photos of those we know to have been there?’
‘Oh,’ Leike said with a smile, ‘I think I can do that.’
‘Uh-huh?’
‘When I was in one room looking for a bunk to crash out on, I had to switch on the light to see which was free. And I saw two people asleep. A man and a woman.’
‘And you think you can describe them?’
‘Not in great detail, but I’m pretty sure I would recognise them.’
‘Oh?’
‘You sort of remember faces when you see them again.’
Harry knew that what Leike said was right. Witnesses’ descriptions were way out as a rule, but give them a line-up and they rarely made a mistake.
Harry walked over to the filing cabinet they had dragged back to the office, opened the respective victims’ files and removed the photographs. He gave the five photos to Leike, who flipped through them.
‘This is Marit Olsen, of course,’ he said, passing it back to Harry. ‘And these are the two women who were sitting by the fire, I think, but I’m not sure.’ He passed Harry the pictures of Borgny and Charlotte. ‘This may have been the boy.’ Elias Skog. ‘But none of these were asleep in the bedroom. I’m sure about that. And I don’t recognise this one either, he said, passing back the photo of Adele.
‘So you’re unsure about the ones you were in the same room with for a good while, but you’re sure about those you saw for a couple of seconds?’
Leike nodded. ‘They were asleep, weren’t they.’
‘Is it easier to recognise people asleep?’
‘No, but they don’t look back at you, do they. So you can stare unobserved.’
‘Mm. For a couple of seconds.’
‘Maybe a bit longer.’
Harry put the photos back in the files.
‘Have you got any names?’ Leike asked.
‘Names?’
‘Yes. As I said, I was the first up and I had a couple of slices of bread in the kitchen. The guest book was in there and I hadn’t signed in. While I was eating I opened it and studied the names that had been entered the night before.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ Tony rolled his shoulders. ‘It’s often the same people on these mountain skiing trips. I wanted to see if there was anyone I knew.’
‘Was there?’
‘No. But if you give me the names of people you know or think were there, maybe I can remember if I saw them in the guest book.’
‘Sounds reasonable, but I’m afraid we don’t have any names. Or addresses.’
‘Well then,’ Leike said, buttoning up his woollen coat. ‘I’m afraid I can’t be of much help, can I. Except that you can cross my name off.’
‘Mm,’ Harry said. ‘Since you’re here, I’ve got a couple more questions. So long as you have time?’
‘I’m my own boss,’ Leike said. ‘For the time being, anyway.’
‘OK. You say you have a murky past. Could you give me a rough idea of what you mean?’
‘I tried to kill a guy,’ Leike said without embellishment.
‘I see,’ Harry said, leaning back in his chair. ‘Why was that?’
‘Because he attacked me. He maintained I’d stolen his girl. The truth was that she was neither his girl nor wanted to be, and I don’t steal girls. I don’t have to.’
‘Mm. He caught you two in the act and hit her, did he?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m trying to understand what sort of situation may have led to you trying to kill him. If you mean it literally, that is.’
‘He hit me. And that was why I did my best to kill him. With a knife. And I was well on the way to succeeding when a couple of my pals dragged me off him. I was convicted for aggravated assault. Which is pretty cheap for attempted murder.’
‘You realise that what you’re saying now could make you a prime suspect?’
‘In this case?’ Leike looked askance at Harry. ‘You kidding me? You lot have a bit more nous than that, don’t you?’
‘If you’ve wanted to kill once…’
‘I’ve wanted to kill several times. I assume I’ve done it, too.’
‘Assume?’
‘It’s not so easy to see black men in the jungle at night. For the most part you shoot indiscriminately.’
‘And you did that?’
‘In my depraved youth, yes. After paying for my crime, I went into the army and from there straight to South Africa and got a job as a mercenary.’
‘Mm. So you were a mercenary in South Africa?’
‘Three years. And South Africa is just the place where I enlisted; the fighting took place in the surrounding countries. There was always war, always a market for pros, especially for whites. The blacks still think we’re smarter, you know. They trust white officers more than their own.’
‘Perhaps you’ve been to the Congo, too?’
Tony Leike’s right eyebrow formed a black chevron. ‘How so?’
‘Went there a while back, so I wondered.’
‘It was called Zaire then. But most of the time we weren’t sure which bloody country we were in. It was just green, green, green and then black, black, black until the sun rose again. I worked for a so-called security firm at some diamond mines. That was where I learned to read a map and compass from a head torch. The compass is a waste of time there, too much metal in the mountains.’
Tony Leika leaned back in his chair. Relaxed and unafraid, Harry noted.
‘Talking of metal,’ Harry said, ‘think I read somewhere that you’ve got a mining business down there.’
‘That’s right.’
‘What sort of metal?’
‘Heard of coltan?’
Harry nodded slowly. ‘Used in mobile phones.’
‘Exactly. And in games consoles. When world mobile phone production took off in the nineties my troops and I were on a mission in the north-east of the Congo. Some Frenchmen and some natives ran a mine there, employing kids with pickaxes and spades to dig out the coltan. It looks like any old stone but you use it to produce tantalum, which is the element that’s really valuable. And I knew that if I could just get someone to finance me I could run a proper, modern mining business and make my partners and myself wealthy men.’
‘And that was what happened?’
Tony Leike laughed. ‘Not quite. I managed to borrow money, was screwed by slippery partners and lost everything. Borrowed more money, was screwed again, borrowed even more and earned a bit.’
‘A bit?’
‘A few million to pay off debts. But I had a network of contacts and some headlines, as of course I was counting chickens before they hatched, which was enough to be adopted into the circle where the big money was. To become a member, it’s the number of digits in your fortune that counts, not whether there’s a plus or minus in front.’ Leike laughed again, a hearty ringing laugh, and it was all Harry could do to restrain a smile.
‘And now?’
‘Now we’re waiting for the big coup because it’s time for coltan to be harvested. Yes indeed, I’ve said it for long enough, but this time it’s true. I’ve had to sell my shares in the project in exchange for call options so that I could pay my debts. Now things are set fair, and all I have to do is get hold of money to redeem my shares so that I can become a full partner again.’
‘Mm. And the money?’
