The Exception: A Novel Part 36

Malene and Rasmus have given a few parties that their parents have attended, and Iben has never met anyone who didnt immediately warm to Rasmuss mom and dad. Malene used to look forward to the summer holidays in Svendborg, unlike the few days she would spend with her own family.

While Iben helps Rasmus, she tries to think of something pleasant to say to him now that they arent likely to meet again. She would like to say that shes pleased to have gotten to know him and that he was very good for Malene for a time. Maybe she ought to say that she wishes him well, but that somehow seems disloyal. On her way back upstairs, Iben decides to keep the good wishes until Rasmus is all packed and ready to drive off.

She clutches an armful of posters and calls back to him from the landing: Im taking these down now!

Iben, wait! Just a moment!

She goes back in.

The heavy things should go in first. Ill start with the table.

Let me help.

Dont worry. Its actually easier to do it by myself. He walks out, rather unsteadily, carrying the large birch-wood table.

Iben looks around to see if theres anything useful for her to do. She goes to put away some of Malenes gla.s.ses that are on the drying rack. While shes at it, she decides to wash up some of the dishes that are still on the kitchen table.

Is that Rasmuss voice she hears from the stairs? Whos he talking to? Isnt that a womans voice? She turns the water off before the basin has filled.

Is it Malene? For a second, Iben feels sure she heard Malenes voice. Whats going on? What does Malene want?

No more voices. She must have been mistaken. Maybe it wasnt Malene. And its unlikely to have been Rasmuss new girlfriend. Maybe just a neighbor?

Iben stops and listens. Everything is quiet now. She walks into the short corridor outside the kitchen. In the silence of the stairway she hears Rasmus move with heavy steps. Then, suddenly, there is an echoing crash and a scream.

She runs along the hallway and out onto the empty landing.

Rasmus? Malene? Rasmus?

Nothing.

The next landing. Nothing.

Another empty flight of stairs and then she sees it.

A large hole has opened up in the wall. At first she cant make herself go any closer. She stands a few steps above the landing, staring at the emptiness that is as tall as a man. It used to be a mosaic of stained gla.s.s.

She inches closer. She can see people moving around in the courtyard below and talking in frightened voices. Somebody screams. Iben doesnt have the courage to look at what might be down there. Instead she takes another couple of quick steps forward and discovers at the last moment that the step in front of the broken window is wet. She grabs the handrail with both hands. Her body slips sideways and lands heavily. Trying to get up, she puts one hand down on the step, only to find that her palm slides on the slippery surface. She sniffs at her sticky hand. Someone has poured oil on the floor.

Iben manages to get up and maneuver around the fluid. She runs down into the street and looks around. Rasmus isnt there. And Malene isnt there either.

The door to the courtyard behind the building is locked. Iben fumbles in her pocket to find the keys. It takes so long. At last she gets the door open. She runs through the dark pa.s.sage.

The yard is divided down the middle by a wire fence, and Rasmus is hanging across it, his body bent double. Iben had no idea a human body could break in the middle like that. One of the vertical steel fencing posts protrudes through his back.

Despite all the blood, Iben can see that Rasmuss face has slammed into the profiled steel. It is crushed. The impact of his body has made the wire fence sag, but its sharp edge has sliced open his abdomen.

Iben backs away, knocking into something on the pavement, and sits back without wanting to. She looks at what shes sitting on. Its a piece of Rasmus and Malenes dining table. It is quite clean and unused, as if the last few days havent happened, as if Rasmus and Malene and Iben might still gather around it, in this small yard.

Over by the wall a man is speaking on his cell phone. The police will arrive soon. A woman is pushing against a door to the kitchen stairs. She must be trying to keep children away from the yard.

Iben stares at the table fragment. Not long ago it was cluttered with plates, bottles of wine, flowers. She hears the voices around the table. Pa.s.s me the rice, would you? Rasmus, I met Ole from film studies in the bus. You wont believe what happened in the Center today A dark knot in the light wood stares back at her, like an eye.

