Disgrace

by Jussi Adler-Olsen

  Eager faces followed his movements as he turned and accepted a bundle of sticks from Ulrik. ‘Most of you know the routine. Two of you will draw a shorter stick than the others. These lucky individuals get to lay down their shotguns for a rifle. There’ll be no birds for them. Instead, they’ll have the opportunity to bring home the prey of the day. Are we ready?’

  A few of the men tossed their cigars on the ground and stamped them out. Everyone had his own method of preparing for the hunt.

  Ditlev smiled. This was the ruling class at its best: merciless and selfish – by the book.

  ‘Yes, normally the two chosen riflemen share the kill,’ he said, ‘but that’s up to the one who downs the animal. If Ulrik bags the trophy, we all know what will happen.’ All of them laughed, except for Ulrik. Whether it was shares of stock, women or boars released in the wild, Ulrik shared with no one. They knew him.

  Ditlev leaned over and picked up two rifle cases. ‘Look,’ he said, dragging the rifles into the morning light. ‘I’ve taken our old Sauer Classics back to Hunter’s House so we can try these two small wonders.’ He raised one Sauer Elegance rifle above his head. ‘They’re broken in, and they’re damn lovely to hold. You can look forward to it!’

  He thrust out the bundle of sticks, ignoring the heated exchange taking place between the Hjorths, and gave the two lucky winners the rifles.

  Torsten was one. He seemed agitated, but Ditlev knew it was hardly because of the hunt. This was something they would have to discuss afterwards.

  ‘Torsten has done this before, but not Saxenholdt, so congratulations are in order.’ He nodded at the young man and raised his hip flask to him along with the others. With his cravat and pomaded hair, Saxenholdt was a real boarding-school lad, and would be until his dying day. ‘You two are the only ones who may shoot at today’s special game, so it’s your responsibility to see to it that it is done properly. Remember to keep firing until the animal is no longer moving. And remember that whoever downs it receives the prize ...’

  He took a step back and removed an envelope from his inner coat pocket.

  ‘The deeds to a fine little three-bedroom flat in Berlin with a view of the landing strips at Tempelhof Airport. But don’t worry, the airport will be gone soon, and you’ll have the pier right under your window.’ When the men began clapping, he smiled. His wife had pestered him for months to buy that damned flat, but had she bothered to visit it even once? Hell, no. Not even with her bastard lover. Now was his chance to rid himself of it.

  ‘My wife is leaving, Ditlev, but I’m taking the dog with me,’ a voice behind him said. Ditlev turned and looked directly into Hjorth’s stubborn visage. Clearly, he was trying to negotiate so that he wouldn’t lose face.

  Ditlev glanced over his shoulder, catching Torsten’s eye for a split second. No one overruled Ditlev Pram. If he told a man he couldn’t take his dog with him, then that man would have to suffer the consequences of disobeying.

  ‘You insist on taking the dog along, Hjorth? OK, then,’ Ditlev said, avoiding Hjorth’s wife’s stare.

  He didn’t care to argue with the bitch. This was exclusively between him and Thelma.

  When they reached the clearing at the top of the hill, the smell of humus from the undergrowth decreased. Fifty yards below was a little fog-enshrouded grove, and behind it a thicket extended all the way to a dense forest, which lay like a wide sea before them. It was a magnificent sight.

  ‘Everyone spread out a little,’ Ditlev said, and nodded with satisfaction when there were seven or eight yards between each of them.

  The noise of the beaters in the grove wasn’t loud enough yet. Just a few of the released pheasants had taken flight before softly gliding back into the undergrowth. The footfalls of the hunters near Ditlev were muted but expectant. Some of the men were thoroughly addicted to the kick they got out there in the morning fog. Squeezing the trigger could satisfy them for days. They earned millions, but it was the killing that made them feel alive.

  Young Saxenholdt, pale with agitation, walked at Ditlev’s side. His father had been the same, back when he was a regular participant in the hunts. The son walked cautiously, his sights set on the grove, the thicket behind it, and the forest a few hundred yards further ahead, knowing full well that a good shot could reward him with a love nest his parents would have no control over.

