The Absent One Quotes
"It was vital to know how to recognize people without being recognized."
"Take it easy now, Kimmie, the warning signal flashed in her head as the rage tried to take hold."
"With a hard kick she could crack those heels. The woman would topple over, and she would learn how even a Christian Lacroix dress gets soiled on a wet pavement."
"Her eyes glided down the woman’s body until they reached her legs."
"In the centre of the train station, a placard displayed the day’s newspaper headlines in front of the railway kiosk, making life bitter for both the hurried and the blind."
"‘Pig,’ she mumbled when she passed the sign."
"Ditlev Pram was a handsome man, and he knew it."
"It was the kind of thing that made him aggressive."
"His mobile rang as the Strandmølle Inn appeared in the rear-view mirror and the sea rose once again, blindingly, in front of him."
"‘We’ve got to get her this time, do you hear me, Ulrik?’"
"‘Welcome back, boss!’ said a voice behind him."
"Carl would soon need a GPS to find his way to the homicide chief’s office."
"‘Well, Carl, you’ll have visitors from Norway soon.’"
"Carl gazed up at him from under heavy eyelids."
"‘She received top marks at the police academy, but she failed the driver’s test.'"
"‘So what? He did turn himself in. When he committed the murders he was only eighteen years old.'"
"‘A bad conscience doesn’t go away with time, Assad. On the contrary.’"
"‘The urge to close the door and get the hell out of there was powerful.’"
"‘The top of which was covered in swollen stacks of case files.'"
"‘And smoking hash right next to the boarding school was pretty much the worst you could do.’"
"‘We can choke you right now, no problem.'"
"‘What a shockwave the snooty woman’s crushed body would send through the crowd.'"
"‘In the past Kimmie had always looked for women who wore a size 10, but that was many years ago.'"
"‘By the time he thrust her back on the floor, they’d both had more than enough.'"
"‘He was sure he would figure out a way.'"
"‘Then he stepped back, hoisted her up by the hair and rammed his tongue deep in her mouth.'"
"‘What do you say, Ulrik, do you want to come with me and see how it’s going with our Philippine wenches down in the laundry?’"
"‘The autopsy showed that she was alive for perhaps an hour after they left.'"
"‘Giving the kind of donations Bjarne was dependent on.'"
"‘The motive was unknown, but suspicion quickly fell on a group of young boarding-school pupils.'"
"‘But you know how he is. He wasn’t any help.’"
"‘He was the only member of the boarding-school gang who attended on a scholarship.'"
"‘That was the worst thing about Kimmie. Not only could she disappear for months or years, but you never really knew who she was.'"
"‘We got a call from a neighbour who’d stopped by the cottage and discovered the dead kids.'"
"‘I know officers who hadn’t even made it to their first anniversary as a pensioner before they kicked the bucket.'"
"‘It’s just something Martha wanted to do.'"
"‘They beat my children to death and killed my husband. To hell with them, I say.’"
"‘The doctor says it’s progressing rapidly now.'"
"‘We’ve put out two hundred pheasants and partridges, both cocks and hens.'"
"‘That’s your decision.’ He turned his back on the couple and looked directly at the others."
"‘The gunfire, and the echo it made in the thicket, was deafening.'"
"‘Assistant assistant detective! God in heaven! This sort of thing could give a man an ulcer.'"
"‘Assistant police vice-superintendent.'"
"To judge from the windows, no one had stayed here since the murders."
"Broad, opaque surfaces showed between decaying beams."
"Everything about the cottage signaled that one might as well just turn around and leave."
"The stench of days past: mold, mustiness, and abandonment."
"Weak grey sunlight managed to penetrate the dusty windows."
"Trivial Pursuit game, still resting on the floor."
"The final questions the siblings answered in life."
"Obvious traces of the murders were still visible."
"The threshold where hope had met reality."
"This case was like grabbing at quicksilver: poisonous to touch, impossible to hold."
