Mercy (35 page)

It’s going too slow! a voice inside of her cried, as she again tried to release her grip on the arteries in her wrists.

After a few more minutes she slipped into a foggy lethargy. It was impossible to hold on to thoughts of Uffe. She saw flashes of colour and glints of light and spinning shapes; that was all.

When the first filling burst out of her tooth, she began a prolonged and monotonous moaning. All the energy she had left went into this tortured sound. But she didn’t hear herself; the whistling from the nozzles overhead was much too loud.

All of a sudden the seeping out of air stopped, and the sound disappeared. For a moment she imagined that she might be saved. She heard voices outside. They were calling for her, and she stopped her wailing. Then a voice asked if she was Merete. Everything inside her called out: ‘Yes, I’m here.’ Maybe she said the words out loud. After that she heard them talking about Uffe as if he were a normal boy. She said his name, but it sounded wrong. Then she heard a loud bang, and Lasse’s voice was back, slicing through all her hope. She breathed slowly, noticing the clumsy grip of her fingers let go of her wrists. She didn’t know if she was still bleeding. She felt neither pain nor relief. Then the whistling in her cage returned.

When the earth shook beneath her, everything turned cold and hot at the same time. For a moment she remembered God and whispered His name to herself. Next she felt a flash inside her head.

A flash of light followed by an enormous roaring and more light streaming in.

And then she let go of herself.

Epilogue

2007

The media coverage was tremendous. In spite of the sad outcome, the investigation and solving of the Lynggaard case was a success story. Piv Vestergård from the Denmark Party was extremely pleased and revelled in the attention, since she was the one who had demanded the formation of Department Q in the first place. At the same time, she took the opportunity to trash everyone who didn’t share her view of society.

That was just one of the reasons why Carl finally couldn’t take any more.

Three trips to the hospital to have the buckshot dug out of his leg and a single appointment with Mona Ibsen, which he cancelled. That was about all he’d been able to deal with.

Now they were back at their posts in the basement. Two small plastic bags hung from the bulletin board, both filled with buckshot. Twenty-five in Carl’s and twelve in Assad’s. In the desk drawer lay a knife with a four-inch blade. Eventually the whole kit and caboodle would probably be tossed in the bin.

They took care of each other – Carl and Assad. Carl, by letting his assistant come and go as he pleased, and Assad, by creating a more carefree mood in their basement. After three weeks of stagnation with cigarettes and coffee and Assad’s cat-howling music playing in the background, Carl finally reached over to the stack of case files sitting on the corner of his desk and began leafing through them.

There was more than enough to keep them busy.

‘Are you going over to Fælled Park today, Carl?’ asked Assad from the doorway.

Carl looked up with an apathetic expression.

‘You know. The 1st of May? Lots of people on the streets and drinking and dancing and carrying on? Is that not how you say it?’

Carl nodded. ‘Maybe later, Assad. But you go ahead if you want to.’ He glanced at his watch. It was noon. In the old days getting half the day off was a human right in most places.

But Assad shook his head. ‘It is not for me, Carl. Too many people that I do not want to meet.’

Carl nodded. It was up to him. ‘Tomorrow we’ll look through this pile of cases,’ he said, giving the folders a pat. ‘All right with you, Assad?’

Assad smiled so broadly that the bandage on his temple almost came off. ‘That’s good, Carl!’ he said.

Then the phone rang. It was Lis with the usual request. The homicide chief wanted to see him up in his office.

He pulled open the bottom desk drawer and took out a thin plastic folder. He had a feeling that this time he was going to need it.

‘How are things going, Carl?’ This was the third time in a week that Marcus Jacobsen had had occasion to ask that question.

Carl shrugged.

‘Which case are you working on now?’

He shrugged again.

Jacobsen took off his reading glasses and set them on top of the paper massacre in front of him. ‘Today the prosecutor agreed on a plea bargain with the lawyers representing Ulla Jensen and her son.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Eight years for the mother, and three years for the son.’

Carl nodded. Only to be expected.

‘Ulla Jensen will most likely end up in a psychiatric institution.’

Again Carl nodded. No doubt her son would soon land in the same place. That poor guy would never survive a prison sentence in one piece.

Jacobsen lowered his eyes. ‘Is there any news about Merete Lynggaard?’

Carl shook his head. ‘They’re still keeping her in a coma, but there’s little hope. Apparently her brain was permanently damaged from all the blood clots.’

Marcus nodded. ‘You and the diving experts from the Holmen naval station did everything you could, Carl.’

He tossed a newspaper over to Carl. ‘It’s a Norwegian publication for divers. Take a look at page four.’

