Disgrace

by Jussi Adler-Olsen

  ‘Mr Mørck, I presume!’ She grinned and shook his hand as if she were trying to empty his pockets of their contents.

  Luckily for him, her enormous outward appearance was matched by the size of her memory. A police officer’s dream.

  She had been senior clinical nurse on Kimmie’s ward at Bispebjerg, and even though she’d been off duty when the patient disappeared, the events had been so strange and tragic that she’d never forgotten them, she explained.

  ‘When the woman arrived she was quite beaten up, so we expected her to lose the child, but she actually did all right. She just wanted that child so badly. When she’d been at the hospital for a week, we were almost ready to discharge her.’

  She chewed her lip. ‘But then one morning when I’d been on night shift, she miscarried suddenly and severely. The doctor said it seemed as though she had provoked it herself. I found that hard to believe, given how much she’d been looking forward to having the baby. At any rate, there were large blue bruises on her abdomen. But it’s impossible to know about these things. There are a lot of mixed feelings involved when a woman faces raising an unplanned child on her own.’

  ‘What could she have used to cause the bruising? Do you recall?’

  ‘Some said it could have been the chair in her room. That she had pulled it on to her bed and pounded it against her abdomen. In any case, it was lying on the floor when the doctors came in and found her unconscious, with the foetus lying in a pool of blood between her legs.’

  Carl tried to imagine it. A sad sight.

  ‘And the foetus was big enough for you to see it?’

  ‘Oh yes. At eighteen weeks a foetus resembles a little human being, around five or six inches long.’

  ‘Arms and legs?’

  ‘Everything. The lungs haven’t fully developed, nor have the eyes. But just about everything else has.’

  ‘And it lay between her legs?’

  ‘She had given birth to the child and the placenta in the normal way, yes.’

  ‘You mention the placenta. Wasn’t there something abnormal about it?’

  ‘It’s one of the things everyone remembers. That, and the fact that she stole the foetus. My colleagues had placed it under a sheet while they staunched her bleeding. When they returned after a short break, the patient and the foetus were gone. The placenta, on the other hand, was still there. That was when one of our doctors noticed it had ruptured. Been torn in two, so to speak.’

  ‘Couldn’t that have happened during the miscarriage itself?’

  ‘Sometimes that happens, but very seldom. Maybe the violence inflicted on her abdomen had something to do with it. Either way, it’s quite a serious situation if the woman is not curetted.’

  ‘You’re referring to potential infections?’

  ‘Yes, in the past, especially, this was a big concern.’

  ‘And if this isn’t done, what then?’

  ‘Well, the patient risks dying.’

  ‘I see. But I can assure you that she didn’t. She’s still alive. Not in the best condition, since she now lives on the street, but she is alive.’

  She folded her sizeable hands in her lap. ‘I’m relieved to hear that, but it’s a shame she’s living on the street. Many women never get over that kind of experience.’

  ‘You mean the trauma of losing a child might be enough to make her withdraw from society?’

  ‘Ah, you know what? Anything’s possible in a situation like that. It happens time and again. They can enter a state of mental derangement and are quite often overwhelmed by self-recrimination.’

  ‘I think I’ll try to give a brief summary of the case. What do you say to that, friends?’ He looked at Assad and Rose, knowing that they both had things they wanted to get off their minds. It would have to wait.

  ‘We have a group of youths comprised of very strong-minded individuals, which is to say that they always carry out whatever they plan to do. Five guys, each with his own personal attributes, and a girl who appears to be the pivotal figure.

  ‘She’s brash and beautiful and initiates a short relationship with one of the top students at the school, Kåre Bruno – who I have a strong hunch dies with a fair amount of assistance from the gang. One of the objects in Kimmie Lassen’s hidden metal box points in that direction, in any case. Maybe it was jealousy, maybe a scuffle, but of course it could also have been a simple accident, in which case the rubber band she stashed away might just be a kind of trophy. At any rate, the rubber band in itself doesn’t tell us anything definite about the question of guilt, even if it arouses suspicion.

