“I don’t think so,” said Sohlberg. “The cells in this prison are far better than most college dorms.”
“Why do you say that?” said the deputy warden.
“Because each cell has a private bathroom and a flat-screen TV and a mini-fridge and lovely views of the forest. The windows don't even have bars on them. . and each group of cells shares a living room and kitchen. That’s far better than any college dorm.”
“That is true Chief Inspector,” said the deputy warden with pride.
“What the heck is this place. . a luxury hotel?” said Sohlberg again while he pointed to the stainless-steel counter-tops and wraparound sofas and birch-colored coffee tables that seemed straight out of an Ikea catalogue.
The oblivious deputy warden continued his lecture about the strong and positive relationship between the prison staff and the inmates and how the guards do not carry weapons. The man pointed out how the prison was not depressing to the inmates thanks to more than $ 1,000,000 worth of original artwork that graced every location that inmate eyes might happen to fall upon.
Sohlberg was about to make a rude comment when they were ushered into the elegant office of the Prison Warden Henrik Birkeland.
“Harald Sohlberg!. . I’m glad you’re in this part of the world. How long has it been since we last met?. . I think you had just been promoted to Inspector when I last saw you.”
“I don’t remember. . but I’d say it’s been at least fifteen years since we’ve seen each other no?”
The two men briefly spoke of a few cases that they had worked on when they had started out in the police force as rookie constables in Oslo.
“Why Henrik did you ever join the kriminalomsorgens correctional services?”
“Rehabilitating criminals is much less stressful than catching them. The K.S.F. lets me spend lots of time with my wife and kids. I’m a grandfather now you know? What about you. . are you-”
Sohlberg evaded the personal question especially with Wangelin at his side. “I’m here just for a short visit. This is a temporary assignment. I’ll be back to Interpol soon.”
“I see,” said Warden Birkeland. “Is that why you’re visiting the Smiley Face Killer?. . Your temporary assignment? The one that’s so hush-hush?. . When they told me you were coming out here I asked and no one in Oslo wanted to tell me exactly what your visit is all about.”
“I’m sorry. . but we have to keep the investigation under wraps.”
“Alright. So be it. Are you ready to see him?”
“Ja.”
“With those boxes?” said Warden Birkeland. He pointed at two boxes that Constable Wangelin cradled in her arms.
“Ja,” said Sohlberg. “Those boxes are for Ronning.”
“You know the guards will have to see what’s inside them.”
“Of course,” said Sohlberg. “As you know Anton Ronning has helped me before in other cases. . in exchange for big and small perks.”
“It’s always been a mystery to me how and why you got him out of prison in Spain where he was. . correct me if I’m wrong. . serving the equivalent of a life sentence-”
“For raping and murdering three boys in Mallorca.”
“So tell me Sohlberg. . how did you and your friends at Interpol manage to convince the Spaniards to let Ronning out of that very well-deserved hellish pit of a prison he was in? Why did you coddle that sick pervert?”
Sohlberg’s face and neck darkened. “What? What did you say?”
“I’m sorry. . I shouldn’t have said it that way. . but why did you bring Ronning up here to this country club when he was living in hell in that Spanish prison and getting daily beatings and worse. I understand he stopped taking showers after he was gang-raped.
“Now he’s here in Norway enjoying our prison’s nature trails and pottery classes. Sooner or later he will get his twenty-one year sentence cut down by at least a third. . like everyone else.
“Everyone says you got him a sweet deal. . a pretty good life up here. . quite cozy.”
“Don’t ever accuse me of that! I’m no friend of perverts. . and that’s not why I arranged for his transfer up here.”
“Really Sohlberg?”
“Matter of fact. . after Ronning ran away to Spain the Spaniards caught him. . they gladly traded Ronning for Mohammed Kumar. . one of our lovely Norwegian Muslim immigrants from Pakistan.”
“Oh yes,” said the warden. “I remember him. . an extremist Islamic terrorist we were holding up here in our prison system after we caught him funding and planning the murders of two hundred killed in the Madrid bombings.”
“Well then. . I hope you see the insanity of accusing me of coddling criminals.”
“Please Harald. . I didn’t mean it that way.”
A minute passed while the men gathered their composure. Sohlberg’s volcanic anger almost got the better of him because he had to keep an ugly secret. No one could ever find out that his mentor Lars Eliassen had called him out of the blue and asked him:
“What do you think of a man who rapes and kills dozens and dozens of children?”
Sohlberg’s memories transported him to the distant past which felt as real as if it was taking place in the present.
“What do you think of a man who rapes and kills dozens and dozens of children?”
“He’s a monster,” said Sohlberg who was surprised that Lars Eiassen had called him out of the blue with such a question.
“In the old Viking days he’d be cut to pieces.”
“Ja.”
“What do you think of such a man when he’s. . released on bail and runs away to another country?”
“A coward.”
“I need a favor then. . I remember that you know how to speak Spanish.”
“Ja. I do.”
“Listen. . I have a hunch,” said Eliassen, “that Anton Ronning is hiding down in Spain after jumping bail.”
“Why?”
“Because a long time ago. . at the start of the investigation. . I interviewed a distant Ronning relative. . who mentioned that she sometimes lent Ronning her condominium in Mallorca and that he even had a key to the place.”
Sohlberg could hardly talk with excitement and let alone cooly say, “So what is the favor?”
“The favor is you driving down to Stockholm Sweden. . buy a calling card. . then use the card on an anonymous public pay phone to call the Spanish guardia civil.”
“I see. What do I tell them?”
“That you have an anonymous tip.”
“What tip?”
“That El Maton Loco. . The Crazy Killer of children in Madrid and Mallorca is a Norwegian citizen. . Anton Ronning. . he’s staying at a certain posh condo unit in Los Caballos. . a gated community in Mallorca. . and that they might want to catch him before he decides to take a flight to Oslo Norway were he would. . at most. . serve a light prison sentence in a comfortable if not luxurious Nordic prison.”
“I understand.”
“Sohlberg. . I hope you do. Spain doesn’t have life sentences or the death penalty. But it has a couple of horrific prisons more in tune with the Turkish model than the Norwegian model. In other words. . Anton Ronning will rot in a Spanish prison straight out of the medieval Inquisition or Dante’s Inferno.”
The overwhelming reality of Halden Fengsel pulled Sohlberg out of his reverie. He walked to a credenza and served himself a glass of water from an elegant decanter made by the Swedish glassmaker Kosta Boda. He drank most of the glass and then said:
“Henrik. . you need to consider the facts before you ever again accuse me of coddling criminals like Anton Ronning.”
“Such as?. . ”
“We had a five-year investigation at Interpol that was going nowhere fast into an international pedophile ring. . members of the ring bought and sold and traded children including infants all over the world. . and they of course bought and sold and traded videos and pictures of their criminal acts with children.