Jussi Adler-Olsen - Mercy aka The keeper of lost causes

“I have read all the newspapers and also the constitutions and everything else.”

“Everything else?” said Carl. This wasn’t going to be easy. “Do you like solving Sudoku puzzles too?” he asked, handing Assad the magazine.

By the afternoon his back was aching from sitting up straight. Assad’s coffee was an alarmingly potent experience, and Carl’s sleep deprivation had now been given a jolt of caffeine. He had the annoying sensation of blood racing through his veins. That was why he had started leafing through the folders. A couple of the cases he already knew inside and out, but most of them were from other police districts, and a couple were from before he joined the criminal investigation department. What all of them had in common was that they’d required a massive number of man-hours and had sparked enormous attention in the media. Several of the cases had involved citizens who were well-known public figures. But all of the cases had been stranded at the stage where the leads had petered out.

If he sorted them into rough categories, there were three types of cases.

The first and largest category included ordinary homicides of all types in which plausible motives were found, but the perpetrator remained unknown.

The next type of case also involved homicides, but of a more complex nature. It was sometimes difficult to pinpoint a motive, and there could be more than one victim. A conviction may have been handed down, but only with regard to accessories to the crime; the ringleaders or primary perpetrators were never identified. The murder itself may have had a certain random quality to it, and in some instances the act could be designated a crime of passion. The solving of these types of cases could sometimes be aided by lucky coincidences. Witnesses who just happened to be passing by; vehicles that were used in the commission of some other crime; information acquired through other unrelated circumstances, and so on. They were cases that could prove difficult for the investigators unless accompanied by a certain amount of luck.

And then there was the third category, which was a hodgepodge of homicides or presumed homicides linked to kidnappings, rapes, arson, robberies with deadly consequences, certain types of financial crimes, and a number of cases with political undertones. They were all cases the police had failed to solve, and in certain instances the very concept of justice had suffered a serious blow. An infant that had vanished from a pram; a resident of a retirement community who was found strangled in his apartment. A factory owner who was discovered murdered in a cemetery in Karup, or the case of the female diplomat at the zoo. Even though Carl hated to admit it, Piv Vestergård’s officiousness did have a certain value, even if it had been prompted by a desire to win votes. Because every one of these cases was bound to incense any cop worth his salt.

He lit another cigarette and glanced at Assad sitting across from him. A calm man, he thought. If Assad could keep himself occupied the way he was doing at the moment, maybe the situation would work out after all.

Carl put the three stacks of case files on the desk in front of him and looked at his watch. Another half hour with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Then they could both go home.

“What are these kinds of cases then, that you have there?”

Carl peered up at Assad’s dark eyebrows through the slits of his eyelids, which refused to open any further. The man was bending over the desk, holding the Handbook for Crime Technicians in one hand. He’d stuck his finger inside as a bookmark, indicating that he’d made quite a bit of headway in his reading. Or maybe he was just looking at the pictures; that was what a lot of people did.

“You know what, Assad? You’ve interrupted my train of thought.” Carl suppressed a yawn. “Oh well, what’s done is done. OK, so these are the cases that we’re going to be working on. Old cases that other people have given up on. You get it?”

Assad raised his eyebrows. “It is very interesting,” he said, picking up the folder on top. “Nobody knows anything about who did what, and like that?”

Carl stretched the muscles in his neck and looked at his watch. It wasn’t even three o’clock. Then he took the folder from Assad and studied it. “I’m not familiar with this case. It has something to do with the excavation on the island of Sprogø, when they were building the Great Belt Bridge between Zealand and Funen. They found a body out there, but that’s about as far as they got. The police in Slagelse handled the case. A bunch of slackers.”

“Slackers?” Assad nodded. “And this comes first for you?”

Carl looked at him, uncomprehending. “You’re asking me if this is the first case we’re going to work on? Is that what you mean?”

“Yes. Is this it then?”

Carl frowned. Too many questions at once. “I need to study all of the files before I make up my mind.”

“Is this very secret?” Assad carefully placed the folder back on the stack.

“The case documents? Yes, it’s likely that they contain information not meant for anyone else’s eyes.”

The dark man was silent for a moment. He looked like a boy whose request for an ice cream cone had been refused, but knows that if he stands there long enough, there’s still a chance he might get one. They stared at each other for so long that Carl ended up feeling confused.

“What?” he asked. “Is there something specific you want?”

“Since I am here and I promise to keep my lips sealed and locked and never say anything about what I read, can I look at the folders then?”

“That’s not your job, Assad.”

“No, but what is my job right now? I’ve came just to page forty-five in the book, and now my head wants something different.”

“I see.” Carl looked around to find some other challenges, if not for Assad’s head, then for his well-proportioned upper arms. He could see that there really wasn’t much for Assad to do. “Well, if you promise me on all you hold sacred that you won’t talk with anyone else but me about what you read, then go ahead.” He pushed one of the stacks of folders a couple of inches toward Assad. “There are three piles here, so don’t get them mixed up. I’ve worked out an excellent system, which has taken me a long time to devise. And just remember: No talking to anyone else about these cases, Assad.” He turned to his computer. “And one more thing, Assad. They’re my cases, and I’m really busy; you can see for yourself how many there are. So you shouldn’t expect me to discuss the cases with you. You’ve been hired to do the cleaning and make the coffee and drive me around. If you don’t have anything to do, it’s all right with me if you want to read the files. But that has nothing to do with your job. OK?”

“OK, yes.” He stood there a moment, staring at the center pile of folders. “It is some special cases that lie by themselves. I can understand it. I will take the top three folders. I will not get them mixed all up. I will keep them in the folders by themselves over in my room. When you need them, then just shout, I then bring them again.”

Carl watched Assad leave the office with three folders under his arm, and the Handbook for Crime Technicians at the ready. It had him really worried.

No more than an hour later Assad was once again standing next to Carl’s desk. In the meantime, Carl had been thinking about Hardy. Poor Hardy, who had asked his colleague to kill him. But how could Carl do that? These were not the sort of thoughts that would lead to anything constructive.

Assad placed one of the folders in front of Carl. “Here is the only case that I remember for myself. It happened exactly while I was taking Danish language lessons so we read about it in the newspapers. It was so very interesting. That was what I thought back then. Also now.”