The Dinosaur Feather

way it was.
    ‘Knud and Elvira are my grandparents,’ he said. ‘My parentsdied when I was five years old. In a car crash. The photograph on the sideboard is of them. My parents on their wedding day. They were called Peter and Kristine.’
    Vibe lay very still.
    It was Jacob Madsen’s father Herman who inspired Søren to become a policeman. Jacob also lived in Snerlevej, and he and Søren were friends. Herman Madsen was a sergeant in the CID and Søren looked up to him. Jacob had an older sister and a mother who worked part-time in a library. His was a different family to Søren’s. Jacob’s parents weren’t hippies. Not that Elvira and Knud were – not proper hippies anyway – but their left-wing politics regularly created mayhem in the living room, where meetings were held and banners painted. They frequently protested against nuclear power and though Søren was proud of his grandparents, he always enjoyed walking down the road and into the haven of peace that was Jacob’s house. Jacob’s father would come home from work and make himself comfortable in his winged armchair with the newspaper, Jacob would lie on his bed reading comics, and Jacob’s mother would be in the kitchen making gratin or hamburgers with soft onions. At Søren’s they ate oddly concocted casseroles, salads topped with chopped up leftovers and a lot of porridge.
    When dinner was ready in Jacob’s house, his mother would strike a small gong and everyone would gather. When Jacob’s father joined them, the children would go very quiet. Sometimes, but not always, he would tell them the stories they were so desperate to hear. They knew from experience that if they pestered him before they had eaten, he wouldusually remain silent; however, if they were good and only said ‘pass the salt please’, and let Jacob’s father eat some of his dinner in peace, he would open up.
    ‘Herman, not while we’re at the table,’ Jacob’s mother would sigh.
    The children waited with bated breath until Herman started telling them about murdered women, kidnapped children, hidden bodies and vindictive ex-husbands. The two boys, especially, were riveted once Herman got into his stride. At some point he started giving the boys murder mysteries to solve and Søren got so excited about going to Jacob’s house that Elvira, rather anxiously, asked if it really was all right with the Madsens that Søren ate with them three times a week. Oh, yes, Søren had replied. It became a kind of real-life Cluedo where Herman knew who the killer was, where the murder had been committed, what the motive was and which murder weapon was used, but it was up to the boys to come up with a plausible scenario. Herman taught them how to think and Søren displayed considerable aptitude. Though he was only twelve years old, he could spot connections and produce explanations which, at times, were really quite far-fetched, but which to both Søren’s and Herman’s surprise – and to Jacob’s irritation – often turned out to be correct. Søren had no idea how he did it, it was as if he visualised a network of paths through which he could, quite literally, trace the solution to the mystery. He could keep track of everyone involved in the case, even though Herman would frequently throw in some red herrings to confuse the boys. In addition, Søren was a skilled bluffer with the ability to ask seemingly innocent questions, only to suddenly come up with the answer to the whole mystery.
    When Jacob went off to boarding school, Søren felt awkward going to his house. Besides, he had started high school where he met Vibe, and the riddle-solving faded into the background, except on Sundays when Herman washed the family’s Peugeot on the drive. Søren would swing by for an update on that week’s events at the police station and Herman would always have a mystery for him to crack. It wasn’t until Søren was an adult that he started questioning just how much of what Herman had told them had actually been true. After all, he must have had a duty of confidentiality.
    At eighteen Søren left home and got his own place in Copenhagen. One day, a year later, when he came round for dinner with Elvira and Knud, a removal van was parked outside Jacob’s house, but there was no one around apart from four removal men carrying crates and bed slats. The next time Søren visited his grandparents, two unknown children were playing on Jacob’s old front lawn. Søren watched them and made up his