Mia carried the box to the incident room and put it on the table. She sat down and stared at the wall. As always, Ludvig had put up pictures from both cases, Post-it notes and arrows, names and questions. Pauline and Johanne. Dresses? Who? At least they knew the answer to that now, even though they had got no further than a cardboard box left behind by a dead man with an eagle tattoo on his neck. She removed the lid and spread out some of the contents on the large table. There was not muchin the box. A few photographs. One showing a dog. A golden retriever. A guy on a fishing trip; his face was not included in the photograph, only the large salmon he held in his hands. A car. Who on earth has a photograph of their car? Mia thought, and delved deeper into the box. Underneath a pile of bills, she found what she was looking for. A laptop and an iPhone. She tried turning on the iPhone. The battery was dead. She searched the box for the charger, but did not find one, nor one for the laptop; when she tried turning it on, it too had run out of power.
Mia was on her way to her office to fetch her own charger when she heard noise from one of the offices further down the corridor. It would appear that not everyone had gone home after all. The new nerd was still there – what was his name again? Gabriel. Gabriel, that was it. Mia was annoyed that her brain still refused to work properly; her diet of pills and alcohol on the island had left its traces: nausea and dizziness, no appetite and jumbled thoughts that refused to straighten out. She walked down the corridor to Gabriel’s office and made up her mind to start exercising again. She used to be in great shape once, but that was a long time ago. She wondered if Chen was still in town. Probably. But he was pissed off with her. Or was she pissed off with him? She couldn’t remember. She made a mental note. Call Chen. Get back to exercising. Get the blood flowing through her muscles. Get her brain working again.
‘Hello, are you still here?’
Mia popped her head round the door without knocking. The young man with the blond hair jumped.
‘Oh, I didn’t hear you,’ he said apologetically.
Mia thought she detected the hint of a blush in his cheeks.
‘Sorry, my mistake.’ She smiled. ‘I was just wondering if you could help me with something.’
‘Of course.’ Gabriel nodded. ‘Do you mind if I finish connecting these?’
He pointed to some cables lying on the floor.
‘Take all the time you need,’ Mia said.
‘I thought the police were supposed to be experts,’ Gabriel smiled as he crawled under the desk with the cables in his hand. ‘But whoever installed this had no idea what they were doing.’
‘Don’t ask me. I don’t know anything about computers. I’m down in the incident room.’
‘OK, I’ll be with you in a minute.’
Mia stopped by her own office on her way back and picked up the chargers, for both the laptop and the iPhone. Who keeps photographs of their car and their dog? Mia had no photographs at the office. She’d put everything she owned into storage when she moved to Hitra. Paid three years’ rental in advance. She didn’t want to have to think about her personal possessions now. Her photographs, her parents or Sigrid. She pushed the thought aside and continued to the incident room. She connected Roger Bakken’s laptop and phone to the chargers and went out on Munch’s smoking terrace to get a bit of fresh air. The evening twilight was descending over the city and it was growing colder. She pulled her leather jacket around herself more tightly and missed her knitted beanie. Why was she acting like this? Behaving like a spoilt brat? Was she starting to feel sorry for herself? Now? She had never complained a single day in her life. She had a sudden urge for a cigarette. She had never smoked, but it seemed the right thing to do up here. Smoking in order to think, that was what Holger did. And where was he, anyway? She checked her watch: it was two hours since he had gone to see his solicitor. She hoped it was nothing serious; they had enough on their plate as it was.
‘Ahem, Mia?’
Gabriel had appeared in the incident room. Mia went back inside to join him. Suddenly, she felt bad for the guy, new to working with the police. Had anyone bothered showing him the ropes? Told him what he was here to do?
‘How are you, Gabriel? she said, sitting down on the big table.
The young hacker looked away and then down at the floor. he was definitely blushing. He really was a delicate little petal, Mia thought, and produced a packet of lozenges from her pocket.
‘Oh, I’m all right,’ Gabriel said.
‘You’re settling in? Do you have everything you need?’
‘I’ve just finished installing the equipment. Looks good. In fact, I’m going to a meeting in Grønland later. Induction. Someone called Møller?’
‘Ah, yes, we call him Hat-trick.’ Mia nodded. ‘He’s good.’
‘Excellent,’ Gabriel nodded. ‘I haven’t seen police databases before; it’ll be fun to see how they work.’
Mia smiled.
‘You’re a hacker and you’ve never had a look at our databases? I find that hard to believe. Or sneaked a peek at Interpol? Come on, you must have done that?’
Gabriel reddened again and looked tongue-tied.
‘I don’t know…’
‘I’m just pulling your leg. Relax. I don’t care. Do I look as if I care?’
Mia winked at him and offered him a lozenge. Gabriel took one and sat down on a chair. Mia liked this boy. Nice and clever. Polite and shy. It was good to be around such people again. In fact, she was starting to feel better. Her brain was recalibrating.
‘What can I do for you?’
‘Those two,’ Mia said, pointing to the laptop and the mobile that were currently charging.
‘Who do they belong to?’
‘Roger Bakken. The guy who ordered the dresses the girls were wearing.’
‘The one with the tattoo?’ Gabriel asked.
‘Yes. You’re well informed?’
Gabriel smiled.
‘I record all the unit’s phone calls, text messages and conversations. Everything shows up on my computer.’
Mia took another lozenge.
‘Really? Anything new?’
Gabriel gave her a strange look.
‘Are you asking me? I haven’t been here long.’ he smiled.
‘It’s been a while since I was here last.’ She winked. ‘But, seriously? Everything anyone says and all our text messages?’
‘Yep.’ Gabriel nodded. ‘Plus, all our mobiles have a tracker so I can see where you all are. Security and hyper-communication.’
‘Good God. Quite useful, though.’
‘Absolutely.’ The young man nodded.
‘So when Curry calls gay chatlines at night we’ll know about it the next day, is that right?’
Gabriel looked uncomfortable. He was not sure if she was joking or if she was up to something.
‘In theory, yes,’ he said, his cheeks rather red once more.
‘I’m just kidding.’
She got up and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Gabriel went over to the laptop and the mobile, sat down on the floor and turned on both devices. He continued to stare at them while they slowly came to life. The iPhone was up and running first, asking for a pin code. The laptop followed soon after; that too was password protected.
‘Will it be easy to access it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can you do it?’
‘Now?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Sure.’
Gabriel got up, went to his office and returned with a memory stick. Mia watched as the young hacker went to work on the computer.
‘I have a program called Ophcrack on this,’ Gabriel said as he inserted the memory stick into the laptop.