  ‘The gang sticks together, despite the fact that Kimmie leaves the school, and their association results directly or indirectly in the murder of two, probably randomly chosen, youths in Rørvig. Bjarne Thøgersen confesses, albeit nine years later, but presumably to cover for one or more of the others. Everything suggests that in this connection he was promised a large sum of money. He came from a relatively poor family and his sexual relationship with Kimmie was over, so it could have been a reasonable solution in his particular situation. In any event, we now know that someone in the gang was involved, since we’ve found effects with the victims’ fingerprints in Kimmie’s box.

  ‘We in Department Q are drawn into this case following a private citizen’s suspicion that Thøgersen’s conviction was erroneous. Perhaps the most important element to note in this connection is that Johan Jacobsen supplied us with a list of assaults and disappearances the gang may have been involved in. Furthermore, with this list we can confirm that during the years Kimmie lived in Switzerland there were reports only of physical assaults – not homicides or disappearances. The list is admittedly somewhat speculative, but Johan’s general approach seems sound.

  ‘It has come to the attention of the gang that I’m investigating the case. I don’t know how, but probably through Aalbæk, and an attempt is currently being made to obstruct the investigation.’

  At this point Assad raised a finger. ‘Obstruct? Is that what you said?’

  ‘Yes. Trying to block the investigation, Assad. “Obstruct” means “block”. And that tells me the case has more to it than just a few rich men’s normal concern for their reputations.’

  They both nodded.

  ‘As a result, I’ve been threatened in my home, in my car and, most recently, at my work, and in all probability people from this gang are behind these threats. They have used old boarding-school chums as go-betweens to get us removed from the case, but now this chain has been broken.’

  ‘So we’ve got to tread cautiously,’ Rose grunted.

  ‘Correct. We’re being left in peace to work for now, and they mustn’t know this. Especially because we believe that interrogating Kimmie, given her situation, would be greatly to our advantage. Through her we might get some clarity about what the gang got up to back then.’

  ‘She won’t say anything, Carl,’ Assad interjected. ‘Not the way she looked at me at the central station.’

  Carl thrust out his lower lip. ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll see. Kimmie Lassen is probably a few sandwiches short of a picnic. How could she not be, living on the street when she has a palace in Ordrup? A miscarriage in mysterious circumstances, where she was apparently repeatedly subjected to violence – this has probably contributed to the situation.’ He considered fishing out a cigarette, but Rose’s coal-black-mascara glare was resting heavily on his hands. ‘We also know that one of the gang members, Kristian Wolf, died a few weeks after Kimmie Lassen disappeared, but we don’t know whether the two facts are connected. Today, however, I learned from his widow that Wolf had sadistic tendencies, and it was also suggested that he had a relationship with Kimmie Lassen.’ His fingers were now wrapped around the pack of cigarettes. So far so good.

  ‘But the most important lead in the case is that we now know one or more of the gang committed assaults in addition to the murders in Rørvig. Kimmie Lassen had hidden effects that positively indicate at least four deadly attacks, and two add
itional plastic pockets with effects give us cause to suspect more.

  ‘So now we’ll try to rope in Kimmie, follow the actions of the other suspects and finish off our other assignments. Do you have anything to add to the summary?’ Then he lit his cigarette.

  ‘You still have the teddy bear in your pocket, I see,’ Rose said, eyes on the cigarette.

  ‘Right. Anything else?’

  They shook their heads.

  ‘Good. Fire away, Rose. What did you find out?’

  She watched the spiral of smoke creeping towards her. In a moment she would begin fanning it away. ‘Not very much, and yet a fair amount.’

  ‘That sounds cryptic. Let’s hear it.’

  ‘Besides Klaes Thomasen, I’ve only been able to locate one policeman involved in the investigation. A Hans Bergstrøm, who was part of the Mobile Investigation Unit back then. Today he has another job, and anyway, he’s impossible to talk to.’ Now she fanned the smoke away.

