Death on Pilot Hill

supermarket that is three miles from the school. She claims that the Apotek One pharmacy next door did not have the baby’s medicines. She says that she then drove another four miles and at ten-fifteen we have her credit card purchase for baby diapers at one of the EUROSPAR mega-supermarkets. Fifteen minutes later at ten-thirty she buys the baby’s medicine at a nearby Apotek One with the same credit card.”

“This sounds to me like proof that she was busy establishing an alibi for herself.”

“Ja Chief Inspector. There’s too much time that’s unaccounted for her and him. Except for the three credit card purchases at nine-twelve and ten-fifteen and ten-thirty we really have no idea where the stepmother was at. . especially from noon to one-thirty. The father is even worse since we’re still unsure if he really was on his computer.”

”So neither the father or the stepmother can really prove exactly where they were from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon expect for some scattered drugstore purchases she made that morning. . and whatever occasional computer entries he may have made on his computer throughout the day.”

“Unfortunately that is the situation Chief Inspector.”

“Why didn’t Nilsen call a press conference and ask for the public’s help that very same day and the next day. . to ask the public whether they had seen the parents anywhere that Friday or whether they had seen the white pickup or the red sports car at the stores or the school or elsewhere that Friday.”

“We did ask the public for help. . but that was three months later. . when the investigation was stalling.”

“Nilsen is such a moron! That delay made the request for the public’s help practically worthless. How stupid. People would forget such things three months after the fact. . and their memories would be suspect even if they said they remember seeing so and so at a certain day and time.”

“That was a problem throughout the case. Nilsen always took the parents at their word. He never wanted us to verify or check their statements because ‘They’re good people’ according to him. He called them ‘solid simple folk’.”

“That was rather incompetent of Nilsen.”

“I know. Had Karl’s parents been very poor. . or blue collar types. . Nilsen probably would’ve arrested them or at least suspected of them of lying.”

“What a clown. How could he take what these people said at face value just because the father makes a lot of money as a Nokia engineer?”

“Well. . Inspector Sivertsen was part of the team for a couple of weeks and he thought that Chief Inspector Nilsen was taking the stepmother too much at her word. It was almost as if Nilsen believed everything that she said as true while suspecting everything the husband said as a lie.”

“Really?”

“Well. . I think Nilsen. . ”

“What? C’mon. . say it.”

Constable Wangelin looked away from Sohlberg which move alerted him that she was very embarrassed. Since arriving in Oslo he had come to appreciate all over again how Norwegians as a rule always look the other person straight in the eye when speaking to them. He was happy that the old Viking tradition still prevailed because the Vikings knew that the eye was not only the window to the soul but also the ultimate lie detector. Sohlberg fondly remembered unnerving his law enforcement colleagues in other countries and all the people he interviewed with his dead-on stare.

“I’m sorry Chief Inspector. . I meant no disrespect,” said Constable Wangelin who gathered her composure and looked Sohlberg again straight in the eye.

“I understand. Go ahead. . tell me about Nilsen.”

“He liked her. . Nilsen liked the stepmother. He stared at her chest all the time.”

“Why?”

Steeling herself Wangelin said, “The stepmother has enormous breasts. Nilsen ogled her every time he saw her. You could see his eyes undressing her.”

“He’s fifty-two. . a little old to get distracted by such teenage boy nonsense.”

“Ah. . it was repulsive. . her breasts are obvious fakes. Even Nilsen knew it. . he took down bets as to whether she had silicone or saline implants.”

“Ridiculous. I can see why this investigation went nowhere. Anyway. . keep reading me your summary.”

“After buying the baby’s medicine the stepmother said the baby was irritable and crying and so she drove around for ‘a few minutes’ to get the baby to sleep with the rocking motion of the car.”

“Wait a minute. . what car?. . The white pickup or the red sports car?”

“She took her husband’s white pickup. She says that driving around always calmed the baby into sleeping. The father says that was news to him. I think that’s the first and only time that the father contradicted the stepmother.”

“Interesting,” said Sohlberg. “Proceed.”

“The stepmother then drove to the gym where she arrived at eleven-twenty. That’s when the main desk has her signing in. She leaves the gym an hour later at twelve-twenty. She then-”

“Stop. So her baby is sick and she goes to the gym with the baby.”

“Ja. She dropped the baby off in the gym’s daycare room.”

“Unbelievable.” Sohlberg shook his head in amazement at the selfishness of Norway’s newest generation of parents. “Then what does she do after the gym?”

“She says that she drove around with the baby. . to calm her down. . and finally arrived home at about one forty-five. . almost two o’clock. Says her husband was not there and that he left her a note saying he went to pick up some takeout food for lunch. He arrives back in her red Audi sports car at around two in the afternoon. But she’s not sure exactly when he arrived because she took a shower and a nap.”

“So basically he’s all alone on the day that his son disappears. . six hours. . from nine to three.”

“Ja. It’s almost as if he used the need to buy the baby’s medicine as an excuse to get rid off his wife and the baby.”

“Call the pharmacy and see if it’s true that they were out of the baby’s medicine when Agnes Haugen went to buy the medicines.”

“Actually we did that a few months ago.”

“And?”

“They had the medicine in stock.”

“What did she say to that?”

“That the pharmacy must’ve been confused and thought she asked for another medicine.”

“How convenient for the father and stepmother. . to have her driving around looking for the baby’s medicines while he’s all alone. Keep on. . ”

“Karl Haugen was to have taken the school bus home. But he was not on the bus at three-thirty when the stepmother walked to the bus stop near their driveway. The bus arrived and another child from next door got off but not Karl. That’s when the driver told her that Karl had never gotten on the bus.

“She ran back home and called the school to tell them that the driver had just told her that the boy had never gotten on the bus. The school informed her that her stepson had been marked absent for the day by his teacher as soon as roll call was completed at about nine-fifteen. The stepmother dialed one-one-two and we immediately got involved. Nilsen ordered an inch-by-inch search of the school and the school grounds and the parent’s home and their one-acre property.”

“Who else was called in to help?”

“Of course Nilsen got KRIPOS involved. . they sent a crime scene investigator squad that arrived at eight- thirty in the evening.”

“But that was almost twelve hours after the boy disappeared.”

“True but Nilsen thought the boy had just wandered off or left with another family and that we’d find him before nine at night. Commissioner Thorsen got extra help for us from nearby districts that sent officers and two dog-sniffing teams. . we carefully searched the school and the hilly wooded area immediately around the school. We even searched the school’s roof.”

“Any videos. . close circuit cameras at the school?”

“Not in this school. Only in the newer schools”