  Ditlev held up his hand, and everyone stopped. Hjorth’s bird dog whined and spun round with excitement while its dolt of a master tried to shush it. Just as he’d expected.

  Then the first birds flapped up from the grove and there was a volley of gunfire followed by the thud of dead fowl hitting the ground. Hjorth could no longer manage his dog. When the man beside him shouted ‘Fetch!’ to his hound, Hjorth’s ran off, tongue lolling from its mouth. At that moment hundreds of birds flew up at once, and the hunting party ran amok. The gunfire, and the echo it made in the thicket, was deafening.

  This was what Ditlev loved: ceaseless gunfire, ceaseless killing, flapping specks in the sky terminated in an orgy of colour. The slow drizzle of birds’ bodies falling from above. The eagerness of the men to reload their weapons. He detected Saxenholdt’s frustration at not being able to shoot along with those who carried shotguns. His glance shifted from the grove, to the edge of the forest, and then across the flat, thicket-overgrown terrain. Where would his quarry come from? He didn’t know. The more bloodthirsty the hunters became, the tighter he held his rifle.

  Hjorth’s dog suddenly leaped for the throat of another dog, which let go of its quarry and retreated, whining. Everyone except Hjorth noticed. Having yet to score a kill, he continued to reload and fire, reload and fire.

  When Hjorth’s hound returned with a third bird and again snapped its jaws at the other dogs, Ditlev nodded to Torsten, who was already watching. The combination of its muscle, instinct and lousy training were terrible traits in a hunting dog.

  Everything happened just as Ditlev had predicted. The other dogs had caught on and no longer let Hjorth’s dog retrieve the birds falling in the clearing, and so it disappeared into the forest to ferret out what it could.

  ‘Take care now,’ Ditlev called to the two riflemen. ‘Remember, there’s a fully furnished flat in Berlin at stake.’ Laughing, he discharged both chambers at a new flock that soared from the hedgerow. ‘The best shot wins the big prize.’

  At that point, Hjorth’s hound was just trotting out of the dark underbrush with another bird. A single shot from Torsten’s rifle felled the animal before it reached the open. Probably only Ditlev and Torsten had seen what happened, because the hunters’ only reaction to the blast was Saxenholdt’s gulping for breath, followed by a chorus of laughter – with Hjorth leading the way – when they thought the rifle shot had missed its mark.

  But in a little while, when Hjorth found his dog with a hole in its cranium, the laughter would come to an end, and hopefully he’d have learned his lesson. There would be no poorly trained dogs on their hunts when Ditlev Pram said so.

  Ditlev caught Krum shaking his head at the same moment they heard new sounds emerging from the thicket behind the grove. So he, too, must have seen Torsten kill the dog.

  ‘Don’t shoot until you’re certain, understand?’ he quietly told the men at his side. ‘The beaters cover the entire area behind the grove, so I imagine the animal will come out of the thicket down there.’ He pointed at some towering junipers. ‘Aim a yard or so above the ground, directly at the target’s mid-section. In that way a missed shot will hit the ground.’

  ‘What is that?’ whispered Saxenholdt, nodding at a cluster of overgrown trees that had suddenly begun to shake. There was the sound of crackling twigs, faint at first, then stronger, and the beaters’ shouts behind the creature grew more and more shrill.

  And then it jumped.

  Saxenholdt and Torsten fired simultaneously, and the dark silhouette stumbled a little to one side before bounding clumsily forward. Not until it was out in the open could they see what it was.
Everyone cheered as Saxenholdt and Torsten sighted their weapons for another round.

  ‘Stop!’ Ditlev shouted, as the ostrich halted and glanced around, disoriented. It was about a hundred yards away. ‘Shoot it in the head this time,’ he said. ‘One shot at a time. You go first, Saxenholdt.’

  The hunters stood still as the lad, holding his breath, raised his rifle and fired. The shot was a little low, so the animal’s neck was torn off at once and its head disappeared backwards. But the crowd roared its approval, including Torsten. What use did he have for a three-bedroom flat in Berlin, anyway?

