Read Online The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen - Free Book Online

better, it was her idea and all her own income. On Mondays she was the psychologist on one number and on Wednesdays she took on the role of the therapist on the other line, which she’d suggested they should call when the results of the first conversation needed further attention. A voice generator meant that on Mondays she sounded light and ethereal and on Wednesdays professionallydark and authoritative. You’d really have to know better to figure out what she was up to. It certainly wasn’t possible to recognize the voice.
    These two telephone lines with a call rate of thirty Danish kroner per minute to respectively the Light of the Oracle and the Holistic Chain were Pirjo’s pension savings, and for that reason she was the only person from the nature absorption assembly who Atu allowed to run their own business while being associated with the Nature Absorption Academy.
    But Pirjo had altogether secured many privileges for herself, all of which she’d earned because Atu had lots of things to be thankful to her for.
    “And one last thing, Lionel: What do you really want to get out of your singing talent?”
    He hesitated for a moment and hesitation always made Pirjo frown.
    “You want to make music because it’s an important part of you, isn’t that right?”
    “Yeah, that too.”
    So, that’s the way it was. It was just the usual. “You want to be famous, perhaps?”
    “Yes, I think so. Who doesn’t?”
    She shook her head. There were nineteen to the dozen of this type of idiot these days.
    “And what will you do with this fame? Is it because you want to earn lots of money?”
    “Yes, please, that would be great. But it’s more the girl thing, I think. You often hear that it’s easier for singers in that area.”
    Okay, it was even one of those as well. He would truly be worth his weight in gold.
    “So you don’t find it so easy with the opposite sex,” she attempted to say with some empathy. “You live alone, then, I assume.”
    Did he giggle?
    “Hell no, I’m married.”
    It gave Pirjo a start, as if he’d pressed a button directly linked to the nerve endings in her spine. Equal measures of distaste and chemicalreaction hit her brain. She’d spent years trying to fight that vulnerable side of herself, and at the moment not a day went by without it rebounding.
    “You’re married, you say?”
    “Yes. We’ve been married for ten years.”
    “And your wife is totally aware of the scope of your plans, is she?”
    “Scope? No, hell no. She just likes it when I sing.”
    Pirjo looked at her arms for a moment. Sometimes there were goose bumps and other times her forearms went bright red as if from an allergic reaction. Just now it was both.
    This idiot should just get out of her life here and now.
    “Lionel, I’ve become aware that I won’t be able to help you.”
    “What! I’ve just spent thirty kroner a minute talking with you, so you’ll have to. It’s on your website.”
    “Okay, Lionel, fair enough, you’ll get your money’s worth. Do you know the Beatles song ‘Yesterday’?”
    She could almost hear him nod.
    “Sing the first verse for me.”
    A minute went by and then it was over. She hadn’t listened. Judgment had already fallen.
    “Lionel. It’s a shame for your wife that you’re such a pig but you’re lucky that she encourages you to sing, because your talent is completely and utterly insignificant. I have pets that can hit a tone better than you and I know deaf-dumb people who can talk better English. So be glad that I’m sparing you the biggest failure of your life, because no matter what happens, you can only ever manage to scare women off with that pathetic bleating.”
    Then she replaced the receiver, calmly and gently, as she breathed openmouthedly. She’d overstepped the mark but it wasn’t anything the idiot would shout about. Pirjo turned around with a start.
    The sound of a click behind her made her immediately purse her lips. She closed her eyes and felt the