by Sara Blaedel
It was Station City’s case, and the young woman was a prostitute. Presumably, it hadn’t been given a high priority, Louise thought. Normally the police stalled on a missing person case anyway, as people often turned up by themselves.
“Lisa Maria Nielsen,” she read out loud.
“When exactly did she disappear?” Eik asked. He brushed the crumbs off his T-shirt.
“May thirty-first or June first,” she said. She cocked her head and thought a moment. “The same time as the boy.”
She turned to Olle. “Can I keep this for a while? We need to be sure, of course, but thanks, Olle.”
He left, and Eik asked her to read it out loud.
“Lisa Maria has a young son. He turned three on June first, and he’s the reason her sister reported it at once when she didn’t come home. Lisa would never willingly be gone on her son’s birthday. He meant everything to her. She had invited his friends from the day care for a birthday party, with sandwiches and a birthday cake. Her sister was to have taken care of that. It was difficult for her to explain to her nephew where his mother was.”
“Unfortunately, it happens in that profession,” Eik mumbled. “Who’s taking care of the boy?”
“Her sister. They shared one floor of a house. She has a four-year-old daughter.”
For a moment she studied the photos of Lisa Maria that her sister had given the police. Louise recognized both tattoos. She called Olle.
“Get hold of the sister and make arrangements for an identification. I don’t know how soon Forensics can have the body ready. Try Flemming Larsen. He was on duty this weekend; he was there when the bodies came in.”
She hung up and pushed the folder over to Eik. Then she opened the green folder she’d started on Sune Frandsen and looked it over. “They’ve been missing within the same time period.”
“But we don’t know if they disappeared in the same area,” Eik pointed out. He tossed the last half of his cheese sandwich down on the floor.
“Stop that, you’re going to make him sick,” she said. “It’s true, we don’t know that, but she was buried where he’s hiding.”
“So you’re thinking, he might’ve seen something?” He nodded. “And that could be the reason he’s hiding. He witnessed a crime and doesn’t dare come home. What do you think?”
The pieces were falling into place. “He might have been the one who killed her!” Louise said. Murderer or witness to a murder. Two good reasons to go into hiding.
“It’s a possibility. But he’s fifteen years old. Could he do it?”
“He might’ve seen something that scared him out of his senses; he could have reacted like a wounded animal.”
“Teenagers disappear every day,” he reminded her.
She nodded. Normally the search for teenagers was intensive at first. Police dragged lakes, searched often-used routes, checked debit card usage, and if nothing showed up, later on they would check Freetown Christiania—a haven for quirky and troubled characters, who could find refuge and a place to hide from the authorities—and then youth houses. Often the latter steps would be unnecessary when hunger set in and the comforts of home became too inviting. When the smell of their own bodies became too much.
“The pattern just doesn’t fit here,” she said.
“We have to look into it,” Eik conceded. He asked if it was true that the father said he was going to look for his son, now that they knew approximately where he was hiding.
Louise nodded. “He promised to call if he found him. Anyway, I’m calling Nymand. If the boy can be connected with this killing, it’s his case.”
Louise was put through to the deputy commissioner. She told him that they likely had identified the young woman and added that Sune Frandsen had been hiding in the forest since the day Lisa Maria disappeared.
She summed both cases up for him and gave him the number of the missing person case concerning Sune, so he could see a photo of him.
Nymand decided to instigate a search for the boy in the area. “If he’s there, we’ll find him. But if he has nothing to do with my case, we don’t have time to run around looking for runaway teenagers for you.”
“Of course,” Louise said. Odd, she thought, that his ridiculous remark hadn’t angered her. She must be tired.
“I’ll call the father and let him know that Roskilde is organizing a search,” Eik said.
Louise took a bite of the roll, but the dry bread clogged her throat. She was hungry, though. She unwrapped a block of butter, spread a thick layer onto the bread, and attacked it. By the time Eik had finished talking, she’d cleaned off her plate.
“Tell Nymand to cancel. Sune is back home.”
“And that idiot didn’t even call?” Exhausted or not, Louise was furious.
“He kept apologizing, said it was very emotional when the boy was reunited with his mother. They needed some time alone, and he just forgot about calling. Apparently the boy is already back at school, but that sounds really strange. I mean, he’s been gone three weeks!”
“That’s how it is in a small town,” Louise said. She shrugged sadly. “Everything has to get ‘back to normal’ as soon as possible.”
Eik shook his head. “You’d hope that somebody will look in on the boy, check to see how he’s doing. Is that how it works there, or is it just more convenient to forget about it?”
That last remark sounded like an accusation against Louise. “He’ll be checked on. By us. Before we cancel the search and close the case, we’re driving over to talk to him. I want to know why he hid for three weeks in the forest. And when we’re done, we’ll make sure someone keeps an eye on him.”
“Shouldn’t we do that now?” Eik laid his palms on his desk, as if he was about to stand up.
“You mean, while he’s in school?”
He nodded. “Wouldn’t it be easier for him to tell us why he didn’t want to go home if his parents aren’t around?”
Of course, Louise thought. An adult would have to be present, but they could find a schoolteacher or perhaps an administrator.
