Free Only One Life by Sara Blædel Page B

thumb and forefinger as his face once more took on an absent look.
    Mik took over and pointedly asked Samra’s father to describe in detail the period of time when he was last with his daughter.
    Ibrahim calmed down a little, and Louise could almost see him pulling himself together and preparing to go through the last time he had been with his daughter. They waited as his breathing became regular again.
    “Tuesday,” he said, savoring the memory of the weekday. “I was down at the boat,” he continued, explaining that he had a small sailboat moored in Holbæk’s marina.
    Louise asked him to clarify where it was and wrote a note that she should have someone look into how long it took to sail from Holbæk over to Udby Cove, where the Hønsehalsen peninsula jutted out.
    “When did you get home?” Mik asked after they had noted all the details about the boat so they could find it later.
    “Around seven o’clock.”
    “Was Samra home when you came back?”
    He thought carefully before nodding.
    “Did anything particular happen that night?” Louise asked.
    He shrugged slightly and said they had had a visit from family.
    “Who from?”
    Louise was starting to get annoyed that they were having to drag everything out of him. She had hoped that they would be able to get him talking without having to squeeze each word out so they would have his own description and sequence of events to go by.
    “My brother,” he replied.
    “The one from Benløse?”
    He nodded.
    “You see each other a lot,” she noted.
    “That’s normal in my family.”
    “Was Samra with you?” Mik asked.
    The father shook his head and said that she had spent the whole evening in her room.
    “She was doing her homework,” he added.
    “But you said good night to her?”
    Again there was a pause before he explained that usually his wife was the one who took care of that sort of thing.
    “I was in the living room.”
    “We know that you were reported for domestic violence previously against your wife and daughter. Will you tell us what happened?” Louise asked.
    The father winced and looked down at the table.
    “Have there been problems between you and your daughter since then?” she continued.
    He still didn’t respond and they let him sit in silence. “It was a misunderstanding,” he finally said. “Nothing bad. I lost my temper.”
    “What set off your anger?” Louise asked quietly.
    “It was my son, and Samra stuck her nose into it.”
    “How?”
    “It’s not her place to make a fuss about the way I raise my son,” he said simply.
    “What did your son do?” Mik wanted to know.
    “He lied to me. But I had misunderstood and made a mistake. I apologized, and my wife came home again. You can see that everything got sorted out.”
    Mik coughed briefly before meeting the father’s eyes and asking: “Did you kill your daughter?”
    Ibrahim al-Abd’s face shut down completely and he started crying as he vigorously shook his head and looked back into Mik’s eyes without shame.
    Louise and Mik quickly looked at each other and agreed that that would have to be enough for now. They asked him to give them his son’s cell phone number so they could get in touch with him.
    “Can we get permission to see her?” the father asked, turning around in the doorway on his way out, tears still running down his cheeks.
    They both nodded and said they would call him about a time when he and his wife could drive over to the Pathology Lab in Copenhagen and see their daughter one last time.
    He nodded his thanks and zipped his jacket all the way up to his throat before turning around and heading down the corridor past the offices where everyone was hard at work on the investigation into his daughter’s murder.
    Louise stood watching him leave until he disappeared out the door.

8
    L OUISE AND MIK SAT IN THEIR OFFICE TOGETHER WITH STORM AND told him how it had gone, and Louise called Samra’s teacher and principal and asked them to notify the