‘Someone will see the sense in lending me the money against a small share. The return is enormous, the risk minimal. And all the big investments have been made, including local bribes. We have even cleared a runway into the jungle so that we can load directly on to freight planes and get the stuff out via Uganda. Are you wealthy, Harry? I can see if there’s any chance for you to have a slice of the action.’
Harry shook his head. ‘Been to Stavanger recently, Leike?’
‘Hm. In the summer.’
‘Not since then?’
Leike gave the question some thought, then shook his head.
‘You’re not absolutely sure?’ Harry asked.
‘I’m presenting my project to potential investors, and that means a lot of travelling. Must have been to Stavanger three or four times this year, but not since the summer, I don’t think.’
‘What about Leipzig?’
‘Is this the point where I have to ask whether I need a solicitor, Harry?’
‘I just want you eliminated from the case as soon as possible, so that we can concentrate on more relevant issues.’ Harry ran his forefinger across the bridge of his nose. ‘If you don’t want the media to catch wind of this, I assume you won’t want to involve a solicitor, or to be summoned to formal interviews, etc?’
Leike nodded slowly. ‘You’re right, of course. Thank you for your advice, Harry.’
‘Leipzig?’
‘Sorry,’ Leike said, with genuine regret in his voice and face. ‘Never been there. Should I have been?’
‘Mm. I also have to ask you where you were on certain days and what you were doing.’
‘Carry on.’
Harry dictated the four dates in question while Leike wrote them into a Moleskine notebook.
‘I’ll check as soon as I’m in my office,’ he said. ‘Here’s my number by the way.’ He passed Harry a business card with the inscription Tony C. Leike, Entrepreneur.
‘What does the C stand for?’
‘You tell me,’ Leike said, getting to his feet. ‘Tony’s only short for Anthony of course, so I thought I needed an initial. Gives a bit more gravitas, don’t you think? Think foreigners like it.’
Instead of taking the culvert, Harry accompanied Leike up the stairs to the prison, knocked on the glass window and a guard came and let them in.
‘Feels like I’m taking part in an episode with the Olsen Gang,’ Leike said when they were standing on the gravel path outside old Botsen Prison’s fairly imposing walls.
‘It’s a little more discreet like this,’ Harry said. ‘You’re beginning to become a recognisable face, and staff are arriving for work now at Police HQ.’
‘Talking of faces, I see someone has broken your jaw.’
‘Must have fallen and hit myself.’
Leike shook his head and smiled. ‘I know something about broken jaws. That one’s from a fight. You’ve just let it grow together again, I can see. You should go and have it seen to, it’s not a big job.’
‘Thanks for the tip.’
‘Did you owe them a lot of money?’
‘Do you know something about that, too?’
‘Yes!’ Leike exclaimed, his eyes widening. ‘Unfortunately.’
‘Mm. One last thing, Leike-’
‘Tony. Or Tony C.’ Leike flashed his shiny masticatory apparatus. Like someone without a care in the world, Harry thought.
‘Tony. Have you ever been to Lake Lyseren? The one in Ost-?’
‘Yes, of course. Are you crazy!’ Tony laughed. ‘The Leike farm is in Rustad. I went to my grandfather’s there every summer. Lived there for a couple of years, too. Fantastic place, isn’t it? Why d’you want to know?’ His smile vanished at once. ‘Oh, shit, that’s where you found the woman! Bit of a coincidence, eh?’
‘Well,’ Harry said, ‘it’s not so unlikely. Lyseren is a big lake.’
‘True enough. Thanks again, Harry.’ Leike proffered his hand. ‘And if any names crop up to do with the Havass cabin, or someone comes forward, just ring me and I’ll see if I can remember them. Full cooperation, Harry.’
Harry watched himself shake hands with the man he had just decided had killed six people in the last three months.
Fifteen minutes had passed since Leike left when Katrine Bratt rang.
‘Yes?’
‘Negative on four of them,’ she said.
‘And the fifth?’
‘One hit. Deep in digital information’s innermost intestinal tract.’
‘Poetic.’
‘You’ll like it. On the 16th of February Elias Skog was called by a number that is not registered in anyone’s name. A secret number, in other words. And that could be the reason that Oslo-’
‘Stavanger.’
‘-Police haven’t seen the link before. But inside the innermost intestines-’
‘By which you mean on Telenor’s internal, highly protected register?’
‘Something like that. The name of one Tony Leike, Holmenveien 172, turned up as the invoiced subscriber for this secret number.’
‘Yess!’ Harry shouted. ‘You’re an angel.’
‘Poorly chosen metaphor, I believe. Since you sound as if I’ve just sentenced a man to life imprisonment.’
‘Talk to you later.’
‘Wait! Don’t you want to hear about Jussi Kolkka?’
‘I’d almost forgotten about that. Shoot.’
She shot.
40
The Offer
Harry found Kaja in crime squad, in the Red Zone on the sixth floor. She perked up when she noticed Harry standing in the doorway.
‘Always got an open door?’ he asked.
‘Always. And you?’
‘Closed. Always. But I can see you’ve thrown out the guest’s chair. Smart move. People like to chew the fat.’
She laughed. ‘Doing anything exciting?’
‘In a way,’ he said, entering and leaning against the wall.
She placed both hands against the edge of her desk, pushed, and she and the chair sailed across the floor to the filing cabinet. There, she opened a drawer, pulled out a letter and presented it to Harry. ‘Thought you’d like to see this.’
‘What is it?’
‘The Snowman. His solicitor has applied for him to be transferred from Ullersmo to a normal hospital for health reasons.’
He perched on the edge of the desk and read. ‘Mm. Scleroderma. It’s progressing fast. Not too fast, I hope.
