Aune checked his bow-tie to make sure it was straight.
'They're like you,' he said. 'But my wife knows a few respectable people.'
At that moment the taxi pulled into the kerb. Harry held the door open while Aune scrambled in, but as he was about to shut it he suddenly remembered something.
'What are MPDs caused by?'
Aune bent over in his seat and looked up at Harry.
'What's this actually about, Harry?'
'I'm not quite sure, but it might be important.'
'Alright. MPD cases have often been subject to abuse in their childhood. But a disorder could also be caused by extremely traumatic experiences later in life. Another personality is created to flee from problems.'
'What sort of traumatic problems might that be if we're talking about an adult male?'
'You just have to use your imagination. He might have experienced a natural disaster, lost someone he loved, been a victim of violence or lived in fear for a protracted period of time.'
'Like being a soldier at war, for example.'
'War could certainly be a trigger, yes.'
'Or guerrilla warfare.'
Harry said the latter to himself, as the taxi taking Aune was already on its way down Thereses gate.
'Scotsman,' Halvorsen said.
'You're going to spend 17 May in the Scotsman pub?' Harry grimaced, putting his bag behind the hatstand.
Halvorsen shrugged his shoulders. 'Any better suggestions?'
'If it has to be a pub, at least find one with a bit more style than the Scotsman. Or better still, relieve one of the fathers here and do one of the watches during the children's parade. Double pay and zero hangover.'
'I'll think about it.'
Harry slumped down into the chair.
'Aren't you going to get it fixed soon? It sounds decidedly out of sorts.'
'It can't be fixed,' Harry said sulkily. 'Sorry. Did you find anything in Vienna?’
‘I'm coming to that. You first.'
'I tried to check Even Juul's alibis for the time his wife went missing. He claimed he was walking round the city centre, popped into the Kaffebrenneri in Ullevalsveien, but he didn't meet anyone there who could corroborate his story. The staff working in the Kaffebrenneri say they're too busy to be able to prove or disprove anything.'
'The Kaffebrenneri is right across the street from Schroder's,' Harry said.
'So?'
'I'm just stating a fact. What did Weber say?'
'They haven't found anything. Weber said that if Signe Juul had been taken to the fortress in the car the night-watchman saw, they would have found something on her clothes, fibres from the back seat, soil or oil from the boot, something.'
'He'd spread out bin liners in the car,' Harry said.
'That's what Weber said too.'
'Did you check the dry hay they found on her coat?'
'Yep. It could be from Mosken's stable. Plus a million other places.'
'Hay. Not straw.'
'There's nothing special about the hay, Harry, it's just… hay.’
‘Damn.' Harry looked around him grumpily. 'What about Vienna?'
'More hay. Do you know anything about coffee, Halvorsen?’
‘Eh?'
'Ellen used to make decent coffee. She bought it in some shop here in Gronland. Maybe…'
'No!' Halvorsen said. 'I'm not making you coffee.'
'Promise me you'll try,' Harry said, getting up again. 'I'll be out for a couple of hours.'
'Was that all you had to say about Vienna? Hay? Not even a straw in the wind?'
Harry shook his head. 'Sorry. That was a dead end too. You'll get used to it.'
Something had happened. Harry walked up along Gronlandsleiret as he tried to put his finger on what it was. There was something about the people in the streets, something had happened to them while he was in Vienna. He was a long way up Karl Johans gate before he realised what it was. Summer had arrived. For the first time in years Harry was aware of the smell of tarmac, of the people passing him, of the flower shop in Grensen. As he walked through the Palace Gardens the smell of freshly mown grass was so intense that he had to smile. A man and a woman wearing Palace overalls stood looking up at the top of a tree, discussing and shaking their heads. The woman had unbuttoned the top of her overall and tied it around her waist. Harry noticed that when she looked up at the tree and pointed, her colleague was stealing furtive glances at her tight T-shirt instead.
In Hedgehaugsveien the hip and the not quite so hip fashion boutiques were going through their final paces to dress people up for the Independence Day celebrations. The kiosks were selling ribbons and flags, and in the distance he could hear the echo of a band putting its final touches to the traditional marching tune. Showers were forecast, but it would be warm.
Harry was sweating when he rang the doorbell at Sindre Fauke's.
Fauke was not particularly looking forward to the national holiday.
'Too much fuss. And too many flags. No wonder Hitler felt close to the Norwegians. Norwegians are hugely nationalistic. We just dare not admit it.'
He poured the coffee.
'Gudbrand Johansen ended up at the military hospital in Vienna,' Harry said. 'The night before he was supposed to leave for Norway he killed a doctor. Since then no one has seen him.'
'Well, I never,' Fauke said, loudly slurping the scalding hot coffee. I knew there was something wrong with that boy.'
'What can you tell me about Even Juul?'
A lot. If I have to.'
'Well, you have to.'
Fauke raised a bushy eyebrow.
'Are you sure you're not barking up the wrong tree now, Hole?’
‘I'm not sure of anything at all.' Fauke blew at his coffee thoughtfully.
'OK. If it's absolutely necessary. Juul and I had a relationship which was like Gudbrand Johansen and Daniel Gudeson's in many ways. I was a surrogate father for Even. It probably has something to do with the fact that he had no parents.'
Harry's coffee cup stopped in mid-air on the way to his mouth.
'Not many people knew that because Even used to make things up as he went along. His invented childhood consisted of more people, details, places and dates than most people would remember from their childhood. The official version was that he had grown up with the Juul family on a farm in Grini, but the truth is that he grew up with various foster parents and in various institutions around Norway before finally landing in the childless Juul family as a twelve-year-old.’
‘How do you know he lied about it?'
'It is rather a strange story, but one night Even and I were on watch outside the camp we had set up in the forest, north of Harestua, when something strange happened to him. Even and I were not particularly close at that point and I was extremely surprised when he began to tell me about how he had been abused as a child and how nobody had ever wanted him. He told me some extremely intimate details of his life, and some of it was painful listening. Some of the adults he had been placed with ought to have been…' Fauke shuddered.
'Let's go for a walk,' he said. 'Rumour has it the weather's nice outside.'
They walked up Vibes gate to Stenspark, where the first bikinis were on display and a glue-sniffer had strayed from his shelter at the top of the hill looking as if he had just discovered planet Earth.
'I don't know what brought it on, but it was as if he became another person that night,' Fauke said. 'Very odd, but the strangest thing was that the next day he behaved as if he had forgotten the conversation we had had.'
