by Jo Nesbo
67
Prince Charming
It was a quarter to eight, and the day hadn’t yet adjusted colour and contrast. The grey morning light showed the countryside in a grainy black-and-white version as Harry parked beside the only other car by Lake Voyentangen and ambled down to the jetty. County Officer Skai was standing at the edge with a fishing rod in his hand and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. Wisps of mist hung in the air like cotton wool around the reeds poking up from the black, oil-smooth water.
‘Hole,’ said Skai without turning. ‘Up early.’
‘Your wife said you were here.’
‘Every morning from seven to eight. Only chance I have to think before the hustle and bustle starts.’
‘What have you caught?’
‘Nothing. But there are pike in the reeds.’
‘Sounds familiar. ’Fraid the hustle and bustle starts a bit earlier today. I’ve come about Tony Leike.’
‘Tony, yes. His grandad’s farm was in Rustad, east of Lake Lyseren.’
‘So you remember him well?’
‘This is a small place, Hole. My father and old Leike were friends, and Tony was here every summer.’
‘What memories do you have of him?’
‘Erm, funny guy. Lots of people liked him. Especially the women. He was pally with the girls, a sort of Elvis type. And managed to surround himself with a lot of mystery. Rumour was he had grown up alone with his unhappy, alcoholic mother until one day she sent him packing because the man she was with didn’t like the boy. But women round here liked him a lot. And he them. That occasionally got him into some trouble.’
‘Like when he cosied up to your daughter?’
Skai flinched as if he had got a bite.
‘Your wife,’ Harry said. ‘I asked her about Tony, and she told me. It was your daughter Tony and a local boy were fighting over that time.’
The policeman shook his head. ‘They weren’t fighting, it was butchery pure and simple. Poor Ole, he’d got it into his head that he and Mia were a couple because he’d fallen in love with her and was allowed to drive Mia and her friend to a dance. He wasn’t a fighter, Ole, he was more the bookish kind. But he went for Tony. Who laid him out flat, drew a knife and… it was pretty nasty, we’re not used to that sort of thing here.’
‘What did he do?’
‘He cut off half his tongue. Put it in his pocket and left. We arrested Tony half an hour later at his grandfather’s, told him the tongue was needed at the operating theatre. Tony said he’d fed it to the crows.’
‘What I wanted to ask was whether you had ever suspected Tony of rape. Then or at any other time.’
Skai spun round.
‘Let me put it this way, Hole. Mia was never the same happy-go-lucky girl again. She still wanted the headcase, of course, but that’s the way girls are at that age. And Ole moved away. Every time the poor kid opened his mouth round here it was a reminder for him and others of the dreadful humiliation. So, yes, I would say that Tony Leike is the violent type. But, no, I don’t think he raped anyone. If so, he would have raped Mia, if I can put it like that.’
‘She…?’
‘They were in the woods behind the dance hall. She didn’t let Tony have his way. And he accepted that.’
‘You’re sure? Sorry I have to ask, but it’s-’
The hook leapt out of the water towards them. It glinted in the first horizontal rays of the sun.
‘That’s fine, Hole. I’m police too, and I know what you’re working on. Mia’s a decent girl and doesn’t lie. Not even in a witness box. You can have the report if you want the details. I would just prefer it if Mia didn’t have to go through all of this again.’
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Harry said. ‘Thank you.’
Harry had informed the detectives assembled in the Odin conference room that the person he had seen under the snowmobile – who had still not been found despite the increased police presence – had Tony Leike’s arthritic fingers. And then recounted his theory. He leaned back and waited for reactions.
The Pelican peered over her glasses at Harry, but seemed to be addressing the whole morning gathering.
‘What do you mean you think Adele was willing? She was screaming for help, for goodness’ sake!’
‘That was what Elias Skog thought at a later point,’ Harry said. ‘His first impression was that he was watching two people having consensual sex.’
‘But a woman who takes a man with her to a cabin doesn’t have sex with a casual interloper in the middle of the night! Do you really have to be a woman to understand that!’ she hissed, and with her new, sensationally unbecoming dreadlocks she reminded Harry of a furious Medusa.
