Part 13 (1/2)
”Obviously. I know that,” Louise said quickly and a tad defensively.
She also knew plenty of heartwarming stories with happy endings, and she actually did have a soft spot in her heart for single people who preferred writing to a potential boyfriend or girlfriend online as opposed to trawling the picked-over crowd that hangs out at the city's bars weekend after weekend.
Mollified by Louise's comment, Camilla conceded that there were obviously some con artists out there who were really living it up, doing whatever they wanted under ident.i.ties that existed only in their imaginations.
”This one time, I wrote a piece about a girl who met a man who really 'thought outside the box,'” Camilla said. ”He convinced her that he was building a big hacienda in Spain. She lent him money several times because he claimed the banks in Spain couldn't figure out how to transfer money from his Danish accounts. So she was happy to pay, believing that he was sending her money to the contractors in Spain so the swimming pool would be finished by the time they went down there on vacation.”
Camilla sighed, thinking about the woman.
”The relations.h.i.+p ended as soon as she realized that he didn't even own a planter of flowers in front of a hacienda. Her money was gone, and so was he, the minute she closed her wallet.”
”Some people are just naive,” Peter said to her from over by the kitchen sink.
Louise shook her head slightly. ”It's inevitable that misfits and psychopaths will be attracted to a venue like the Internet. The problem is just that it's so f.u.c.king hard to spot them on a screen,” she philosophized.
”Well, if you've got such bad judgment, you have to hire a private eye!” Camilla said.
Louise interpreted her friend's comment as a joke.
”No, seriously, some people really do that,” Camilla explained when she saw Louise's smile. ”There has been a big uptick lately in that kind of work at all the detective agencies.”
”Well, maybe just to be safe you should hire a detective to take a little look at Henning,” Louise suggested, knowing at the same time that that would spoil the pleasant, joking atmosphere they had managed to recapture.
”It's not him. He's a perfectly ordinary guy, definitely not a serial rapist,” Camilla said and then got up and went into the living room to tell Markus they were going. After a brief debate, he came back out with her and started putting on his shoes.
Louise had gotten up and was standing in the entry. Camilla stood in front of her and put her arms on Louise's shoulders, shaking her slightly as Markus went out into the kitchen to say good-bye to Peter.
”Can't you just give it a rest? Sometimes I get the feeling that you don't want me to be happy.”
That stung. Camilla might not have meant it that way, but it felt like her friend had just kicked her in the stomach. She pulled herself together and then wrapped her arms around Camilla and pulled her close.
”There's nothing I want more. I'm just saying you should be careful.”
”You think I've got c.r.a.ppy judgment,” Camilla said, her voice now a whisper.
”That's not what I meant,” Louise protested. ”I'm sorry. I just don't feel like getting called out to your apartment and finding your arms and legs tied behind you. But I guess enough is enough. Even I can tell that I'm being too much of a busybody.”
After they said good-bye, Louise lingered in the doorway, watching them go down the stairs. Her body felt heavy and her mind felt groggy after what Camilla had said. She shut the door and went into the kitchen to help with the last of the cleaning.
Do I really not want her to be happy? she wondered. Of course that wasn't true, but sometimes Camilla plunged into things without thinking them through, and that's what worried her.
She started the dishwasher and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
According to the statistics, Camilla wasn't an obvious rape victim, according to this lunatic's perceived ”type.” But Christina Lerche hadn't been one, either, which just meant that their initial theory that the suspect targeted quiet, insecure women who dreamed of a man and a stable, secure relations.h.i.+p had already been shot down.
Peter sat down in front of the TV to watch a movie that sounded like it was well under way. Louise went into the bedroom to put on her pajamas. It struck her that she actually did not know what Camilla had written in her profile. Maybe she just said that she'd lived alone with her son for years, and that she longed for someone to share her life with. Maybe the take-charge, independent, urban side of Camilla-a woman who wouldn't dream of putting her precious feet into shoes that cost less than several hundred dollars-was hard to spot through whatever wishes and desires she expressed when looking for a life partner. Louise had no idea, and it really wasn't any of her business, either. Of course she wanted Camilla to be happy, even if it meant dating someone from Sor.
She returned to the living room and flopped down onto the couch with Peter, pulling the afghan over her.
”What movie is this? What have I missed?”
Since he had been watching for only ten minutes himself, Peter's summary was somewhat vague, so she gave up on following the movie and closed her eyes instead.
17.
”YOU CAN USE THIS ROOM HERE. WE'RE JUST PULLING THE TAPES. From what I understood, you want to see both ends of the platform at Kongens Nytorv, as well as the escalators?”
Lars confirmed this.
The security manager in charge of the surveillance archives had been waiting for them when they arrived. He led them down past the Copenhagen Metro's security office, where they monitored the surveillance footage from all stations continuously. A little farther down the hall was the archive itself, with its narrow steel shelves full of surveillance tapes from all the subway stations.
”There are monitors and two players in the next room.” He pointed into a room the size of a cigar box. ”The footage has also been burned onto DVDs, so you can take what you need to use back to police headquarters if that'd be more comfortable,” he offered.
”No, this is fine. We'll watch them here,” Louise said. She was impatient to get started and didn't think it would take them long. They had a time window of about two hours, and there was CCTV coverage from two angles, so they could each concentrate on one section of the station. For the moment, they were interested only in the north side of the platform where the trains heading toward Valise station stopped, since Christina Lerche had lived in Frederiksberg, four stops before that.
”Knock yourselves out,” said a short, fair-haired man who came in and powered up the machines. ”This is some scintillating stuff!”
They thanked him and remained standing until he left.
When they'd left headquarters after the morning briefing, they'd driven past Christina's apartment, and Lars had run upstairs to leaf through the photo alb.u.m he had remembered seeing on the bookshelf in her bedroom. He was holding three pictures when he came back down to the car. Vacation photos of a happy, very much alive woman. Two close-ups of her face, and one showing her full body. They set the pictures on the table between them and started figuring out how the Metro Security machines worked.
”Do you guys want some coffee?” the archivist called in to them while they were still focused intently on the machines' b.u.t.tons.
”Please,” Louise said, turning around to smile at him. ”Could you just show us how to put the machine on slow and pause?”
She had quickly inspected the basic functions, but knew that she would need to slow down the tape each time pa.s.sengers flocked in and out of the subway cars. The pace was fast and the station was quite crowded with people on their way home from work.
”That b.u.t.ton on the far right slows the replay down, and if you hold it in, the machine will freeze the frame.”
He set two plastic mugs on the table, and Louise noticed him lingering over the pictures of Christina they'd brought.
Lars noticed it too. He covered them with his elbow and forearm and said ”Thanks for the coffee!” with exaggerated politeness.
”No problem,” the archivist said, slowly withdrawing. ”Just holler if you need anything.”
Louise and Lars got organized and hit PLAY.
”How typical. The time of day we have to review would be rush hour, when the trains are arriving every minute and a half. It's one train after another,” Louise said, sounding a little grumpy. Her nose was right up against the screen as she followed the people coming down to the platform with concentration. Every once in a while, she stopped the machine when there were several people so close together that some of them were hidden from the camera lens.
After a good half hour, as she was starting to develop a headache, she jumped a little when Lars finally spotted something.
”There she is!” Lars said, shattering their focused silence.
His finger followed the stream of people on their way down the escalator from the round plaza at Kongens Nytorv.
Louise accidentally knocked over one of their coffees as she spun around to see his screen. She jumped up and grabbed the pictures of Christina.