that again.’ She snatched the notes from my hand. ‘And get me some water.’
Marie left the car and walked down the street. I watched her and wondered if I had just waved goodbye to twenty-two hundred kroner and the last real clue I had.
23
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Marie returned.
I had been into 7-Eleven to buy cigarettes and a bottle of water. I spent the rest of the time smoking and regretting that I had allowed myself to be duped so easily. Again. I knew perfectly well what people would promise in return for a hit, a drink, a beer or some dosh. Consequently I was both surprised and relieved when I saw Marie stroll casually towards the car, her hands deep in the pockets of her puffer jacket and a small smile on her lips.
The car was thick with smoke from the two cigarettes I had managed to get through.
‘That took you long enough,’ I said as she flopped down on the passenger seat. I handed her the water bottle. ‘OK, out with it.’
She shook her head. ‘You’ll have to help me,’ she said, passing back the bottle to me. ‘I can’t do it on my own.’
I looked around. ‘Here?’
She pointed to a place somewhere behind us. ‘We can drive to the railway if you’re shy.’
I started the car and drove from her directions to an area bordering the railway tracks at Enghave station. It was a site for storing railway sleepers and old rails, which shared the plot with piles of gravel and building waste. I switched off the engine and turned on the light inside the car. The yellow light made Marie looked even sicklier.
She took out two tiny home-made envelopes and passed one to me along with a white beaker as she wriggled out of her puffer jacket. Her arms were scarily thin and I wondered how such a small body could cope with her line of business. Having removed her jacket, she took back her drugs and prepared them with practised motions. Her withdrawal symptoms had gone, exorcised at the mere prospect of a fix.
‘Who hired you?’ I asked while she worked away.
‘I’ve never seen him before,’ Marie replied, never taking her eyes off the beaker. ‘It might sound like a big fat lie, but he wore a hat and sunglasses and he had a beard.’
Sunglasses. In a flash, I remembered the man from the book signing, but I couldn’t remember whether he had a beard. All I could remember was the sunglasses and the smile he had given me, but I was fairly certain he hadn’t been wearing a hat and he didn’t have a beard.
‘Could it have been false beard?’
‘What do I know? His money was real enough.’
‘What did you have to do?’
‘And he was speaking in a weird way, spooky.’
‘You mean he changed his voice?’ I asked.
‘I think so,’ Marie replied.
‘What did he say?’
‘He showed me a photo of the bastard, Paedo, I mean, and told me to wait for him outside the hotel. When he came out, I was to make him come up with me to room 102, that was all, the easiest money I’ve ever made.’ She snorted. ‘Though he was creepy … intense, like. I’m good with numbers, but he insisted I repeated it ten times at least. 102, 102, 102 … psycho.’
The heroin was ready and Marie sucked the fluid into a syringe and handed it to me.
‘Wouldn’t it be better if you did that yourself?’ I asked.
‘Nope,’ Marie replied. ‘Almost all my veins are messed up so it’s got to go in the neck. I’m not bloody doing that myself.’ She tilted her head and bared her throat. Her artery stood proud on her fragile neck, like a crease in a white tablecloth. There were already a couple of needle scars.
I swallowed even though my mouth felt dry. I took the syringe. ‘Are you sure?’ I said.
She nodded. ‘Quite sure.’
I grabbed hold of her neck with one hand and tried to work out where to insert the needle. ‘And what happened then?’ I asked.
‘After some time Paedo came out of the hotel, just like he had said. The bastard even grinned when he saw me, said he was just in the mood for meeting me. Wanker. He was so horny he didn’t even seem surprised when I told him I had a room ready where we could find out how much in the mood he really was.’
I held her neck with one hand and aimed the syringe with the other. The artery eluded my attempts at piercing it and Marie started to twitch.
‘Come on, man.’
The needle found its destination and Marie smiled.
‘What happened in the room, Lulu?’
‘Well, he was … you called me Lulu again,’ she protested.
‘Sorry, go on.’
‘Paedo was dead impatient and snatched the key from me to unlock the door. The lamp on the bedside table was lit, but apart from that it was dark. He pulled me inside and I closed the door like he told me to. I was scared shitless, man. Where the hell was the guy? I thought all I had to do was deliver Paedo and then get out of here. I hadn’t reckoned on being screwed by that disgusting pig.’
I pressed the fluid into the artery and pulled out the syringe. Marie responded with a sigh. A drop of blood trickled from her neck and I wiped it away with my thumb.
‘Carry on.’
‘Right, when Paedo passed the door to the toilet, he finally came forward, the guy. He looked exactly like he did the first time I met him, dressed in a coat, a hat, sunglasses and everything. And he had a gun.’ Marie giggled. ‘You should have seen Paedo. Got the shock of his life. Almost made it worth it. He started stuttering and sweating and his face went all red.’ Her voice had started to soften.
‘In his scary voice, the guy told Paedo to sit down on the bed. He did, nearly pissing himself. He was shaking all over and held up his hands as if he could stop a bullet with them.’ Marie laughed again. ‘I got my money. The guy stuck his hand into his coat pocket without taking his eyes off Paedo and pulled out an envelope and gave it to me. A big fat one. It was my payment plus a bit extra, he said, so I would keep my mouth shut.’ Marie sent me an embarrassed look. ‘But a girl’s gotta live.’
She smiled and her eyes took on a floating expression so I raised my voice.
‘What happened then?’
‘I left like he told me to,’ she replied.
‘Was that everything?’ I asked. My voice sounded high-pitched and agitated inside the confined space.
Marie shook her head and smiled again. ‘Mmmm,’ she whispered.
I grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘Tell me!’
Her eyelids were half closed.
I shook her gently. ‘Marie! Did you notice anything about the guy?’
She opened her eyes again. ‘You can call me Lulu now,’ she said, and smiled, while her eyes swam away again.
‘Anything!’
I shook her a little more forcefully and she widened her eyes with a hurt expression.
‘Did you see anything else?’
