Free The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen Page B

been aware that this could happen one day,” the chairwoman said quietly. “That it finally happened yesterday is just too gruesome to think about. I’m really still rather shaken by it. Christian probably did it because so few came, I think. It could be a punishment for all of us in the community.”
    “Nonsense, Maren,” interjected Bolette Elleboe, turning toward Carl. “That’s typical Maren, such a gentle and impressionable soul. Habersaat did it because he was tired of the man he’d become, and that’s the way it was, if you want my opinion!”
    “You don’t seem especially shocked, but why not exactly? It must’ve been a very violent event to witness, wasn’t it?” asked Rose.
    “Listen, darling,” said Bolette Elleboe. “I’ve worked as a social worker in the back of beyond in the settlements in Greenland for five years, so it takes more than that to shock me. I don’t doubt that I’ve seen more shotguns used for the wrong reason than most. But of course it affected me. You just have to move on, though, right?”
    Rose sat silently for a moment and observed her, stood up, and walked over to the window overlooking the street, turned around to face the small gathering, raised her index finger on her left hand up to her temple, pretended to shoot, and fell a step to the side.
    Rose looked at Bolette Elleboe. “Was it here and like that that it happened?”
    “Yes, I guess. You can just look at the floor and see the remains of the stain. They won’t get me cleaning it anymore. I’ll be calling a cleaning company.”
    “You seem irritated, Bolette. Is it because he did it here?” asked Assad, heaping sugar in his cup along with a few drops of coffee from the thermos.
    “Irritated? You know what, it’s just bad karma that he shot himself in this room. He could at least have done it at home or gone down to the cliffs. I don’t think it was very considerate of our little hall that he did it here.”
    “Bad karma?” Assad shook his head of curls uncomprehendingly.
    “Would you perhaps find it especially cheerful to have to sit in this room at association meetings and eat while still envisioning what happened here in front of you?”
    “That can only be the case for you two. There weren’t so many of you after all from the association at the reception, right?” Rose said pointedly.
    “No. But there is still a hole in the painting and a wreck of a wall at the back, isn’t there?”
    Bolette Elleboe certainly wasn’t thrown off-balance easily.
    “Right! But at least we’ll finally get that wall plastered after the huge hole the technicians left when they scraped the bullet out. I’ve actually been agitating for that for years, so that’s something at least. Look how ugly the wall is. It’s made of aerated concrete, how shabby could it be! So thanks for that, Habersaat, you did something useful.”
    Cynicism was apparently thriving out here in the wild east.
    “Don’t take any notice of Bolette,” the chairwoman almost whispered. “She is just as shaken up by this as I am. We’ve just all got our own way of dealing with it.”
    “Try and stand like you did before, Rose,” said Assad as he got up and stood in front of her. “Now I’m a witness and you’re Habersaat. I want to . . .”
    But Rose didn’t hear anything. She just stood, staring at the painting that the bullet had hit. Not because it was a piece of art that would go down in history. Just a sun, branches, and birds in flight.
    “Yes, he hit the bird flying there, right in the bull’s-eye. Strange, it didn’t fall down.” Bolette laughed. “But at least we’re free from that eyesore.”
    “You don’t like the painting either, then?” asked Assad as he approached. “It’s really good, but not as good as the painting of the beach next to it, is it?”
    “I think you need to clean the sleep from your eyes, my friend,” she answered. “The man is a fake. He could paint ten of those in a day.”
    Rose looked