Copenhagen

Copenhagen is where a tentative cross-border contact becomes an in-person exchange in the investigation of the Västmannagatan 79 murder. The city’s airport police station provides the setting for Ewert Grens and Danish crime operations officer Jacob Andersen to meet, compare information, and begin working together more openly.

A cross-border approach

The connection begins by telephone. Andersen identifies himself as part of Copenhagen’s crime operations unit, which Grens understands as the Danish equivalent of homicide, and asks whether Grens is leading the investigation into the murder at Västmannagatan 79. The call establishes Copenhagen not just as Andersen’s professional base but as the point from which the Danish side seeks a direct role in the case.

The exchange also carries a personal familiarity: the Danish voice is easy for Grens to understand, and he associates its likely origin near Copenhagen with the part of Denmark he has worked with most over the years. A reference to an office looking out over Langebro precedes a welcome to the city, bringing an existing professional connection into the conversation without suggesting that the investigation has yet become a settled partnership.

The airport police station meeting

After a short drive from the terminal entrance, Grens and his colleagues enter the airport police station. Grens has been there before and leads the way to a meeting room at the back, where coffee and Danish pastries have been laid out. The ordinary hospitality matters against the background of the earlier, unspoken resistance to cooperation: among the Danish officers, the silent opposition seems to have evaporated, and the meeting takes on the ease of a practical working session.

Jacob Andersen wipes pastry from his fingers and places an enlarged 8-by-10 color photograph in the middle of the table. Grens studies the image, which shows a fair-haired man with a crew cut and coarse features, apparently between thirty and forty, and recognizes him as Carsten. The photograph gives the meeting a concrete investigative focus; the exchange is no longer only about who is leading the inquiry, but about identifying a person connected to it.

Narrative significance

Copenhagen’s role is concentrated in this encounter rather than developed as a broad portrait of the city. The airport station, meeting room, coffee, and photograph form the setting for a shift from guarded contact to shared investigative work. The setting also connects Grens’s prior experience with Danish colleagues to the immediate demands of the Västmannagatan 79 case: familiarity helps make cooperation possible, while the photograph supplies the specific clue around which the discussion can proceed.