Wednesday, December 9, 2020
The various health measures affected all layers of society, and a case such as Tabitha Engstrøm’s required interrogations, presentation of evidence, hours spent in witness stands, and summoning people who could all be infectious. Given that these difficult circumstances made it impossible to carry out normal legal procedures that might lead to incarceration, Tabitha was released after the preliminary hearing as prescribed by law. She was told not to leave the country and to inform the court if her circumstances changed significantly. They would return to her case when it was due and the state of affairs was back to some sense of normalcy.
Ragnhild thought this might present an opportunity, so she was waiting fifty meters from the court when Tabitha stepped out into freedom wearing a loose-fitting coat and a broad smile on her bloodred lips.
So that was what she looked like. Carefree and dolled up.
She’s got no reason to smile, thought Ragnhild. Her lips should be zipped shut so they don’t give anything away about our little group. Tabitha Engstrøm is pleased with herself just now, but when they drag her back in, she will squeal. I can see it on her face.
On their way through the busiest streets of Copenhagen, Ragnhild kept a firm grip around the sharp fish knife in her coat pocket. Her goal was to stop Tabitha, but it was not important if it happened now or later. Ragnhild would make sure she was ready when the opportunity presented itself.
Where are you going, Tabitha? she thought. Ragnhild kept following her until they reached the almost empty streets of Amager without finding the answer to her question.
If she leaves Amagerbrogade to walk down a side street, I can run up to her within a few seconds, she thought. But how hard should she stab her, and where? Maybe it would be better to just slit her throat. But, on the other hand, that would result in a lot of blood, and Ragnhild would risk getting some on her. Of course, she could grab Tabitha and push her away in the moment she attacked her. But that would mean she had to cut deep and very precisely, and many things might make that difficult. What if Tabitha heard her, for example, just before she attacked, or if a sound made her turn her head? Many things could go wrong.
Ragnhild felt uneasy, but she could not afford to hesitate. Tabitha had violated the strict code of the group, and Debora herself had said that she would pay dearly for it. And even though Debora had warned them against acting on their own impulses, it was a warning Ragnhild did not intend to heed. She was sure that Debora would approve of her action in the end. Was she not the one who had said that if Tabitha sold them out, they would have to neutralize her?
The solution to Ragnhild’s problem appeared a few hundred meters farther ahead, where someone had crashed into a parking sign so violently that it had buckled in the middle and now lay lopsided, with the end of the frayed metal pole sticking out horizontally a meter above-ground.
Come on, Tabitha, please don’t walk down the side street, thought Ragnhild. Please don’t cross the road. Please don’t walk along the side of the shop. Keep walking next to the cycle lane.
She picked up her pace. Fifty meters from the broken pole, she had almost reached her target. She took her hands out of her pockets and started imagining the push that would make Tabitha fall down onto the frayed metal edge of the broken sign.
Twenty meters from the sign, there were only a few meters between them. When Tabitha was only three quarters of a meter from the lethal iron pole, Ragnhild jumped forward and thrust her left leg in front of Tabitha while pushing her in the back with all her might. Defenseless, Tabitha fell, and the pole went directly through her coat, penetrating her torso just beneath the heart.
Her scream was cut short when Ragnhild slammed both her fists against her spine, making the pole penetrate her even deeper.
Ragnhild immediately backed away down the side street before Tabitha had even stopped breathing.
Ragnhild’s heart was racing so fast that she almost fainted. And in a paradoxical state of pride and nausea, she threw up several times on the sidewalk until she regained control of her body.
Never before, not even when she used to smoke pot as a younger woman, had Ragnhild felt as exhilarated as when she was standing on the green marble staircase in front of Debora’s house, pressing their usual signal on the doorbell.
It was a few minutes before the door was opened, and her euphoria vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“Who are you?” she asked the man who opened the door. He was huge and savage looking—nothing she could associate with the delicate and beautiful Debora. They locked eyes for a moment, which was definitely not a pleasant experience, considering his strange appearance. His head did not look right, and it did not fit his body.
“Who am I? Don’t you think I should be asking you that question? Why are you ringing my doorbell?”
Did he say his door? Did Debora have a husband? And one as repulsive as he was? This definitely did not seem right.
“I need to talk to Debora. Tell her Ruth is here.”
He looked at her quizzically. “Debora? And who’s that?”
Ragnhild took a step backward and looked up at the façade of the house. She definitely did not have the wrong place.
“I don’t know who you are, but Debora is the owner of this house.” Ragnhild was now seriously worried.
He frowned and stepped forward toward her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I think you should leave now.”
Ragnhild backed away. “Have you hurt her? Have you broken into the house?”
She took another step backward and looked around her, ready to make a run for it and jump over the neighbor’s hedge if he made a move.
“Deeeebora!” she shouted as loudly as she could, keeping an eye on the curtains of the first-floor windows.
“You’re out of your mind, young lady. What’s so important about this Debora woman?”
“I have something I need to tell her about someone that she doesn’t need to fear anymore.”
Did she detect movement behind the curtain up there?
Ragnhild flashed a smile that disappeared as soon as the man in front of her punched her in the face, disrupting everything that kept her on her feet: her balance, her nervous system, her will, and her tensed muscles.