Carl opened the paper and glanced at the photographs. An old photo of Merete Lynggaard. A picture of the pressure container that the divers had attached to the airlock door so the rescuer could move the woman out of her prison and into the mobile pressure chamber. Underneath was a brief article about the rescuer’s role and the preparations that were made inside the mobile unit. About how it was attached, about the pressure-chamber system, and about how initially the pressure in the chamber had to be raised slightly, partly to stop the bleeding from the woman’s wrists. The article was illustrated with a blueprint of the building and a cross-section drawing of the Dräger Duocom unit with the rescuer inside, giving the woman oxygen and first aid. There were also photos of the doctors standing before the National Hospital’s huge pressure chamber and of Senior Sergeant Mikael Overgaard, who tended to the patient, – gravely ill with the bends – inside the chamber. Finally, there was a grainy photo of Carl and Assad on their way out to the ambulances.

In big type it said in Norwegian: ‘Excellent coordinated efforts between naval diving experts and a newly established police division resolves Denmark’s most controversial missing-persons case in decades.’

‘Well,’ said Marcus, putting on his most charming smile. ‘Thanks to that article, we’ve been contacted by the Oslo police department. They’d like to know more about your work, Carl. In the autumn they want to send a delegation to Denmark, and I’d like you to meet with them.’

Carl could feel his mouth turn down at the corners. ‘I don’t have time for that,’ he objected. He’d be damned if he was going to have a bunch of Norwegians running around downstairs. ‘Keep in mind that there are only two of us in the department. And exactly how much did you say our budget was, boss?’

Marcus nimbly evaded the question. ‘Now that you’ve recovered and returned to work, it’s time for you to sign this, Carl.’ He handed Carl the same stupid application for the so-called ‘qualification courses’.

Carl made no move to pick it up. ‘I’m not doing it, chief.’

‘But you have to, Carl. Why don’t you want to?’

Right now both of us are thinking about having a smoke, thought Carl. ‘There are plenty of reasons,’ he said. ‘Just think about the welfare reform. Before long the retirement age will be seventy, depending on rank, and I have no desire to be some doddering old cop, and I don’t want to end up a desk jockey, either. I don’t want lots of employees. I don’t want to do homework, and I don’t want to take exams. I’m too old for that. I don’t want to have a new business card, and I don’t want to be promoted. That’s why.’

Jacobsen looked tired. ‘A lot of the things you just mentioned aren’t going to happen. It’s all guesswork, Carl. But if you want to be head of Department Q, you have to take the courses.’

He shook his head. ‘No, Marcus. No more books for me; I can’t be bothered. It’s bad enough that I have to help my stepson with his maths homework. And he’s going to fail anyway. I say that from now on the head of Department Q should be a deputy detective superintendent. And yes, I’m still using the old title. Period.’ Carl raised his hand and held the plastic folder in the air.

‘Do you see this, Marcus?’ he went on, taking the paper out of the folder. ‘This is the operations budget for Department Q, exactly as it was approved by the Folketing.’

He heard a deep sigh from the other side of the desk.

Carl pointed to the bottom line. It said five million kroner per year. ‘According to my calculations, there’s a difference of more than four million between this number and what my department actually costs. Don’t you think that’s about right?’

The homicide chief rubbed his forehead. ‘What’s your point, Carl?’ he asked, obviously annoyed.

‘You want me to forget all about these figures, and I want you to forget all about the course requirements.’

Jacobsen’s face visibly changed colour. ‘That’s blackmail, Carl,’ he said in a carefully controlled tone of voice. We don’t use those kinds of tactics here.’

‘Exactly, boss,’ said Carl, taking a lighter out of his pocket and holding it to the corner of the budget sheet. Figure by figure the flame swallowed up the whole document. Carl dumped the ashes on top of a brochure advertising office chairs. Then he handed the lighter to Marcus Jacobsen.

When Carl returned to the basement he found Assad kneeling on his rug, deep in prayer, so he wrote a note and placed it on the floor just outside Assad’s door. It said: ‘See you tomorrow.’

On his way out to Hornbæk, Carl brooded over what to tell Hardy about the Amager case. The question was whether he should say anything at all. During the past few weeks, Hardy had not been doing well. His saliva secretion was down, and he had difficulty talking. They said it wasn’t permanent; on the other hand, that’s what Hardy’s depression had become.

Therefore they had moved him to a better room. He was lying on his side and presumably could just catch a glimpse of the convoys of ships out there in the sound.

A year ago the two of them had been sitting in a restaurant in the Bakken amusement park, eating huge portions of roast pork with parsley sauce as Carl griped about Vigga. Now he was sitting there, on the edge of Hardy’s bed and couldn’t permit himself to gripe about anything at all.

