Three Dog Night by Elsebeth Egholm Read Free Book Online

up.
    â€˜We use a progressive seabed search technique. We put out one hundred and twenty-metre lines and divide the harbour into a grid. The divers feel their way around.’
    â€˜Through fish waste?’ Mark asked.
    Allan Vraa nodded.
    â€˜It’s not a pleasant job, but it can be done and it’ll take about twenty-four hours, I would guess, but that means we’d cover one hundred per cent of the harbour. We work with two divers at a time.’
    â€˜Will you be diving yourself?’ Anna Bagger asked him.
    He hunched his shoulders.
    â€˜I do sometimes. But we happen to have a diver on standby. She lives just outside GrenÃ¥.’
    â€˜She?’
    Even Anna Bagger seemed surprised.
    Vraa nodded.
    â€˜The only frogwoman in the FKP. She’s good. She did her training at Kongsøre and got top marks at graduation five years ago. She was the one who found that body in Vejle Fjord a couple of months ago, if you remember.’
    One of the young divers nodded emphatically.
    â€˜Kir’s good.’
    Everyone remembered the Vejle case, of course. A woman had gone missing after a night out. Witnesses had seen a man sailing in the fjord and dumping something mysterious.
    â€˜Vejle was straightforward once we had the witness statement,’ the commander said. ‘But for that, it would have been impossible. An entire fjord. It would’ve taken us over a month, and besides, bodies have a tendency to drift.’
    â€˜The current in GrenÃ¥ can be strong,’ Mark said. ‘I heard about a man who fell into the harbour and was found in Norway.’
    The commander nodded.
    â€˜When you’re dealing with dead bodies anything is possible.’
    â€˜But surely they surface at some point?’
    This was the dog handler asking.
    â€˜Depending on the temperature of the water, the body will sink during the first seven to ten days – in our case possibly longer due to the cold. Then it’ll surface for one day before sinking again. It’s the gases that cause the body to float.’
    â€˜If Nina Bjerre fell into the marina, she won’t be surfacing any time soon,’ Anna Bagger concluded. ‘Which gives us even more reason to start looking for her today.’
    â€˜What about all the fish sludge you mentioned?’ asked Martin Nielsen, Anna Bagger’s colleague. ‘Won’t the body just sink into it, so you won’t be able to find it even by feeling your way?’
    The commander shook his head.
    â€˜Even if the seabed is very soft and the body has sunk, a submerged body doesn’t weigh enough for it to sink right to the bottom. The divers will have their arms in the sludge all the way. If she’s there, we’ll find her.’
    He cleared his throat.
    â€˜I understand you found a body in the area yesterday. I was just wondering if the two cases might be related.’
    Anna Bagger shook her head.
    â€˜No obvious link, but of course we’re looking into the possibility.’
    â€˜Do you know who he is?’ Vraa asked her.
    â€˜He’s been identified as a petty criminal who was in East Jutland Prison until last spring for handling stolen goods and assault. His name’s Ramses Bilal and he was born in Egypt. The post-mortem is being carried out as we speak.’
    Mark had seen his share of post-mortems during his time in Copenhagen. He didn’t envy the police officers watching the process. Anna Bagger followed up on Vraa’s previous question.
    â€˜It’s hard to see how Ramses Bilal could be involved in the disappearance of a nineteen-year-old woman from a New Year’s party. The two of them move in completely different circles, and anyway Gjerrild Cliff is at least ten kilometres from GrenÃ¥ Harbour.’
    They set off in a procession, but without flashing blue lights. Mark thought that if this had been Copenhagen, the media would have been ready and waiting the moment they left the police