Seven Graves, One Winter by Christoffer Petersen

Author:Christoffer Petersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aarluuk Press
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

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Petra slipped her phone into her pocket and walked into the meeting room. She closed the door and offered Aarni Aviki a hot drink. When he declined, she poured a cup of coffee from the thermos and sat down at the table. She glanced at his hands as she arranged her notebook and a small digital Dictaphone that she placed between them. The communications chief for Seqinnersoq began to pick at his thumbnail. Petra watched, sipped her coffee, and waited. It was Aarni who spoke first, in Greenlandic.

“I want an interpreter,” he said.

Petra turned on the Dictaphone, and said, “Can you repeat that, in Danish?”

“I asked for an interpreter.”

“But your Danish is perfect, Mr Aviki.”

“I have the right to an interpreter.”

Petra pushed her coffee to one side and made a note on her pad. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked for a lawyer,” she said, and looked up. “Perhaps that would be more appropriate?”

Aarni stopped picking at his nail and sneered. “You’re one of them,” he said, switching to Danish, “the Danish-speaking Greenlanders.”

Petra gripped the pen between her fingers and took a breath. “Lots of Greenlanders speak Danish, Mr Aviki.”

“Yes, but they are from mixed parents. What’s your excuse?”

“I didn’t think I needed one,” Petra said. She paused for a moment to take a breath. If she wasn’t careful, she realised, this man could easily take her off-topic.

“I heard you grew up in the children’s home, here in Nuuk,” he said.

“Mr Aviki,” Petra said, tapping her pencil on the table, “I would like to ask you some questions about your relationship to Tinka Winther.”

“Your parents spoke Greenlandic,” Aarni said, and leaned back in his chair. “Why don’t you?”

Petra leaned over the Dictaphone and said, “Let the record show that Mr Aviki is evading the question.” Petra paused to catch Aarni’s eye. “And obstructing the investigation.”

“Wait,” Aarni said, “I’m not obstructing anything.”

“Then answer the question, if you will. What is your relationship to Tinka Winther?”

“I don’t have one. We have never met.”

“But you know who she is?”

“After last night’s news on television, doesn’t everyone?”

“I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Yes, I know who she is.”

Petra made a note, scrawling a quick question beneath it. She reached for her coffee, took a sip, and then placed it on the table. “And Malik Uutaaq, do you know him?”

“Of course I do. He is the leader of my party, my boss.” Aarni laughed. “That’s a ridiculous question, Sergeant.”

Petra ignored him, and made another note. She drew a line between the two. “What is Mr Uutaaq’s relationship to Tinka Winther?”

Aarni glanced at the Dictaphone, and then at Petra’s notes, squinting for a moment, as if he was trying to read them. He drummed his fingers on the table and looked around the room. He nodded at the thermos flask of coffee and Petra waited as he pushed back his chair and left the table. She noticed sweat on his brow when he returned. The surface of the coffee vibrated ever so slightly as he held the plastic cup in his hand.

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