“Understand what?”
“That I won’t lie if the parents ask me about this visit. You need to understand that I also can’t reveal any confidential medical information about the boy unless I have a release from the parents.”
Dr. Heldaas was not subtle about her dislike for the police. She looked down on Sohlberg from the tip of her long pointy nose as if he was some contagious infection to be avoided. Over the years Sohlberg had met too many highly-educated professionals who looked down on the police. She struck him as the kind who hated the police but would not hesitate on calling the police if anyone as much as scratched her brand-new CL 600 Mercedes coupe.
“Doctor Heldaas. . I’m not asking you to lie to anyone. . or for anyone. What I want. . and expect from you. . is for you not to interfere with a police investigation. I don’t think you want to ruin your reputation or drag the university hospital into a major headache on charges that you obstructed an official government investigation.”
“I’m cooperating am I not?”
“Ja you are. . and I thank you for that. Now. . this little boy. . Karl Haugen. . has been missing for more than a year. Would you agree it’s important to find him?”
“Ja.”
“So we are on the same page.”
“Ja we are.”
“Alright,” said Sohlberg in a friendlier manner. “First. . I need to know if you had an appointment to see Karl Haugen on June four of last year.”
“No. It was for June eleven.”
“Are you sure?. . Do you want to check your calendar?”
“No need. I’ve gone over that matter with Gunnar and Agnes Haugen several times.”
“Please explain that.”
“Explain what?. . I don’t understand you.”
“Explain when and how you went over that matter with Gunnar and Agnes Haugen several times.”
“I don’t remember setting up the initial appointment. . you’d have to talk with my appointment secretary. . or the call nurse. But after Karl went missing the mother and the father called me several times to make sure that we had the appointment written down for June eleven.”
“Didn’t you find that odd. . them asking for confirmation of Karl’s appointment when Karl was already missing?”
“I did find it odd. . until they explained that Karl’s teacher was trying to evade responsibility for not informing the administration that Karl was missing at roll call on the morning of June fourth. . Apparently the teacher is telling people that she was misled by the parents into thinking that Karl had an excused medical absence that Friday June four.”
“Did you have a conversation with Karl’s parents about him having seizures?”
“Seizures? No. Never. He was perfectly normal from a medical perspective.”
“Did anyone at the hospital or your practice. . perhaps a call nurse on the telephone. . speak to the parents about him having seizures?”
No. Absolutely not.”
“You’re that sure?”
“Ja. Right after your constable called me I checked the charts to refresh my memory about Karl. . there’s nothing in his charts about seizures. . no one ever mentioned anything about seizures to any of his healthcare providers.”
“Could someone have lost the note or not even written a note about him having seizures?”
“No. We’re totally paperless. . we enter every medical note or observation into his computerized chart. . including telephone calls from the parents.”
“Would you put your professional reputation on the line and declare under oath that without a doubt Karl Haugen did not suffer from seizures?”
“Ja. Again. . he was perfectly normal from a medical and physical point of view.”
Sohlberg thanked the doctor and left the room with Constable Wangelin. They stood in the hallway. Sohlberg put his ear to the doctor’s door and heard nothing. He wondered if the door might be too thick for eavesdropping or padded for soundproofing.
“Please run down to the corner of the building. . and find any room with a window that’s opposite hers and see if she’s making a call.”
Wangelin sprinted down the hallway. A few minutes later Wangelin met him by the elevators.
“Ja. She was on the phone.”
“Of course she might’ve been calling someone else on an unrelated matter. . but I doubt it.”
“Do you think Chief Inspector that she called one or both of the Haugens. . even after you warned her?”
“Ja. I think she called one of them at the very least if not both. Never trust doctors or lawyers. They think they’re gods. . far above the laws and morality of mere mortals.”
“You shouldn’t get so angry. . you look like you could explode.”
“I’m not angry over Dr. Heldaas!”
“Then what are you angry about?”
“The parents planted the topic of Karl having seizures into the investigation. . Don’t you see?. . They manufactured an issue that was bound to confuse us. . and they set up very fertile grounds for a criminal defense down the road that lets one or both of them claim that Karl fell. . or got lost. . or had amnesia. . or drowned because of his so-called seizure.”
“These parents are unbelievable. . Chief Inspector. . as you said before. . the abduction was brilliantly planned from the get go.”
“Ja ja. We’re being outsmarted even now. . a year later. We’re being played for idiots. . morons. That’s why I’m about to explode.”
Sohlberg noticed that Wangelin almost smiled when he punched and broke the elevator button. He was sure that Wangelin must have heard plenty of rumors about him and now he had proven one of the rumors to be true — he had a volcanic temper barely kept under control.
Chapter 11
AFTERNOON OF 1 YEAR AND 25 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4
Police officers and staff hurried up and down the hallways of the seventh floor at 12 Hammersborggata. Hushed but rushed voices could be heard everywhere. Sohlberg and Wangelin could not but help notice that the atmosphere had radically changed at headquarters since they had left earlier that morning.
“The unmistakable air of a breaking development in a major case,” said Sohlberg. “Wonder what’s going on?”
Thorsen’s secretary waved at them to come into the commissioner’s office.
“Sohlberg!” shouted Ivar Thorsen. “There you are. Well. . well. . well. While you’ve been off gallivanting who knows where today I am proud to report that the Karl Haugen case is almost solved.”
“Ahh. . you don’t say so? How wonderful,” said Sohlberg with unconcealed sarcasm that went over Thorsen’s head.
“Ja. Isn’t it great?”
“You found the boy?”
“No.”
“Someone saw the boy or heard from him?”
“No. But-”
“Someone confessed. Right?”
“No! Stop interrupting me Sohlberg. We arrested Jo Haugen. . the thirty-year-old biological brother of Gunnar Haugen. . Jo Haugen is the uncle of the missing boy. . we arrested him for child molestation.”
“Molesting what child. . Karl Haugen?”
“No. The uncle’s girlfriend left town because her elderly grandmother is close to dying. . the girlfriend left her fifteen-year-old daughter alone with Karl’s uncle. The girl woke up to find him fondling and kissing her while trying to undress her. She screamed. . hit him with a lamp and ran out of the house to a neighbor.”
“What does he say?”
“Nothing. Said he was too drunk to remember. But he said he probably did it because his own grandfather raped and molested him and his brother. . Gunnar Haugen. . when they were boys.”
Sohlberg nodded and merely said, “I need to think about this. Let’s go Constable Wangelin. . we have work to do.”
Commissioner Thorsen abruptly shouted:
“Wait. . where are you two going? Don’t you want to interrogate the uncle?”
“Is the grandfather still living?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t want to see the uncle for now. Just make sure that the uncle is not allowed to talk to or meet with Karl’s father or stepmother. If you let that happen then we could lose the case and never solve it.”