  ‘There’s no one who is impossible to talk to,’ Assad interrupted. ‘He’s just angry at you because you called him a dumb shit.’ He smiled broadly when she protested. ‘Yes, Rose, I heard it.’

  ‘I put my hand over the phone. He didn’t hear it. It’s not my fault he didn’t want to talk. He’s made a fortune off his patents now, and I’ve also found out something else about him.’ She began blinking and fanning again.

  ‘And that is?’

  ‘He is also an old boarding-school pupil. We won’t get anything out of him.’

  Carl closed his eyes and wrinkled his nose. To show solidarity was one thing, to be thick as thieves quite another. What a bloody nuisance.

  ‘It’s the same with the gang’s old classmates. None of them will talk to us.’

  ‘How many have you got in contact with? They must be scattered to the winds. And the girls might have new surnames.’

  She fanned so demonstratively now that Assad inched away from her. It did look threatening. ‘Apart from those who live on the other side of the globe, and are getting their beauty sleep right now, I’ve contacted almost all of them. And I think that’s enough now. They refuse to say anything, if they say anything at all. There was only one person who hinted at what they were like.’

  This time Carl blew the smoke away from her. ‘I see. What did that person say?’

  ‘All he said was that they were a wild bunch who bent the school’s rules. They smoked hash in the woods and in the parks near the school. But he still seemed to think they were decent enough people. Listen, Carl, can’t you put that nicotine bastard away while we’re holding a meeting?’

  He’d managed ten drags. That would have to do.

  ‘If only we could speak directly with someone from the gang, Carl,’ Assad interjected. ‘But I suppose we can’t.’

  ‘If we contact any of them, I think the whole case will slip through our fingers.’ He snuffed his cigarette in his coffee cup, which clearly irritated Rose. ‘No, we’ll wait to talk to them. But what do you have for us, Assad? I understand you’ve looked into Johan’s list. Have you come to any conclusions?’

  Assad raised his dark eyebrows. He had something – that was plain to see. And he’d had the distinct pleasure of keeping it to himself.

  ‘Out with it, teacher’s pet,’ Rose said, winking at him with coal-black eyelashes.

  He glanced down at his notes with a curling smile. ‘Yes, I’ve then found the woman who was assaulted in Nyborg on 13 September 1987. Her name is Grete Sonne, and she is fifty-two. She owns a clothing shop down on Vestergade. Mrs Kingsize, it’s called. I haven’t talked to her because I thought it was best if we went in person. I have the police report here. There’s not much in it about the assault that we didn’t already know.’

  But enough, to judge by his facial expression.

  ‘The woman was thirty-two at the time and had been on the beach at Nyborg walking her dog on that autumn day. The dog had got off its lead and was running towards a treatment centre for diabetic children, a place called Skaerven. So she ran as fast as she could to catch it. The dog was a bit snappish, from what I can tell. Then there were some kids who caught up with it before she did, and approached her with the dog. There were five or six of them in all. She couldn’t remember any more than that.’

  ‘Ugh!’ said Rose. ‘Then it must have been a really heavy battering.’

  Yes, Carl thought. Either that or the woman had lost her memory for another reason.

  ‘It was quite a brutal assault, all right. The report said she had been whipped on her bare skin, several of her fingers had been broken, and the dog was left dead at her side. There were plenty of footprints, but overall the clues led nowhere. There was talk that a medium-sized red car had been parked down in Sommerbyen, outside a brown summer cottage close to the water.’ Again Assad glanced down at his notes. ‘Number 50, it was. The car was parked there for a few hours. Some motorists also reported seeing a number of youths running alongside the road around the time of the assault.

  ‘Afterwards ferry routes and ticket sales were checked, of course, but that didn’t lead anywhere, either.’

  He shrugged his shoulders regretfully, as if he had been the one leading the investigation.

  ‘And then, after a four-month stay in the psychiatric ward at the university hospital in Odense, Grete Sonne was released and the case was shelved as unsolved. That was that!’ He flashed a beautiful smile.

  Carl put his head between his hands. ‘Well investigated, Assad, but honestly, what do you think is so special about all this?’