  Ditlev smiled. He had expected the animal to drop to the ground, but for a few seconds it ran about, headless, until the uneven terrain made the dead body topple. There it lay, twitching momentarily before its head sank to the ground. All in all, it was quite a sight.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ the young man groaned, as the group fired a few salvos at the remaining pheasants. ‘An ostrich, I’ve shot a fucking ostrich! I’m getting some pussy tonight at Victor’s Bar. And I know exactly whose.’

  The three of them met at the inn and were given the drink Ditlev had ordered. It was clear that Torsten needed it.

  ‘What’s wrong, Torsten? You look like shit,’ Ulrik said, swallowing the Jägermeister in one gulp. ‘Are you angry that you didn’t win? You’ve shot ostriches before, for Christ’s sake.’

  Torsten spun his glass a few times. ‘It’s Kimmie. It’s serious now.’ Then he drank.

  Ulrik poured another round and toasted them. ‘Aalbæk is on the case. We’ll get her soon. Relax, Torsten.’

  Torsten Florin pulled a box of matches from his pocket and lit a candle that was on the table. There’s nothing sadder than a candle without flame, as he often said. ‘I hope you’re not assuming that Kimmie is just some silly little woman walking around in dirty old rags, waiting for your daft private detective to find her. He won’t, Ulrik. For God’s sake, it’s Kimmie we’re talking about. You know her. They won’t find her, and it’s a problem that’ll cost us dearly. Do you understand that?’

  Ditlev set his glass down and glanced up at the inn’s rafters. ‘What do you mean?’ He hated Torsten when he was like that.

  ‘She attacked one of our models in front of the fashion house yesterday. She’d waited for hours. There were eighteen cigarette butts stamped out on the pavement. Who do you think she was waiting for?’

  ‘What do you mean by “attacked”?’ Ulrik seemed worried.

  Torsten shook his head. ‘Take it easy, Ulrik. It wasn’t all that bad, just a single punch. The police weren’t called in. I gave the girl a week off and a pair of tickets to Kraków.’

  ‘Are you sure it was her?’

  ‘Yes. I showed the girl an old picture of Kimmie.’

  ‘No doubt?’

  ‘No.’ Torsten looked irritated now.

  ‘We can’t allow Kimmie to be apprehended,’ Ulrik said.

  ‘You’re bloody right we can’t. And we can’t have her getting close to us either now, can we? She’s capable of anything, I’m sure.’

  ‘Do you think she still has the money?’ Ulrik asked, as a waiter stopped by, wanting to know if there was anything he could bring them.

  Ditlev nodded at the man, still drowsy at this early hour of the day. ‘We have everything we need, thank you,’ he said.

  They were silent until the waiter bowed and left the room.

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Ulrik. How much did she get off us back then? It was almost two million. How much do you think she spends on the street?’ Torsten sneered at him. ‘Nothing. That means for sure she has enough money to buy whatever she wants. Even weapons. If she hangs out in the inner city, there are plenty to choose from, I know.’

  Ulrik’s bulky frame began to fidget. ‘Maybe we should reinforce Aalbæk’s team.’

  10

  ‘Who did you say you wished to speak to? Assistant Detective el-Assad? Is that what you said?’ Carl glanced at the handset. Assistant Detective el-Assad?! That was one hell of a promotion.

  He transferred the call and, a second later, heard the telephone ringing on Assad’s desk.

  ‘Yes?’ Assad replied, in his broom closet.

  Carl raised his eyebrows and shook his head. Assistant Detective el-Assad. How dare he?

  ‘Holbæk Police called to say they searched for the Rørvig murder file all morning.’ Assad stood in Carl’s doorway, scratching the stubble on his dimple. They had been studying files now for two days, and he looked pretty knackered. ‘And do you know what then? They just don’t have it any more. It’s blown away with the wind.’

  Carl sighed. ‘So let us assume someone removed it, OK? I wonder if it was that Arne fellow, the one who gave Martha Jørgensen the grey folder with reports about the murders? Did you ask whether they could remember what colour it was? Did you ask if it was grey?’

  Assad shook his head.

  ‘Oh, well, it’s not important. The man who took it is dead, according to Martha, so we can’t talk to him anyway.’ Carl’s eyes narrowed. ‘And there’s something else I’d like you to answer honestly, Assad: can you please tell me when you were promoted to assistant detective? You should be really careful, going around impersonating a police officer. There’s a section of the criminal code that is very strict on this point, actually. Section 131, if you would like to know. You could get six months in prison.’

