Villy Kure

Villy Kure, widely known as Uncle Sam, is a skipper who lives close to Christian Habersaat on the road between Sandvig and Snogebæk. His friendship with Habersaat gives Carl Mørck a witness to the officer’s last days: Villy played cards with him the night before Habersaat shot himself, and his recollections complicate any simple reading of that evening as an obvious crisis.

Identity and Setting

Villy is introduced as a local skipper whom people call Uncle Sam. He lives in a yellow half-timbered house on Mosedalvej, two houses north of Habersaat’s home. The house has its own smokehouse; the neighboring properties stand above the highway, with a view over fishing huts, the harbor, and the sea. This seemingly idyllic setting is unsettled by the recent suicide of someone from the town’s inner circle.

Connection to the Investigation

A friend of Habersaat’s who attended the retirement reception filmed the DVD that is handed to Carl. The friend is identified as Villy, locally called Uncle Sam. The recording is presented as a way for the investigators to learn roughly what happened at Habersaat’s death, making Villy’s connection to the gathering consequential even before Carl speaks with him directly.

When Carl calls from Habersaat’s phone, Villy is startled to see where the call is coming from. He explains that he and Habersaat sometimes played cards, including on the night before Habersaat shot himself. Villy cannot talk at length because he is working at sea and needs to deal with an Estonian container ship seeking passage through the area. His account therefore arrives amid ordinary maritime work, abruptly interrupted by a call from a dead friend’s phone.

Habersaat’s Last Evening

Villy recalls that Habersaat had been drinking Linie Aquavit and a couple of porters. He was sentimental and cried a little while fumbling with some of Bjarke’s old belongings: a blue scarf and a wooden figure Bjarke had carved. Villy does not describe him as unstable. Habersaat was a little down, as he often was, but still beat Villy at cards.

The details leave Villy with a limited but revealing view of Habersaat: sadness was familiar enough not to alarm him, while the tears and handling of Bjarke’s things point to grief attached to particular objects. His testimony does not establish what Habersaat intended that night; it distinguishes a recurring low mood from an unmistakable warning and preserves the human particulars of the evening before the suicide.