Part 14 (1/2)
”Did you take drugs? Pills? Or smoke something?”
Dicta vehemently shook her head.
”I just drank champagne.”
Louise forced her to drink some more water and relaxed a little to hear it had just been champagne. Although that could be bad enough when you were fifteen and almost certainly hadn't had it before. It struck Louise that she probably ought to call the girl's parents instead of sitting here herself with the sad dregs of their daughter.
”What about your parents?” she asked. ”I have to call them.”
Dicta shook her head again.
”Were you with your photographer?” Louise asked, already prepared for the scolding the Venstrebladet photographer could look forward to after dropping his young model off outside the train station in this condition.
Dicta suddenly looked childishly proud in the midst of all her misery as she told Louise that she'd been photographed by one of the big-name photographers.
”He photographed Lykke May too,” she said, clearly a.s.suming that Louise would be familiar with the name of one of Denmark's most successful models.
”Can you give me a few more details? I'm not quite following. How did you end up with him?”
Dicta had perked up a bit.
”I'd seen his name in a few magazines, and then yesterday I called him and he invited me in for a photo session.”
There were a few too many Ss in ”session,” and she struggled to get control of her p.r.o.nunciation as she continued.
”I took the train in this morning and we met at Cafe Ketchup and had brunch. His studio is right next door.”
Louise was a little surprised at how uncomplicated and familiar she made it all sound.
”Do you usually go to Copenhagen like that?” she asked. ”It sounds like you're familiar with the cafes.”
Dicta shook her head and said that she'd never been there before-she'd just read about it. She and Liv had been to Copenhagen over summer vacation, but otherwise she usually went there with her parents.
That reminded Louise that she had to contact them. ”Do your parents know that you're back?”
”They think I'm at Liv's house,” Dicta said, brus.h.i.+ng aside Louise's objections.
”But they know you went to Copenhagen?”
This was starting to sound like an interrogation and Louise noticed Dicta receding into her own world again, so Louise restrained herself and let the girl go on with her story.
”His studio was really impressive compared to the one Michael has here at home,” Dicta said, describing the walls with the different photographic backdrops and a bunch of lights and filters to tone down the light.
”What does Michael Mogensen have to say about your finding yourself another photographer?”
”He doesn't know I went there. Michael's totally not in the same league. Tue says that too,” she said, explaining that the Copenhagen photographer's name was Tue Sunds and that he had already explained to her over the phone that if she was really dreaming about making it big on an international level, she was going to have to stop wasting her time in a Podunk town like Holbaek.
”Michael is really just small potatoes, a provincial photographer,” Dicta said with a level of disdain that was the result of her visit to the big city.
”Why did Tue Sunds want to meet you on a Sat.u.r.day?” Louise interrupted when the question occurred to her. ”I hope you didn't take your clothes off for him.”
Dicta turned to face her angrily, and there was something comical about the gesture because she still hadn't regained full control over her speech or coordination. She flung out her hands, whacking the back of one of them against the edge of the table.
”Are you crazy? I wouldn't do that!”
”Did you two go anywhere else?” Louise asked.
The girl sat for a bit before responding that they'd only been to the cafe and then he took a couple of pictures of her.
”Just a couple?”
That didn't seem like very many considering the man had spent his Sat.u.r.day on this. In that case, it was probably a desire to maximize his income, Louise supposed.
”I mean, he is a professional,” Dicta retorted quickly. ”He's totally not like Michael, who spends several hours on a single pose. Tue works for the big magazines.”
”But you didn't get home until now? Or had you already been back in Holbaek for a while when I met you?”
Dicta obviously had to think about that one for a minute. Maybe she just couldn't remember how or when she'd come back.
”I took the train home and had just gotten back. And then standing there outside the station I suddenly had to throw up.”
Louise shook her head at the girl.
”What did you guys do for the rest of the day?”
”We went out and drank champagne to celebrate our new collaboration.” Dicta sounded proud. ”He said one of the heads of the big modeling agencies often came to the same place and that he would introduce us.”
Louise sat there with her arms crossed.
”Did you go back to his place after that?” she asked, and Dicta nodded so that her long, blonde hair fell down over her face in wisps.
”We drank more wine and ate the sus.h.i.+ and caviar he ordered before I had to go home.”
”Did you sleep with him?”
Dicta melodramatically widened her eyes and gave Louise a shocked, offended look with her groggy eyes.
”You have no right to ask me that. He thinks I have a lot of potential.” Again Dicta had trouble speaking clearly. ”He says I could make it as far as Lykke May or Louise P.”
”Did he do anything to you against your will?” Louise asked when Dicta didn't respond to her question.
”What do you mean?” Dicta asked, seeming sincerely not to understand.
”Did he force you to do anything you didn't feel comfortable with?” Louise really couldn't put it anymore clearly than that.