  Again he shrugged. ‘That I have found her then. And that we can be there in twenty minutes. The shops haven’t closed yet.’

  Mrs Kingsize was downtown, sixty yards from Strøget, and was very much a clothes shop with a specific aim. Here even the most shapeless woman was able to order flattering, figure-hugging, bespoke gowns in silk, taffeta and other expensive fabrics.

  Grete Sonne was the only one in the boutique with a normal shape. A natural redhead with a little added gleam, she appeared quite lithe and elegant against the shop’s imposing backdrop.

  She did a double take as they glided in. She had probably sparred with many drag queens and transvestites of a certain build, but this average-sized man and his little, thickset but not corpulent sidekick didn’t fit that category.

  ‘Yes?’ she said, glancing at the clock. ‘We’re just about to close, but if I can help you, I’ll stay on a bit.’

  Carl positioned himself between two rows of sumptuousness on hangers. ‘We’d rather wait until you close, if that’s OK with you. We have a few questions.’

  She looked at his badge when he held it up for her, then grew very serious, as if the flashbacks were always waiting on the firing ramp. ‘Well, then I’ll close up,’ she said, giving her two plump assistants some instructions for the following Monday and a ‘have a good weekend’ on their way out.

  ‘I’m going to Flensburg on Monday, you see, to do some buying, so ...’ She attempted a smile, fearing the worst.

  ‘We apologize for not calling ahead, but that’s partly because it’s an urgent matter, and partly because we only have a few questions.’

  ‘If this is about the shoplifting in the neighbourhood, you should talk to the shopkeepers down on Lars Bjørnsstræde. I’m sure they have their fingers on the pulse more than I do,’ she said, knowing this was about something else.

  ‘Please listen. I realize the assault you suffered twenty years ago has been hard on you, and that you probably don’t have anything to add. So all you have to do is answer “yes” or “no” to the questions we ask. Is that OK with you?’

  She grew pale, but remained on her feet.

  ‘Just nod or shake your head,’ Carl continued when she didn’t respond. He looked at Assad. He already had his notebook and dictaphone out.

  ‘You didn’t remember anything about the assault afterwards. Is that still the case today?’

  After a short but endless pause, she nodded. Assad
noted the movement by whispering into his dictaphone.

  ‘I believe we know who did it. It was six youths from a boarding school in Zealand. Can you confirm there were six attackers, Grete?’

  She didn’t react.

  ‘Five young men and a girl. Eighteen to twenty years old. Well dressed, I think. I’m going to show you a picture of the girl.’

  He showed her a copy of the photo in Gossip from 1996, where Kimmie Lassen stood in front of a café with Wolf and Pram.

  ‘It was taken a few years later, and the fashion is a little different, but ...’ He observed Grete Sonne. She wasn’t paying attention at all. Simply staring at the photo, her eyes flitting between the young jet-setters on a bender in Copenhagen’s nightlife.

  ‘I don’t remember anything, and I don’t want to think about that business any more,’ she finally said, composed. ‘I would be very grateful if you’d leave me in peace.’

  Assad stepped towards her. ‘I’ve seen in your old tax returns that you very suddenly then came into money in the autumn of 1987. You had been employed at the dairy in ...’ Assad glanced at his notebook ‘... in Hesselager, it’s called. And then some money came. Seventy-five thousand kroner, isn’t that right? And then you started your first boutique in Odense, and then here in Copenhagen.’

  Carl felt his surprise raise one of his eyebrows. How the hell had Assad found that out? And on a Saturday, too? Why hadn’t he mentioned it on the way over? There had been time enough.

  ‘Can you explain where that money came from, Grete Sonne?’ Carl asked, pointing the eyebrow at her.

  ‘I ...’ She seemed to be searching for her old explanation, but the magazine photo was stuck in her head and had short-circuited her inner wiring.

  ‘How the devil did you know about that money, Assad?’ he said as they walked down the street. ‘You didn’t have a chance to examine old tax returns today, did you?’