‘The police in Sorø had to let the man in the checked shirt go, Hardy,’ he said, deciding not to beat around the bush.

‘Who?’ asked Hardy hoarsely, not moving his head a millimetre.

‘He had an alibi. But everybody is convinced he’s the right man. The man who shot you and me and Anker and committed the murders in Sorø. But they still had to let him go. I’m sorry to tell you this, Hardy.’

‘I don’t give a shit.’ Hardy coughed and then cleared his throat as Carl went over to the other side of the bed and wet a paper towel under the tap. ‘What good would it do me if they caught him?’ said Hardy with saliva in the corners of his mouth.

‘We’ll catch him and the others who did it, Hardy,’ said Carl, wiping his colleague’s mouth and chin. ‘I can tell that I’m going to have to get involved soon. Those shits aren’t going to get away with this; no fucking way.’

‘Have fun,’ said Hardy, and then swallowed, as if preparing to say something else. Then it came: ‘Anker’s widow was here yesterday. It wasn’t nice, Carl.’

Carl remembered the bitter expression on Elisabeth Høyer’s face. He hadn’t spoken to her since Anker’s death. She hadn’t said a word to him even at the funeral. From the second they informed her about her husband’s death, she had directed all her reproaches at Carl.

‘Did she say anything about me?’

Hardy didn’t answer. He just lay there for a while, slowly blinking his eyes. As if the ships out there had taken him on a long voyage.

‘And you still won’t help me die, Carl?’ he asked finally. Carl stroked his friend’s cheek. ‘If only I could, Hardy. But I can’t.’

‘Then you have to help me go home. Will you promise me that? I don’t want to be here any more.’

‘What does your wife say, Hardy?’

‘She doesn’t know yet, Carl. I just decided.’

Carl pictured Minna Henningsen in his mind. She and Hardy had met when they were both very young. By now their son had moved out, and she still looked young. At this point in her life, she probably had enough to attend to.

‘Go and talk to her today, Carl. You’d be doing me an awfully big favour.’

Carl looked at the ships in the distance.

The realities of life would probably make Hardy regret that particular request.

After only a few seconds, Carl could see that he’d been right.

Minna Henningsen opened the door to reveal a group of jovial, laughing women. It was a scene that couldn’t possibly fit in with Hardy’s hopes. Six women wearing colourful outfits and pert hats who were making wild plans for the rest of the day.

‘It’s the first of May, Carl. This is what we girls in the club always do today. Don’t you remember?’ He nodded to a couple of them as she led him out to the kitchen.

It didn’t take Carl long to explain the situation to her, and ten minutes later he was once again out on the street. She had taken his hand and told him how difficult things were for her, and how much she missed her former life. Then she put her head on his shoulder and cried a bit as she tried to explain why she didn’t have the strength to take care of Hardy.

After she dried her eyes, she’d asked him with a timid smile if he might want to come over and have dinner with her sometime. She needed to talk to somebody, she said, but the intent behind her words was as blatant and direct as could be.

Standing on Strand Boulevard, he took in the noise coming from over in Fælled Park. The festivities were in full swing, so maybe the people were once again waking up.

He considered going over to the park for a while and having a beer, for old times’ sake, but he changed his mind and got back in the car.

If I wasn’t so crazy about Mona Ibsen, that stupid psychologist, and if Minna wasn’t married to my paralysed friend Hardy, I might take her up on her invitation, he thought to himself. Then his mobile rang.

It was Assad, and he sounded excited.

Hey, hey, slow down, Assad. Are you still at work? Tell me again. What is it you’re trying to say?’

‘They just called from the National Hospital to talk to the homicide boss. I just found out from Lis. Merete Lynggaard has been brought out of her coma.’

Carl’s eyes slid out of focus. ‘When did it happen?’

‘This morning. I thought you would like to know then.’

Carl thanked him, put down the phone, and stared out at the vitality of the trees towering overhead, their light green, trembling branches flush with spring. Deep down he ought to be happy, but he wasn’t. Merete could wind up a vegetable for the rest of her life. Nothing in this world was straightforward. Not even springtime lasted; that was the most painful thing about reliving it every year. Soon the days will start getting shorter again, he thought, hating himself for his pessimistic outlook.

Once more he glanced over at Fælled Park and the grey colossus of the National Hospital looming in the distance.

Then for the second time he put the parking timer on his dashboard, then headed for the park and the hospital. ‘Restart Denmark’ was this year’s May Day slogan. People were sitting on the grass with their bottles of beer as a big screen projected Folketing politician Jytte Andersen’s farewell speech all the way to the Freemason Lodge.