"It often happens the day a man turns forty."
"Life wouldn't have been the same without it."
"No one was going to make his decisions for him."
"Just another woman who knew what she wanted in life."
"Jobs you wouldn’t read about in the classifieds."
"If a person could make the family happy and harvest success, then that person had found the meaning of life. To hell with the costs."
"These instincts awoke when, one hour later, she observed yet another man moving around the hall in an apparently aimless way."
"Hunter or hunted? Right now it was all relative."
"The more she watched him, the closer she felt to the bastards she wanted to destroy."
"In tiny Denmark the system was so ingenious that if you knew some dirt about somebody, they also knew something just as bad about you."
"I’d like to know who halted my investigation, Marcus."
"I don’t hang out much with the other inmates."
"She wasn’t going to let this person make her out to be some kind of monster."
"‘You get ten minutes to make room for your two chairs in here, Rose,’ he said."
"‘So, are you saying we might be looking at six murders?’ she asked."
"‘We’ll solve that together when the time is right. How does that sound, Hardy?’"
"‘You’re too ill, Hardy. If only you weren’t in such bad shape.’"
"‘Yes, but I assumed the department head was doing the justice minister’s bidding, and that therefore I wasn’t completely in the wrong.’"
"‘You’ve gone completely batty, man. Didn’t you just tell us we could go home an hour early?’"
"‘You’ll get your thousand kroner, Tine. Did you say anything to them about me?’"
"‘You’re putting me up, and now you’ll never see me again. Agreed?’"
"‘Now things are a bit different. Do you have anything you have to do this weekend?’"
"If you want to know what the camel stole from your kitchen yesterday, then you shouldn’t slit open its stomach. You should stare into its arsehole."
"They were a wild bunch who bent the school’s rules. They smoked hash in the woods and in the parks near the school."
"She was the perfect blend of devil and angel. So fine and young and gentle like a kitten, yet totally dominating."
"Humiliate a man sexually and you have an enemy for life."
"He knew all the code words to their deepest thoughts. Knew which way to turn the key in the chastity belt."
"She slept with random men. Broke them and broke up with them. That’s how she spent her nights."
"She’s brash and beautiful and initiates a short relationship with one of the top students at the school, Kåre Bruno – who I have a strong hunch dies with a fair amount of assistance from the gang."
"She didn’t seem haunted, no. Not at all. That’s not how Kimmie was."
"He started the gang, I am sure of that. He was the activist type, burning with evil, and he quickly spread his poison."
"They attacked the boy in the forest, so he had to go away. You can ask him yourself. Perhaps you know him? His name is Kyle Basset."
"Nothing could bestow strength like hatred. Nothing could get her going like vindictiveness."
"‘Keep that feeling in your body, because it’ll be the last time, you bastard.’"
"‘It’s only a job, after all. But now much more was at stake.’"
"‘You have two choices. Jump, or be shot.’"
"‘I have some information for you, Morten! Hardy has asked if you’d like to take care of him here, in the house.’"
"‘They can make you a little drowsy,’ she said, ‘but they work, trust me. You won’t be afraid of anything after taking them.’"
"‘The man who solved the Merete Lynggaard case, and who gave Aalbæk a few jabs, so they say.’"
"‘I learned that when opportunity presents itself, you take it, whether it’s random or not.’"
"‘But she did. And she received the same treatment.’ Basset shook his head. ‘Well, Carl Mørck, if you want to know more, you’re going to have to take a later flight.’"
"‘Come on, Kimmie!’ Bjarne shouted. ‘Don’t be so prudish. It’s just us.’"
"We prepared the way for her, nothing more. She was the killer. Only her."
"Now the voices are completely silent. The voices have ceased, they're gone."
"Just you and me, my beloved, little girl."
"I don't think you should make such statements in public."
"You’ll soon be meeting your fate, Fantastic Mr Fox."