Death on Pilot Hill

Interpol investigation. “What luck of yours Matthias. . or intelligence. . in selling out your company before the market crashed.”

“You wouldn’t believe what. . ”

Both men fell silent when other guests joined them. Fru Sohlberg and Fru Otterstad came back with plates of food and wine for the Otterstads and apple juice for the Sohlbergs.

He lost track of his wife at the gym. She kept flitting about from machine to machine and then chit-chatting here and there with all of her fake and extremely superficial gym friends. Of course he now knew all about her flirting in the gym and picking up men for dalliances when he was at work. He looked at her in her tight workout clothes and noticed that she was indeed no longer in as good physical condition as she had been when she was a body builder. Although she was no longer a Miss Froken Charles Atlas or Miss Froken Arnold Schwarzenegger he knew that she would probably put up a good fight if he tried to strangle or stab her. He had to avoid any combat with her. The trick would be to disable her and maybe even drug her beforehand. Or get her really drunk. She liked smoking cannabis two or three times a week and that might do the job along with some beers and tranquilizers.

He took a break from the strenuous exercise that the Jacob’s Ladder gave him. Of all the gym equipment the Jacob’s Ladder was his absolute favorite because of the punishing nature of that exercise beast.

Who was the genius who designed the Jacob’s Ladder exercise machine?

As he drank the Farris mineral water he realized that the Jacob’s Ladder exercise machine was nothing less than a perfect symbol for his life. In other words he was climbing a ladder and a marriage that went nowhere and the efforts were draining his energy and the ladder and the marriage would eventually exhaust him and ultimately prevail over him. He looked at other gym members on others ladders and the grueling workouts that they received as they climbed the endless procession of wood rails on the 40 degree slope.

Wasn’t there a Bible story about a Jacob’s ladder? Or was it the story about Jacob wrestling with God?

He tried to remember the exact context of the Bible story. Like almost all Norwegians he had grown up as a member of the government-sponsored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway. Like most children he had taken the mandatory Kristendomskunnskap or Christian theology courses given in public elementary schools until 2007. Like almost all Norwegians he celebrated religious Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas as well as Lutheran ceremonies for births and confirmations and weddings and funerals. And like most Norwegians he never went to church except for those holidays and events.

Jacobs’ ladder. . what did the Bible say about that?

He went to the weight lifting section and began a workout with dumbbells. He then switched to work out with various hand grips in order to strengthen his hands and wrists in preparation for the happy day when he would kill her. Strangling her with his bare hands would be such a pleasure. First would come the sensual and exciting feel of squeezing the lovely flesh around her neck. Second he would have the luxury of looking deep into her eyes and watch her life flicker away with the ultimate satisfaction that the last image ever to appear in her retina would be that of him snuffing the life out of her. All of that would be the perfect climax following hours or days of torturing her. This is his plan. This is his obsession.

A well-built woman in her 30s approaches him and starts working out with the dumbbells. She soon turns to him and says:

“Hei. . don’t those grips hurt your hands or wrists?”

He merely nods and realizes that he will have absolutely no problems in finding a suitable replacement for his wife within days or weeks of her death. He will probably be able to hook up with some woman within hours of the funeral. From what he’s heard women start hitting on widower’s immediately in a bid to bed them. Men of course do the same on widows. The vultures circle and move in for their prey. They take advantage of the widow’s or widower’s grief and overwhelming desire for their loved one. He looks forward to the feeding frenzy over the grieving survivor. He will be no different than a piece of meat that sharks have smelled and tasted in the water. Without a reasonable doubt he believes that he could move some Hot Babe into his house to console him within days of his wife’s tragic death.

Planning. The key is in the planning. He who plans well reaps the rewards.

Had not his entire life proved to him that he reaped great rewards if he planned thoroughly and well in advance?

His careful planning for his education and for his career had superbly rewarded him. Only when he got careless did he suffer the consequences as had happened with his wife. Therefore she must die not anytime soon but rather a year or so from now. And it must look like an accident

How can you torture and kill someone while making it look like an accident?

He could not afford to attract attention from the police. No sir.

His brain started working on all the calculations and permutations.

Then it hit him.

As a child he had read and heard about Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament Book of Genesis. That’s it.

He strolled to the locker room and got his Nokia cell phone out of his jacket. He had the latest smartphone from the giant Finnish telecom company. The phone could surf the web and find anything on the Internet.

He ran the search for “Jacob’s ladder” on Google. His eyes widened as he read the NASB translation of Genesis 28:10–17 which tells of:

Jacob traveling and sleeping outdoors at night with a rock for a pillow. He dreams “and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

Then God tells Jacob that he will be rewarded with land and children and that “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

His eyes welled up with tears especially when he read further on that Jacob wakes up from the dream and says:

“Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”

His hands shake when he reads the last verse:

“He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’”

If only he could see the gate of heaven. If only he could get to the gate of heaven. But he could not because it was far too late for that. The dirty deeds were done and thanks to all of her deceptions she had stolen that opportunity from him forever. He would never be blessed like Jacob. No she had taken that from him and to make matters worse she was without a doubt surely going to expose him with his little secret about the molestations. So he simply had to kill her. She had blocked him from ever seeing and reaching the gate of heaven.

Did not the Old Testament law of “an eye for an eye” call for her death?

No amount of forgiveness would solve his problem.

Only her death would make things right and even and just.

The minutes slipped away while he was lost in thought. He wept silently and turned away so that no one could see him in the locker room.

Ja. I could be like Jacob and see the gate of heaven. . except for her curse.

Right there before his very eyes was his life story. He turned off his phone. He looked forward to a future of planning every day and every minute on how to punish her as severely as she deserved and then how to get rid of her once and for all so that he could at least finish his life on earth in peace without her.

Scream. . that’s what I want to do. Can I scream?

His mind pulled images from old memories of his childhood and he remembered taking field trips during his high school years to the many excellent art museums in Oslo. One image in pArcticular had stuck to his mind and the image terrified him for the deep truth contained in the image and he could not get the image or painting out of his mind.

The Scream by Edvard Munch.

How well he remembered the details of the swirling reddish orange sky and swirling purple blue waters and