The response came from Harry’s neighbour. ‘Do you really think gender automatically affords you superior knowledge of the sexual preferences of half of the earth’s population?’?rdal paused and studied the freshly cleaned nail on his little finger. ‘Hasn’t it already been made clear that Adele Vetlesen changed partners at the drop of a hat and frequently? She agreed to have sex with a man she hardly knew at a disused factory in the middle of the night, didn’t she?’ ?rdal lowered his hand, started work on the ring finger and mumbled so low that only Harry heard it. ‘Anyway, I’ve fucked more women than you, you scrawny wader bird.’
‘Women fell easily for Tony and vice versa,’ Harry said. ‘Tony arrived at the cabin late, Adele’s boyfriend was annoyed about something and had gone to bed. He and Adele were able to flirt undisturbed. He was having trouble on the home front, and she had started to lose interest in the man she was there with. Adele and Tony fancied each other, but there were people everywhere in the cabin. So later that night they sneaked out and met by the toilet. They kissed, groped, he stood behind her, pulled down his pants and was now so excited that there was what they call in the Sexual Offences Unit “pre-ejaculatory fluid” on the tip of his penis, which went over her ski pants before he could pull them down, and they had intercourse. She was so loud in her ecstasies that she awoke Elias Skog who watched them from the window. And I believe they woke her boyfriend up as well and that he saw them from his room. I don’t think she could have cared less. Tony, on the other hand, tried to stifle her cries.’
‘If she couldn’t have cared less, why would he?’ the Pelican burst out. ‘After all, it’s women who are stigmatised by this kind of looseness while men’s status is only enhanced. Among other men, mind you!’
‘Tony Leike had at least two good motives for stifling her cries,’ Harry said. ‘First of all, you would hardly wish to broadcast extra-curricular bonking if you’re a fiance plastered across the tabloids, and especially not if your future father-in-law’s money is about to rescue your investments in the Congo. Secondly, Tony Leike is an experienced mountaineer who knows the area well.’
‘What the heck does that have to do with the case?’
A chuckle was heard, and everyone turned to the head of the table where Mikael Bellman was sitting.
‘Avalanche,’ he laughed. ‘Tony Leike was frightened Adele’s howls would set off an avalanche.’
‘Tony must have known that more than three-quarters of all avalanches provoking fatalities are triggered by humans,’ Harry said.
Guffaws of laughter spread around the table. Even the Pelican had to allow herself a smile.
‘But what makes you think Adele’s boyfriend saw them?’ she asked. ‘And that Adele didn’t care? Perhaps she was so enthralled that she forgot herself.’
‘Because,’ said Harry, leaning back in the chair, ‘Adele has done this before. She texted her boyfriend a picture of herself being screwed by another man. A heartless message that would leave no one in any doubt. Her friends said she didn’t meet the boyfriend again after the trip to Havass.’
‘Interesting,’ Bellman said. ‘But where does it take us?’
‘To the motive,’ Harry said. ‘For the first time in this case we have a possible “why”.’
‘So we’re moving awa
y from the theory of a crazy serial killer?’ ?rdal asked.
‘The Snowman also had a motive,’ said Beate Lonn, who had just walked in and taken a seat at the end of the table. ‘Insane, but definitely a motive.’
‘This is simpler,’ Harry said. ‘Good old-fashioned jealousy. Motive for two out of three murders in this country. And in most other countries. In this sense, we humans are quite predictable.’
‘It may explain the murder of Adele Vetlesen and Tony Leike,’ said the Pelican, ‘but what about the others?’
‘They had to be eliminated,’ Harry said. ‘They were all potential witnesses of the events at the cabin and could have told the police, and provided us with the motive we lacked. And maybe even worse: they had been witness to his total humiliation – he had been cheated on in public. For an unstable person that would be motive enough on its own.’
