Death on Pilot Hill

“Really?”

“Agnes also told me her husband was spying on her. . and trying to frame her for Karl’s disappearance.”

“That’s rather interesting since you and Agnes Haugen bought and used the prepaid cell phones more than ten months before Karl disappeared. The police were not involved back then.”

“Ja. But that evil controlling twerp of her husband kept tabs on her all the time. . Agnes told me that he was listening in on all of her calls because he ordered her to only use the cell phone that Nokia had given him to test.”

“Actually Froken Knutsen no judge is going to buy that pathetic lie as an excuse for your secret telephone relationship with Agnes Haugen. The court will see that your secret telephone calls months before Karl Haugen disappeared are part and parcel of your conspiracy with Agnes Haugen to kidnap and murder the little boy.”

“No!” shouted Danica Knutsen. She squirmed in her seat and pulled her short wavy brown hair with both hands.

“We know what you did that fateful June fourth.”

“No,” she said with a whimper.

“You went to do your internship work at Anabel’s Organic Farm. . but you conveniently vanished in the afternoon from twelve-twenty to one forty-five and then you-”

“No!. . No. No. No. I never left.”

“Oh yes Froken Knutsen. Your boss and her assistant have submitted sworn statements declaring that you got a phone call at fifteen minutes past twelve and that you then took off with no explanation and that they looked for you all over the farm but never found you.”

“I was there.”

“That’s another lie Froken Knutsen. Your boss and her assistant walked all over the grounds looking for you. . they went to the main house and saw that your car was gone from the parking lot and driveway.”

“I. . I. . had to get lunch. I was feeling faint.”

“Where did you get lunch?”

“There’s a little vegetarian restaurant. . I don’t remember the name right now. I paid cash.”

“Vegetarian? How can that be?. . You quit eating healthy foods after you lost your job. Your friends and your ex-boyfriend and your boss and her assistant have all declared that they only saw you eating junk food since last year.”

“They’re mistaken.”

“No Froken Knutsen. They’re not mistaken.”

“Then I don’t know what more I can tell you. I have nothing more to say.”

“Actually. . Froken Knutsen. . I don’t need you to tell me anything more since you obviously want to take the blame for the kidnaping and murder of Karl Haugen.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sohlberg took a calculated risk. He wanted to get an immediate reaction from her. So he presented his theory of her conduct that day as a set of proven and known facts. “Don’t you understand Froken Knutsen? You set up the perfect alibi for Agnes Haugen when you took her call at twelve-fifteen. . you then abandoned your internship job the organic farm so that you could meet Agnes Haugen nearby. . you took her cell phone and drove down to Smestad. . you drove up and down Sorkedalsveien near Ring 3 so you could take and place calls on her cell phone from twelve-twenty to one forty-five in the afternoon.”

“How ridiculous.”

Sohlberg nodded at Wangelin who sent a text message from her cell phone. A minute later Agnes Haugen walked down the hallway past the one-way mirror.

“Do you see her?” said Sohlberg laying down the trap with a bait of truth. “Agnes Haugen will testify that you kidnaped and killed Karl Haugen because you have a lesbian obsession with her.”

A deep moan rumbled from the horror-stricken Danica Knutsen. She shrieked and cried and shook uncontrollably.

Sohlberg knew the symptoms of suspects electrocuted by the truth. He shrugged and said:

“Constable Wangelin will you please take Froken Knutsen downstairs for booking. . give her a moment to compose herself so she can be fingerprinted and photographed and then taken to be charged before a judge-”

“No! I would never harm little Karl. Never! Never! Never! Agnes told me to drive up and down Sorkedalsveien and use her cell phone so she could go spy on her husband and see what he was doing to Karl.”

“It’ll be your word against hers.”

“You may think I’m really stupid. . but you see. . I decided to prove where I was at the time because Agnes acted really weird that day. . Agnes looked so freaking happy. . something just wasn’t right about what she was asking me to do. So I bought a snack on the way down to Smestad and I bought gasoline on the way back to the organic farm.”

“Where?”

“At the Shell Seven-Eleven store. . at the corner of Stasjonveien and Hollmenkollveien. I have the receipts. I had no cash so I paid for both with my father’s debit card.”

“Froken Knutsen. . are you willing to testify against Agnes Haugen?”

“Yes!. . I won’t let Agnes get away with it. She won’t make a fool out of me. I can’t believe how easily she tricked me.”

“You’re not the only one Froken Knutsen.”

Sohlberg met with Thorsen and Gunnar Haugen and Haugen’s lawyer upstairs at Thorsen’s office. Sohlberg stood by the doorway and he waited for Thorsen to take full credit for solving the case and he did not have to wait long.

“Thank you for coming,” said Commissioner Thorsen. “This case has been one of the most difficult ones in my career but I decided to throw everything at it. . to fully dedicate myself completely to finding the criminal who took your son. . ”

Sohlberg was not surprised when Thorsen went on to summarize the case by reading straight out of the executive summary that Sohlberg had written in his final report to Thorsen.

“Agnes Haugen meticulously planned and rehearsed and executed the kidnaping and murder of Karl Haugen for the sole purpose of tormenting her husband and then framing him for her own criminal conduct.

“We know from eyewitnesses and phone and text and e-mail records that she rehearsed every phase of the kidnaping and the murder. For example we have three credible eyewitnesses who saw Agnes Haugen park her husband’s white pickup truck several times at the dead end of Orreveien in the days leading up to the kidnaping on June fourth.

“We know from circumstantial evidence. . and from credible eyewitnesses or from forensic evidence the following facts and circumstances. . that she used sign language to order the little boy to meet her in the school’s parking lot right after the science fair ended at 9 A.M.

“We also know that she drove Karl to the dead end at Orreveien and then strangled or smothered him in the forest where she had lured him with the promise of studying more frogs before going to the doctor’s appointment. . And we know that she hid Karl’s body near the pond in a temporary grave.

“We know from eyewitnesses and circumstantial evidence that Agnes Hagen returned that same day in the afternoon to the dead end at Orreveien where she was seen parking her husband’s white pickup truck. . she walked into the forest that afternoon from about twelve thirty to one thirty. We also know that at the same time Danica Knutsen. . having been duped by Agnes Haugen. . used Agnes Haugen’s cell phone so as to create an electronic alibi for Agnes Haugen.

“Agnes Haugen claimed that she spent most of the morning and early afternoon driving around town to pick up medicines and to calm down her sick baby daughter. Her claim was a half-truth that she used to cause confusion around the fact that she brazenly returned to the pond that afternoon so she could move Karl Haugen’s body to his permanent grave.

“Using previously gathered bark and twigs and leaves Agnes Haugen did a superb job in expertly hiding the boy’s body in the cracked trunk of a fir tree. The crack begins almost three feet above the ground and it measures