He pointed to something underlined with a pen: Berger has been interviewed three times because he had an appointment with Mailin Bjerke on the evening she went missing. He is not especially impressed by the efforts of the police in the case. ‘The gang of detectives they’ve got working on this case makes the police station look like a sheltered workplace. They’re obsessed with trivialities and fail to pick up on the most obvious connections.’ ‘Are you saying that you have information that is important to the case?’ Berger laughs heartily. ‘If I did then naturally I wouldn’t let VG have it. I’ve got my own audience to think about.’ Berger refuses to say anything definite about his inside knowledge of the case, but he drops a heavy hint that he will be revealing what he knows in this evening’s edition of Taboo on Channel Six. The subject of which is? Precisely – death.
Roar shook his head. – Surely we can’t sit around waiting for a TV show. He’s playing with us.
Viken shoved the newspaper back into his coat pocket. – The guy is due on TV in a few hours’ time. Doesn’t he have an audience of seven hundred thousand? Nine hundred thousand? If we bring him in yet again without having anything new, what do you think that’ll do to his viewing figures?
It wasn’t necessary for Roar to answer. – What did you get out of the interview yesterday?
– Berger claims he walked from Welhavens Street up to the studio at Nydalen.
– In that case it should be easy to find witnesses. The man is not exactly invisible.
– He says he went by the footpath along Aker river and took plenty of time. Apparently he had received a piece of news earlier that day he needed to think about.
– And that was?
– Nothing that’s any of our business, according to him.
29
ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH the therapy session, the door was slung wide open. Pål stood there glaring furiously at her. His eyes were red rimmed, his face grimy and unshaven. He looked as though he hadn’t slept for several days.
– Need to talk to you.
Torunn smiled apologetically at the young girl sitting in the chair opposite her. To Pål she said: – I’ll be finished in half an hour. Roughly. I’ll come up to your office.
– I need to talk to you now.
She could hear that he was exerting himself not to shout. – So sorry, she said to the patient as she stood up. – I’ll be right back.
Out in the waiting room, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along. She tried to free herself.
– Don’t you touch me, she said as coolly as she could.
He let go of her and led the way into the common room. She closed the door behind them, knew she would have to counter his anger with an anger of her own that was even greater.
– What do you mean by barging in when I’m sitting there with a patient? I’ve had enough of this crap of yours.
He took a step towards her. – Are you trying to destroy me? he hissed.
– I couldn’t be bothered to waste my time. You’re doing fine by yourself.
– Have you snitched on me so that you’ll get custody of Oda?
She’d been thinking about what to say when this came up. But his anger was unexpectedly strong.
– No idea what you’re talking about, she said dismissively. – What do you mean by snitched?
He looked her over, scowling. Somewhere in his eyes she saw a hint of doubt.
– Are you trying to say you don’t know anything about it? he growled.
– Know anything about what? Would you please tell me what on earth you’re talking about.
He straightened up, looked towards the door. – I’ve been talking to the police all morning.
– Interviewed?
She could hear how persuasive her surprise sounded.
– If you’re lying to me… he began, but then had to start again. – If I find out it was you who went to the police…
She could see that he was serious. She had known him for eight years. They had lived together for four of them. She had long ago realised how weak he was, and let him know that she knew. But he was in a corner now. He was about to lose everything, and she saw a new side of him. She didn’t doubt that he could turn dangerous if the pressure got any higher.
– Sit down, she said decisively. He slumped into a chair. – Just give me a couple of minutes to finish with this patient.
After getting rid of the young girl by saying something serious had happened, Torunn remained standing at the window. During every second that had passed since receiving the letter from Pål’s solicitor, she had felt this intense hate towards him. He had made good his threat and started a process aimed at getting custody of Oda. She had understood that he was preparing to go the whole way, have her suitability as a parent evaluated by an expert, and use all Oda’s small accidents against her. Dig up dirt that wasn’t there. It was stupid of him. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to win the war he had started. And she was tactically a great deal smarter than he was.
When she returned to the common room, he was still sitting there, motionless and staring at the table. She had considered rebuking him for having interrupted a session with a patient but saw now that it wasn’t necessary. She sat down on the other side of the table and leaned towards him.
– If you want my help, first you have to tell me.
He glanced up at her. The look in his eyes was very different now. Reminded her of something that had been there during the early days, and for a second she felt pity for him. It surprised her, because the hatred was still there, boiling inside her.
– Someone has reported me for social security fraud, he said, and from the meekness in his voice she could tell he had already completely abandoned any notion that she was involved.
– I told you that this business with the social security statements is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done, she said to him, more comforting than accusing.
– I did it to give a few poor buggers a chance, you know that.
Did she know that? To begin with he had been helping some immigrants who had no money. She’d turned a blind eye to it, bought his argument that these people were on the very bottom rung of society’s ladder and deserving of a few crumbs of the country’s vast excess of wealth; that they didn’t have the slightest hope of getting these crumbs in any other way. Helping them to a disability allowance that strictly speaking they weren’t entitled to was, he argued, a sort of political act, a form of civil disobedience. But gradually he’d started receiving kickbacks, and before long he had more money than he’d ever dreamed of, and the economic advantages began to overshadow the political aspect completely. Time and again she had warned him, but it was as though he was addicted to the game and couldn’t stop. It was only a question of time before the whole thing would be discovered. In the first instance by those closest, like Mailin.
– I can help you, Pål. You know I’m always there for you.
She got carried away by the compassion in her own voice and stroked his arm. Suddenly he lifted her hand and pressed it against his eyes, and his shoulders began to shake.
She stood up and walked round the table. – Now, Pål, she comforted him, – of course I’ll help you. But we have to make peace with each other, you do understand?
It looked as though he might be nodding.
– And one other thing. You must tell me where you were on the evening Mailin went missing.
30
THE DOORBELL HAD rung three times. Liss sat on the sofa looking out on to the patch of garden with the stone-built barbecue and the tool shed sticking up out of the snow like a tombstone. She didn’t intend to see who it was. No one knew she was living there, almost no one. She didn’t feel the need to talk to any of Viljam’s friends. Nor anyone else. But when it rang for a fourth time, she got to her feet and padded up the stairs and out into the hallway.