Harry had to swallow. Partly because no smiling nine-year-old in a life jacket looks as if they imagined they would end up in a container with a bullet through their head. And partly because the photo reminded him of Oleg, who could forget himself and call Harry 'Pappa'. Harry wondered how long it would take him to call Mathias Lund- Helgesen 'Pappa'.
'Birger, my husband, used to go out in search of Per if he had been missing for a few days,' she said. 'Even though I asked him to stop. I couldn't stand having Per here any longer.'
Harry repressed his thought, Why not?
Birger Holmen was at the undertaker's, she had explained, when Harry called by unannounced.
She sniffled. 'Have you ever shared a house with someone who has an addiction?'
Harry didn't answer.
'He stole everything that came to hand. We accepted it. That is, Birger, accepted it. He's the loving one of us two.' She pulled her face into a grimace, which Harry interpreted as a smile.
'He defended Per in everything. Right up to this autumn. Until Per threatened me.'
'Threatened you?'
'Yes, threatened to kill me.' She looked down at the photo and rubbed the glass as though it had become unclear. 'Per rang the bell one morning and I refused to let him in. I was on my own. He wept and begged, but we had played that game before, so I was hard. I went back into the kitchen and sat down. I don't know how he got in, but all of a sudden there he was – standing in front of me with a gun.'
'The same gun he…'
'Yes. Yes, I think so.'
'Go on.'
'He forced me to unlock the cupboard where I kept my jewellery. That is, the little I had left. He had already taken most of it. Then he was off.'
'And you?'
'Me? I had a breakdown. Birger came and took me to hospital.' She sniffled. 'Where they wouldn't even give me any more pills. They said I'd had enough.'
'What kind of pills were they?'
'What do you think? Tranquillisers. Enough! When you have a son who keeps you awake at night because you're frightened he'll return. ..' She paused and pressed a clenched fist against her mouth. Tears were in her eyes. Then she whispered in such a low voice that Harry struggled to catch the words: 'Sometimes you don't want to live any longer…'
Harry cast his eyes down to his notepad. It was blank.
'Thank you,' he said.
'One night, sir. Is that correct?' asked the female receptionist in Scandia Hotel by Oslo Central Station, without looking up from the reservation on the computer screen.
'Yes,' the man before her answered.
She had made a mental note that he was wearing a light brown coat. Camel hair. Or imitation.
Her long, red nails scurried across the keyboard like frightened cockroaches. Imitation camels in wintry Norway. Why not? She had seen pictures of camels in Afghanistan, and her boyfriend had written that it could be just as cold there as here.
'Will you be paying by cash or credit card, sir?'
'Cash.'
She pushed the registration form and a pen over the counter to him and asked to see his passport.
'No need,' he answered. 'I'll pay now.'
He spoke English almost like a Brit, but there was something about the way he articulated consonants that made her think of Eastern Europe.
'I still have to see your passport, sir. International regulations.'
He nodded in acknowledgement, passed her a smooth thousand-kroner note and his passport. Republika Hrvatska? Probably one of the new countries in the East. She gave him his change, put the note in the cash box and reminded herself to check it against the light when the hotel guest had gone. She endeavoured to maintain a certain style, although she had to concede that for the moment she was working at one of the city's less sophisticated hotels. And this particular guest did not look like a swindler, more like a… well, what did he look like in fact? She gave him the plastic card and the spiel about floor, lift, breakfast and checkout times.
'Will there be anything else, sir?' she warbled, confident that her English and service attitude were too good for this hotel. Before very long she would move to somewhere better. Or – if that was not possible – trim her approach.
He cleared his throat and asked where the nearest telephone booth was.
She explained that he could ring from his room, but he shook his head.
She had to think. The mobile phone had in practice meant that most phone boxes in Oslo had been removed, but she thought there was still one close by, in Jernbanetorget, the square outside the station. Although it was only a hundred metres away, she took out a little map, marked it and gave him directions. As they did in the Radisson and Choice hotels. Peering up to see whether he had understood, she was confused for a moment, without quite knowing why.
'It's us against the rest of the world, Halvorsen!'
Harry shouted his regular morning greeting as he burst into their shared office.
'Two messages,' Halvorsen said. 'You've got to report to the new POB's office. And a woman rang asking for you. Stunning voice.'
'Oh?' Harry slung his coat in the direction of the hatstand. It landed on the floor.
'Wow,' Halvorsen exclaimed without thinking. 'At last you've got over it, haven't you?'
'I beg your pardon?'
'You're chucking clothes at the hatstand again. And saying, 'It's us against the rest of the world!' You haven't done either since Rakel dumped-'
Halvorsen shut up as he saw his colleague's warning expression.
'What did the lady want?'
'To pass on a message. Her name is…' Halvorsen searched through the yellow Post-its in front of him. '… Martine Eckhoff.'
'Don't know her.'
'Works at the Lighthouse.'
'Aha!'
'She said she'd been making enquiries. And that no one had heard anything about Per Holmen having any debts.'
'Did she now? Mm. Perhaps I ought to ring and check if there was anything else.'
'Oh? OK. Fine.'
'Alright? Why are you looking so cheated?' Harry bent down for his coat, but instead of hanging it up, he put it on. 'Do you know what, Junior? I have to go out again.'
'But the POB-'
'-will have to wait.'
The gate to the container terminal was open, but there was a sign on the fence prohibiting access and directing vehicles to the car park outside. Harry scratched his bad leg, glanced at the long, open expanse between the containers and drove in. The watchman's office was a low building much like a Moelven workman's shed that had been extended at regular intervals over the last thirty years. Which was not that far from the truth. Harry parked in front of the entrance and covered the remaining metres at a quick walk.
The watchman leaned back in his chair, silent, his hands behind his head, chewing on a matchstick, while Harry explained why he was there. And what had happened the night before.
The matchstick was the only thing moving in the watchman's face, but Harry thought he detected the hint of a grin as he told him about the altercation with the dog.
'Black Metzner,' the watchman said. 'The cousin of the Rhodesian ridgeback. Lucky to get it imported. Great guard dog. And quiet, too.'
'I noticed.'