“Let’s go,” she said. She was on her feet.
25
When they drove past the lake, Louise realized she hadn’t been inside Hvalsø School since she’d graduated from ninth grade. School had practically been her whole life back then. It had ended so abruptly. But why should she have come back? After you graduate, there’s no reason to return.
She did remember her way around. She directed Eik to park in front of the auditorium, and they walked past the bicycle sheds. It was a shortcut, plus they wouldn’t have to use the main entrance. But they would have to go through the cafeteria, where curious eyes would follow them all the way to the principal’s office.
The sense of being in familiar territory slowly faded when she discovered that the cafeteria wasn’t there anymore. And of course she realized Mother Ellen wouldn’t be selling sandwiches and candy to the older students. She actually felt a bit indignant over all the changes in her old school.
They explained to the woman in the secretary’s office that they wanted to speak to Sune Frandsen, and they were sorry it had to be during classes, seeing that he had just returned to school.
The secretary looked surprised, but she recovered quickly and smiled. “I wasn’t aware he was back. That’s so nice to hear. He’s a very sweet boy, and no one could understand why he would do such a thing. To take his own life…” She seemed upset suddenly. “No child or young person—no one at all—should be able to go so far. Oh dear. Well, if you’ll have a seat, I’ll bring him in a moment.”
She pointed at two chairs under a wide photograph of the school. Gray cement, rust-red square windows. A long line of students stood in front of the school. Louise remembered when that picture had been taken. In fact, she was in it somewhere.
The principal came out of his office. They introduced themselves and nodded when he said that he’d been hoping this regrettable case would have a happy ending.
“Last week
we held an assembly for ninth-grade classes. We talked to them about how life can be difficult and confusing; how sometimes you just want to give up.”
The secretary returned, accompanied by Sune’s class teacher.
“Who told you that Sune was in school?” The teacher looked back and forth at Louise and Eik. “Because he’s not. His classmates haven’t seen him, either. Who told you that?”
“We’ve just spoken with his father,” Eik said. “He said that Sune had started school again.”
The teacher was visibly upset. “I’ve talked about it several times. We should contact social services and find out what’s going on in that home. But no one does anything. I’ve called the district, tried to convince them to visit the parents. Nothing happens. It’s not so strange that things like what happened in Tønder and Mern take place—no one has the time anymore to protect the interests of children. It’s all about money, passing the buck to someone else, taking on less yourself.”
“Easy now, I think we should…” The principal sputtered, then recovered. “I’ll call his parents and see what they have to say.”
“I’m not saying this is a case of abuse or neglect,” the teacher said. “But when a fifteen-year-old boy vanishes into thin air this way, something is very wrong. I’ve said so from the beginning, and even when he showed up on that photo, no one wanted to listen.”
“We’ve done nothing but work on this case, ever since you pointed out that newspaper photo to the police in Holbæk,” Eik said, and stood up. He was a head taller than Sune’s teacher. Ordinarily this cop in black clothes and leather jacket, his longish hair combed back, didn’t look threatening. But he was annoyed. “There’s no certainty that the family is in any way at fault. But we suspect that Sune might have witnessed a serious crime. That could be why he’s hiding. We can’t really fault the family for that.”
Louise watched the young schoolteacher retreat.
“Could he be in danger?” the principal asked.
“Possibly,” Louise admitted. She emphasized that they very much wanted to talk to Sune. “If he does show up, please call us at once. We’re going to pay a visit to his parents. Hopefully, we’ll find him there.”
On the way out, she glanced once more at the school photograph. Klaus had to be somewhere in it, too.
26
It took only five minutes to drive from the school to the farm where Sune’s parents lived. The courtyard was deserted when Eik parked his junker Jeep Cherokee beside the big walnut tree.
He knocked a few times, then opened the door and shouted, “Hello!”
Louise followed him into the hallway. Eik shouted again, but no one answered. They waited a moment before entering the living room and calling Jane’s name. Louise walked over to the bedroom door and knocked. “Jane, it’s Louise—may I come in?”
She thought she heard a noise, and she opened the door a crack. Only a streak of sunlight broke through the edge of the closed curtains. “Jane,” she repeated.
“Louise! Have you found him?”
Louise pulled a chair over to her old friend’s bed and motioned for Eik to come in. “Jane, we’re here about Sune. My colleague spoke with Lars earlier today. He said that your son came home. We need to talk to him; we believe he might have witnessed a serious crime.”
Jane’s lips quivered, and she turned away. She took a deep breath then looked back at Louise, her eyes full of tears. She shook her head. “It’s not true. He hasn’t come home.”
She reached for Louise’s hand and squeezed it. “You have to find my son before they do! Help me…”
The rest of her words were drowned out in a long sniffle. Louise gave her the handkerchief that lay on her night table.
Louise stroked her hand mechanically.
“All I want now is to see Sune again before I die.” Jane looked up, her eyes pleading. “They drive around looking for him at night. He’s just a boy. He doesn’t understand what he’s up against!”
Louise held her hand as she leaned forward. “Jane, you need to tell us what’s happened. Is it something we haven’t heard about?”
