Part 11 (1/2)
”Even though Holbaek isn't that big, there are crazy people here too. We've had a number of rapes,” the man began.
”Well, Samra wasn't raped,” Louise interrupted sharply. ”She was murdered, callously and coldheartedly. She was asphyxiated and had a concrete slab tied to her abdomen.”
”Yeah, well, you don't know it was the family,” he said once more.
Louise sighed and conceded that he was right. No, they didn't know. ”But I can tell you that two of my colleagues have been looking for witnesses since she was found and no one saw her leave her parents' home,” she said, thinking about all the interviews Bengtsen and Velin had done in Dysseparken and the neighborhood around the large residential area where the family's apartment was located.
”But that also means no one saw her father drive off with her,” he pointed out, and again Louise had to concede. Samra could easily have left home without having been noticed.
”You're just starting out with the a.s.sumption that the family is guilty-”
The door opened and he stopped talking.
Louise got up and walked over to put her mug in the sink. ”We're not a.s.suming anyone is guilty,” she said, standing right across from him. ”We're following the leads we have as we continue to investigate the case.”
She was starting to get irritated and turned around to greet the girls Jette Petersen was just leading into the teachers' lounge.
”We can go down to the cla.s.sroom, which is at the end of the hall,” Jette said after they'd greeted each other. There were three girls in addition to Dicta Moller.
”Great,” Louise said, leading the way out the door without saying good-bye to Jette's colleague.
Two of the girls, Fatima and Asma, were from immigrant backgrounds. Liv was Danish. Louise pulled a couple of tables together so they could sit across from each other. Jette Petersen sat down a little ways in the background as an observer.
”I'd really like to get a better sense of who Samra was,” Louise began, looking at the girls. ”As far as I've understood, you were the ones who were closest to her.”
She was prepared for the crying and gave them plenty of time as it rapidly set in. The memorial service in the gym must have been tough on them.
”She's my cousin,” said Asma, the thinnest of the girls, whose pretty, slender face was framed by a headscarf that was so tight-fitting that Louise couldn't see a single strand of hair.
Louise sat for a moment, watching her, because it would have been hard to find someone sending more mixed signals than this girl. Of the four, Asma was the most provocatively dressed, so the demure head covering seemed completely out of place in combination with her plunging neckline and tight skirt. Louise's eyes moved on to Fatima, who was a little stockier and seemed more relaxed about her appearance. She was wearing a pair of baggy pants and a stylish pink T-s.h.i.+rt and had a lot of curly black hair surrounding her face in a rather unruly hairdo.
Louise got back down to business and explained that she had already spoken with Dicta and that what she hoped to get out of today's conversation was an impression of who Samra had hung out with. Who had known her, and what kind of person had she been?
She looked first at Fatima, who had been in Samra's cla.s.s.
”Our families know each other. We moved to Holbaek because my father grew up with Samra's father back home in Rabba. So I played with her a lot during the years we've lived here.”
Louise was particularly struck by the girl's use of the word ”played.” That wasn't a word Dicta would have used about the time she spent with Samra.
”When was the last time you saw her?” Louise asked. She had thought about whether or not she ought to meet with the girls individually, but had decided that having them all here together might help them loosen up.
”We saw each other last weekend,” Fatima said and nodded at Asma, adding that Asma had been there with her family too.
Asma explained that her mother was Sada's sister. Asma was in the same grade, but had a different homeroom.
”How do you guys think Samra was doing?”
”She was doing well,” Fatima answered without hesitation, but then she gave Asma a questioning look. Asma, however, was lost in her own thoughts and didn't respond to Fatima.
”Do you also think Samra seemed to be doing well when you were together last weekend?” Louise asked the girl's cousin, when she didn't respond.
The cousin hurriedly nodded, and Louise felt herself starting to get a little exasperated. ”You know, I'd heard that she seemed like she was under a little pressure lately, but you guys hadn't noticed that?” Louise prompted.
Fatima shook her head, but Asma looked Louise in the eye and said that there were times when Samra wasn't that happy.
”Had she been like that lately?” Louise asked.
Asma shrugged. There was something vulnerable about her, evoked by her provocative sense of style and her covered hair. She didn't look at all cheap in her tight-fitting clothes, it was more like she radiated a strong sense of feminine elegance, one that she was just way too young to carry off and that wasn't fully realized because she was hiding one of the most feminine of bodily adornments: her hair.
”Did Samra say anything to you? She must have needed someone to talk to?” Instead of waiting for an answer, Louise asked the girls whom they talked to when they were sad. ”Each other,” all four of them replied.
Dicta added that she also talked to her parents, and there was nodding all around the table. The others obviously did too, when all was said and done.
The silence in the cla.s.sroom was oppressive until Louise asked if anyone thought the family might have been planning a wedding for Samra and that maybe that was what had been making her feel pressured.
Suddenly everyone was talking over each other.
”They wouldn't do that,” Fatima exclaimed loudly and was interrupted by Liv, who exclaimed, ”Well, they could just forget about that!”
”My aunt and uncle aren't like that,” Asma said, once everyone had calmed down. ”They're not into that kind of thing.”
”But that's what you Danes always think about us, isn't it?” Fatima mumbled angrily.
”Samra would never have put up with that. She was way too independent to accept a decision like that,” Liv interjected, and the other girls agreed.
Louise studied Liv for a moment. Liv was hardly the first person Louise would have picked as one of Samra's closest friends. Her leather jacket was worn, and the red T-s.h.i.+rt with the black dots she wore underneath it was faded. Louise couldn't figure out whether the girl's hair was standing up in stiff tufts because it was beyond greasy or if she'd painstakingly achieved this look with multiple hair products. It was hard to tell what color the girl's eyes were behind all that thick black eyeliner.
”Well, good, we'll forget about that then,” Louise said. ”Do you think Samra would have sneaked out of the house at night without telling her parents?” she asked instead.
Both Dicta and Liv nodded, while Asma and Fatima took a little longer to contemplate the idea before they also acknowledged that she might well have done that. ”Samra's parents usually went to bed around ten, because her father had to get up early,” one of the girls added.
”Who would she have gone to visit if it wasn't one of you guys?”
This time there was no rapid outburst of answers.
”She was very cautious,” Liv said, pulling her leather jacket tighter around her, as if she were a little uncomfortable talking and having the others' full attention. ”If they found out, her father would have been furious and then she would have been grounded for several months.”
Dicta agreed with Liv and said that Samra had been grounded a few times in the past.
”You can't just f.u.c.king do that! I dare my parents to even try such a thing,” Liv said, her tone indignant. And Louise could easily imagine that they wouldn't easily get away with that.
”Her parents hadn't seen her since her mother said good night to her Tuesday evening. They thought she'd gone to school the next morning. But by the time the alarm clock rang at eight Wednesday morning, Samra was already lying out in Udby Bay.”
Louise knew it would be hard on them to hear her say it so matter-of-factly, but she felt she needed to shake them up a little. They weren't giving her anything, and she had to get them talking if she was going to have any chance of making headway.
”Did she show up at any of your homes on Tuesday night?” Louise asked, and she was prepared when all four of them shook their heads. ”Did any of you go out gallivanting with her and you're not mentioning it now because your parents can't find out?”