Death on Pilot Hill (an inspector harold sohlberg mystery)

by Jens Amundsen

  “He was able to move around so freely to kill in a dictatorship like the old communist Russia?”

  “Ja. . ”

  “Where there’s a will there’s a way,” said Constable Wangelin while shaking her head.

  “Chikatilo raped. . killed. . and cannibalized at least fifty-eight women and children. . and not always in that order. He’d torture them and cut out the women’s uteruses and the boy’s parts and eat them. He always blamed his depraved conduct for what he and his family suffered as ethnic Ukrainians with Stalin and the genocidal communists in the nineteen thirties. I imagine you’ve heard about the famine that Stalin intentionally created in the Ukraine?”

  “No. . I’m sorry. . not really.”

  “Stalin made sure that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians died like fleas. . many people started taking children off the streets and eating them to survive. Chikatilo was traumatized by his mother’s obsession over the possibility that he’d get kidnaped and then killed and eaten.”

  “Unbelievable what men do.”

  “Ja. . Constable Wangelin. Men and governments.”

  “True.”

  “I mentioned Chikatilo because I’ve always thought that criminals reflect their families and country and society and the times. It’s too bad that they don’t teach more at the Academy about the criminal mind.”

  “Ja. It’s all about forensic science nowadays.”

  “The Academy doesn’t train officers properly. They just don’t want to invest the time and effort. You see Constable Wangelin. . to know the criminal mind you have to study real-life cases. Only by truly knowing the criminal mind can you be truly effective as an investigator.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Take the Smiley Face Killer. . Anton Ronning. We had no evidence other than some circumstantial evidence that Ronning was the killer. Of course this is before DNA analysis. Anyway. . it took one man. . Inspector Lars Eliassen. . nine days of interrogation to break the Smiley Face Killer.”

  “Nine days?”

  “Inspector Eliassen was able to do that because he knew how to get inside the criminal mind thanks to his superb interview and interrogation skills. That and he was a darn good profiler.”

  “Chief Inspector. . do you believe in profilers?”

  “Yes and no. Sometimes they’re helpful in an investigation if the police are stumped or have little or no creative thinking. Otherwise profilers are best used to help detectives prepare for interrogations that break down the suspect.”

  “I’ve not heard that before. . the Academy instructors promised we’d be taught the best and most modern techniques.”

  “I guess I’m old-fashioned after all. . I mean. . if the police are not good profilers then they’re incompetent idiots no?. . If you have a violent rape. . do you stop and question the twenty-year old man who’s a violent ex-con?. . Or the ninety-year old woman who’s barely walking with a cane?”

  “I see what you mean.”

  “Suspect profiling and interrogation techniques are what Inspector Eliassen taught me. . He always said that every good police officer must be a good profiler and excellent at interrogation. . two sides of the same coin so to speak.”

  “Who’s this Eliassen?”

  “A small town police officer. He spent years and years on the trail of Anton Ronning. . who by the way had twice been caught early in his career of crime and named as a prime suspect but released by the incompetent local police in Oslo and Trondheim.”

  “Where’s this Inspector Eliassen now?”

  “He died a few years ago. I miss him. . he taught me a lot. Anyway he was a genius at interrogating.”

  “How did he catch Ronning?”

  “For quite some time Eliassen had Anton Ronning on his short list of suspects for sex crimes in Eliassen’s district. Then he got a lucky break. Ronning crashed into a light pole when he hurriedly left the scene of one of his molestation victims. Eliassen seized the opportunity and locked Anton Ronning up on a minor traffic charge for destruction of public property. . Eliassen then just kept interrogating Anton Ronning until he caught him in all these lies and inconsistencies.”

  “That’s impressive!”

  “Inspector Eliassen was known for solving impossible-to-solve cases just by interrogating and breaking the suspect down without torture or physical pressure. This Eliassen. . he was a master at interrogation. . out of one hundred interrogations he had only three suspects who refused to confess.”

