The Night Ferry by Lotte Hammer

Author:Lotte Hammer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635571639
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 40

Thursday 7 October 2010, Police Headquarters

The duty officer on reception at Police Headquarters said harshly: ‘Stop bawling. You won’t get to see Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen and that’s that. You can’t just walk in off the street and demand to talk to a senior officer.’

The young man tried to pull himself together. He cried easily, he had always been like that, even a sentimental film would make him well up, but he felt strongly about this – what had happened was all wrong. He wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve and tried again.

‘Why would he be so mean? Call her a gypsy slag and accuse her of being a criminal? We were only trying to help, and we didn’t know the video was illegal. Now she’s terrified that he’ll tell tales to her husband.’

The duty officer shook his head in despair.

‘Just a moment.’

Klavs Arnold’s voice was calm, measured and brilliant at defusing any situation. He walked up to the duty officer. ‘This man’s coming with me, I want to hear what he has to say.’ The officer went back behind his counter and Klavs Arnold led the young man into the colonnaded courtyard, which lay just behind the building’s entrance, saying, ‘Sit down and take your time, I’m in no hurry.’ The young man sat down, leaned against a column and composed himself.

Slowly Klavs Arnold dragged the story out of him. He was from Slagelse and would appear to be having a secret romance with a Roma girl. They would sometimes go walking together. On one of these strolls, the young couple had seen Irene Gallagher walking through Lorup Forest, but she hadn’t noticed them. She had been carrying a toolbox and some boards under her arm. The young man, curious, had recorded a short video of her. The two young people had now learned that Irene Gallagher had been charged with involvement in the canal boat killings and other crimes, and had decided to contact Police Headquarters and tell them about the video. They had called from the young man’s home and put it on speakerphone, both wondering if their call was relevant. After explaining themselves to the gatekeeper, they had been transferred to Konrad Simonsen. He, however, had been exceptionally rude.

He had accused the girl of terrible things, and claimed that she and her family made their living from crime and were parasites, a burden on the Danish taxpayer. Worst of all, he had threatened to tell the girl’s husband that she was sleeping around, even though they had specifically asked the police not to involve her husband. He had told the young man that photographing other people was a criminal offence and insisted he delete the video from his phone. After the telephone conversation and obeying the police officer’s order, the young people were very upset and didn’t know what to do. Eventually the young man had caught the train to Copenhagen to speak to Simonsen in person.

Still somewhat suspicious of the story, Klavs Arnold

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