Kaja gazed across the fjord. ‘It was on my bedside table. He wrote that he had fallen in love with a girl he could never have, he didn’t want to live any more and asked for forgiveness for all the pain he was inflicting on us, and that he knew we loved him.’
‘Mm.’
‘That came as quite a surprise. Even had never told me there was a girl, and he used to tell me most things. Had it not been for Roar-’
‘Roar?’
‘Yes. I had my first boyfriend that summer. He was so nice and patient, visited me almost every day when I was ill and listened to me talking about Even.’
‘About what an immeasurably wonderful person he had been.’
‘You’ve got it.’
Harry shrugged. ‘I did the same when my mother died. Oystein wasn’t as patient as Roar. He asked me straight out if I was founding a new religion.’
Kaja giggled and sucked on her cigarette. ‘I think Roar eventually felt that the memory of Even was smothering all life as he knew it, including himself. It was a brief relationship.’
‘Mm. But Even was still there.’
She nodded. ‘Behind every single door I opened.’
‘That’s why, isn’t it?’
She nodded again. ‘When I came home from the hospital that summer and had to go to my bedroom, I couldn’t open the door. I simply couldn’t. Because I knew that if I did, he would be hanging there again. And it would be my fault.’
‘It’s always our fault, isn’t it?’
‘Always.’
‘And no one can persuade us that it isn’t – not even we can do that.’ Harry stubbed out his cigarette in the dark. Lit another.
The cruise ship beneath them had slid into the quay.
A gust of wind whistled through the gun slits, making a hollow, gloomy sound.
‘Why are you crying?’ he asked softly.
‘Because it is my fault,’ she whispered with tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘Everything is my fault. You’ve known all along, haven’t you?’
Harry inhaled. Took out the cigarette and blew on the glow. ‘Not all along.’
‘Since when?’
‘Since I saw Bjorn Holm’s face in the doorway in Holmenveien. Bjorn Holm is a good forensics officer, but no De Niro. And he was genuinely surprised.’
‘Was that all?’
‘It was enough. I knew from his expression that he had no idea I was on to Leike. Therefore he had not seen anything on my computer, and he had not passed it on to Bellman. And if Holm wasn’t the mole, there was only one other person it could have been.’
She nodded and dried her tears. ‘Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you do anything? Why didn’t you behead me?’
‘What would have been the point? I assumed you had a good reason.’
She shook her head and let the tears flow.
‘I don’t know what he promised you,’ Harry said. ‘I would guess a leading position in the new, all-powerful Kripos. And I was right when I said that the guy you were hung up on was married and told you he would leave his wife and kids for your sake, but he never would.’
She sobbed quietly, her neck bent as though it had become too heavy. Like a rain-burdened flower, Harry thought.
‘What I don’t understand is why you wanted to meet me this evening,’ he said, giving his cigarette a disapproving look. Perhaps he should change brand. ‘I thought at first it was because you wanted to tell me you were the mole, but I soon realised it wasn’t. Are we waiting for someone? Is something going to happen? I mean, I’ve been sidelined, what harm can I do to them now?’
She looked at her watch. Sniffled. ‘Can we go back to yours, Harry?’
‘Why? Is someone waiting for us there?’
She nodded.
Harry drained his hip flask.
The door had been broken down. The splinters of wood on the floor suggested it had been levered open with a crowbar. Nothing refined, no attempt to be discreet. Police break-in.
Harry turned on the steps and looked at Kaja who had got out of the car and stood with crossed arms. Then he went inside.
The living room was dark; the only light came from the drinks cabinet, which was open. But it was enough for him to recognise the person sitting in shadow by the window.
‘Bellman,’ Harry said. ‘You’re sitting in my father’s armchair.’
‘I took the liberty,’ Bellman said. ‘Since the sofa had a particular smell. Even the dog shied away.’
‘May I offer you something?’ Harry nodded towards the cabinet and sat down on the sofa. ‘Or did you find something for yourself?’
Harry could discern Bellman shaking his head. ‘Not me. But the dog did.’
‘Mm. I take it as read that you have a search warrant, but I am curious about the grounds given.’
‘An anonymous tip-off about you having smuggled drugs into the country via an innocent third party and the possibility that it was here.’
‘And it was?’
‘The sniffer dogs found something, a ball of some yellowish-brown substance wrapped in silver foil. Doesn’t look like the usual sort of thing we confiscate in this country, so for the moment it’s not clear what we’re dealing with. But we’re considering having it analysed.’
‘Considering?’
‘It might be opium, or it might be a lump of plasticine or clay. It depends.’
‘Depends on what?’
‘On you, Harry. And me.’
‘Really?’
‘If you agree to do us a favour, I might tend to the view that it is plasticine and overlook any tests. A boss has to prioritise his resources, isn’t that so?’
‘You’re the boss. What sort of favour?’
‘You’re a man who doesn’t like beating around the bush, Hole, so let me give it to you straight. I want you to take on the role of scapegoat.’
Harry saw a brown ring of Jim Beam at the bottom of the bottle on the table but resisted the temptation to put it to his lips.
‘We’ve just had to release Tony Leike as he has watertight alibis for at least two of the murders. All we have on him is a phone call to one of the victims. We’ve been a bit forceful with the press. Together with Leike and his future father-in-law they could make things uncomfortable for us. We’ll have to issue a press statement tonight. And it will say that the arrest was undertaken on the basis of the blue chit you, the controversial Harry Hole, wheedled out of the poor sylphlike solicitor at Police HQ. And that this was a solo operation that you, and you alone, organised, and you shoulder all of the responsibility. Kripos smelt a rat after the arrest, intervened and in conversation with Leike clarified the facts. And immediately released him. You will have to join us and sign the press statement, and you will never make a statement about the investigation again, not a word. Understood?’
Harry contemplated the dregs in the bottle a second time. ‘Mm. A tough order. Do you think the press will swallow the story after you were standing with your hands raised, taking the honour for the arrest?’
‘I assumed responsibility, the press statement will say. I saw fronting the arrest as a management responsibility, even though we had misgivings that a policeman might have committed a blunder. But when Harry Hole later insisted on being allowed to take his place at the front, I didn’t stand in his way because he was an experienced inspector and didn’t even work for Kripos.’
