The Dinosaur Feather

neighbour. Time passed, then he heard an elderly voice.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Mrs Snedker?’ Søren said, reading the name next to the bell. ‘I’m a police officer. Please will you let me in?’
    He heard a noise and thought she was opening the door, but she appeared to have had second thoughts because she replied: ‘And why would I believe you?’
    Søren was taken aback. ‘Er, no why would you?’ he said. Now what? The entryphone hissed again.
    ‘If you’re the chap who has been waiting for Anna,’ the old voice snapped, ‘then I suggest you run back home to your mummy. We’re not interested in whatever rubbish you’re peddling, or whatever it is you want. Be off with you.’ She hung up and Søren was left standing outside like a lemon. He took a few steps back and looked up at the building. On the fourth floor, opposite where Anna’s flat had to be located, he saw an old lady in the window. She was watching him and when he looked back at her, she waved. He pressed the bell again.
    ‘I’ve never seen you before,’ the old lady said when she answered. ‘And don’t think I’m stupid enough to let in a stranger just because he claims to be a police officer.’
    ‘Mrs Snedker,’ Søren said with all the authority he could muster, ‘I’m going to give you a telephone number and you’ll call directory enquiries and find out whose it is. You’ll be told that it’s the duty officer at Bellahøj police station. Then you wait two minutes before you call the duty officer and ask him if he thinks it’s a good idea to let in a man who calls himself Søren Marhauge who claims to be a policeman,and if he says yes, you let me in, all right? I’ll call them straight away and give them my location. Do you follow?’
    ‘Do you think I was born yesterday?’ she said cheekily. ‘I promise you, lad, that I wasn’t. I was born long before you were even a twinkle in your mother’s eye.’
    Søren smiled. ‘Right, we have a deal, then.’
    She hung up. Søren called the duty officer and four minutes later, he had a call back to say his identity had been confirmed. A Maggie Snedker, born 26 February 1919, had just called. She had been highly suspicious, but they had reached an agreement in the end. The duty officer sounded amused. The entryphone crackled and Søren was buzzed into the stairwell.
    Mrs Snedker was waiting on the landing. Her arms were folded across her chest and she looked fierce, but Søren detected an element of teasing in the corner of her eyes.
    ‘You’re a long way up, Mrs Snedker,’ he panted, holding out his badge.
    ‘You’re right. The air up here is too thin for weaklings like you.’ She scrutinised his badge. ‘What do you want?’
    ‘I urgently need to get hold of your neighbour, Anna Bella Nor, and she won’t open her door or answer her telephone.’
    ‘Now why wouldn’t Anna open her door to a nice copper such as yourself?’ the old lady asked. She was elegantly dressed and had long red nails. He couldn’t believe that she was over eighty. Her hair was thick, curly and very soft and Søren wondered if it might be a wig. Elvira’s hair had turned silky and fine when she reached her early sixties and she had had it cut quite short.
    ‘What’s this about?’ Mrs Snedker asked. ‘That poor girl has suffered enough. First there’s that cad who abandons herand the baby. I’ve no time for him. Lily hadn’t even turned one. What a charlatan. Anna’s a good girl, she really is. But she’s unhappy. And when you’re very sad, you put on a brave face. She doesn’t fool me, though. So, what do you want?’ The old lady’s eyes were as piercing as a nail gun.
    ‘I’m afraid I can’t go into details, but it’s nothing very serious,’ he assured her. ‘You wouldn’t have a spare key?’ he tried.
    ‘Of course I have, but I’m certainly not giving it to you.’ Mrs Snedker gave him a stern look; she measured him from head to foot and he had a strong suspicion that she was checking him out.
    ‘Why don’t you join me for a drop of something?’ she offered, looking at her watch. ‘It’s four o’clock and Anna is probably picking up her little munchkin from nursery, such a cute girl. Can you believe it? Imagine deserting a little thing like that? Anna may not be the easiest woman in the world to live with, but then again, no one ever said living together was meant to be easy, eh? And what about the child? It’s been nearly two years since she last saw her