Part 36 (1/2)

Malene and Rasmus have given a few parties that their parents have attended, and Iben has never met anyone who didnt immediately warm to Rasmuss mom and dad. Malene used to look forward to the summer holidays in Svendborg, unlike the few days she would spend with her own family.

While Iben helps Rasmus, she tries to think of something pleasant to say to him now that they arent likely to meet again. She would like to say that shes pleased to have gotten to know him and that he was very good for Malene for a time. Maybe she ought to say that she wishes him well, but that somehow seems disloyal. On her way back upstairs, Iben decides to keep the good wishes until Rasmus is all packed and ready to drive off.

She clutches an armful of posters and calls back to him from the landing: Im taking these down now!

Iben, wait! Just a moment!

She goes back in.

The heavy things should go in first. Ill start with the table.

Let me help.

Dont worry. Its actually easier to do it by myself. He walks out, rather unsteadily, carrying the large birch-wood table.

Iben looks around to see if theres anything useful for her to do. She goes to put away some of Malenes gla.s.ses that are on the drying rack. While shes at it, she decides to wash up some of the dishes that are still on the kitchen table.

Is that Rasmuss voice she hears from the stairs? Whos he talking to? Isnt that a womans voice? She turns the water off before the basin has filled.

Is it Malene? For a second, Iben feels sure she heard Malenes voice. Whats going on? What does Malene want?

No more voices. She must have been mistaken. Maybe it wasnt Malene. And its unlikely to have been Rasmuss new girlfriend. Maybe just a neighbor?

Iben stops and listens. Everything is quiet now. She walks into the short corridor outside the kitchen. In the silence of the stairway she hears Rasmus move with heavy steps. Then, suddenly, there is an echoing crash and a scream.

She runs along the hallway and out onto the empty landing.

Rasmus? Malene? Rasmus?

Nothing.

The next landing. Nothing.

Another empty flight of stairs and then she sees it.

A large hole has opened up in the wall. At first she cant make herself go any closer. She stands a few steps above the landing, staring at the emptiness that is as tall as a man. It used to be a mosaic of stained gla.s.s.

She inches closer. She can see people moving around in the courtyard below and talking in frightened voices. Somebody screams. Iben doesnt have the courage to look at what might be down there. Instead she takes another couple of quick steps forward and discovers at the last moment that the step in front of the broken window is wet. She grabs the handrail with both hands. Her body slips sideways and lands heavily. Trying to get up, she puts one hand down on the step, only to find that her palm slides on the slippery surface. She sniffs at her sticky hand. Someone has poured oil on the floor.

Iben manages to get up and maneuver around the fluid. She runs down into the street and looks around. Rasmus isnt there. And Malene isnt there either.

The door to the courtyard behind the building is locked. Iben fumbles in her pocket to find the keys. It takes so long. At last she gets the door open. She runs through the dark pa.s.sage.

The yard is divided down the middle by a wire fence, and Rasmus is hanging across it, his body bent double. Iben had no idea a human body could break in the middle like that. One of the vertical steel fencing posts protrudes through his back.

Despite all the blood, Iben can see that Rasmuss face has slammed into the profiled steel. It is crushed. The impact of his body has made the wire fence sag, but its sharp edge has sliced open his abdomen.

Iben backs away, knocking into something on the pavement, and sits back without wanting to. She looks at what shes sitting on. Its a piece of Rasmus and Malenes dining table. It is quite clean and unused, as if the last few days havent happened, as if Rasmus and Malene and Iben might still gather around it, in this small yard.

Over by the wall a man is speaking on his cell phone. The police will arrive soon. A woman is pus.h.i.+ng against a door to the kitchen stairs. She must be trying to keep children away from the yard.

Iben stares at the table fragment. Not long ago it was cluttered with plates, bottles of wine, flowers. She hears the voices around the table. Pa.s.s me the rice, would you? Rasmus, I met Ole from film studies in the bus. You wont believe what happened in the Center today A dark knot in the light wood stares back at her, like an eye.

She tries to get up.

chapter 37.

i was standing on the staircase and called out to Rasmus that I was on my way down with the posters. It was sheer chance that Rasmus asked me to wait until later. He wanted to take large things like the table down first.

Then what happened?

If someone had been waiting in the stairway to pour oil on the steps, that person would probably have a.s.sumed that I would be the first one to come down.

I see. What happened instead?

Iben breathes in quickly. Look, where did the rail go? Theres usually a handrail across the window. A long strip of brown railing. When was it taken away? It cant be a coincidence thereve been several strange things happening over the last few months anyway, it cant have been an accident. Someone is after me. Or after Malene. Its her apartment. Someone might have thought she was the one on her way down.

Iben and a woman police officer are sitting together in one of three police cars lined up in front of the door to Malenes building. Detectives are cordoning off the stairs and the courtyard and interviewing the neighbors to find out if they saw anything.

Very well, Iben. Now, Id like you to take me through what happened again, step by step.

Iben describes how she offered to help Rasmus with the table and how, when he said hed manage on his own, she went to the kitchen to clear away some dirty dishes. Then the next thing she heard was a crash and a scream. She ran downstairs at once, then slipped and almost shot out through the broken window herself.

Iben also tells the officer about Anne-Lise and her suspicions that she might have some kind of personality disorder. She mentions Anne-Lises trick of hiding blood in her own office and pouring it all over herself, and her swapping Malenes medication. She knows that Anne-Lise is capable of doing all sorts of things. She might very well have removed the railing and poured oil on the steps.

Iben gasps for air again. She feels she is presenting essential information. It might just lead to Anne-Lises arrest.

The detective, who is listening quietly, breaks her silence. Were called out to many fatal accidents. We cant a.s.sume that one of the victims nearest and dearest is a murderer every time someone falls off scaffolding or hits a high-voltage cable.

No, of course not. But in this case a section of handrail is missing.

Sections are missing from many stairways in old buildings in central Copenhagen. Accident investigation is my job. Sometimes accidents are the outcome of the most terrible coincidences. But, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, an accident is an accident. Its not like TV Of course I know that. Its just that The detective interrupts her: I understand your problems with the woman at work Im sure it makes sharing an office with her very uncomfortable. But, to put it plainly, its not relevant to the police investigation.

But someone took the handrail away and poured the oil on the step!

Iben might as well not have bothered.

My colleagues are looking into it right now. Some are upstairs taking photographs. Theyll find whatever was left or poured on the stairs and who could have done it.

A male police officer knocks on the car window. He has come to tell them that there was no one else on the stairs at the time. No one saw Rasmus fall.

When he has left, the detective turns to Iben. Heres my card. Contact me if anything new occurs to you. Her tone of voice suggests that she doesnt mean it.

The name on the card is Dorte Jrgensen. Iben knows that she must make herself sound more logical in order to make Dorte Jrgensen take her seriously.

I understand that you dont believe me, but honestly, Im not normally a nervous person. A couple of months ago, before everything I told you about started to happen, I was as calm as you are now.