She tries to get up.

chapter 37.

i was standing on the staircase and called out to Rasmus that I was on my way down with the posters. It was sheer chance that Rasmus asked me to wait until later. He wanted to take large things like the table down first.

Then what happened?

If someone had been waiting in the stairway to pour oil on the steps, that person would probably have a.s.sumed that I would be the first one to come down.

I see. What happened instead?

Iben breathes in quickly. Look, where did the rail go? Theres usually a handrail across the window. A long strip of brown railing. When was it taken away? It cant be a coincidence thereve been several strange things happening over the last few months anyway, it cant have been an accident. Someone is after me. Or after Malene. Its her apartment. Someone might have thought she was the one on her way down.

Iben and a woman police officer are sitting together in one of three police cars lined up in front of the door to Malenes building. Detectives are cordoning off the stairs and the courtyard and interviewing the neighbors to find out if they saw anything.

Very well, Iben. Now, Id like you to take me through what happened again, step by step.

Iben describes how she offered to help Rasmus with the table and how, when he said hed manage on his own, she went to the kitchen to clear away some dirty dishes. Then the next thing she heard was a crash and a scream. She ran downstairs at once, then slipped and almost shot out through the broken window herself.

Iben also tells the officer about Anne-Lise and her suspicions that she might have some kind of personality disorder. She mentions Anne-Lises trick of hiding blood in her own office and pouring it all over herself, and her swapping Malenes medication. She knows that Anne-Lise is capable of doing all sorts of things. She might very well have removed the railing and poured oil on the steps.

Iben gasps for air again. She feels she is presenting essential information. It might just lead to Anne-Lises arrest.

The detective, who is listening quietly, breaks her silence. Were called out to many fatal accidents. We cant a.s.sume that one of the victims nearest and dearest is a murderer every time someone falls off scaffolding or hits a high-voltage cable.

No, of course not. But in this case a section of handrail is missing.

Sections are missing from many stairways in old buildings in central Copenhagen. Accident investigation is my job. Sometimes accidents are the outcome of the most terrible coincidences. But, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, an accident is an accident. Its not like TV Of course I know that. Its just that The detective interrupts her: I understand your problems with the woman at work Im sure it makes sharing an office with her very uncomfortable. But, to put it plainly, its not relevant to the police investigation.

But someone took the handrail away and poured the oil on the step!

Iben might as well not have bothered.

My colleagues are looking into it right now. Some are upstairs taking photographs. Theyll find whatever was left or poured on the stairs and who could have done it.

A male police officer knocks on the car window. He has come to tell them that there was no one else on the stairs at the time. No one saw Rasmus fall.

When he has left, the detective turns to Iben. Heres my card. Contact me if anything new occurs to you. Her tone of voice suggests that she doesnt mean it.

The name on the card is Dorte Jrgensen. Iben knows that she must make herself sound more logical in order to make Dorte Jrgensen take her seriously.

I understand that you dont believe me, but honestly, Im not normally a nervous person. A couple of months ago, before everything I told you about started to happen, I was as calm as you are now.

Dorte smiles at Iben, but Iben can see shes distracted.

Iben raises her voice. I dont like the idea of going home on my own. Someone has probably just tried to kill me. What will stop her from trying again? Or trying to kill Malene?

Dorte doesnt respond.

You must do something about it, Iben goes on.

Dorte gets out, walks around the car, and opens the door for Iben. She climbs out gingerly. Her coccyx and one of her hands are still sore after her fall.

Earlier, while she was carrying things down to the van, she felt warm. After the accident, she hadnt noticed how cold it had become. When Dorte speaks, her breath condenses into little clouds in the chilly air.

What you have is a typical stress reaction. Its quite natural after an experience like this. Spend the rest of the day with some close friends and take a couple of days off work. Talk to someone about it. And if you still feel on edge you can get free counseling from a trained psychologist because you knew the victim and saw the consequences of the accident first-hand.