  “That’s pretty good. Too bad the Academy doesn’t teach his techniques.”

  “Last time I looked at their curriculum I saw that the Academy. . and the force. . are playing around with this silly stuff about community policing. . detectives eating ethnic food at Asian restaurants or listening to rap hip hop music with African teenagers. Seems that policing in Norway is now all about touchy-feely political correctness and feel-good public relations.”

  “Perhaps Chief Inspector. But maybe it’s because effective policing is now based on all the advances in DNA and forensic crime investigation. . Don’t forget those advances Chief Inspector.”

  “Forensics are important and sometimes the only thing to go on. . but nothing beats good profiling and interrogation techniques. Too bad the Academy believes all that junk about hiring psychologists and psychiatrists as profilers when the cop on the beat or the detective on the case should be the profiler. Of course I can see the love affair with profilers. . they are very useful in making excellent American movies and television series.”

  Wangelin chortled. “So what happened with Eliassen and the serial killer?”

  “Anton Ronning would not break down and confess. . despite a lot of psychological pressure put on him during the nine days. But Eliassen broke him by the end of day nine. He does this by questioning and talking to Ronning every day at the little local jailhouse. . until Ronning breaks down. Eliassen makes the pedophile killer realize that by confessing he has a chance to avoid the death penalty overseas in death penalty countries where he raped and killed children. The killer also sees that he can stay in Norway and probably not get extradited if he’s deemed insane. That way he can spend the rest of his life explaining his story to psychiatrists who might eventually cure and release him to enjoy his life and wife and adult children and grandchildren.”

  “Chief Inspector. It’s always a shock to me how even the most hardened criminals at one point or another in their life of crime always expect or demand or beg for mercy.”

  “Nine-nine percent always ask for the mercy and compassion they refused their victims. One my colleagues in America. . Alec Mikesell the Chief Homicide Detective in Salt Lake City Utah. . once shared with me this bit of wisdom:

  “‘Justice must always be satisfied and yet mercy is needed to balance the scales because sometimes justice blindly delivered is an injustice by itself.’

  “That’s pretty good. . So what exactly made the Smiley Face Killer confess?”

  “Eliassen knows that his suspect is a physical coward and terrified of winding up in any prison here or overseas with inmates who might not be as tolerant as many judges are about child molesters or child rapists or child killers. Ronning fears the rape and the torture and the death that he so freely imparted.”

  “Typical.”

  “Anton Ronning finally confesses when Inspector Eliassen offers him a chance to explain himself and therefore perhaps avoid prison here and the death penalty overseas if Ronning can show that he’s sick enough and in need of psychiatric treatment.

  “Eliassen tells Ronning that a full confession with all the grisly details of all his crimes will help prove Ronning’s insanity. Ronning sees that he might even get out of the all-too-lenient sentence of a maximum twenty-one years in prison that he’d receive here in Norway for all the molestations and rapes and killings.”

  “Ja. I can see his motivation in confessing.”

  “Of course the ultimate motivation is that the Smiley Face Killer knows for sure that he will
get the traditional Russian method of execution with a Makarov pistol shot behind the right ear if he’s ever extradited to any of the Russian Republics where he committed dozens of crimes. Anton Ronning confesses that he is the serial killer but still does not offer details.

  “The weekend comes and when it’s time on Monday to provide the details Ronning instead gets a lawyer and tries to limit his confession to molesting children while he worked as a tax collector for a few years as a young man. Of course that’s long before he started killing.”

  “Again. . that’s typical. . offering a partial confession to throw off the investigator.”

  “Well a partial confession won’t do for Eliassen. . so he shows Ronning how he’s caught Ronning in all these lies during the interrogation. Eliassen tells Ronning that he now knows the exact details of Ronning’s work-and-travel schedules and how these match up perfectly with all of the times and places of the horrible crimes. Eliassen shows Ronning how all of these facts and circumstances will be enough to convict him in any country with the death penalty.