Bellman clapped his hands. ‘I hope we have some answers soon. I’ve spoken to Krongli on the phone and he says the weather in the search area has improved, so now they can send in the dogs and use helicopters. Any reason you didn’t mention why you suspected the body of being Tony Leike before, Harry?’
Harry shrugged. ‘I had assumed we would reach the body much more quickly, so I saw no reason to speculate aloud. After all, arthritis is not that unusual.’
Bellman rested his gaze on Harry for a second before addressing the rest. ‘We have a suspect, folks. Anyone want to christen him?’
‘The Eighth Guest,’ said?rdal.
‘Prince Charming,’ declared the Pelican.
For a few moments there was total silence, as though something had come up that required time to digest before they went on.
‘Now I’m no strategist,’ Beate Lonn began, in the secure knowledge that everyone in the room knew that Beate Lonn never commented on anything she hadn’t researched thoroughly first, ‘but isn’t there something here that makes you sit up and wonder? Leike had an alibi for the times of the murders, but what about all these leads pointing to him? What about the call from his home phone to Elias Skog? What about the murder weapon that was acquired in the Congo? Furthermore from an area where Leike had financial interests. Chance?’
‘No,’ Harry said. ‘From day one Prince Charming has guided us towards Tony Leike. It was Prince Charming who paid Juliana Verni to go to the Congo because he knew that any clue pointing to the Congo would point to Tony Leike. And as far as his phone call to Elias Skog is concerned, today I checked something we should have checked long ago, but which we typically let go when we were getting close to a result. Because we resist any weakening of our evidence. Around the time the call went out from Leike’s house to Skog there were three calls made from Leike’s direct line in the Aker Brygge office block. Leike can’t have been in two places at the same time. I’d bet two hundred kroner he was in Aker Brygge. Any takers?’
Silent but wide-eyed faces.
‘Do you mean that Prince Charming rang Elias Skog from Leike’s house?’ said the Pelican. ‘How…?’
‘When Leike came to Police HQ he told me there had been a breakin through the cellar door a few days earlier. That matches the time of the phone call to Skog. Prince Charming took a bike to disguise it as a standard burglary, innocent enough for us to make a note of it, but no more than that. Leike knows we don’t do anything about that kind of break-in, so he didn’t even report it. And with that Prince Charming had planted some irrefutable evidence against Leike.’
‘What a snake!’ the Pelican erupted.
‘I buy the explanation of how,’ Beate Lonn said. ‘But why? Why finger Tony Leike?’
‘Because he knew that sooner or later we would link the murders with the Havass cabin,’ Harry said. ‘And that would limit the number of suspects in such a way that everyone who had been there that night would have the spotlight on them. There were two reasons he tore out the page from the guest book. Number one, he had the names of those who were there, so that he could find them and kill them at his leisure, while we didn’t and were therefore unable to stop him. Number two, and more important, he could keep his own name hidden.’
‘Logical,’?rdal said. ‘And to make quite sure we didn’t go after him he had to supply us with an apparent guilty party. Tony Leike.’
‘And that’s why he had to wait until the end to kill Tony Leike,’ said one of the detectives, a man with a fertile Fridtjof Nansen moustache whose surname was all Harry could recall.
His neighbour, a young man with bright, shiny skin and eyes, none of whose names Harry could remember, interjected: ‘But unfortunately for him Tony had an alibi for the times of the deaths. And since Tony’s role as a scapegoat was redundant now, it was finally time to kill enemy numero uno.’
The temperature in the room had risen, and the pale tentative winter sun seemed to be brightening the proceedings. They were making progress, the knot had finally loosened. Harry could see that Bellman was sitting further forward in his chair.
‘That’s all well and good,’ Beate Lonn said, and while Harry was waiting for the but, he clicked what she was going to ask, knew she was going to play the devil’s advocate because she knew he had the answers, ‘but why has Prince Charming made this so unnecessarily complicated?’
