Then it’s Anita Elvestrand’s turn. She’s the neighbour of the beautiful young woman Axel has started spending his nights with. That’s why he chooses her. A sign to his twin brother. I’m close, Axel, I’m with you, following you, like a shadow. Even when you’re in bed with your student. He visits her on the night of Friday October the nineteenth. Somehow or other he persuades her to go out to his car with him. She gets in, and she’s already on her way to the place where the two other women lost their lives. A remote cabin perhaps. Or a summer place in Larkollen. Axel spends Monday night with his student. He gets her drunk on red wine. And while she’s asleep, that’s when it happens. The remains of Anita Elvestrand are brought in through the gate, probably using the same child-trailer that was used for Hilde Paulsen. She is carried upstairs and dumped in front of the door to the flat where the student and Axel are sleeping. – Because that’s what you’re doing, isn’t it, Axel? Or maybe you weren’t sleeping in her bed after all? Were you helping Brede carry a body?
Viken paused for a long time. A minute passed without anything being said. Maybe two minutes. Axel understood why that time was there. It was there for him to start talking in. And in the middle of this absurd game, he was pained at the thought of once again being asked to betray Brede.
The silence was broken by Elton’s feminine but surprisingly authoritative voice.
– Time to wrap this up, he said, tapping on his D&G watch with his index finger.
It was now five o’clock in the morning. But Viken had been given both time added on and extra time. He was back in his role as the tenacious Rottweiler that never lets go. Axel was still managing to keep it together, but it took him longer and longer to come up with answers to even the most simple questions. Why did he still have a child-trailer in the bike shed? Wasn’t his daughter nine years old? When was the last time it had been used? And where were the socks he was wearing when he found the dead woman outside the door?
It was light outside by the time he was taken back down to the holding cell in the basement. He had been lying in the bottom of a boat being sailed by others. Now it had capsized, and this murky green prison cell was the beach on which he had been washed ashore. He felt as though he had lost everything.
55
Thursday 25 October
NINA JEBSEN WAS the first to arrive at the meeting. After two and a half hours’ sleep on a sofa in one of the offices, she had managed to shower and put on her make-up, but she had no clean clothes to change into. She popped the day’s first Nicorette into her mouth. It tasted like the rubbers she used to chew into little pieces when she was at primary school. Fortunately the coffee was freshly brewed and she had an unopened pack of chewing tobacco in her jacket pocket. She’d make it through to lunch without eating.
Sigge Helgarsson arrived and sat down beside her.
– Our oldest girl was up all night being sick, he said by way of apology. – And Vala was on duty at the nursing home. Did I miss anything?
Nina moved her chair away from the potential source of infection.
– Don’t think anyone noticed you weren’t here. It’s been non-stop since yesterday afternoon.
Sigge gave a sigh of relief.
– I know someone tried to call me, but I had to turn off the phone to grab a few hours’ sleep early this morning. It was hell at home. Hope it wasn’t His Majesty’s Viken, the Voice himself.
Nina couldn’t stand any more of the chewing gum and wrapped it neatly in a serviette, which she tossed on to the table.
– Viken’s got other things to think about apart from you and your sick kids. Just be sure you don’t stick your pretty neck out too far today. If you don’t want your head chopped off.
– Bad as that, was it?
Nina yawned.
– We’ve been talking to Glenne for over twelve hours.
– Anything that nails him to the murders?
– Nails him? Not even a piece of Sellotape. Oh shit!
She sat up abruptly.
– The maternity ward, she muttered.
– Forgotten something? Are you pregnant?
At that moment Norbakk entered with Jarle Frøen, followed by the lad from Majorstua and a couple of the other newcomers. Nina was on her way out of the door when she bumped into Viken.
– We’re starting now, he said gruffly. – You can go to the toilet in the break.
Viken looked as though he hadn’t had a moment’s sleep. He was unshaven and his eyes were even more red rimmed than usual. But, as ever, he was wearing a freshly ironed white shirt. It occurred to Nina that he must have a cupboard full of them in his office.
– We’ll deal with the interrogations first, he began. – A number of interesting pieces of information have emerged. We can confirm that Glenne has no proper alibis for any of the times we’re interested in. He’s vague about a number of things and his answers are shifty. That confirms the impression we have generally of an evasive personality.
He stopped briefly. Jarle Frøen interjected rapidly.
– I’ve read the report, Viken. There isn’t much there that is going to impress a court.
– Yes, but we’re not finished with him yet, barked Viken, and the prosecutor decided not to pursue it.
– Admittedly the opening round has not given us the results we had been hoping for, the detective chief inspector continued, his voice a little calmer.
He addressed himself to Norbakk.
– You’ve talked to the people at the lab?
– Just before I came here, yes, Norbakk nodded. – They’ve been through Glenne’s villa on Nesodden with a fine-tooth comb, as well as the clinic and offices in Bogstadveien, and both cars. We’ve also got people looking at the summer place in Larkollen.
– The child-trailer?
– That too, of course. And they’re working on the hard disks of both his computers.
– And?
– There’s a huge amount of material to go through…
– But so far?
Norbakk rubbed his neck.
– First impression: not much. Not counting the pair of handcuffs found in a cupboard in the bedroom.
He gave Viken a little smile as he said this, but the chief inspector turned abruptly to Nina. She knew what was coming and steeled herself for it.
– What about this twin that no one else knows anything about, not even the wife he’s been married to for twenty-three years?
She looked out through the window.
– I did make another attempt to find out about it, she began.
– Attempt?
– The site is still down. Partly, that is.
– Down? Impossible.
– It’s very rare, but…
– Don’t tell me, Jebsen, Viken interrupted, – that you’ve been sitting around twiddling your thumbs while some dolt of a computer engineer is down there scratching his head?
Fortunately that was not the case.
– I’ve been in touch with the maternity ward at the Rikshospital. The section head there is the only one who can give permission for access to information in patients’ notes. I was supposed to call back…
– I don’t believe it! thundered Viken. – You mean all you did was telephone?
He looked at her, his eyes narrowed. Nina felt herself shrinking in her seat. Maybe I’ll end up the size of a pepperpot, she thought suddenly, and laughed nervously at the strange thought.
– I have had rather a lot to do, she managed.
– Yes, but for Christ’s sake, you might have taken the trouble to actually go along there. Do I need to remind you that we are dealing with a perverted and deranged person who has so far taken the lives of three women? If we’re going to stop him, everyone needs to pull their finger out and do exactly what they’ve been asked to do. And I mean everyone.