Iben thinks that now, for the first time, theres a trace of warmth in this womans officious way of talking.

Id like to help you, but I cant. Im not trained for it. Its not my job.

Iben walks a few paces behind Dorte toward the door to the yard. Maybe she should give in and accept the opinion of the professionals, but something inside her insists that theyre mistaken. What has happened is simply too terrible to be an accident.

She must phone Malene to warn her. Anne-Lise might be on her way to Ibens apartment right now.

She tries to imagine the two police officers telling Malene that Rasmus is dead. G.o.d knows how she will react after having slammed Rasmus for several days. Shouldnt Iben get home as soon as possible? Or would Malene prefer to be alone?

Iben knows that she must go back up to Malenes to fetch her jacket and her bag with her cell phone, wallet, and bicycle keys. But first she has to see the yard once more.

Rasmuss body is covered with a pale gray tarpaulin. It looks like a big sack, suspended only by the thin wire netting. The area around it is cordoned off with red and white tape.

The police photographer has left. An officer is keeping an eye on the place, his hands firmly clasped behind his back. Its quiet. Are there faint noises coming from the neighboring apartments? Or is her hearing overly sensitive? Like the moment in Malenes kitchen did she actually hear the voices?

She moves closer to Rasmuss covered body and looks up at the broken window in the dirty brick wall rising high above her. He landed far away from the wall. He must have slid down the stairs at some speed.

Thats how he was. Always in a rush.

When her father died it was cold too. She paced back and forth in the hospital parking lot, across its hard asphalt. She looks at the surface on which she stands now. Its not black more like a pale gray.

Police tape cordons off the landing where Rasmus fell and the flight of stairs to Malenes apartment. Another officer tells Iben to go back down and then up the back stairs. However, when she explains who she is, he lets her through.

There are no signs of the police having been in the apartment. Everything looks the same as before. Iben uses the telephone to call Malene.

Theyve told you, havent they?

Yes. Malenes voice is composed, low, and without any trace of emotion.

After waiting for her to say something more, Iben breaks the silence. Shall I come home now?

How did it happen?

Didnt they tell you?

Yes. But werent you there?

Iben tries to describe exactly how it was. Then she warns Malene about Anne-Lise, realizing shed rather not go home at all.

When they finish, Iben picks up her bag and her jacket and walks into Malene and Rasmuss living room. She stands there for a moment. There is not a sound to be heard. She walks into the bedroom. It too is quiet. Then she visits every room in the apartment to memorize them. Back in the living room, she calls out in a low voice, Rasmus, Im taking the posters down now.

Silence. She slams the kitchen door behind her and takes the narrow stairs back down. Dorte Jrgensen is still in the yard.

Theres something I didnt tell you earlier.

Dorte looks uninterested.

Something factual.

Dorte turns away from the policeman she was talking to.

Okay. Lets deal with this in the car.

They go to sit in the police car. Iben explains that she thought she heard a womans voice. And that it could have been Anne-Lises.

Dorte pulls out her notebook. Why didnt you tell me that before?

I wasnt sure. It was very faint. A womans voice, I think.

Are you sure that it was Anne-Lises voice?

No, Im not. As I said, I cant be sure.

It could have been, say, Malenes voice?

Why do you ask that?

The most common murderer by far is the spouse or partner.

But I know Malene. Shed never kill anyone.

Dorte looks at her.

Iben repeats herself. Im certain shed never think of doing something like that. She wouldnt. Never.

Take it easy, Iben. I believe you. Youre the one who brought up the idea of murder, not me. Dortes voice drones on monotonously, as if everything she is saying is routine.

If youre sticking to this statement, then I have to pursue it. The apartment will be off-limits for quite some time. My superior will call Malene and your colleague to ask them where they were at the time of the accident and if they can prove it.

Will Malene be questioned?