Her old friend nodded slowly. Tears rolled down her sunken cheeks, but her voice was steady as she told them about the initiation ceremony out in the forest, the ritual everyone had been looking forward to.
“But something happened that night, and I can’t get anyone to tell me what. All Lars will say is that Sune suddenly disappeared. I know my husband; I can sense that something very bad happened, and I’m afraid that they’re going to harm Sune.”
Anxiety flared up inside Louise. Eik brought over another chair, and she made room for him.
“Tell us what you know,” he said, “and start at the beginning, so we can understand just what happened.”
The sound of his calm, low voice made Louise regret that she hadn’t let him sit by the head of the bed. Jane regarded him for a moment, as if considering what to say. Then she turned back to Louise.
“I’m not sure if you know anything about this, but it goes a long way back, to when we were kids. Klaus was a part of it, too.”
Louise lifted an eyebrow and shook her head. “What goes a long way back?”
“Their brotherhood. They made a vow to stand together and protect each other. Just like Odin and Loke. They’re blood brothers.”
Louise’s anxiety turned into an icy chill at this sudden mention of Klaus, along with things that Louise had never been aware of. “What are you talking about? Asatro?”
“So they mixed their blood?” Eik asked. “Is that what you mean? And made vows to each other?”
Jane nodded, her head barely leaving the pile of pillows. “You could put it that way. It’s just more complicated; it’s something peculiar to our group, and they take it very seriously.” She paused for a moment. “Apparently more seriously than I was aware of.”
“And how is your son mixed up in this?” Eik asked.
“I don’t know exactly what happens during the ritual. It’s only for the men. It’s secret. They call it a rite of passage. A sacrifice must be made in order to gain something. They call themselves blood brothers, a term with roots in Nordic mythology. That’s where our beliefs come from.”
Louise could hear the fear behind her words.
“The boys are accepted into the brotherhood at their initiation ceremonies. It’s different for girls, more like a confirmation without a priest. Girls confirm their belief in the Nordic gods and they’re accepted among the adults. But it’s special for the boys, becoming part of the inner circle. They make a vow to support each other. It’s a male thing. Sune had been looking forward to it for a whole year, and that’s where he was the evening he ran away.”
It sounded more like an initiation into a biker club to Louise, but that’s also how Thomsen and his gang seemed to think of themselves.
“Do they also vow to avenge each other?” Eik asked.
Jane’s expression darkened. She nodded. “Yes, exactly. But what keeps me awake at night is the part of the oath that says, if you leave the fellowship you’re an outcast. I don’t know what’s happened, but ever since you told us that Sune was hiding in the forest, I’ve feared the worst.”
They sat for a while in silence. Finally Louise asked who was in the inner circle, and who would have been in the forest the evening Sune disappeared. She was afraid she knew the answer.
Jane stared straight ahead for a few moments, then spoke to Louise. “Thomsen, of course, and John Knudsen from Særløse. Do you remember him? They called him Pussy.”
Louise nodded.
“And Lars Hemmingsen, he also ran around with Ole Thomsen back then, even though he lived out in Såby.”
“The mason?” Louise asked. She was fairly certain he was the man Camilla had fired during the renovation of Ingersminde; when Frederik had refused to let him work as a moonlighter to avoid paying tax, he’d begun to work slower.
“Yes. And my Lars. And René Gamst. Though he wasn’t there that night, of co
urse. I don’t know if there are more. I’ve always just assumed it was the same group from the old days, back in school.”
They hadn’t mentioned the body of the young prostitute, and Louise started to ask Jane about her when Eik leaned forward.
“Why haven’t you told the police about this before?” he asked.
Jane stared blankly for a moment. “I didn’t dare. I didn’t dare turn their anger on us, with me lying here like this.”
She paused for a moment. “But what do I have to lose now?” she mumbled, as if she was talking to herself. “At any rate, nothing is more important than my son.”
She was beginning to fade. Louise realized that the person in the most trouble from Jane talking to the police was Jane’s husband.
“I know Sune well enough to know he’d come home if he could, that he’d want to be with me at the end. I’ve heard Lars get up many nights, I’ve seen the car lights when he backs out. Sune is out there, and I believe he’s afraid.”
“We found the body of a young prostitute in the forest where Sune is hiding,” Eik said. “She disappeared the same night as your son, and we think he might’ve seen something, and now he’s too frightened to come home. Do you know anything about this?”
For a moment Jane looked as if she had fallen asleep, but then she shook her head and opened her eyes. “Did she die that night?”
“It’s too early to say. But no one has seen her since she dropped her son off at her sister’s, on the way to a job.”
Jane hid her face in her thin hands. “The men perform a fertility ritual.”
She paused, her face still hidden.
“And they…” Eik said.
“And they hire a prostitute…”
Jane’s shoulders began to shake.
“They share a prostitute?” Louise said, almost shouting now. Immediately Eik laid a hand on her arm.
Jane lowered her hands from her face. “I don’t know, but I think that’s what happens. Lars has never talked about it. What I’ve heard comes from Ditte, the bricklayer’s wife. Once they had an argument, and he told her that even though the prostitute was young, and a lot of the men shared her, she was a lot better than what he was getting at home, which was nothing.”
