Part 24 (2/2)

Camilla was torn from her recollections when the phone rang.

”He's dead.”

At first she didn't recognize the voice, but then she felt her stomach tense up and her heart begin to pound faster.

”What happened?” she whispered, clenching the phone.

”He managed to hang himself in his cell,” her ex-boyfriend Henning said, obviously referring to his brother.

It felt like a tower of blocks had collapsed in her chest. A loud, piercing voice inside her said she ought to hang up, that this didn't concern her. She had struggled very hard to deal with the breakup and had only now finally started to accept that he no longer wanted to be with her. So he couldn't just simply call her up with a quick comment and drag her back into his life again.

”I'd really like you to come to the funeral,” Henning said.

”Why?” she blurted out, even though her piercing internal voice was screaming for her to say no.

”He left a farewell note. He asks that you partic.i.p.ate in his final journey.”

How pathetic, Camilla managed to think before the voice on the other end of the phone line continued: ”And I think you owe it to him to come.”

Camilla felt the tears and then her throat tightening. ”Do you want me there too?” she asked quietly.

”It's not about me, and it doesn't have anything to do with us,” Henning responded tersely. ”He's going to be buried in Soro on Sat.u.r.day at two o'clock.”

Then he hung up.

34.

AHMAD AL-ABD WAS THIN AND IMMACULATELY GROOMED, with his dark hair combed neatly back. He was sitting in the living room with his wife and their three young children when Louise and Mik arrived at the apartment in Benlose, and he agreed right away to accompany them back to Holbaek. Apparently he didn't have anything against talking to the police, nor did he seem to be upset about the arrests anymore. Although once they were seated in the cruiser, he did say, ”It's a great tragedy for us all that they're in jail.”

Louise didn't ask him what he meant by that, preferring to wait until they were sitting across from each other and could see each other properly, so she just nodded and looked out the winds.h.i.+eld as they drove through the countryside back to Holbaek.

”How well did you know your brother's daughter?” Mik asked once they were seated in the office with black coffee in the station's standard-issue white plastic cups.

Louise had asked Mik to take charge of the questioning while she wrote up the witness statement on the computer. There had been something in Ahmad's manner, even when they were standing in his doorway in Benlose, that told her he respected Mik more than he did her, and they couldn't afford not to use that to their advantage.

”I knew her very well,” he replied. ”Our family is quite close.”

”Tell me about Samra as you knew her,” Mik said.

Already in the car, Mik had made it clear to Ibrahim's brother that the police expected him to cooperate even though arrests had already been made in the case.

”Of course,” the man had said and added that it was his duty to help the police and that he was very sad about what had happened.

”Samra was a delightful child, a happy, easy little girl,” he began.

”How did things go as she got older, entered p.u.b.erty, and became a teenager?” Mik wanted to know.

Ahmad drew out his response a little, looking down at his hands, as if he were considering how to weight his words.

”That, of course, is a difficult age,” he finally said. He rubbed his hands together.

Ahmad was thirty-six, seven years younger than Ibrahim, Louise figured out, doing the calculation as she sat watching him.

”In what way was it difficult?” Mik asked, to get Ahmad to continue.

”Yes, well, she did as she pleased. There were friends and boys, who suddenly became more important than her family.”

Louise quickly glanced over at Mik and their eyes met. The uncle should not be interrupted now. This was an account of Samra's life they hadn't heard before.

It was as though Ahmad had picked up on their sudden uptick in interest. He paused for a moment and then started to explain that of course it was fine for young women to live their own lives, but his niece was only fifteen, so it was expected that she would respect the rules her father set for her.

”Could you expand on that?” Mik asked.

Ahmad hesitated a little before he continued. ”There are some guidelines for how young girls should behave,” he began. ”They mustn't run around with boys and they must obey their fathers.”

Mik interrupted, even though it would have been best to let the uncle go on. ”What do you mean when you say that she ran around with boys?”

”Just that young girls should behave in such a way that the family can continue to be familiar with them,” Ahmad explained.

”And Samra didn't do that?” Louise asked.

Samra's uncle looked irritated that Louise was getting involved in the conversation, then he shrugged and fell silent.

Mik took over again.

”It sounds to me like you're saying that Samra was a little more interested in boys than was acceptable. Whom did she see?”

Ahmad al-Abd didn't even look up when Mik asked the question, so Louise didn't expect him to answer.

But Mik kept staring at him expectantly, so a long, awkward silence filled the office.

”Did she have a boyfriend?” Mik finally asked directly.

Ahmad raised his shoulders a bit and kept his eyes focused on the desk. After another pause, he nodded a couple of times.

”Was this a relations.h.i.+p other people knew about?”

Again it took a while before Ahmad answered, and it was an answer that was hard to interpret, because he shrugged his shoulders while at the same time shaking his head and mumbling a weak ”Perhaps.”

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