Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2020
“I couldn’t care less that it’s Christmas Day. This is the police you’re talking to, and I’m telling you to drive down to the factory ASAP. Got it?”
Carl was furious. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more uncooperative and annoying idiot. The sort of man in his midforties who always had to be right. The sort who point-blank refused to deviate from his schedule when circumstance required it.
“I’m at my holiday home,” he replied matter-of-factly. “It’s fifty kilometers to Åbenrå, where the factory is located. And it’s not even certain that we installed those runners. The company is German, you know, and—”
“If you don’t get up right now and rush down to Åbenrå to find some answers, I promise you that you’ll be charged with obstructing an investigation and also being an accomplice to a death. If you prefer, I can send a couple of police officers to escort you down there. But damn well rest assured that we’ll bill you for our time. Understood?”
“Yeah, but . . .” He was just about to start complaining again, but Carl stood his ground.
“If you don’t get over yourself right now, I’ll call the owners of Mexita Steelware and suggest that they find a new CEO pronto if they want to avoid being splashed all over the media for the next couple of days.”
The man finally gave in and shouted to someone that he had to go to work. There were ardent protests from the background. Apparently his wife was just as lacking in solidarity as her husband.
“Did you convince him to go?” asked Rose from the corner where she and Assad were working.
Carl nodded and walked over to them.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t know if they’d be able to find the original order for the metal runners. But it might be helpful that we’ve been able to narrow it down to within a couple of years. What an idiot.”
He tried to shake off his annoyance and turned to Assad.
“How are you getting on? Have you managed to get a better overview of Sisle Park’s property portfolio and rentals?”
“The properties, yes. I made that list the other day, so it’s here.” He handed it to Carl, who skimmed it. It was a very long list.
“The problem is that all the pending property sales didn’t always go through. Look at this one, for example.”
Assad handed him a piece of paper regarding Park Optimizing’s preemptive rights to a plot that was still under development.
“Development? What exactly does that mean?” asked Rose. “Could it mean that there’s already a building on the site waiting to be demolished? It doesn’t tell us much, does it?”
“Yes, we need more than this, Assad. Look for old surveillance photos that show the sites. Street view, Google Earth, anything. I also don’t think we can call this document a conveyance agreement. Isn’t it more some sort of preliminary agreement? Are there many of these types of documents?”
“Perhaps twenty-five. We’re not quite sure yet. It’ll be a huge task, as the male camel said when he came across a herd of wild females.”
“Thanks for the parable. I can picture it clearly. What do you think she wants all these plots for?”
Assad shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they’re just investments. The profits from Park Optimizing run into the millions annually, so instead of paying negative interest in Danish banks or taking risks with stocks and shares, she might’ve seen property as a better investment. Land has always been a good bet.”
Carl sighed. “Jesus! And you said that there might be rentals on top of her property portfolio?”
They both nodded.
Carl did not understand. “If all this holds, why the hell did she bury the bodies of her latest victims on public land? She could’ve just chosen one of her own plots.”
“But don’t you think it would’ve drawn unwanted attention to her if they’d been found on one of her sites?” asked Rose.
“But in that case, she might also be holding Maurits van Bierbek and Gordon captive somewhere that’s not in her name. So how are we supposed to locate it, and in such a short amount of time?”
“Good question, Carl, but we believe we’re looking for a larger building,” said Rose. “The large freight elevator indicates that it’s a place that’s intended to receive a lot of goods and pallets, and also that there must be several floors—maybe even underground.”
“Does she have any buildings of a considerable size?”
“Not apart from her headquarters, which doesn’t have a goods delivery entrance. There is a basement, but we can’t spot any gates or loading bays that would be large enough for pallets or a delivery van. But to complicate matters even further, the Land Registry records show that she also owns another company, Iversen Optimizing, named after her mother’s maiden name.”
“Does that company also own property?”
“No, it’s a holding company with several owners,” answered Assad. “So I looked into it the other day. And here comes the interesting bit. This holding company has a subsidiary called ISAK, and the co-owners of that company are named Adam and Kirsten D. Holme. I didn’t give it much thought at first, but then Rose took a closer look at the ownership. It turns out that the husband used to own a company that he and his wife are still minority shareholders of. And guess what we discovered when we searched for the wife’s business roles online? One of them listed her full middle name: D for Debora.”
Carl was speechless.
“Well, we’ve finally got our link between Sisle Park, Tabitha, Ragnhild, and everything else connected to Debora’s secret society,” said Assad. “And we also have an address not far from Sisle Park’s.”
Carl punched the air. They finally had a concrete lead.
“We haven’t found any properties listed under the company ISAK,” continued Rose. “But it also has a couple of subsidiaries.”
Carl took a deep breath. “Why don’t we pay this Debora a visit right now.”
“Good idea, but there are a few things we need to consider first,” said Assad with a serious expression. “What’ll happen if we just rush down and turn up at their door? Won’t we be putting Gordon’s and Maurits’s lives at risk?”
Rose nodded enthusiastically. “Maurits will be killed tomorrow if we don’t act. That’s a given. And it could happen as early as ten seconds after midnight. But would Sisle Park risk us finding the building before then? I don’t think so. So if we reveal too much of what we know about her accomplices and make them reveal the place where the two poor guys are waiting on the steel chairs, Sisle Park will definitely make sure that Gordon and Maurits are moved—and not necessarily alive. So no matter what we discover, we need to be very careful. We don’t have any other choice.”