  At this Assad tilted his head back slightly. ‘Assistant detective?’ he said, holding his breath for a second. He raised both hands to his chest as if to protest his innocence, which was draining from him at that moment. Carl had not seen such indignation since the prime minister’s reaction to press allegations that Danish soldiers had indirectly participated in torture in Afghanistan.

  ‘That would never occur to me,’ Assad said. ‘On the contrary, so. I have said I am assistant assistant detective. People don’t listen properly, Carl.’ He dropped his hands to his side. ‘Is that my fault?’

  Assistant assistant detective! God in heaven! This sort of thing could give a man an ulcer.

  ‘It would probably be more accurate if you called yourself assistant detective vice-superintendent or, even better, assistant police vice-superintendent. But if you must use that title, then it’s OK with me. Just make sure you enunciate it very clearly, do you understand? Now go to the car park and bring the old banger round. We’re going to Rørvig.’

  The summer cottage was in the centre of a cluster of pine trees. Over the years, it had slowly chewed itself into the sand. To judge from the windows, no one had stayed here since the murders. Broad, opaque surfaces showed between decaying beams. A depressing scene.

  They looked up and down the tyre tracks that wound their way among the other cottages in the area. This late in September, of course, there wasn’t a soul for miles.

  Assad shielded his eyes with his hands and tried in vain to peer through the largest of the windows.

  ‘Come on, Assad,’ Carl said. ‘The key is supposed to be hanging back here.’

  He stared up under the eaves at the rear of the cottage. For twenty years the key had been hanging where everyone could see it – on a rusty nail right above the kitchen window, precisely where Martha Jørgensen’s friend Yvette had said it would be. But then again, who would have taken it? Who would wish to enter the house? And the burglars who ravaged these summer cottages every single year during the off-season would have to be blind not to notice there was nothing to find here. Everything about the cottage signalled that one might as well just turn around and leave.

  He reached for the key and unlocked the door. It surprised him how easily the old lock turned and the door yielded.

  He stuck his head inside and recognized the stench of days past: mould, mustiness and abandonment, the smell that inhabits old people’s bedrooms.

  Carl felt around for the light switch in the small entryway and found the electricity had been disconnected.

  ‘Here,’ Assad said, waving a halogen torch in Carl’s fa
ce.

  ‘Put that away, Assad. We don’t need it.’

  But Assad had already stepped back into the past, the cone of light dancing from side to side above wooden settle beds painted in old-fashioned colours and traditional blue enamel kitchenware.

  It wasn’t entirely dark in the cottage. Weak grey sunlight managed to penetrate the dusty windows, making the room look like a night scene from an old black-and-white film. A large stone fireplace. Swedish rag rugs criss-crossing broad wooden floorboards. And then there was the Trivial Pursuit game, still resting on the floor.

  ‘Just as it says in the report,’ Assad said, tapping the Trivial Pursuit box. At one time it had been navy blue, but now it was black. The board itself was not quite so filthy, but almost, as were the two pie game pieces still lying on it. In the heat of the struggle the pies had been knocked from their squares, but probably not significantly. The pink pie had four wedges, while the brown pie had none. Carl guessed that the pink pie was the girl’s. If so, she’d no doubt had a clearer head than her brother that day. Perhaps he’d drunk too much cognac. The autopsy report suggested as much.

  ‘It’s been here since 1987. Is the game really that old, Carl? I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Maybe it took a few years before it made its way to Syria. Can you actually buy it in Syria?’

  He noticed how quiet Assad had become, and then glanced at the two boxes filled with question cards. A single, loose card lay in front of each box. The final questions the siblings answered in life. It was rather sad, when you thought about it.

  Carl let his eyes wander across the floor.

  Obvious traces of the murders were still visible. There were dark stains where the girl had been found. It was clearly blood, as were the dark specks on the game board. In a few places he could see the crime-scene techs’ circles around fingerprints, though the numbers accompanying each circle had faded. And he could barely make out the powder used by the forensics team, but that was understandable.

  ‘They didn’t find anything,’ Carl said to himself.