‘Because humans are complicated,’ Harry said and could hear an echo of something he had heard and forgotten. ‘We want to do things that are complex, that mesh, where we control our fates and can feel like rulers of our own universes. The room that burned down at the Kadok factory – do you know what it reminded me of most? A control room. The headquarters. And it’s not certain he even planned to take Leike’s life. Perhaps he just wanted him arrested and convicted.’
The silence was so pervasive that they could hear a bird twittering outside.
‘Why?’ asked the Pelican. ‘If he could have killed him? Or tortured him?’
‘Because pain and death are not the worst that can befall mankind,’ Harry said, again hearing the echo. ‘Humiliation is. That was what he wanted for Leike. The humiliation of having everything you possess taken from you. The fall, the shame.’
He saw a tiny smile playing on Beate Lonn’s lips, saw her give a nod of acknowledgement.
‘But,’ he continued, ‘as has been indicated, Tony had – unluckily for our killer – an alibi. And so Tony got away with the subsidiary punishment. Which was a slow and decidedly brutal death.’
In the ensuing silence Harry sensed something flutter past. The smell of roasted meat. Then the room seemed to draw breath all at once.
‘So what do we do now?’ asked the Pelican.
Harry looked up. The twittering bird on the branch outside the window was a chaffinch. A migratory bird which had arrived too soon. Which gave people hopes of spring, but which froze to death on the first frosty night.
Buggered if I know, Harry thought. Buggered if I know.
68
Pike
It was a long Kripos meeting that morning.
Bjorn Holm reported back on the forensic investigations at Kadok. No semen was found, nor any other physical evidence of the perpetrator. The room he had used was indeed completely burned out, and the computer had been reduced to a lump of metal, leaving no chance of recovering any data.
‘He’s probably been online using those unsecured networks in the area. Nydalen’s full of them.’
‘He must have left some electronic trails,’?rdal said, but it sounded more like a refrain he had heard than something he could expatiate on beyond ‘must have’ speculation.
‘Of course, we could apply to access some of the hundreds of networks up there and search for whatever it is we don’t know,’ Holm said. ‘But I have no idea how many weeks it could take. Or whether we would find anything.’
‘Leave it to me,’ Harry said. He had already got up and was on his way to the door while keying in a number. ‘I know someone.’
He left the door ajar, and while he was waiting for an answer he heard one of the detectives say that no one they had s
poken to had seen anyone come or go at Kadok, but that was not so surprising since it was hidden behind trees and bushes and, anyway, it was so dark now, in the winter months.
Harry got an answer. ‘Katrine Bratt’s secretary.’
‘Hello?’
‘Froken Bratt is at lunch right now.’
‘Sorry, Katrine, but eating will have to wait. Listen…’
Katrine listened as Harry explained what he wanted.
‘Prince Charming had pictures on the wall that had probably been printed off Internet news sites. With the search engine you could get onto the networks in the area, check the server logs and find out who has been on the news pages which covered the murders. Loads of people must have been-’
‘Not as much as he was,’ Katrine said. ‘I’ll just ask for a list sorted according the number of downloads.’
‘Mm. You’ve learned this quickly.’
‘It’s in the name. Katrine Bratt. Bratt, steep. Steep learning curve. Get it?’
Harry went back to the others.
They were playing the message that Harry had received from Leike’s mobile phone. It had been sent to NTNU, the technical university in Trondheim, for voice analysis. They had achieved useful results with sound recordings of bank robberies, in fact better than with CCTV, as the voice – even if you try to distort it – is very difficult to disguise. But Bjorn Holm had been told that a bad recording of an indeterminate sound, coughing or laughter, was worthless and could not be used to make a voice profile.
‘Damn,’ said Bellman, banging the table with his hand. ‘With a voice profile, a foothold, we could have started eliminating possible suspects from the case.’
‘Which possible suspects?’ mumbled?rdal.
‘The base station signal tells us that whoever used Leike’s phone was near the centre of Ustaoset when he rang,’ Holm said. ‘The signal faded straight afterwards – the operators’ network only has coverage around the centre of Ustaoset. But the fact that the signal faded strengthens the theory that it was Prince Charming who had the phone.’