Christian Jungersen - The Exception

‘How long have you known this?’

Ever since Anne-Lise found out how badly Camilla was traumatised by bullying at school, she has kept an eye on her colleague to see if she can somehow divine the truth. But Camilla is motionless and her face reveals nothing. It never does.

‘I must admit I thought something was up. You’ve been away so often.’

‘Well, we’ve met other challenges head-on before. But this time it’s different: it’s one of our own who is undermining our fight for survival.’

Anne-Lise stiffens. Has Paul somehow guessed her feelings? She hasn’t let on. Perhaps he has discovered something about one of the others? Anne-Lise glances round the small circle. Camilla, Iben, Malene — all look shocked. Or is it guilty? She looks at Paul.

He seems unaware of the effect of his words, and carries on regardless. ‘Frederik Thorsteinsson has accepted the post as DIHR Research Coordinator. In other words, he will become one of Morten Kjærum’s immediate subordinates, starting five months from now. But Frederik isn’t the one who told me. I was informed by a friend, who sits on the board of the Institute — someone totally reliable.’

Paul takes a breath. ‘Frederik’s new position means that it is in his interest to have our Centre controlled from within DIHR. Never mind that he’s a member of our board. He’s been completely duplicitous.’

Malene asks several questions that demonstrate that she, like Paul, is aware of who the decision-makers are, who’s who in the ministries and among the NGO administrators.

‘To protect our Centre we need to get Frederik off our board,’ Paul continues. ‘He has not declared that he is compromised when it comes to dealing with this challenge to our independence, so I have no option but to make Ole aware of Frederik’s deception. But, neither Ole nor I can sack a board member. Only someone from the Ministry can do that.’

Anne-Lise is excluded from this world of high-level politics, but it obviously fascinates Iben and Malene. They readily agree with everything Paul says, but it occurs to Anne-Lise that Malene is closer to Frederik than anyone else at the Centre. If by next year they are part of DIHR, then at a stroke Malene will have become the boss’s favourite, displacing Iben and her strong links with Paul. Anne-Lise feels that she has hit on something worth thinking about, but at the moment cannot figure out what it means.

‘You might as well know that I have already found a good replacement for Frederik. There’s one clear candidate and I have total confidence in him. I don’t know if any of you know of him … Maybe you’re too young. He used to be all over the media and even a couple of years ago he was still writing brilliant articles for Information . I’m talking about the journalist and Africa expert Gunnar Hartvig Nielsen.’

Malene looks up with a pleased expression. ‘Oh, yes! I know of Gunnar! Of course.’

Iben says nothing, but her expression has changed. Again, something is happening but Anne-Lise can’t quite tell what it is.

‘Gunnar is highly respected for his outstanding writing on South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and many other places. With him on board, our profile would be greatly enhanced. People take him seriously. I can’t think why he isn’t already on dozens of committees, but he isn’t. Gunnar doesn’t sell himself the way Frederik does. Anyway, I’ve asked him to come and meet us here, so that we can show him what we do.’

Anne-Lise watches Iben as Paul speaks. She is picking at one of the springs on her desk lamp. The spring suddenly works itself free and hits the metal arm of the lamp with a loud ‘Ping!’ Iben jumps. The lamp is too heavy for just one spring and slumps slowly down towards the desktop.

Anne-Lise has seen Gunnar in the flesh once before. A few years ago she and Nicola went to the Danish National Gallery and he was there. At the time, he was a regular guest on TV News as the expert on links between tribal culture and corruption in Africa. Both of them had recognised him even though he looked quite different in real life.

They had walked slowly by as he explained to the lovely, much younger woman at his side what he felt and thought about Abildgaard’s painting The Wounded Philoctetes . Nicola hadn’t read a line of Gunnar’s writings about Africa or anything else, but she too had thought he was special. They discreetly passed close behind him several times while he shared his experiences of other paintings with his companion.

The next day Anne-Lise stole a little time off work and got out a volume of Gunnar’s articles. She actually took the book home with her and read it in bed.

Paul interrupts her reverie. ‘You know, I’m positive he’ll be interested. His career has gone off course for some reason. The DCGI board will be just the thing to put him back on track. I had this vision of him cracking open a bottle after I phoned him last night.’

That evening, after listening to Anne-Lise talking about the new developments, Henrik responds.

‘Your boss can’t simply fire a member of his board. I realise he usually gets what he wants, but that’s …’

‘What can Paul do to get rid of Frederik?’

‘He’d have to rig up some kind of trap or invent a mistake that Frederik has made. That might do the trick.’

‘Like what?’

Henrik laughs. ‘How about the deputy chairman sending threatening emails to Paul’s staff?’

Anne-Lise is so relieved that the Centre might come under DIHR that she laughs too. Later that evening, as soon as the children are asleep, Henrik pulls her along to the black sofa. She lies down on her back, resting her head on his lap.

‘I’ve done something I shouldn’t have,’ he says.

She detects a hint of a smile and realises there is nothing to be worried about.

‘It’s quite inappropriate and I could be fired, but if you can assume a false identity and pretend you’re a singer in a choir and I don’t … The thing is, I printed out a copy of Camilla’s account statement. I can’t see anything out of the ordinary, but maybe you can. I’ve brought it home with me.’

They exchange a grin. Henrik has more to confess.

‘As it happens, Malene and Iben also have accounts with us. I have printouts of their statements as well.’

Anne-Lise sits up and gives him a big kiss. Henrik produces the documents, and they study them together, starting with Camilla’s.

Predictably, there are withdrawals to cover credit cards, child-care fees, mobile-phone bills and purchases of food at a low-price supermarket chain, clothes at H&M and toys at Toys-R-Us. There are also small payments to B & Bs and cheap restaurants in Sweden, membership fees to the Danish Camping Union and to the Copenhagen Postal Office Choir.

They take their time and examine every entry. After a while they spot something surprising. Camilla gives money to the middle-of-the-road Centrum Democrats. During the last few years she must have taken an interest in the party’s publications and meetings. She might even have gone to the meetings straight from work. If she did, she has kept it to herself, undoubtedly because she felt that her political views would not go down well with Iben and Malene — which would have been true, of course.

In itself, there is nothing suspicious about contributing to the Centrum Democrats, but it proves that Camilla thinks seriously about things other than cheap fridges and trips to adventure playgrounds with the kids. If nothing else, Anne-Lise now knows that Camilla can keep a secret.

Once Henrik and Anne-Lise have finished looking through Camilla’s account, they go to the kitchen to make a pitcher of hot elderberry cordial. They got into the habit of drinking cordials in the evening when Anne-Lise still took the time to make her own juice, extracting the liquid from berries from the garden. Now they continue the custom with store-bought juice.