'Perhaps they liked a little variety and trips into the countryside.'
'Perhaps, apart from the trip stuff. Astrid Monsen is an observant, meticulous woman. She said he never took her out during the summer. That was what made me think.'
'Think about what? A hotel?'
'Possibly. But you can go to a hotel in the summer, too. Think, Halvorsen. Think of something nearby.'
Halvorsen stuck out his lower lip and grimaced to show he had no suggestions to make. Harry smiled and expelled a cloud of smoke: 'You were the one who found the place.'
Halvorsen, nonplussed, raised an eyebrow. 'The chalet! It's obvious!'
'Isn't it? A discreet, luxurious love nest when the family is home after the season and inquisitive neighbours have closed their shutters. Just an hour's drive from Oslo.'
'But so what?' Halvorsen said. 'That doesn't take us any further.'
'Don't say that. If we can prove that Anna has been to the chalet, at least Albu will be forced to respond. It won't take much. A little fingerprint. A hair. An observant tradesman who occasionally makes a delivery.'
Halvorsen rubbed the back of his neck. 'But why not go straight to the point and look for Albu's fingerprints in Anna's flat? It must be full of them?'
'I doubt they are still there. According to Astrid Monsen, he suddenly stopped seeing Anna a year ago. Until one Sunday last month. He came to pick her up in his car. Monsen remembers it clearly because Anna rang at her door and asked her to keep an ear open for burglars.'
'And you think they went to the chalet?'
'I think,' Harry said, throwing the smoking cigarette end into a puddle where it hissed and died, 'that's one reason Anna put the photograph in her shoe. Can you remember what you learned about forensics at Police College?'
'The little we had. Don't you?'
'No. There are metal cases with the basic equipment in three of the patrol cars. Powder, brush and plastic film for fingerprints. Measuring tape, torch, pliers, that sort of thing. I want you to book one of the cars for tomorrow.'
'Harry-'
'And call the grocer in advance to get precise directions. Try to sound honest and upright so that he doesn't suspect anything. Say you're building a chalet and the architect you're working with gave Albu's chalet as a reference point. You just want to see it.'
'Harry, we can't just-'
'Bring a crowbar, too.'
'Listen to me!'
Halvorsen's shout caused two gulls to take off for the fjord with hoarse screams. He counted on his fingers: 'We don't have a warrant. We don't have any proof which might justify one. We've got…nothing. And most important of all we-or should I say I?-don't have all the facts. You haven't told me everything, have you, Harry?'
'What makes you think-?'
'Simple. Your motive isn't strong enough. Knowing the woman is not a good enough motive for suddenly disregarding all the rules, breaking into chalets and risking your job. And mine. I know you can be a bit nuts, Harry, but you're no fool.'
'Harry watched the wet dog-end floating in the puddle. 'How long have we known each other, Halvorsen?'
'Soon be two years.'
'Have I ever lied to you in that time?'
'Two years isn't a long time.'
'Have I ever lied? I'm asking you.'
'Definitely.'
'Have I ever lied about anything that counts?'
'Not as far as I know.'
'OK. I'm not lying to you now, either. You're right, I haven't told you everything. And, yes, you're risking your job by helping me. All I can say is you would be in even more trouble if I told you the rest. As it is, you'll have to trust me. Or back out. You can still refuse.'
They sat looking across the fjord. The gulls were two small dots in the distance.
'What would you have done?' Halvorsen said.
'Backed out.'
The dots became bigger. The gulls were coming back.
When they returned to Police HQ there was a message from Mшller on the answerphone.
'Let's go for a walk,' he said when Harry called. 'Anywhere at all,' Mшller added when they were outside.
'Elmer's,' Harry said. 'I need some smokes.'
Mшller followed Harry down a muddy track across the grass between Police HQ and the cobbled drive up to Botsen prison. Harry had observed that planners never seemed to appreciate that people will always find the quickest route between two points irrespective of where the road is. At the end of the track was a sign which had been kicked over: DON'T WALK ON THE GRASS.
'Have you heard about the bank robbery in Grшnlandsleiret early this morning?' Mшller asked.
Harry nodded. 'Interesting that he chose to do it a hundred metres from the police station.'
'Coincidentally, the bank alarm was being repaired.'
'I don't believe in coincidences,' Harry said.
'Oh? You think it was an inside job?'
Harry shrugged. 'Or someone knew about the repairs.'
'Only the bank and the repairers knew. And us.'
'It wasn't the bank raid you wanted to talk about, was it, boss?'
'No,' Mшller said, skipping around a puddle. 'The Chief Superintendent has been in discussion with the Mayor. All these robberies are bothering him.'
On the path, they stopped for a woman with three children in tow. She was telling them off in an angry, drained voice, and avoided Harry's eyes. It was visiting time at Botsen.
'Ivarsson is efficient. No one doubts that,' Mшller said. 'However, this Expeditor seems to be of a different calibre from what we're used to. The Chief Superintendent thinks that conventional methods may not be enough this time.'
'Perhaps not, but then what? One 'two' more or less is no scandal.'
'A 'two'?'
'Away team wins. Unsolved case. Standard vernacular now, boss.'
'There's more at stake than that, Harry. The media have been on our backs all day, it's been a nightmare. They're calling him the new Martin Pedersen. And on the website of Verdens Gang it says they have found out we call him the Expeditor.'
'Always the same old story,' Harry said, crossing the road on red with a circumspect Mшller at his heels. 'The media determine what we prioritise.'
'Well, he did murder someone after all.'
'And murders which are no longer in the public eye are dropped.'
'No!' Mшller snapped. 'We're not starting all that again.'
Harry shrugged and stepped over a newspaper stand which had been blown down. In the street a newspaper was flicking through its own pages at a furious tempo.
'So what do you want?'
'The Chief is, naturally enough, preoccupied with the PR side of things. An isolated bank raid is forgotten by the general public long before the case is dropped. No one notices that the man hasn't been caught. On this
