Alberte's Postcard to David

Alberte's Postcard to David is a small piece of family correspondence that changes the direction of the investigation into Alberte Goldschmid's death. Found among her brother David Goldschmid's belongings, it preserves her own brief account of meeting an intriguing man at Østerlars Round Church. Its incomplete postmark initially obscures the date, but the postcard ultimately helps Carl Mørck and Assad place the encounter in the final days of Alberte's life and pursue new leads about her past.

Discovery and Appearance

The postcard surfaced as Carl Mørck and Assad unpacked the boxes containing David's belongings. In the third box, Assad came upon a cigar box holding postcards. Most were from a man called Bendt-Christian, who sent David greetings from places including Bangladesh, Hawaii, Thailand, and Berlin. Those cards opened with the affectionate salutation “Dearest Davidovich” and included occasional tender remarks, but were otherwise relatively neutral. Alberte's cards to her brother were similarly restrained: plain descriptions of the days they recorded, accompanied by assurances that she missed him.

One card, however, stood apart. Its front showed Østerlars Round Church, with a red heart drawn above the cross on the spire. The image linked the postcard to a specific outing, while the heart gave the familiar church scene a personal mark. Neither detail alone explained the investigation, but together they made the card more than a routine greeting: it pointed toward a place and a meeting that Alberte had chosen to tell David about.

Alberte's Message

The card's message reveals a lively, immediate enthusiasm absent from the ordinary descriptions in Alberte's other postcards. She writes: “Hi bro. Trip to Østerlars Round Church this time. It’s meant to be fantastic with Knights Templar and everything, but the best thing was I met a sweet guy. He knew more about the church than the guide, and he was SO hot. Meeting him tomorrow outside school. More about that another time. Hugs and kisses, your sis, Alberte.” The contrast is striking: the church's historical attractions quickly give way to the encounter that matters most to her, and her emphatic description makes clear that the man has caught her attention.

The note also leaves important information out. Alberte does not name the man, explain how they began talking, or disclose what happened after the planned meeting outside school. Her promise to say more later turns the postcard into both a message between siblings and an unfinished fragment of a story. It establishes that she met someone she found attractive and knowledgeable about the church, but it cannot, by itself, identify him or explain his significance to the case.

The Date and the Investigation

The investigators first found the date difficult to establish. Carl Mørck turned the postcard over, but could not find a legible date; the stamp seemed to show the number 11, with the rest unreadable. He and Assad scrutinized it from different angles without resolving the uncertainty. The partial mark therefore offered a clue that was tangible but incomplete, and the card's account could not be placed confidently in time from the postmark alone.

Carl Mørck proposed asking the rector couple when the trip had taken place. They remembered the visit to Østerlars well: after Carl Mørck and his assistant had come to see them, they had read about that autumn in Karina's diaries. The trip was on November 7, and the group had visited several round churches. The recollection supplied the contextual date the stamp could not provide. Carl Mørck then reasoned that Alberte had met the man on November 7; the two visible ones on the postmark referred to the month, and she had known him for less than two weeks when she was killed.

That timing sharpened the question left by Christian Habersaat's theory about the case: what, if anything, had Alberte done to make the man choose such a fatal end to their relationship? The postcard does not answer that question, nor does it prove the theory. Its value is more precise: it establishes a recent encounter that gives the investigation a person and a short interval to pursue. Assad immediately suggested that someone from the school might have taken photographs on the day, extending the lead beyond the postcard and the rector couple's recollection.

Significance as Evidence

The postcard matters because it changes what the investigators can ask. Alberte's other messages to David largely describe ordinary days and express how much she misses her brother; this one records a new attraction, a particular excursion, and a plan to meet again. Its affectionate, informal voice also offers a glimpse of Alberte that the surrounding case materials cannot supply in the same way: not a conclusion about her character, but a moment in which she chooses to share excitement with her brother.

As evidence, the object remains partial. The postmark is unreadable beyond the number 11, the man is unnamed, and the promised later account is absent. The investigation must combine the card with the rector couple's memory rather than treating the object as self-sufficient proof. Its role is therefore both evidentiary and structural: an apparently unremarkable postcard, found among many, interrupts the assumption that there is little to go on and opens a new line of inquiry. After reflecting on who Alberte was—someone who sang like an angel and drew well—Carl Mørck realizes that he has also forgotten her drawings, another possible source of information.