Death Sentence

‘Nah, he’s at home,’ Ironika remarked dryly.

I swallowed a mouthful of beer to hide my irritation. Judging from the expression on Finn’s face, he wished the ground would open up and swallow him.

‘I’m here with some friends, Stine and Anna. We’re going shopping afterwards.’

‘Uhu, that sounds expensive,’ Finn laughed. ‘But if you fancy some books, just let me know. On the house.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t think so.’

‘OK,’ Finn replied and nodded. A small pause arose. Finally, Finn turned his attention to me. ‘Frank, the interview starts in fifteen minutes and I’ve got something I need to show you first.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Give me a couple of minutes.’

‘Of course,’ Finn said and held out his hand to Ironika. ‘Good to see you again. Give my best to Line.’

‘I will,’ Ironika replied.

Finn Gelf exited and left us alone.

‘Is she all right?’ I asked.

‘Mum? Yes, she’s fine. Sometimes she overreacts for no reason, but she’s OK as far as I know.’

‘And Mathilde?’

‘She’s started secondary school. Teacher’s pet, she is.’

We laughed. I drank my beer. Ironika sipped her mineral water.

‘Tell me, why did you two really split up?’ she asked me out of the blue.

I nearly choked on my beer.

‘I think she still loves you,’ Ironika carried on. ‘She cuts interviews and reviews of your books out of the newspapers, and sometimes I hear them arguing about you.’

‘Eh, that’s a long story,’ I stuttered.

‘Was it because of me?’

‘No, absolutely not!’ I set down my beer and grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘Please don’t ever think that. Everything that happened was my fault, no one else’s.’

Her face took on a frightened expression, so I let go of her instantly and took a step back. ‘I’m sorry.’

Ironika shook her head. ‘It’s OK.’

‘Listen … I’ve got to go now,’ I said, my voice filled with regret. ‘But perhaps we could meet some other time?’

‘Maybe,’ Ironika mumbled and looked down at her hands.

I reached into my jacket. ‘But I want to subsidize your shopping trip,’ I said, rummaging through my wallet.

‘No, it’s OK, Frank, you don’t have to do that.’

‘Yes, yes, I want to,’ I said and pulled out all the notes I could find. Three one-hundred kroner notes and a crumbled fifty. It wasn’t much, but it was the only cash I had on me. I offered it to her.

‘No, please don’t. It’s all right. Mum has given me some money.’

‘Take it, for my sake,’ I said. ‘It would make me happy.’

She shrugged and accepted the money.

‘Take care of yourself,’ I said and gave her an awkward hug.

‘You too,’ she replied.

‘And let’s meet up soon, properly, OK?’

‘I’m not sure. I don’t think Mum would like it.’

‘OK, but if you change your mind, you know where I am. Any time.’

Ironika nodded, opened the door and slipped outside and into the crowd. She glanced back and raised her hand by way of goodbye. I waved eagerly. When she had gone, I closed the door and flopped down on one of the folding chairs.

I cursed myself to hell. Just how pathetic could I be? I hadn’t seen my daughter for seven years and the first thing I do is drink in front of her, call her a child and then try to bribe her. What a crap dad I was! I knocked back the rest of my beer and stared at the empty plastic cup. The anger surged inside me. I crushed the cup and got up with a sense of purpose.

Finn Gelf always had something stronger than beer and mineral water at the book fair, so I went through the boxes until I found a bottle of Smirnoff. I took an empty cup, half filled it with vodka and swallowed a large gulp. The acrid taste made me grind my teeth, but I forced down another mouthful. It nearly came right back up again, but I managed to wash it down with what was left of Ironika’s mineral water.

At that moment, Finn opened the door to the cubicle.

‘Are you OK?’

I nodded and he entered and closed the door behind him.

‘Christ, she’s grown tall, hasn’t she?’ His eyes registered the bottle I had left on the table. ‘Listen, I’m really sorry I said that stuff about—’

‘It’s all right, Finn,’ I said and swallowed the last vodka in my cup. The alcohol was starting to take effect. A pleasant sense of lethargy spread through my body. ‘What did you want?’

Finn straightened up and a broad grin transformed his face.

‘The reviews,’ he exclaimed. ‘You’ve got to see the reviews!’ He took out a pile of newspapers with yellow Post-it notes sticking out. ‘Not at all bad … I mean compared to what we’re used to.’ One by one, he placed the newspapers on a small camping table and found the reviews of In the Red Zone.

Four newspapers in total had decided to review the book on the date it was published, which was fairly rare. Literary editors had been allocated extra column inches on account of the book fair, but it had happened to me several times that a few newspapers completely failed to review my books or did so several months after they had been published and then by some random trainee. The four reviews were critical, but not downright repelled as I had expected. One called the book ‘the best Fons since his breakthrough’ and another ‘vintage Fons’ and practically everybody agreed that fans of the genre wouldn’t be disappointed.

‘What have you got to say to that?’ Finn said when he could no longer keep his excitement at bay. ‘Great, isn’t it?’

I nodded, but failed to be carried away by his exhilaration. Neither his words nor the reviews could penetrate into my consciousness after the meeting with Ironika, and the knowledge that my moderate success had cost one woman her life made it impossible for me to celebrate. Instead I poured more vodka into my cup.

‘Party time!’ Finn roared and helped himself to a dash of vodka to which he added plenty of orange juice. ‘Congratulations, old boy!’

Near the stage where I was going to be interviewed, I was met by Linda Hvilbjerg, who gave me a polite hug and we exchanged pleasantries. She looked great. We were roughly the same age, but she looked younger. She was still slim and stylish in a grey suit with a black shirt and high-heeled shoes. Her dark hair was gathered in a bun and she wore a pair of glasses with a square steel frame that gave her a strict secretarial look, straight out of some sexual fantasy. We hadn’t spoken since Media Whore had been published, which was understandable, but she wasn’t even slightly frosty. On the contrary, she seemed positively forthcoming, though it’s possible my level of intoxication clouded my judgement, or she might have helped herself to her own medicine. It wouldn’t be the first time we got high together. In fact, it was something of a tradition.

Two upholstered leather armchairs had been placed on the stage, angled so they faced each other and the audience. Behind the chairs was a blue background on which a flat screen displayed today’s programme. Next: Linda Hvilbjerg in conversation with Frank Fons. In front of the stage were seats for around fifty people and every seat was occupied when we made ourselves comfortable. Sound engineers rushed over to help with our microphones. I wondered if all those people had come to hear about my book or to see this TV darling. The billing on the screen suggested the latter.

Linda Hvilbjerg introduced both of us and described me as one of the genre’s loyal contributors. She was witty and charming, avoided fawning excessively, but kept a good, sober tone.

‘If this interview had a title it would be “Fiction and Reality”,’ Linda Hvilbjerg began. ‘Frank, many of your fans explain their passion for your books by describing them as real and authentic, despite the very colourful depictions of murder.’

I smiled and nodded while I tried to work out where she was going with this. I knew for certain that she had