Blessed Are Those Who Thirst: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

rang brutally through the apartment. It cut right through her, and she couldn’t hold back a scream.
    “Kristine?”
    The voice was far, far away, but its anxiety sliced through the two doors.
    “Go away,” she mumbled, with no hope of him hearing.
    “Kristine? Are you there?”
    The voice was louder now and more distressed.
    “GO AWAY!”
    All the strength that hadn’t been there during the night, when she really needed it, gathered itself into a single shriek.
    Immediately afterward, he stood facing her, gasping for breath. He dropped his key ring on the floor.
    “Kristine! My girl!”
    He bent down, putting his arms tenderly around the naked, crumpled body. The man was trembling with fright, and his breath was fluttering like a rabbit’s. She wanted to console him, say something to make it all better again, say everything was fine, nothing had happened. But when she felt the stiff material of his shirt brush against her face, and inhaled his reassuring, familiar male scent, she gave up hope.
    Her giant of a father held her tight, rocking her from side to side like a little child. He knew what had happened. The garbage can with the overflowing bedsheets, the blood around herankles, her naked, unprotected figure, and the bewildered sobs he had never heard before. He lifted her carefully onto the sofa and wrapped the blanket around her. The coarse woolen fabric probably chafed against her skin, but he didn’t want to let her go to fetch a sheet. Instead he made a sacred vow to himself as he stroked her hair repeatedly.
    But he said nothing.

MONDAY, MAY 31
    I t was difficult to become accustomed to them. The twenty-four-year-old woman sitting facing her, eyes downcast, was Detective Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen’s forty-second rape victim. She kept count. Rape was the worst crime of all. Killing was something different. Murder she could in a way understand. A crazy, furious moment of violence and volatility, perhaps pent-up aggression going back years. That she could almost wrap her head around. But not rape.
    The victim had brought her father with her. That was not so unusual. A father, a friend, sometimes a partner, though seldom a mother. Oddly enough. Perhaps a mother was too close.
    The man was massive and looked out of place in the narrow chair. He was not actually overweight, simply large. In any case, the extra kilos suited him. He had to be more than six foot three, with a solid appearance, robustly masculine and somewhat ugly. One enormous hand was placed on his daughter’s slender one. They resembled each other in some indefinable way. The woman had a totally different build, almost skinny, although she had inherited her father’s height. However, there was something about the eyes, the same shape, the same color. And with exactly the same expression. A helpless, sorrowful aspect that in fact, surprisingly enough, was more striking in the case of the huge man.
    Detective Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen felt embarrassed.Rape was something she never got used to. But Hanne was smart, and smart police officers don’t show their feelings. At least not when they are embarrassed.
    “I have to ask you some questions,” she said softly. “Some of them are not so pleasant. May I proceed?”
    The father squirmed in his seat.
    “She was questioned for several hours yesterday,” he said. “Is it really necessary to go over it all again?”
    “Yes, unfortunately. The report isn’t yet comprehensive.”
    She hesitated imperceptibly.
    “We can wait till tomorrow, but . . .”
    She tugged at her hair.
    “But it’s fairly urgent for us, you understand. It’s vital to be fast in an investigation such as this.”
    “It’s fine.”
    The woman answered for herself this time. Changing position slightly, she braced herself for yet another reiteration of Saturday night.
    “It’s absolutely fine,” she repeated, this time directing herself to her father.
    Now the daughter’s hand comforted her father’s.
    He’s