The Dinosaur Feather

information from Dr Tybjerg. She decided to lie.
    ‘There’s a bird symposium at the Bella Centre,’ she said. ‘I saw his name in the programme.’
    Søren bought it.
    ‘Any chance Dr Tybjerg’s disappearance is linked to Freeman’s arrival?’ Søren suggested.
    ‘No, how could it be?’ Anna said, innocently.
    ‘Anna,’ Søren said earnestly. ‘I need to be clear about this. In your opinion, could Helland’s and Johannes’s deaths be linked to your dissertation? Your topic is a scientific controversy about the origin of birds, which Helland washeavily involved in, right? Helland, Tybjerg, and the Canadian scientist, Clive Freeman. But where does Johannes fit in? I can’t see it. I’m just a stupid plod, and I can’t see it. Murders are usually triggered by jealousy, drugs, money or family issues, and I just don’t buy that someone might kill because their scientific reputation was threatened; because of a dissertation.’
    Anna pondered this.
    ‘Johannes helped me,’ she said. ‘He is . . . was a science theorist and very talented. He helped me extract aspects of scientific theory which are relevant to controversies in biology. I’ve used those arguments to demolish Professor Freeman.’ Anne suddenly looked directly at Søren. ‘That’s what my dissertation is about. I destroy him.’ She gulped. ‘Johannes knew a vast amount about Karl Popper and his ideas about falsification, about Thomas Kuhn who introduced the concept of paradigm in the 1960s, and especially about Lorraine J. Daston and her concept of scientific moral economies . . . I know, it took me weeks to grasp, so don’t feel ashamed if you think I’m speaking double Dutch. The point is that plenty of vertebrate scientists and ornithologists have attacked Freeman over the years. Attacked his anatomical conclusions and his fossil analyses, and let me tell you something: he doesn’t care, he evades the issue, no matter what’s thrown at him. Before 2000, before
Sinosauropteryx
was found in China, you would often hear Freeman say, “Show me a feather that grew on a dinosaur, then I’ll believe your nonsense.” And when he was finally shown a feathered dinosaur, his response was either: “That’s not a feather!” or, if he couldn’t deny the structure was afeather, he would say: “That’s not from a dinosaur, just from a very old bird, which would, of course, have feathers!” The problem is that Freeman’s so well-versed in anatomy and physiology that it’s impossible for most people to take him on. But no one has ever tried to attack his underlying scientific principles. No one has ever proved that he breaks the most fundamental scientific rules.’
    ‘Which are?’
    Anna was on the verge of giving up.
    ‘It’s a bit complicated,’ she began. ‘But internal contradictions, for example, are banned if you want to call your work scientific and Freeman’s work is littered with inconsistencies. Further, he rejects generally accepted analytical methods. He’s entitled to do so, but only if he can argue convincingly for an alternative, and we don’t know if he can because he has never tried.’ Anna paused and looked at Søren. One of his eyes was drooping slightly.
    ‘I don’t believe for a moment that Professor Freeman has anything to do with this. If Freeman wants to prevent my dissertation from being published, then there are several people he needs to kill before Johannes and Helland. Me, for example. And Dr Tybjerg.’
    ‘Yes,’ Søren said, looking at Anna. ‘But the reason we can’t find Tybjerg might be that he’s dead. I’m starting to think you should be put under police protection.’
    ‘
If
there is a link between the two deaths,’ Anna objected. She had absolutely no desire to have the World’s Most Irritating Detective trailing her round the clock. And, besides, Dr Tybjerg wasn’t dead.
    ‘Yes, if,’ Søren said, suddenly looking very tired.
    ‘I know the cysticerci were between three to four months old,’ Anna continued. ‘I think this means that even though Johannes and Helland died in the same week, they were technically killed at two completely different times. Johannes yesterday’ – she swallowed – ‘and Helland possibly as far back as June or July.’
    ‘We won’t know until tomorrow whether Johannes was also infected with cysticerci,’ Søren said quietly. Anna stared at him.
    ‘Who is the man who has waited for you twice, Anna?’ Søren suddenly asked.
    ‘How do