by Sara Blaedel
Louise leaned in very close. “Did he hit you again?”
She looked at the woman’s swollen eye. Although swelling always took some time, she would almost swear that it wasn’t the injuries from the day before that made Bitten’s face look like that.
The woman shook her head and clasped her hands while biting her lip.
“Then who did it?” Louise pushed. “I can tell that something happened since I last saw you.”
The woman turned her head away without responding.
“Damn it, Bitten!” Louise changed tactics. “You have to tell me what’s going on. Who are you having an affair with? We’re going to find him anyway, and you can save us a lot of trouble and yourself a lot of discomfort by telling us.”
A tear rolled down her cheek and she folded her slender hands in front of her mouth, biting her knuckle.
“We might not even have to tell your husband,” Louise finally said, uncomfortable about making that kind of promise.
“He already knows,” Bitten whispered, leaning forward a little while casting a quick, sidelong glance at Louise without turning her head. “When we got home from the hospital, Ole was suddenly at the door. He had seen the police cars and wanted to know what happened earlier that day and whether I had said anything about him.”
She wiped her face.
“Ole Thomsen?” Louise whispered even though they were alone in the room. “Please tell me that’s not who you were waiting for?”
Bitten twitched and nodded so slightly, it was difficult to see.
“And René knows?”
“He does now. He didn’t understand how Ole knew that I’d had the day off. I didn’t have time to think of a lie while they were both standing there so I told the truth.”
She swallowed and bent her head, her chin touching her chest.
“What did your husband say?” Louise asked.
Bitten gave a small scoff as she straightened herself up. “What do you think?” she said with sarcasm and looked at Louise while shaking her head, making her short hair fall in front of her ear. “He didn’t say anything; he didn’t dare, just like I knew he wouldn’t. Nobody tells Big Thomsen no. If they do, they lose either their job or their business. Their car gets stolen or their house burns down. And of course he’s never the one who stands to take the fall for it. So you’d be a fool to try to stop him if there’s something he wants.”
“And he wanted you,” Louise concluded sympathetically.
Bitten nodded. “I didn’t really have a choice once René started working for him.”
“In the woods?” Louise asked.
“No, he’s a driver. He just goes to the woods to laze around. He’s got three trucks on the side; that’s how he makes his money. Two of them carry gravel from the gravel pit—that’s what René does—and the third one carries freight. That’s the one the new guy from Pasture House drives—Thomsen’s cousin.”
Louise took a deep breath. That explained the man’s behavior the other day.
“So what happened once it was just the two of you?” she asked.
“At first he was angry, but I think that was mostly because he was hurt. I guess he thought his friend had enough respect for him to keep his hands to himself, and now he’s running around the woods searching for the rapist, maybe mostly to convince himself that he won’t stand for another man touching his wife.”
In a way it didn’t surprise her, Louise thought. She could just picture Big Thomsen slinking in to see his friend’s wife. She imagined him sneaking up in his lumberjack getup, hiding the old Land Cruiser between the trees in order to take the back way through the yard and in between Bitten’s legs.
Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure that Ole Thomsen would even bother to hide his car when he came around to visit. He probably parked right in the driveway.
It was no wonder that René had freaked out. Just then, he appeared at the doorway, having come in from the yard, where Eik was talking with his and Bitten’s young daughter.
“Did you find him?” René asked
René Gamst needed a haircut, Louise observed as she moved to an armchair to let him take a seat on the couch next to his wife. He put his arm around Bitten’s shoulder and pulled her close.
“I want you to find out who came into my house and raped my wife.”
As he sat there, aggrieved in so many ways, Louise suddenly felt sorry for him. His friend screwed his wife and a stranger had entered his home and done the same. He had been robbed of his dignity and manhood.
“I promise we’ll find out,” she said, meaning it.
“Please don’t say that unless you really believe it,” he said.
Louise leaned in a little. “I do. We’ll find him,” she repeated.
“If you don’t, I will.”
“Please stop it, René,” Bitten pleaded.
Louise could tell that though he stopped himself from making a pointed reply, he was frustrated and upset. His face red, his eyes shifting back and forth, he pressed his lips together and remained silent.
She leaned back in her chair.
“Have either of you seen a white van in the woods or by the Stokkebo Road parking area?” she asked.
Bitten quickly shook her head but looked at René, who averted his eyes.
“You’ve seen it,” Louise concluded. “Who’s the driver?”
His face twitched. He gave a small sniffle and folded his hands but still didn’t answer.
From the corner of her eye, she sensed Bitten straightening up and holding her breath.
Louise got out the picture of Lise Andersen and placed it on the table. “Do you know anything about this woman?”
They both looked at the photograph, then shook their heads. Eik came back into the house and sat down in the chair next to Louise.
“Please. Tell us who drives the white van,” she urged.
But this time René didn’t react. Bitten was no longer holding her breath, but she was still as a mouse.
Louise got so angry that she jumped out of her chair. She grabbed René by the shoulders and shook him, holding on firmly.
