gave you Crime Squad people a chance. You won’t get another. Game over, Hole.’
‘Then we’ll have to give the Minister of Justice a pretty detailed explanation, Bellman. Naturally, it will include information about how we found out where the rope came from, how we got onto the trail of Elias Skog and the Havass cabin, how we found out that there was a fourth victim called Adele Vetlesen and how we found her here today. A job Kripos, with all its manpower and resources, failed to carry out over two months. Eh, Bellman?’
Bellman didn’t answer.
‘Frightened it might affect the Minister of Justice’s decision on who is best suited to investigate murders in this country, are you?’
‘Don’t overplay your hand, Hole. I’ll crush you just like that.’ Bellman flicked his fingers.
‘OK,’ Harry said. ‘Neither of us has a winning hand, so what if I pass over the kitty?’
‘What the hell do you mean?’
‘You get everything. Everything we have. We don’t take credit for anything.’
Bellman looked askance at Harry. ‘And why should you help us?’
‘Simple,’ Harry said, plucking the last smoke from the pack. ‘I get paid for helping to catch the killer. That’s my job.’
Bellman grimaced and his head and shoulders moved as if he were laughing, but not a sound issued forth. ‘Come on, Hole, what do you want?’
Harry lit his cigarette. ‘I don’t want Gunnar Hagen, Kaja Solness or Bjorn Holm to take the rap for this. Your prospects in the force won’t be affected.’
Bellman squeezed his full lower lip between thumb and first finger. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
‘And I want to be part of this. I want access to all the material you have and to resources for the investigation.’
‘That’s enough!’ Bellman said, raising a hand. ‘Are you hard of hearing, Hole? I told you to stay away from this case.’
‘We can catch this killer, Bellman. Right now that should be more bloody important than who’s in charge afterwards, shouldn’t it?’
‘Don’t you…!’ Bellman shouted, but held back when he saw a couple of heads turn in their direction. He took a step closer to Harry and lowered his voice. ‘Don’t you talk to me as if I were an idiot, Hole.’
The wind blew the smoke from Harry’s cigarette into Bellman’s face, but he didn’t blink. Harry shrugged.
‘Do you know what, Bellman? I don’t think this has much to do with power or politics. You’re a little boy who wants to be the hero who saves the day. Simple as that. And you’re scared I’ll ruin the epic. But there’s an easy way of resolving this. What about unzipping and seeing who can piss as far as the divers’ dinghy?’
When Mikael Bellman laughed this time, it was for real, with volume and everything. ‘You should read the warning signs, Harry.’
His right hand shot out, so quickly that Harry didn’t manage to react, struck the cigarette between his lips and knocked it away. It hit the water with a hiss.
‘Smoking kills. Have a good day.’
Harry heard the helicopter take off as he watched his last cigarette floating in the water. The grey, wet paper, the black, dead tip.
Night had started to fall as the diving team’s boat dropped Harry, Kaja and Beate ashore by the car park. There was sudden movement amid the trees followed by camera flashes. Harry instinctively held up an arm, and he heard Roger Gjendem’s voice from out of the darkness.
‘Harry Hole, there are rumours flying around that you’ve found a young woman’s body. What’s her name and how sure are you that this is connected with the other murders?’
‘No comment,’ Harry said, ploughing his way through, half blinded. ‘For the moment this is a missing persons case, and the only thing we can say is that a woman has been found who might be the missing person. As far as the murder cases I assume you’re referring to are concerned, talk to Kripos.’
‘Woman’s name?’
‘She has to be identified first and relatives informed.’
‘But you’re not ruling out-’
‘As usual, I’m not ruling out anything, Gjendem. Press conference to follow.’
Harry got into the car; Kaja had already started the engine and Beate Lonn was sitting on the back seat. They trundled onto the main road to the flashes of cameras behind them.
‘Now,’ Beate Lonn said, leaning forward between the seats, ‘I still haven’t been given an explanation as to how your search for Adele Vetlesen led here.’
‘Deductive logic, pure and simple,’ Harry said.
‘Goes without saying,’ Beate sighed.
‘In fact, I’m embarrassed I didn’t twig before,’ Harry said. ‘I went round wondering why the killer had made the effort to go all the way out to a disused ropery just for a piece of rope. Especially since that rope – unlike what he could have bought in a shop – could be traced back here. The answer was, of course, obvious. Nevertheless, it was only when I sat looking into a deep African lake that I realised. He didn’t come here for the rope. He must have used the rope for something here – because it happened to be lying around – and then taken it home where he later used it to kill Marit Olsen. The reason he came here was that he already had a body he needed to dispose of. Adele Vetlesen. The local man, Skai, spelt it out for us the first time we came here. This is the deep end of the lake. The killer filled her trousers with rocks, tied up the waist and legs with rope, then dropped her overboard.’
‘How do you know she was dead before she came here? He might have drowned her.’
‘There was a large cut around her neck. It’s my bet the post-mortem will show that there wasn’t any water in her lungs.’
‘And that ketanome is in her bloodstream, the same as with Charlotte and Borgny,’ Beate said.
‘I’m told ketanome is a fast-working anaesthetic,’ Harry said. ‘Strange I’d never heard of it before.’
‘Not so strange,’ Beate said. ‘It’s an old cheapo version of ketalar, which is used to anaesthetise patients with the advantage that they can still breathe by themselves,’ Beate said. ‘Ketanome was banned in the EU and Norway in the nineties because of side effects, so now you generally see it in underdeveloped countries. Kripos considered it a major clue for a while, but got nowhere with it.’
As they dropped Beate off at Krimteknisk in Bryn forty minutes later, Harry asked Kaja to hang on and got out of the car.
‘There was one thing I wanted to ask you,’ Harry said.
‘Oh yes?’ Beate said, shivering and rubbing her hands together.
‘What were you doing at a potential crime scene? Why wasn’t Bjorn there?’
‘Because Bellman assigned Bjorn to special duties.’
‘And what does that mean? Cleaning the latrines?’
‘No. Coordination of Krimteknisk and strategic planning.’
‘What?’ Harry raised his eyebrows. ‘That’s a bloody promotion.’
Beate shrugged. ‘Bjorn’s good. It wasn’t before time. Anything else?’
‘No.’
‘Bye.’
‘Bye. Oh, by the way, just a moment. I asked you to tell Bellman where we’d found the rope. When did you pass the message on?’
‘You rang me at night, remember, so I waited until the following morning. Why’s that?’
‘No reason,’ Harry said. ‘No reason.’
When he got back into the car, Kaja quickly slipped her phone into her pocket.
‘News of the body’s already on the Aftenposten website,’ she said.
‘Oh yes?’
‘They say there’s a big pic of you with your full name and that you’re referred to as “heading the investigation”. And of course they’re linking this case with the other murders.’
‘So, that’s what they’re doing. Mm. Are you hungry?’
‘Quite.’
‘Have you got any plans? If not I’ll treat you to a meal.’
‘Great. Where?’
