Mikkel Birkegaard - The Library of Shadows

At that moment both Katherina and Tom got to their feet. They tilted their heads and looked up at the ceiling, as if they were listening for sounds on the roof.

'What?' asked Jon, looking from one to the other. Tom closed his eyes, his forehead deeply furrowed.

'No trespassing,' whispered Katherina, putting a finger to her lips. 'The first sign.'

Jon discovered he was holding his breath. Even though he couldn't hear anything, he could tell how tense the other two were. Katherina had closed her eyes, and very slowly she raised her hand towards Jon, to indicate he should stay seated. He didn't move.

'They're gone,' said Tom after more than a minute. He opened his eyes at the same moment as Katherina did, nodding in agreement.

'They?' said Jon.

'There were at least two people who read the sign,' Katherina explained. 'After that, nothing.'

'It happens often,' Tom reassured them. 'Folk get lost or try to take a short cut. Most of them turn round when they see the first sign.' He sat down again, and Katherina followed his example.

'I don't know many who can receive from such a distance,' said Tom, giving Katherina an appreciative nod. 'Luca told me about your powers.'

'He deserves all the credit,' said Katherina.

'That's one thing we have in common,' said Tom with a smile. 'I was his pupil, just like you. But we all have a natural limit, beyond which we can't go, no matter how zealously we train. For some people the limit is set much lower than what you've just displayed.'

'Can we get back to what we were talking about?' asked Jon impatiently.

'Yes, of course,' said Tom, but then he stopped.

'You were saying that something happened after you were banished,' said Katherina.

Tom nodded solemnly. 'Several things happened. First of all, the number of events increased. They were now so obvious that others in the Bibliophile Society also realized that something was wrong. But instead of looking outside the Society, they turned their attention on their own ranks. The accusations became rampant, and distrust grew between the two divisions of transmitters and receivers.' He fixed his eyes on Jon. 'Luca tried to keep the whole thing together, and he succeeded for a long time, even though factions arose, wanting to split the Bibliophile Society in two.'

'Kortmann?' Jon interjected.

'He was the spokesman for the transmitters, yes,' Tom confirmed. 'Kortmann was an ambitious man, but as long as Luca was at the helm, the group stayed together, however tenuously.' He stopped again and looked down at his hands.

'Then what?' asked Jon.

'Then… then your mother was murdered,' said Tom quietly.

In the back of his mind Jon had somehow known this would come. Ever since the reason behind Lee's suicide had been suggested, the possibility had been nagging at his subconscious. But he'd managed to suppress it. Now Tom's dry statement that the same thing had happened to Marianne struck Jon like a blow to the chest. He gasped for air and bowed his head as he concentrated on his breathing. Next to him Katherina shifted position. He nodded to indicate that he was okay.

'Luca was devastated, of course,' Tom went on. 'He blamed himself for what happened, as if he were the one who had pushed her from the sixth-floor window. Of course he knew that in a purely physical sense he hadn't had anything to do with it, but he was convinced that it was our investigation of the Shadow Organization that had provoked the murder. He couldn't use the knowledge. He didn't have the resources to do anything with it. Instead he opted out. Out of the Bibliophile Society, out of his family, out of life beyond the walls of Libri di Luca. The bookshop became his refuge during all his waking hours.'

'Yes, I know,' said Jon tersely. 'That part I remember very clearly.'

'He sent you to a foster home to protect you,' said Tom earnestly. 'He knew they wouldn't go after him; they'd go after the ones he loved. Marianne and you. After losing your mother, he wanted to do everything he could to protect the family he had left, even if it meant never seeing you again.'

Jon's feeling of nausea was getting worse. He heard what Tom Nшrreskov was saying, registered the words and attempted to assign some meaning to them. In the world that Luca found himself in back then, there was probably some degree of logic to what he'd done. But compared with Jon's own memories from that period, the whole thing made no sense. The leap was too great from believing that his father hadn't wanted anything to do with him to accepting that he had practically sacrificed himself for his son's sake.

'Why didn't he ever say anything?'

'Out of fear. He didn't dare say anything to anybody. The risk that the Society had been infiltrated kept him from seeking help from the group. For a long time after Marianne's death he didn't even come to visit me. Where was he supposed to turn?'

'What about Iversen?' said Katherina. 'Couldn't he help?'

'He certainly did,' replied Tom. 'More than he knows himself, but only by offering support, as a friend and assistant in the bookshop. He made sure that Luca remembered to eat, and he kept him updated on what went on in the Bibliophile Society. The break between transmitters and receivers quickly became a reality after Luca resigned, and apparently that helped. The events stopped, or at least they were no longer as blatant for those who didn't know what to look for. Kortmann became the head of the Society on the transmitter side, while Clara took charge of the receivers. There was an idyllic sense of peace for a while.'

'So Iversen doesn't know about the Shadow Organization?'

'No,' said Tom firmly. 'It's not that we didn't trust him, but in some ways he's like an open book, if you'll excuse the expression. He would have ended up giving away what we knew about the Shadow Organization, completely inadvertently, of course, if he had found out what we knew. That's why we decided very early on not to involve him. For his own good.'

'What happened with the plan?' asked Katherina. 'Were you ever contacted by the Shadow Organization?'

Tom shook his head. 'Never.' He clasped his hands in front of him. 'But they might have had a hard time finding me. During that time I was pretty paranoid. Truth be told, Marianne's suicide nearly scared the life out of me, and I tried to protect myself as best I could. After a while I left everything behind and moved out here.' He let his gaze slide over the room. 'Only Luca knew where I was, or at least so I thought.' His red lips opened in a big smile. 'Until today.'

'Shh,' said Katherina suddenly, raising her hand.

Tom tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes. As he sat there on the ottoman with his hands clasped, he looked like a meditating monk. Jon turned to face Katherina, sitting beside him.

'No trespassing,' she whispered.

Jon nodded that he understood and leaned back against the sofa. Right now he wished he could hear what they heard so that he could at least participate.

'Private property,' said Katherina.

'The second sign,' Tom interjected.

Jon looked from one to the other. They both had their eyes closed and were sitting in the same position as when it started, concentrating and not daring to move.

'Trespassers will be reported to the police,' growled Tom. 'They're in the woods.'

'Three people,' Katherina added.

If he hadn't been afraid of breaking their concentration, Jon would have jumped up and run outside to see who was approaching. But he didn't dare do anything except sit motionless on the sofa. Jon let his eyes scan the room. The mosaic of book spines made the room seem less empty than it actually was, maybe because the books were apparently so randomly placed. He leaned forward towards the nearest bookshelf.

'No, Jon,' exclaimed Katherina loudly.