Christian Jungersen - The Exception

Camilla points at the bottle of whisky in front of her. ‘I’ve had two shots already.’

The bottle was a gift to Paul after a lecture. He has brought it over, together with a few small tumblers. Camilla gives a nervous laugh. It’s impossible to tell what she is feeling.

Malene wants to tell Camilla how very fond of her she is, but cannot think of a way to put it. ‘Have you called Finn?’

Camilla trembles. ‘I have. He wanted to come over straight away, but I told him there was no need.’

Once Finn was married to Camilla’s best friend. The friend’s advanced uterine cancer was diagnosed within days of her giving birth to a baby daughter. During the first two months after the diagnosis, Camilla took a lot of time off work. Later she moved in to help Finn look after both his wife and the new baby.

During the eighteen months that followed, Camilla’s friend steadily weakened and finally she died. At first Camilla went back to live in her own place, but now she has a son with Finn and has moved into his home on Amager Island. Finn works as a plumber, mostly on Amager. Camilla brings him to the summer and Christmas office parties. He’s a small, bald man, but friendly and always ready to share a joke.

Malene goes over to Camilla and puts her arms round her. It’s an impulse; they have never hugged before. Camilla’s body is warm and Malene realises to her surprise that she is close to tears as well. But she doesn’t start to cry. Instead she shouts, in an odd voice that seems to rise from somewhere deep inside her: ‘Camilla, we won’t let them get away with it!’

She hears Iben speak behind her. ‘Malene? You didn’t react like this when we were emailed.’

Malene steps away from Camilla. It’s true. She is furious with whoever has done this, but can’t think why she’s reacting so strongly.

‘I know. But it’s so …’

Iben watches her.

‘They shouldn’t be sending this stuff to Camilla!’ She stops and turns to Camilla. ‘You haven’t done anything. We’re the ones who wrote the articles. It isn’t fair to pick on you!’

They can hear the lift stop at their landing. The door opens and Bjarne steps out. He is the Centre’s freelance IT adviser and technician and has come to move the connections serving Camilla’s desk.

Anne-Lise’s voice is strident. ‘We must do everything we can to find out who’s writing these emails.’

They nod, but nobody looks in her direction.

There they stand. Everyone agrees, naturally. But what can they do?

Nothing that they haven’t done already.

When Bjarne has been told where the desk is meant to go, he wanders off to the small storeroom where the office server is kept, as well as leads and other pieces of equipment he’ll need. Paul is the only one sitting down. He asks Camilla if she would prefer to go home and try to recover from the shock. ‘Thanks, Paul. But no, I won’t. There’s nobody at home. I’d rather stay here with all of you.’

‘Camilla, why don’t you sit in a meeting room if you want some quiet?’ Iben suggests.

‘What I’d really like to do is lie down. Just for a bit, on the couch in the library.’

Malene squeezes her arm. ‘You do what feels right for you. I’ll deal with any phone calls today.’

‘You’re all so sweet and kind to me.’ Camilla looks around from one colleague to another. Her expression is still distressed, but in a more familiar way. ‘I wasn’t very pleasant to you when you were sent these emails.’

Malene comforts her. ‘But Camilla, things are different now. Our mails arrived at the same time. Now it’s clear to all of us that it’s not just a one-off. That makes the whole thing more serious. For us too.’

Malene glances at Anne-Lise. She doesn’t look that frightened. Why not? Now it seems that all the Centre’s staff are under threat, so shouldn’t her body language be more tense?

Camilla worries. ‘But I should’ve—’

Malene interrupts her. ‘Camilla, you mustn’t blame yourself. All you have to do now is decide whether you’d rather stay here and let me take the phone calls, or if you’d prefer to rest on the couch. Or whatever else you want to do.’

Camilla thanks her but then starts crying again. Paul gets up and says that he must notify the police.

Malene and Iben escort Camilla to the couch, with Anne-Lise trailing behind them. Once they are in the library aisles, Anne-Lise seems to feel that Camilla has entered her area of responsibility and comes closer.

‘Shall I take it from here? There’s a blanket somewhere and some water, and if there is anything else, I’m sure …’

Malene intends to reply, but Iben speaks first: ‘Camilla, what do you think? Is there anything you’d like?’

But all Camilla wants to do is rest quietly, so Malene and Iben leave her alone.

Bjarne is back in the Winter Garden now, on his knees behind the set of pigeonholes, which he has pushed away from the wall. To check the new connections for Camilla’s desk, he wants it moved out of the way. Malene and Iben decide they can do it. To protect the floor they jam wads of junk mail under its legs and together push the desk to its new position, Malene shoving the desk to avoid taking any of the weight directly on her hands. Then they move a couple of small shelves, the monitor, the plants and Camilla’s other bits and pieces, trying to arrange everything as nicely as possible. Anne-Lise comes in to join them, leaving the door between the Winter Garden and the library open for the first time.

The three of them dawdle restlessly for a while. Iben and Anne-Lise push two large shelving units sideways to give Camilla more light and air round her new workplace. Bjarne curses when he discovers that the networking cables have been laid in a strange way, which means that a new set must be joined up to the server.

All this should satisfy Anne-Lise. They are working together ‘as a team’, and Iben chats to her. Malene ought to join in, but can find nothing to say.

When Anne-Lise returns to her desk, the door is still left open. Everyone will be able to hear what everyone else is saying from now on. At least, Anne-Lise can pick up what the rest of them are talking about. Anne-Lise herself never says anything, of course.

It’s almost lunch time. Iben and Malene still haven’t done any proper work. Iben nods to tell Malene they should talk. They meet in the copier room.

Iben stands very close to Malene and speaks in a whisper: ‘I have the impression that Camilla is scared of a man, someone she knows.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s probably nothing … I know we shouldn’t speculate about every little thing, but didn’t it strike you how strongly she reacted to this? Two large shots of whisky at nine o’clock in the morning? Then resting on the couch or sleeping or whatever, because she won’t go home and won’t go back to work either?’

Malene hadn’t thought of this, but Iben has a point.

Iben has more to say. ‘When Camilla phoned Finn I overheard her say “I knew he’d be back.”’

‘Anything else?’

‘Nothing. Just that.’

‘What does it mean?’

‘No idea. I tried to ask her, but she avoided the question.’

The light in the copier room is bleak. Malene backs away a little.

‘Couldn’t she explain at all? It couldn’t be about a friend coming to visit or something like that?’

‘No. I have no idea what she was going on about but it wasn’t like that. I could have misheard, of course.’

‘Well, yes. I mean, Camilla is so sensible. She wouldn’t drag us into something dangerous. Did you ask her again?’

‘I did, but indirectly. She could be frightened of someone she knows, and that’s why she’s taking the emails even more seriously than we did.’