Found Wanting

ELEVEN

‘Why Århus?’ asked Eusden, glancing down at his ticket. He and Marty were sitting next to the fruit machine in a small bar above the platforms at Hamburg central station, lunching on beer and bagels in the half-hour at their disposal before they boarded the slow train to Denmark. They had already missed the fast one.

‘You remember they ceremonially reburied the Tsar and his family in St Petersburg after the pathologists and the geneticists had finally finished with them?’

‘Yes.’ Eusden could only assume Marty’s response would ultimately lead to an answer to his question.

‘St Peter and Paul Cathedral, seventeenth July 1998: the eightieth a

‘Never heard of him.’

‘No. Nor had I. But Werner had. Lars Aksden, it turns out, is Hakon Nydahl’s great-nephew.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. Really. Nydahl’s sister married into a Jutland farming family: the Aksdens. Lars is her grandson. His elder brother is Tolmar Aksden. Heard of him?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Think again. Mjollnir, the Scandinavian conglomerate. Shipping, timber, hotels, electronics… Ring any bells now?’

‘OK, Marty, you’ve had your fun. Of course I’ve heard of them. Mjollnir buys X; Mjollnir sells Y. It’s difficult to flick through the business pages in the paper without seeing a headline like that sooner or later.’

‘Tolmar Aksden is chairman and chief executive of the company. He owns it. He is Mjollnir.’

‘So, I’m guessing he didn’t appreciate his brother’s antics at Dagmar’s disinterment.’

‘Probably not. No way of knowing for sure. The guy’s notoriously reticent. He lets Mjollnir’s share price do the talking for him.’

‘No good asking him for the lowdown on his great-uncle, then.’

‘None. But other members of his family might prove more… talkative.’

‘Any of them live in Århus?’

‘As a matter of fact, yes. His sister still lives on the family farm, south of Århus. She and her husband run the place. Tolmar’s son, Michael, is a student at the University of Århus. And Lars divides his time between Copenhagen and the farm. Well, farm’s an understatement. More of a country estate, actually. Since his escapade at Roskilde, he’s mostly been lying low there, apparently.’

‘How convenient.’

‘It’s worth a try, isn’t it? Werner will have his hands full for the next couple of days translating the letters and negotiating a price for them. We can steal a march on him.’

‘If Lars or any of the others know what their great-uncle’s secret was. And if they’re willing to share it.’

‘Don’t be so pessimistic. My bet is Lars is itching to share it.’ Marty gri

They finished their beers and went out on to the walkway serving the steps down to the platforms. A clamour of PA a

‘I love stations,’ he remarked. ‘Big ones, I mean, like this. Everyone going somewhere. Converging and diverging. North, south, east, west. Endless… possibilities.’

‘How long will it take us to get to Århus?’ Eusden asked.

‘About six hours.’

‘Six hours? Couldn’t we have flown?’

‘You’re forgetting the real advantage of train travel, Richard: anonymity. As long as we don’t stray outside the EU, nobody will ask to see our passports. Set foot in an airport and it’s a different story. I’m not just thinking of my own problems, either. We’re operating incognito now. So, the train makes sense. And stay off your mobile. Any calls you want to make, use a payphone. Better still, don’t make any.’

‘What about Gemma? Shouldn’t we…’

‘Keep her informed? Why would you want to do that?’

‘She might be worried about us.’

‘She should’ve come along, then, shouldn’t she? Between you and me, I’m glad she didn’t. I’m glad she sent you in her place.’ Marty turned to look at Eusden. ‘The question is: are you?’

‘I think so.’

‘Only think?’

‘You are telling me everything, aren’t you, Marty?’

‘Everything I know.’

‘Did Otto Straub have any… pet theory… about what Clem and Nydahl were up to?’

‘According to Werner, he thought Clem must’ve been sent over to Copenhagen at some point in the nineteen twenties as part of a Buck Pal initiative to assist Nydahl in dealing with the fallout from A

‘Why Clem?’

‘Well, Alexandra was in the royal party at Cowes regatta in August 1909. She was the queen then. Maybe she was impressed by how Clem thwarted the assassination attempt and kept his mouth shut about it.’

‘But what was there for Clem – or Nydahl – to do? You said Dagmar wrote off A

‘Did I?’ Marty looked troubled. ‘That’s not strictly accurate. Blame the tumour. Surprisingly enough, this is one of my good days.’

‘Would you care to be “strictly accurate” before we start rattling cages in Århus?’

‘Cupboards, more like. With skeletons inside. All right. But it’ll have to wait.’ Marty nodded down at a train approaching the platform below them. ‘That’s ours, I think.’

Marty began his explanation as soon as they were settled aboard the train. He looked tired, Eusden noticed in the watery sunlight that angled through the window as they left the station. He was struggling to concentrate. It was easy to forget how ill he really was.

‘OK, where was I? Dagmar. The Dowager Empress. No dope, apparently. She realized that, if she admitted her son and grandson were dead, she’d have to choose an official pretender to the Tsardom from a squabbling bunch of cousins, inevitably causing a split in Romanov ranks. She solved the problem by steadfastly maintaining that the Tsar, Tsarina and all their children were still alive, somewhere in Russia, a convenient fiction that preserved family unity in her lifetime but ruled out the very possibility of acknowledging A