before.
“There must be quite a lot of people involved. Even if I don’t know more than a couple myself. The whole thing’s too big. One scruffy spiv in Sagene couldn’t run it on
his own. He doesn’t look bright enough. But I haven’t asked any questions. I did the job, got my money, and kept my mouth shut. Until ten days ago.”
Karen Borg felt exhausted. She was caught up in a situation over which she had no control whatsoever. Her brain registered the information she was receiving, while she simultaneously made
febrile attempts to work out what she might do with it. She could feel her cheeks reddening and perspiration beginning to dampen her armpits. She knew she was going to hear about Ludvig Sandersen
now, the man she’d found last Friday, a discovery that had haunted her at night and tormented her by day ever since. She clutched her chair tightly.
“I was up with the garage guy last Thursday,” Han van der Kerch went on. He was calmer now, and had finally relinquished the remnants of the tissues and dropped them in the bin on
the floor by his side. He looked at her for the first time that day. “I hadn’t done a job for several months. I was expecting to hear something any moment. I’ve had a phone put in
my room, so that I’m not dependent on the communal one in the corridor. I never pick up the receiver before it’s rung four times. If it rings twice and then stops, and then rings twice
more, I know that I have to meet him at two o’clock in the morning. Smart system. Not a single call is ever registered between us on my phone, yet he can contact me. Well, I turned up last
Thursday. But this time it wasn’t about drugs. There was someone in the syndicate who’d got a bit too big for his boots. Had begun to demand money from one of the guys at the top.
Something like that. I didn’t get to know much, just that he was a threat to all of us. I was terrified.”
He smiled, a wry, self-deprecating smile.
“In the two years I’ve been doing this, I’d never really thought about the possibility of getting caught. In a way I felt invulnerable. Hell, I was shit scared when I thought
someone might step out of line. It had never occurred to me that anyone from within might be a threat. It was actually the fear of being caught that made me say yes to the job. I’d get two
hundred thousand kroner for it. Bloody tempting. The idea was not simply that he should die. It was also to act as a warning to all the others in the organisation. That was why I smashed in his
face.”
The boy began to sob again, but not so convulsively now. He could manage to go on talking while the tears were flowing. He kept pausing, taking deep breaths, smoking, thinking.
“But as soon as I’d done it, I got into a sweat. I regretted it straight away, and wandered round in a daze for twenty-four hours. I don’t remember much about it.”
She hadn’t interrupted him once. Nor had she taken any notes. But there were two questions she had to ask.
“Why did you want to have me?” she enquired gently. “And why didn’t you want to go into prison?”
Han van der Kerch stared at her for what seemed an eternity.
“It was you that found the body, even though it was well hidden.”
“Yes, I had a dog with me. But so what?”
“Well, despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about the rest of the organisation, you come across things now and again. A slip of the tongue, a hint. I think, yes, I think there
might be a lawyer involved. I don’t know who. I can’t trust anyone. But we wanted it to take a long time before the body was found. The longer it took, the colder the trail. You must
have found him only an hour after I killed him. So you couldn’t be involved.”
“And prison?”
“I know the organisation has contacts on the inside. Inmates, I assume, but it might be warders as well for all I know. The safest thing was to stay with the cops. Even if it is bloody
hot!”
He seemed relieved. Karen,
“There must be quite a lot of people involved. Even if I don’t know more than a couple myself. The whole thing’s too big. One scruffy spiv in Sagene couldn’t run it on
his own. He doesn’t look bright enough. But I haven’t asked any questions. I did the job, got my money, and kept my mouth shut. Until ten days ago.”
Karen Borg felt exhausted. She was caught up in a situation over which she had no control whatsoever. Her brain registered the information she was receiving, while she simultaneously made
febrile attempts to work out what she might do with it. She could feel her cheeks reddening and perspiration beginning to dampen her armpits. She knew she was going to hear about Ludvig Sandersen
now, the man she’d found last Friday, a discovery that had haunted her at night and tormented her by day ever since. She clutched her chair tightly.
“I was up with the garage guy last Thursday,” Han van der Kerch went on. He was calmer now, and had finally relinquished the remnants of the tissues and dropped them in the bin on
the floor by his side. He looked at her for the first time that day. “I hadn’t done a job for several months. I was expecting to hear something any moment. I’ve had a phone put in
my room, so that I’m not dependent on the communal one in the corridor. I never pick up the receiver before it’s rung four times. If it rings twice and then stops, and then rings twice
more, I know that I have to meet him at two o’clock in the morning. Smart system. Not a single call is ever registered between us on my phone, yet he can contact me. Well, I turned up last
Thursday. But this time it wasn’t about drugs. There was someone in the syndicate who’d got a bit too big for his boots. Had begun to demand money from one of the guys at the top.
Something like that. I didn’t get to know much, just that he was a threat to all of us. I was terrified.”
He smiled, a wry, self-deprecating smile.
“In the two years I’ve been doing this, I’d never really thought about the possibility of getting caught. In a way I felt invulnerable. Hell, I was shit scared when I thought
someone might step out of line. It had never occurred to me that anyone from within might be a threat. It was actually the fear of being caught that made me say yes to the job. I’d get two
hundred thousand kroner for it. Bloody tempting. The idea was not simply that he should die. It was also to act as a warning to all the others in the organisation. That was why I smashed in his
face.”
The boy began to sob again, but not so convulsively now. He could manage to go on talking while the tears were flowing. He kept pausing, taking deep breaths, smoking, thinking.
“But as soon as I’d done it, I got into a sweat. I regretted it straight away, and wandered round in a daze for twenty-four hours. I don’t remember much about it.”
She hadn’t interrupted him once. Nor had she taken any notes. But there were two questions she had to ask.
“Why did you want to have me?” she enquired gently. “And why didn’t you want to go into prison?”
Han van der Kerch stared at her for what seemed an eternity.
“It was you that found the body, even though it was well hidden.”
“Yes, I had a dog with me. But so what?”
“Well, despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about the rest of the organisation, you come across things now and again. A slip of the tongue, a hint. I think, yes, I think there
might be a lawyer involved. I don’t know who. I can’t trust anyone. But we wanted it to take a long time before the body was found. The longer it took, the colder the trail. You must
have found him only an hour after I killed him. So you couldn’t be involved.”
“And prison?”
“I know the organisation has contacts on the inside. Inmates, I assume, but it might be warders as well for all I know. The safest thing was to stay with the cops. Even if it is bloody
hot!”
He seemed relieved. Karen,
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