Free Three, Four...Better Lock Your Door by Willow Rose Page A

anything you don't interfere in?"
    "No. It's not like that. It's just that ..." I stopped myself. "You know what? You're right. It's none of my business anyway."
    "That's right," Sune said.
    I slammed the door to the car and walked towards him. "Come on," I said. "A neighbor? Really?"
    "Please tell me what's wrong with that ..." Sune sighed.
    "Why? Why would you rather place your son with a complete stranger than have him spend the day with his best friend in the whole world?"
    "Just stay out of it," Sune said and got into his car.
    I exhaled and gesticulated resigned with my arms. "Fine. Have it your way. Punish your son for no reason."
    I slammed my hand against the steering wheel several times on the way back to the office cursing last night and the red wine. Sara was already in the editorial room.
    "Thought you'd need a little extra help listening in on the police today," she said with a smile.
    I was happy to see her. Mostly because that meant Sune and I didn't have to be alone all day. I needed him to stay and do a job for me and I really needed him to be in a good mood in order to persuade him to help me with this.
    Sara had brought carrot cake. It was Sune's favorite and I brought him a piece from the kitchen along with a freshly brewed cup of coffee. He was in the middle of uploading the pictures taken this morning. He looked up from the screen. Our eyes locked and for a second it felt like before. He smiled quickly. I shrugged and ate some of my cake. He picked his up and started eating.
    "So what do you want?" he asked.
    "What? Can't I bring you coffee and cake without wanting something from you? Maybe I just want to thank you for being at the scene early on a Saturday morning. It was really great that you were able to react this fast."
    "Still slower than the Express," he said. "That Christian guy was already there when I arrived. Can you believe that he does his own pictures? Some papers have started doing that, cutting out the photographer. Some journalists like Christian are trained to do both. Scary development. If it catches on I'll be out of work in a few years."
    I nodded pensively. I understood his concern. It was something that newspapers had started doing a lot lately. Even the TV stations were training their reporters to make their own shoots so they didn't have to pay for a cameraman as well. VJs they called it. Photojournalists were also getting more and more common on my old newspaper, Jyllandsposten, the national paper I worked for before I moved back to Karrebaeksminde.
    I shook my head. "Good photographers will always be in demand," I said.
    "I sure hope so," Sune said while eating his cake.
    "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry for earlier. It really was none of my business."
    Sune smiled shortly and nodded. "Well I'm sorry too." He paused and looked at me. "For everything. Today and yesterday."
    "It's okay," I said. "Water under the bridge."
    He nodded pensively. "So you never answered my question."
    "What question?"
    "What did you want?" he asked and pointed at the half-eaten carrot cake.
    "Oh. That. Well there is one thing I'd like to ask you to do for me ..."
    "I knew it." Sune leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Bring it on."
    "Well. You know how Christian said that he knew who the victim was?"
    "Yes. And?"
    "I really need to know that as well. I can't have him run the story before us. Jens-Ole will kill me. This is my story, this is our exclusive story. It has to stay that way. If the Express has some information that we don't then we need to find it. Maybe find it somewhere else than where they did. Maybe like somewhere we're not supposed to look."
    Sune stopped smiling. "I think that I know where this is going and the answer is no. I can't risk it, Rebekka. If the police catch me hacking into their systems and files I'll be locked up for a long time. I have a record, you know."
    "I know. I'm sorry," I said and walked back to my desk and sat down. "I shouldn't have asked. It was just stupid.