“Why the hell should I lift a finger to find out who was in your house when you don’t even want to help?” she yelled.
Looking startled, Bitten had moved all the way to the opposite end of the couch.
Louise shook him again. “Several women have gone missing, one has been murdered, and your own wife has been raped. Now, you’re going to tell me who drives that van!”
She released her hold on him, letting him drop back down on the couch. She avoided looking at Eik as she walked back to her chair.
“If we can rule out that this person is connected to the ongoing cases, then we can eliminate the van from the equation and stop wasting our time on it,” she said in a more subdued tone of voice.
“It’s Ole,” René finally disclosed.
“Ole Thomsen?” she asked in surprise. “I thought he drove an old Land Cruiser?”
“Not when he’s selling meat.”
“Shut your mouth, René!” Bitten shouted angrily and kicked him.
Louise ignored her, keeping René’s eyes locked. “Meat?” she asked.
He looked down at the table.
“Tell me what you know about that van,” she demanded. “It’s been spotted in the woods on several occasions and it might be connected to the attacks that have occurred out there. It was last seen yesterday, driving out from the woods.”
“That’s because he was here after I picked up Bitten from the hospital,” René admitted at last. “The woods were crawling with police so he came over here instead to find out what we knew.”
“Be quiet, René,” Bitten whispered without looking at her husband.
“Keep talking,” Louise commanded. “What’s with the meat?”
“Just that he goes and parks in the parking lot twice a week to sell it.”
Louise shook her head, not understanding what it was all about.
“Of
f the books, for crying out loud,” René blurted out, gesticulating. “Whatever the butcher doesn’t sell in the shop goes out the back door.”
“And gets sold off the books,” Eik concluded. René nodded.
“Lars Frandsen’s shop,” Louise guessed.
Another one of the guys from the old gang, he had taken over the butcher shop after his dad.
“René, please stop it now!” his wife begged. “We’re not supposed to say anything. You know what will happen. And we’ve never seen it, either.”
That last part was a lie, Louise thought. She was willing to bet that they bought the cheap meat as well.
René’s eyes wandered. “That was a mistake,” he stammered. “Bitten is right. I don’t know anything.”
“But you know that Big Thomsen drives the van?”
He had started sweating, and his eyes were suddenly frightened as he turned toward them.
“Please don’t tell him what I said,” he pleaded. “It was a mistake.”
Bitten sat behind him, curling herself up while she kept shaking her head.
Louise shrugged. It was sad to see the degree to which they were subjected to the hierarchy that had been built up while they were still in school. She could hardly believe that this kind of thing could last all the way into adulthood. It had to be more than friendship tying that gang together, she thought as she got up.
René and Bitten stayed seated and watched them leave when they offered to show themselves out.
“THAT WAS HOT!” Eik said approvingly as they walked toward the car. “I like it when you get mad.”
“Shut up,” she snapped, getting into the car. The couple were genuinely scared senseless at the thought that they were the ones to reveal that Ole Thomsen and Frandsen the butcher were doing business under the table together.
They were driving down the forest road toward Lerbjerg when Louise suggested that she had better call Mik and tell him to check up on Big Thomsen.
“So that’s why nobody knows anything about that van,” she said. “He’s got everyone under his thumb so they won’t say anything that might provoke him. I never understood how he managed to build up that position. It seems like he’s got something on everyone so they have to yield to him.”
She shook her head and got her cell phone from her bag.
“Could he be our guy?” Eik asked as they drove through the last intersection before Lerbjerg. “He was around the area in 1991 as well.”
“Then it had to be Big Thomsen who raped Bitten, even though she was there waiting for him,” Louise said, but then she nodded a second later. “It’s not impossible, I guess. He’s clearly in touch with his inner primitive beast.”
Louise had to go through the switchboard before being transferred to Mik and she briefly regretted not opting to call his cell phone. She still had his number on speed dial.
“Mik Rasmussen,” he answered, sounding rushed.
“Ole Thomsen is the one who drives the white van,” she began. “He’s also Bitten’s lover so it’s a double bonus. The vehicle may be registered under the name of Lars Frandsen, the butcher.” She told him about the illegal meat sales.
“We’ve already spoken with the butcher. It’s his car but he flatout denies that it’s been in the woods. He says it’s a company car.”
Louise sighed. Cocky as always, she thought.
“Ole Thomsen is the driver. So he’s the one you need to talk to, and he needs to be busted for the meat thing along with Frandsen.”
She nodded to Eik, who signaled that he wanted to get out of the car. They had pulled into her parents’ courtyard.
“We’ve already got our sights on him,” Mik said. “It appears that he’s been sleeping his way through half of central Zealand. At least his alibis for the times that we’re interested in were provided by several different women. But I’m not buying those stories. Something is very wrong here.”
33
LOUISE WAVED TO Jonas as he appeared by the kitchen door. She hadn’t had a chance to call and let him know that she would be by to pick him up. She had missed him.
“Hey!” she called out and smiled when her son walked out into the courtyard to say hello to Eik. He was such a great kid. Louise walked over to give him a hug.
