Death on Pilot Hill

“The sixties and seventies had two symbols. . the peace symbol with the three branches and the smiling face with two dots for eyes and a u-shaped smile. Anton Ronning picked the well-known Smiley Face because it symbolized the fake happy face that molestation victims are forced to put on for the world. . a generic smiley face that reinforces the anonymity and secrets of the victims of molestation. Eliassen even got Ronning to tell him about several children whose bodies have never been found.”

“Wait. Just who is this Inspector Eliassen? I’ve never heard of him.”

“A genius.”

“The name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Shouldn’t be. Lars Eliassen spent his entire life as a small town policeman from the Romsdal valley. . never cared for promotions. . He put in fifteen years as a constable. . then ten as an inspector and five as chief inspector in the More og Romsdal district. He never sought the spotlight. . he avoided it. . let his bosses do all the talking and get all the credit especially when he got a full confession from the Smiley Face Killer. Afterwards Eliassen refused to be promoted above chief inspector.”

“How did you know him?”

“I. . I mean he. . he investigated. . ” Sohlberg decided to go for the half-truth instead of a lie. He could not tell her the whole truth. One Norwegian tradition that he decide to observe was that co-workers never made friendships at work or otherwise discussed in detail their personal lives at work.

“He investigated what Chief Inspector?”

“Eliassen investigated a fatal climbing accident that I witnessed. . you see I used to climb back then. Someone fell and Eliassen had to investigate and confirm it was an accident.”

“How sad!”

“Ja. . something like that makes you think about life and whether you’re doing what you really love and want to be doing. . less than a year after the accident I gave up my law practice and became a police officer just like Eliassen.

“We later became friends. . he had impressed me so much with his questions. . and how can I phrase it? His compassion. His understanding. I’ll never forget how he got inside my mind and immediately saw that the climber’s fall was an accident.”

“Did he think it was murder. . or suicide?”

“For a time. Inspector Eliassen had to investigate all the possibilities. That’s what a good cop does. . no?”

“Ja. I would’ve liked meeting him.”

“I saw him on and off for a long time. He died two years ago. I came to his funeral. Too bad he’s not here or we’d go get his advice.”

Sohlberg closed his eyes. He wanted to tell Wangelin that the dead are still with us long after the grief fades away and that even if you are an atheist who does not believe in the afterlife the fact remains that the dead are still with us even if just by leaving that empty place behind in our hearts or memories. Karoline gone. Harald Junior gone. Lars Eliassen gone. Soon others would be gone. His parents and then he himself and Emma Sohlberg would be gone. Death and grieving.

He had to find out who in Karl Haugen’s family mourned the empty spot left behind by Karl Haugen.

Who was in grief over Karl Haugen?

Who was not grieving over the missing boy?

The one who was not grieving over the missing boy is the kidnapper and maybe even the killer of Karl Haugen.

Was the Haugen home a house of mourning?

The car stopped. Sohlberg opened his eyes and he was surprised he had fallen deeply asleep.

For how long?

They had pulled into a Statoil gas station. His eyes popped wide open when he saw the $ 12 a gallon price on the digital display. That was 400 % more than what he paid in the USA. He wondered why Norwegians put up with outrageous prices at home when their government-owned Statoil exported billions of dollars of oil to other countries where gasoline was far cheaper than in Norway.

As soon as they got back on the road Sohlberg said:

“Sorry I fell asleep. You must think I’m getting old. . ”

“No. I stopped back there at the gas station because I too was getting sleepy with the afternoon heat and that big sandwich I ate a couple of miles ago. Do you want some coffee? My thermos holds almost a gallon.”

“No thanks. I no longer drink coffee. . haven’t in years.”

“I’m surprised you don’t drink coffee. All good Norwegians drink plenty of it. Why did you stop?”

“We were living in the United States. . in Utah where it was impossible to find good coffee.”

“Why? Don’t the Americans have good coffee?”

“They do but most of Utah is Mormon and they don’t drink coffee or black tea. . or alcohol for religious and health reasons. Anyway. . feel free to drink whatever you want from my case of Farris water.”

A few minutes later they both stretched to shake off their grogginess. Wangelin drove expertly at high speeds on the highway.

“Constable Wangelin. . tell me about the Haugen family. Tell me everything. I’m meeting the father and stepmother tomorrow.”

“I’m looking forward to that. We interviewed them five times each but they gave jumbled confusing explanations that only made sense when you heard them and no sense at all after you left the parents and had time to think about their statements. In hindsight. . they bamboozled us.”

“Let’s start with the biological mother.”

“I feel sorry for her and what she’s going through but she’s a bit of a flake.”

“ How so?”

“She’s not crazy but somewhat slightly unbalanced.”

“How so?”

“You’ll notice that her hair style and hair color change radically and constantly. One day it’s straight black- hair. . the next day frizzy blond-ish hair. . a week later she has dreadlocks and a month later she has bleached spiky hair. . ”

“Come now Constable Wangelin. Surely her hairstyle is not that important.”

“Maybe yes. Maybe no. Why does she do it? I can’t even imagine the amount of time she puts into fixing her hair.”

“You should’ve asked her. Why do you change your hair style and hair color so frequently? How much time does it take? Her answers truthful or not would’ve been revealing.”

“Ja! I should’ve asked.”

“You’ll see as you get more experienced how those little open-ended questions add up. . the innocent little questions about so-called meaningless or trivial or irrelevant matters almost always bring you tremendous insights into the person’s mind. . that’s what you have to do. . ask ask ask. . dig the truth out.”

“Ja.”

“Ask questions even when it feels very uncomfortable. Sometimes the stress in awkward personal interactions will break down the walls and let you take a peak inside.”

“But it feels so awkward to ask personal questions of a stranger.”

“I know it goes against our famous Norwegian reserve. But you have to do it to be an effective police officer. You have to put aside our Viking tradition of living in extreme isolation because of the steep mountains between each fjord. . you have to get past the ingrained mind-set where everyone from the next isolated fjord is a total stranger who speaks a totally different dialect.”

“I never saw it that way but it’s so true.”

“Tell me about Maya Engen. Start with her reaction to Karl’s disappearance.”

“In a nutshell. . she’s a woman with a guilty conscience. . for abandoning Karl Haugen when he needed her the most.”

“How so?”

“In her mind she brought Karl into the broken home of a failed marriage. . she separated from Karl’s father