“Why?” Søren asked.
“They’re closing Parasitology. Hanne has three years to complete her research, then her department will be dismantled. However, she’s convinced that the Faculty Council would love to get rid of her before her three years are up, given half a chance. They would need a reason to dismiss her, and if it turns out the parasites came from her department, if she has so little control of her stock that parasites ended up in her colleagues’ tissue, they can fire her on the spot. Obviously, she wants to be prepared and doesn’t want to go down without a fight.
“And I’m sure Mrs. Helland is lying.” Anna fed the shark, hoping he would forget all about Tybjerg.
“What makes you think so?” Søren was fascinated.
“She claims Professor Helland was fit and healthy. There were no limits to his vigor and vitality, according to his wife and that’s bullshit. I saw him, I know he was sick as a dog.” Anna told Søren about the incident in the parking lot, suddenly embarrassed that she hadn’t mentioned it earlier. “He scared the living daylights out of me, and he was clearly seriously ill,” she concluded.
“When did you speak to Mrs. Helland?” Søren asked.
“I visited her today,” Anna admitted. “I got this.” She lifted the pendant free from her blouse and looked shyly at Søren. “Helland must have had it made for me. My graduation present. Mrs. Helland wanted to give it to me before the funeral.”
Søren was deep in thought.
“She’s lying,” Anna repeated.
“Anything else?” Søren asked, scrutinizing Anna. She had never felt so cooperative in all her life.
“I think Professor Freeman is in Denmark.”
Søren nodded slowly. He already knew that.
“How do you know?” he said.
Crap. She had this information from Dr. Tybjerg. She decided to lie.
“There’s a bird symposium at the Bella Centre,” she said. “I saw his name in the program.”
Søren bought it.
“Any chance Dr. Tybjerg’s disappearance is linked to Freeman’s arrival?” Søren suggested.
“No, how could it be?” Anna said, innocently.
“Anna,” Søren said earnestly. “I need to be clear about this. In your opinion, could Helland’s and Johannes’s deaths be linked to your dissertation? Your topic is a scientific controversy about the origin of birds, which Helland was heavily involved in, right? Helland, Tybjerg, and the Canadian scientist, Clive Freeman. But where does Johannes fit in? I can’t see it. I’m just a stupid cop, and I can’t see it. Murders are usually triggered by jealousy, drugs, money, or family issues, and I just don’t buy that someone might kill because their scientific reputation was threatened; because of a dissertation.”
Anna pondered this.
“Johannes helped me,” she said. “He is… was a science theorist and very talented. He helped me extract aspects of scientific theory that are relevant to controversies in biology. I’ve used those arguments to demolish Professor Freeman.” Anna suddenly looked directly at Søren. “That’s what my dissertation is about. I destroy him.” She gulped. “Johannes knew a vast amount about Karl Popper and his ideas about falsification, about Thomas Kuhn, who introduced the concept of paradigm in the 1960s, and especially about Lorraine J. Daston and her concept of scientific moral economies… I know, it took me weeks to grasp, so don’t feel ashamed if you think I’m speaking gibberish. The point is that plenty of vertebrate scientists and ornithologists have attacked Freeman over the years. Attacked his anatomical conclusions and his fossil analyses, and let me tell you something: he doesn’t care; he evades the issue, no matter what’s thrown at him. Before 2000, before Sinosauropteryx was found in China, you would often hear Freeman say, ‘Show me a feather that grew on a dinosaur, then I’ll believe your nonsense.’ And when he was finally shown a feathered dinosaur, his response was either: ‘That’s not a feather!’ or, if he couldn’t deny the structure was a feather, he would say: ‘That’s not from a dinosaur, just from a very old bird, which would, of course, have feathers!’ The problem is Freeman’s so well-versed in anatomy and physiology that it’s impossible for most people to take him on. But no one has ever tried to attack his underlying scientific principles. No one has ever proved he breaks the most fundamental scientific rules.”
“Which are?”
Anna was on the verge of giving up.
“It’s a bit complicated,” she began. “But internal contradictions, for example, are banned if you want to call your work scientific, and Freeman’s work is littered with inconsistencies. Further, he rejects generally accepted analytical methods. He’s entitled to do so, but only if he can argue convincingly for an alternative, and we don’t know if he can because he has never tried.” Anna paused and looked at Søren. One of his eyes was drooping slightly.
“I don’t believe for a moment that Professor Freeman has anything to do with this. If Freeman wants to prevent my dissertation from being published, then there are several people he needs to kill before Johannes and Helland. Me, for example. And Dr. Tybjerg.”
“Yes,” Søren said, looking at Anna. “But the reason we can’t find Tybjerg might be that he’s dead. I’m starting to think you should be put under police protection.”
“If there is a link between the two deaths,” Anna objected. She had absolutely no desire to have the World’s Most Irritating Detective following her round the clock. And, besides, Dr. Tybjerg wasn’t dead.
“Yes, if,” Søren said, suddenly looking very tired.
“I know the cysticerci were between three to four months old,” Anna continued. “I think this means even though Johannes and Helland died in the same week, they were technically killed at two completely different times. Johannes yesterday”—she swallowed—“and Helland possibly as far back as June or July.”
“We won’t know until tomorrow whether Johannes was also infected with cysticerci,” Søren said quietly. Anna stared at him.
“Who is the man who has waited for you twice, Anna?” Søren suddenly asked.
“How do you know about him?”
“Mrs. Snedker told me,” Søren said.
“I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “But I know it’s not Freeman. Maggie says he was young.”
“Haven’t you wondered about it?”
“At first I was convinced it must have been Johannes,” she said, “and I texted him to find out. When it turned out not to be him, then I started wondering. But if… if his killer has his cell,” Anna gulped, “maybe Johannes really was here, and the text messages are lying…. Perhaps Johannes came to tell me something? But then, why would he run away? That doesn’t make any sense.” She looked away.
Søren rose. “Tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” he said, pointing at her, “and don’t be late.”
Anna shook her head.
When she had closed the door after him, she gave him the finger.
Thirty seconds later, someone rattled Anna’s mail slot. Anna opened the door.
“So, what’s the latest?” Maggie whispered. Anna could hear that Søren hadn’t even reached the ground floor yet.
“Maggie, I’m exhausted,” Anna whispered back. “Tomorrow.”
Maggie looked disappointed and had turned around when something occurred to Anna.
“Maggie,” she said, taking the old lady’s hand. It was velvety. “If the man who waited for me comes back, then…” She looked gravely at her. “Then I want you to call the police.”
Maggie looked momentarily frightened, then she said, “I’ll tell you one thing, you’re a much more exciting neighbor than Mrs. Lerby. When she lived here, nothing ever happened.”