“Do you feel like going home?” she asked before greeting her father, who came around the corner from the backyard.
“You have to come in the house and listen to what the boy’s been doing with his time while he’s been laid up,” he said and beckoned them inside. “It’s just amazing what these young kids can do with their computers.”
“We’ll probably have to listen to it some other time, Dad,” Louise cut in, shooting Eik an apologetic smile. “We have to get back to the city.”
Her father turned and gave her a stern look. “It’ll just take a second, and of course you have the time to listen to what Jonas can do,” he said, taking it for granted that they would follow him. “He’s very gifted, you know.”
Jonas shrugged a little, looking self-conscious.
“It’s nothing, really,” he whispered. “But Grandpa seems to think I’m some sort of musical genius.”
“That’s grandparents, I guess,” Eik said, good-humoredly following Louise’s father. In the living room he walked over and introduced himself to her mother and immediately accepted her offer of coffee.
Louise was still standing in the doorway. The inside of the old timber-frame house had been completely renovated, the walls covered with grayish wood and tile on the floor. The living room opened up into the kitchen where Louise’s mother had insisted on leaving the old woodstove even though she used a new gas stove for cooking.
Her mother walked over to the cupboard, and of course she got out the mugs she herself had thrown and fired. Before Louise knew it, Eik was following her mother outside to the wing that had been set up as a pottery. As the door closed behind them, she heard him inquiring with interest about the things her mother made out there.
“All right, I’m ready,” said Jonas, coming out of the guest room after gathering his stuff.
“No,” Louise hurried to say. “I want to hear what you’ve made.”
Not that she expected to be able to tell it apart from what she had listened to through the door to his room, but she wanted to show that she cared about his interests.
He opened his computer on the dining table and asked her if she was ready.
Louise nodded and sat down as he turned up the music. Just then, her mother and Eik walked in through the kitchen door, Eik carrying a small green vase that she’d apparently given him.
He put down the vase and listened for a minute before nodding appreciatively.
“That’s good stuff,” he said and closed his eyes as if tasting the notes. “It’s got kind of a Nick Cave sound but then not really—it’s more contemporary. Who made it?”
“The kid did, of course,” Louise’s father boasted. “That’s his music.”
Eik raised one bushy eyebrow and didn’t seem to understand.
“Jonas makes music,” Louise pitched in. “He’s got several songs on YouTube, and they get played all the time.”
Jonas nodded shyly.
“What do you call yourself again?” Louise’s father asked.
“Joe H,” he answered quietly. “And the song is called ‘Back to Normal.’ ”
“As in Jonas Holm,” her father enthused with a big smile.
“Well, I’ll be,” Eik exclaimed, sounding impressed.
“One of his pieces is on the list of the most popular songs on YouTube,” her father went on.
Jonas smiled a little more confidently.
“It’s what?” Louise exclaimed with surprise and took a step back.
“I told you the boy is on to something,” her father said.
“Did you think I was kidding when I said I wanted to play at Roskilde Festival?” Jonas asked Louise.
“Honestly, yes,” she admitted. She asked him to play the song
again.
“I told him we need to talk to Kjær,” her father grumbled. Kjær was the old family lawyer. “All the stuff about copyright and those kinds of things needs to be looked over by someone who knows about it.”
“Okay, Grandpa,” Jonas laughed. “We’ll take a look at it.”
It wasn’t that long ago that the boy had started calling Louise’s parents Grandma and Grandpa. It wasn’t something they had talked about. Louise had just suddenly realized that he was saying it and that it sounded natural. She was pleased.
“Come on then, superstar. Let’s get back to the city,” she said, swatting at him.
34
WHERE ARE YOU?” Camilla yelled into the phone as Louise sat squeezed in with Jonas in the front seat of the big four-wheeler. Eik had insisted that his blood alcohol level from the previous night had long since dropped and had gotten behind the wheel.
“On our way home from Hvalsø. How are things with you guys?”
“Why don’t you come and have dinner with us?” she asked. “Markus was disappointed, to put it lightly, that we got married without him and now he insists that we at least go and have a nice dinner and invite you along.”
Jonas shoved his cell phone in Louise’s face.
“Markus just texted me,” he mimed, pointing to the phone display. “He wants to know if I can make it.”
“What time were you thinking?” Louise asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the thought.
“Right now!” Camilla laughed excitedly. “We’ll drink champagne and have a lovely dinner. Frederik made arrangements for a menu with Danish lobster at Restaurant Raadhuskælderen.”
Louise sighed. It did feel strange not to be part of celebrating her friend’s big day.
“I’m not the one driving,” she said. “Jonas and I are riding with Eik.”
“Just bring him along,” Camilla bubbled happily. “That’ll make it an even number for our table.”
“He probably has other plans?” Louise mumbled and realized that Jonas was already including their chauffeur in the invitation.
“But we need to go home and get changed first,” Louise objected after Jonas and Eik had both made it clear that they were game for an impromptu wedding dinner.
