 1950s, but his mother was an underage Inuit girl from Tasiilaq, whom the doctor raped. Well, that particular fact wasn’t mentioned in the papers at Lyberth’s, but I took the liberty of ringing the world and his wife until I hit the jackpot. I managed to get a couple of names to follow up, you see. The girl died a long time ago, but she still has family in Tasiilaq who can remember that far back. Are you still there?’
‘Yes,’ Matthew wheezed. ‘I’m just passing the lake.’
‘Good. Abelsen lived with his young mother until he was ten years old, when he was sent to boarding school in Denmark—Daddy paid for it. As far as I could work out, that was the price for Abelsen Jr remaining a secret. You see, Daddy already had a wife and family in Denmark. At the age of twenty-four, Abelsen returned to Greenland, but this time to Nuuk, where he soon befriended another blatantly ambitious young man, Lyberth. Abelsen was a cold and calculating lawyer, Lyberth a politically active vicar who would sell his own mother to get to the top. The rest is history, as far as their partnership is concerned. But listen to this. Ulrik. You won’t believe this, but it adds up with what you’ve just told me. Abelsen pulled the same stunt as his father and got a woman pregnant in Tasiilaq. Only this time it was a woman who already had a daughter.’
‘And that daughter… was Tupaarnaq?’ Matthew panted.
‘Precisely, and the child that Abelsen had with Tupaarnaq’s mother is Ulrik. That’s why Lyberth took the boy in. One favour deserves another, as they say. Abelsen had no hint of family loyalty, but he cared enough to get Lyberth to take Ulrik in when his family was wiped out by Tupaarnaq’s father, and Tupaarnaq was jailed for the murders.’
‘Christ almighty…’ Matthew wheezed. ‘He’s going to kill them… both of them.’
65
The windows in Jakob’s old home were dark, but the house itself stood out more clearly now than in the dense, moist fog that had surrounded it the last time Matthew was there. There was only one row of houses further along, and then the rocks sloped steeply down to the North Atlantic, which lay calmer than it had done for several days.
The rough planks met Matthew’s hand as he reached the end of the path between the rocks. He wiped his face on his sleeve and stepped sideways to look through the living room window. Abelsen was slumped in an old armchair in the middle of the room. His body was limp, but his eyes were open.
Matthew ducked immediately and pressed his back against the wall. With his eyes closed, he bumped the back of his head soundlessly against the wood. He turned around and pushed himself slowly up, in order to peer over the window ledge. He scanned the living room, but the only person he could see was Abelsen. The man’s thin forearms were tied to the broad armrests with black strips.
Matthew heard a crash behind him. He spun around and looked across at the nearest houses, but there was nothing to see. Maybe a boat or a trailer had been knocked over. He turned his attention back to the window. An icy shiver crawled down his spine immediately.
Abelsen was staring right at him.
Matthew looked away, then took three steps to the front door, which he pushed open in a slow, gliding movement. The hall was small, and he quickly reached the living room, where the pale old man in the chair nodded for him to come over.
‘Get a knife from the kitchen and free me,’ he whispered between thin lips.
Matthew looked around the room. ‘Where is your Faroese?’
‘Forget about him,’ Abelsen mumbled.
‘Is Ulrik here?’
‘I don’t know,’ Abelsen snarled irritably and grimaced. ‘Why is that any of your business?’
‘I think he’s going to kill his sister, and that is my business.’
‘Cut me free, then we can talk about it… Not a second before.’ Abelsen moved his back from side to side and flexed his neck in a series of small cracks. ‘Did you bring the notebook?’
‘The notebook?’ Matthew shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t bring the bloody notebook, but if you call off your Faroese and Ulrik, maybe we can talk about it.’
‘Idiot,’ Abelsen said, and wrinkled his nose. ‘Reporters—you’re vermin, the lot of you.’ He heaved a deep sigh. ‘I want that notebook… and that’s final.’
‘And I want Tupaarnaq.’
‘Christ, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for some Greenlandic slag? That bitch will bite off your dick, given half a chance.’
‘Yes, you’d know all about Greenlanders, wouldn’t you? With a mother and a son from Tasiilaq… The one you shagged wasn’t Danish either, and she ended up getting killed because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.’
‘You think you’re so clever, boy.’ Abelsen jerked both arms, leaving red welts in the skin from the sharp strips. ‘Now free me, goddammit.’
‘Not without Tupaarnaq.’