“Alright but do you mind telling me. . ”
“No. Not yet,” said Sohlberg. He strolled nonchalantly out of Thorsen’s office.
Once they got to Sohlberg’s office Constable Wangelin made sure that no one was around hearing her and she whispered:
“What was that all about? I’m confused. Isn’t this a major break in the case? Shouldn’t we be meeting with the uncle?. . I thought it’d mean a lot to you.”
“It does. . but not in the way that you expect.”
“But Chief Inspector. . there’s no denying it. . the case dynamic has radically changed with the uncle’s arrest and. . the allegation that the Haugen grandfather sexually imposed himself on Karl’s uncle and father.”
“Ja. But at this point in our investigation Karl’s uncle is a distraction. You’re forgetting a basic principle of investigating a cold case. . which is to focus focus focus. You see. . to bring a cold case to full boil you need to apply the heat of investigation to one spot for as long as it takes. In other words we can’t afford to run around like headless chickens.”
“Well. . you know best.”
“Thank you. You see Constable Wangelin. . experience does have its rewards.”
Sohlberg grabbed his suit jacket from the coat stand.
“What’s next?” said Constable Wangelin.
“We’re off to Nokia. . their research lab.”
“To interview the father?”
“Ja. . they returned our call. . we first have a meeting with their I.T. department. . which has some information for us on the father’s computer use. Then we’ll interrogate him. . catch him by surprise. . and hopefully throw him off his guard.”
“Chief this is going to be interesting. . and a long day.”
“Did you get the information on the most frequent phone numbers that the father has made calls to or received calls from during the past two years?”
“Ja. He only uses a company phone. . from Nokia of course. . they have a record of all of his incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.”
“Does anything stand out?”
“No. Nothing unusual except for the past two weeks. . he called his parents a lot.”
“We’ll pay them a visit. What about the most frequent e-mail addresses he’s written to or been written from?”
“We also have those from Nokia since Nokia owns the only computer that Gunnar Haugen uses.”
“Even his personal e-mail address?”
“Ja. Employers like Nokia can see and copy whatever is on a company computer. . even if it’s a laptop that the employee has at home. . The only unusual activity is a recent spike in e-mails to his parents. . something about using his grandfather’s old barn for a painting project.”
“Really?. . Call headquarters and have them find the barn’s location. . have several officers check it out today. . it’s urgent that this be done now. . as soon as possible. Also have someone go out and interview his parents. Make sure that Gunnar Haugen’s father and mother are interviewed separately about the barn. . and the grandfather’s molestation of their sons.”
“Chief. . could Karl be at the barn?”
“Maybe.”
“This might be our lucky break!”
“I don’t know,” said Sohlberg in a glum tone while he thought about the most recent developments in the case. “If Gunnar Haugen is involved in his son’s kidnaping then he’s gotten rather careless by using a company phone and a company computer as his only means of communications.”
“But Chief Inspector don’t you think the barn is important?”
“Definitely. That’s why our men have to be there today. Have the officer-in-charge contact us immediately with whatever they find. Go ahead. . call them now and have them be out looking in the barn while we’re at Nokia with Gunnar Haugen.”
“Chief Inspector. . could Karl Haugen be alive somewhere in the farm?. . Or is he buried under the barn?”
“We’ll find out soon. . won’t we?”
“What makes you so sure Chief Inspector?”
“We’re about to let the father and the stepmother clear or incriminate themselves.”
“How?”
“Watch and learn Constable Wangelin. I’ll lead them to several doors that point to guilt or innocence. . of course they won’t know whether guilt or innocence is behind each door.”
“What if they refuse to answer?”
“Silence itself is always an answer to a question.”
Constable Wangelin took the eastbound lanes of Ring 3 or Highway 150 that circles Oslo. Heavy traffic slowed down their trip to Nokia’s headquarters at the suburban Nydalen office park in the Nordre Aker borough of northern Oslo. They got off the freeway on the exit for southbound Maridalsveien. While maneuvering through a maze of narrow streets Wangelin got lost looking for Nokia’s building on the east bank of the Akerselva River.
“These streets are so confusing,” she said hoping that Sohlberg would not get angry or question her competence.
“Ja. They always have been in this neighborhood. I just can’t believe how this area has changed. . it used to be an ugly run-down industrial site. . along with a few modest homes. . now it’s all modern condos and office buildings. . it looks just like some rich suburb in the U.S.A.”
After several wrong turns Wangelin finally found Sandakerveien which she took northbound. They spotted Nokia’s building just before reaching Ring 3 or Highway 150. Nokia’s offices reminded Sohlberg of all of the corporate campuses and corporations he’d visited all over the world: bland and impersonal. Just like the top executives of major corporations.
The head of Nokia’s Human Resources department in Oslo greeted them at the lobby. She escorted them to a conference room where a nervous young man sat in front of a large laptop computer and a large white binder filled with about eight inches of paper.
“Please show the police what you found on Gunnar Haugen’s computers.”
“Ja. . we have remote access to all computers that Nokia owns. We monitor all computers that we own to prevent industrial espionage and other unauthorized uses. . which includes pornography. . computer games. . and other recreational uses.”
Sohlberg impatient said:
“We get it. What did you find?”
The computer technician worked the keyboard and got into screens that meant nothing to Sohlberg.
“We found that Gunnar Haugen installed a key logging software on his computer. . it lets him spy on other computers into which he has secretly loaded the key logging software. . the software lets him see everything a person is typing on that computer.”
“Is this software a Nokia product. . does it belong to Nokia?”
“No. Anyone can buy this type of software at a store or on the Internet.”
“Who was he spying on?”
“His wife. Agnes Haugen. Actually her laptop computer. You can see her using it right now.”
“Was he spying on anyone else?”
“No. But I also found that he installed in her cell phone a similar but much more advanced software that lets him spy on cell phones including all Nokia models.”
“How?”
“He secretly loads a special software into the phone’s SIM card. . it’s a tiny piece of hardware. . the subscriber identification module. that’s inside every cell phone. The software lets him hear every call and see every text message and image sent or received on the phone.”
“Is this software a Nokia product. . does it belong to Nokia?”
“No. This is really advanced. He must’ve designed it himself or gotten it from one of his friends or contacts in the industry.”
“Whose phone did he spy on?”
“His wife’s phone. He was snooping on her calls earlier today.”
“Agnes Haugen’s phone?”
“Ja. . she’s always had our top-of-the-line phones.”
“Why?”
“Because Nokia gives the newest models to senior technology managers like Gunnar Haugen. . the idea is to get managers and their families to use them a lot. . and test them for free so that we can find out if the phones have any software bugs or hardware defects.”