  “Eliassen reminds Ronning about the knives and ropes that Eliassen found in Ronning’s briefcase. . and he also reminds Ronning about the numerous eyewitnesses who saw Ronning at the crime scenes trolling for victims.

  “For example, one woman in the United States. . in Miami Florida even took a picture of Ronning at the beach where he was trolling for children. . of course two boys were later found dead near his hotel. Ronning’s stupid lawyer says they’ll go to trial and the idiot leaves the room. Eliassen decides to again toss Ronning a lifesaver by making the offhand comment, ‘It’s too bad you want to do it this way when you could’ve gotten off with insanity.’”

  “Does it work?”

  “Like a charm. It works perfectly well because Inspector Eliassen knows the killer’s mind. . and in Ronning’s mind Ronning knows that he’s doing totally insane and repulsive crimes and yet he’s using his sanity and logic to prevent capture by leading a so-called normal life with his wife and children and grandchildren. .

  “You see. . Ronning used his sanity to avoid capture by never leaving evidence at the crime scenes. . and he used his sanity to evade the nationwide manhunt by not killing at all for long periods of time. . or by killing in distant locations when he has to do that to throw off investigators.

  “So. . Inspector Eliassen gets Ronning to use the sane part of his mind to logically chose the insane part of himself to avoid going to prison and getting extradited. . basically Ronning’s again been offered the chance to get off scot-free by having psychiatrists treat him for a few years and later declare him sane.”

  “That’s awful Chief Inspector.”

  “Ja. . the ugly truth is that it’s a great deal for the killer. . no? After all. . if some shrink could ever come up with a treatment to cure Ronning from his insane compulsions then it’s all real good for the killer. He’s finally free of his insane half. And if they can’t treat him then he gets a second proverbial bite at the apple when he’s released after his maximum twenty-one-year sentence here in Norway.”

  “Uuughh!”

  “That’s the way of the world unfortunately.”

  “So what happens to the Smiley Face Killer?”

  “Anton Ronning breaks down completely and confesses. Inspector Eliassen even gets him talking about his childhood. . Ronning breaks down in tears. . literally trembling and shaking when he talks about the horrible childhood he had with a mother and grandmother who beat him mercilessly. The two women starved him for days while he was locked up in a small dark closet. He also talks about how he had been molested and raped as a child by his mother’s boyfriend. The confession lasts almost two weeks.”

  “Wow! That’s something else.”

  “Do you see Constable Wangelin?. . You must get inside their heads. You must find their passions and fears. . find out their true thoughts however irrational or illogical or disgusting. . You must see the world from their point-of-view.”

  “How will this Smiley Face Killer help us?”

  “A craftsman always recognizes similar handiwork. Ronning will tell us if a stranger took Karl Haugen. Ronning knows all about taking little boys.”

  “What an animal.”

  Sohlberg glanced at Constable Wangelin. She shook her head in disgust.

  “Ja Constable Wangelin. You are right. Ronning was. . is an animal. . a predator. . By the early seventies Anton Ronning had already killed at least twelve children here in Norway and Sweden and many many more in Germany and Russia and the United States. And Hungary. Bulgaria. Spain. Portugal. Greece.

  “During a two-week summer vacation he killed three boys in Iceland alone and four in Greenland. He was a master at luring and taking the children without anyone seeing him in broad daylight. . much like Chikatilo in Russia. I’ve always suspected that Anton Ronning killed many more innocents in Canada and the U.S.A.”

  “What was his M.O.?”

  “He’d lure them with a story about him or his pet being lost. He’d molest them and then kill them. . all under twenty minutes. . because he didn’t want them to live with the nightmare of the molestation. . the same nightmare that had haunted and tortured him since he was molested as a six-year-old. Or as he told me. . ‘I needed to break the chain’. . and he did. Whenever possible he used a heavy gold chain to strangle them. He then left a Smiley Face painted in lipstick or red crayon or red ink marker on their bodies.”

  “Smiley Face. . what’s that?”

  “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.”