‘It suddenly became larger last winter,’ he said. ‘I would very happily pay for your beer if you would keep me company. I have to stay here for a while.’
‘Well,’ she said. ‘We can always wait a little together.’
‘For someone who won’t come?’
Her laughter sounded sad, but at least it was laughter.
Sven was sitting on the chair staring out of the window at the field outside.
‘Perhaps you should have gone after all,’ he said. ‘It might have been subconscious on the journalist’s part.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Harry said.
He was lying on the sofa contemplating the cigarette smoke as it spiralled up into the grey ceiling above them.
‘It’s my belief that, subconsciously, he was giving me a warning.’
‘Simply because you referred to Waaler as “a leading policeman” and the journalist referred to him as “an inspector” does not necessarily mean that he already knew it was Waaler. He might have been guessing.’
‘He slipped up. Unless his phone was being tapped and he was trying to warn me.’
‘You’re paranoid, Harry.’
‘Maybe, but that doesn’t mean-’
‘- that they aren’t after you. You’re right there. There must be other journalists you can call on, aren’t there?’
‘None I trust. And, besides, I don’t think we should make many more calls with this mobile. In fact, I think I’ll switch it off. The signals can be used to trace us.’
‘What? Waaler can’t know which phone you’re using.’
The green display light on the Ericsson went out and Harry dropped it into his jacket pocket.
‘You’re clearly not quite in the picture with respect to what Tom Waaler can or can’t do, Sivertsen. The agreement with my taxi-driving pal was that he was to ring between five and six if everything was OK. It’s now ten past six. Did you hear the phone ring?’
‘No.’
‘That may mean that they know all about this phone. He’s getting closer.’
Sven groaned.
‘Has anyone told you that you have a tendency to repeat yourself, Harry? And, by the way, it’s struck me that you’re not doing a helluva lot to get us out of this mess.’
Harry blew a fat zero towards the ceiling by way of answer.
‘I’m sort of getting the feeling that you want him to find us. And that all this other stuff is just playing to the gallery. It has to look as if we’re trying bloody hard to hide so that you can be sure that he will be tricked into coming after us.’
‘Interesting theory,’ Harry mumbled.
‘The expert at Norske Moller has confirmed what you suspected,’ Beate said on the phone, waving Bjorn Holm out of the office.
She could tell from the clicks that Harry was phoning from a public call box.
‘Thanks for your help,’ he answered. ‘That was exactly what I needed.’
‘Was it?’
‘I hope so.’
‘I’ve just rung Olaug Sivertsen, Harry. She’s beside herself with worry.’
‘Mm.’
‘It’s not just her son. She’s frightened for her lodger who was in the mountains over the weekend and hasn’t returned. I don’t know what to say to her.’
‘As little as possible. It’ll soon be over.’
‘Can you promise that?’
Harry’s laughter sounded like the dry cough of a machine gun: ‘Precisely that I can promise, yes.’
There was a crackle on the intercom.
‘Visitor for you,’ the nasal voice of a receptionist announced. In fact, since it was past 4.00, it would have been one of the female Securitas guards, but Beate had noticed that even the Securitas personnel acquired a nasal twang after a stint behind the reception desk.
Beate pressed a button on the rather antiquated box in front of her.
‘You’ll have to ask whoever it is to wait a moment. I’m busy.’
‘Yes, but he -’
Beate switched off the intercom.
‘Just hassle,’ she said.
Beyond the crackle of Harry’s breathing on the phone Beate could hear a car stopping and the engine being switched off. At that moment she noticed a change in the way the light fell in her room.
‘I’ll have to be off,’ he said. ‘Time’s getting short. I may ring you afterwards. If it went as I hoped. OK? Beate?’
Beate put down the phone. Her eyes went to the doorway.
‘Well?’ Tom Waaler said. ‘Don’t you say goodbye to good friends?’
‘Didn’t the receptionist say that you were to wait?’
‘Yes, she did.’
Tom Waaler closed the door and pulled the cord so the white blinds slid down in front of the window looking out onto the open-plan office. Then he walked round her desk, stood beside her chair and looked at the desk.
‘What’s that?’ he asked, pointing to the two glass specimen slides stuck together.
Beate began to hyperventilate.
‘According to the laboratory it’s a seed.’
He placed a hand lightly on her neck. She tensed up.
‘Was that Harry you were talking to?’
He stroked her skin with his finger.
‘Stop that,’ she said with fiercely contained restraint. ‘Take your hand away.’
‘Dearie me. Did I do something wrong?’ Waaler smiled and raised both hands in surrender. ‘You used to like that, Lonn.’
‘What do you want?’
‘To give you a chance. I think I owe you that.’
‘Do you? What for?’
She tilted her head to the side and stared at him. He moistened his lips and leaned down towards her.
‘For your services. And your submission. And a cold, tight cunt.’
She struck out, but he caught her wrist in the air and twisted her arm behind her back and forced it upwards in one movement. She gasped, fell forwards off her chair and hit her forehead on the table. His voice wheezed in her ear:
‘I’ll give you a chance to keep your job, Lonn. We know Harry’s been ringing from his taxi driver friend’s phone. Where is he?’
She groaned. Waaler pushed her arm up higher.
‘I know it hurts,’ he said. ‘And I know that you’ll tell me sweet FA however much I hurt you. So this is for my own personal pleasure. And yours.’
He pushed his groin into her ribs. The blood was rushing in her ears. Beate aimed and lunged forwards. Her head hit the plastic intercom box with a crack.
‘Yes?’ said a nasal voice.
‘Send Holm in immediately,’ Beate groaned with her cheek against the blotting pad.
‘Right.’
Waaler hesitated, then let go of her arm. Beate straightened up.
‘You bastard,’ she said. ‘I don’t know where he is. He would never even have dreamed of putting me in such an impossible situation.’
Tom Waaler stared at her. Observed her. While he was doing this, Beate discovered something strange. She
