– Among other things, several calls from a certain Axel Glenne.
Nina was curious.
– What did he want?
– Hard to say. He was babbling on about this medical student, something about letters someone had sent her. I think he’s playing a game with us. I had to convince him we were on our way with everything we had. I’ll tell you the rest at the morning briefing.
Don’t go yet, she thought, and it seemed to help, because he took a step closer.
– What are you up to, by the way? I never thought of you as an early bird.
He glanced at her screen.
– Åsnes county? I never heard any more about your trip up there.
She crossed one leg over the other. Again she was wearing the tight-fitting blouse. She noticed how his gaze passed over her breasts.
– Amazing number of trees, she sighed. – You’ve probably got no idea what a nightmare it is for a girl from Bergen to get lost in a place like that. You from the depths of the deep dark forest up there.
He smiled at her turn of phrase. Maybe he was thinking about sitting on her desk, close enough for her to touch his thigh through the trousers.
– Two expeditions in two weeks, she said brightly as she cleared away some papers. – Viken got lost and drove us up some dark little cul-de-sac. We came to a barrier and couldn’t turn round. Imagine it: alone with Viken in a deserted forest. Pretty scary, I can tell you. Felt like Little Red Riding Hood on her way to Grandmama. And the first trip was even worse. I ended up at some place called Reinvollen…
– Reinkollen.
– Yeah, that was it. Residential home for extraterrestrials suffering from mysterious illnesses.
He didn’t respond and it make her feel nervous. She began describing the trip in detail, talking about the old ladies who worked there, and that wizened creature in the wheelchair, an Egyptian mummy of indeterminate age. She told the story well, she noticed, and Arve smiled a couple of times in the course of her narrative.
– At one point I nearly jumped out of my skin. An enormous mongoloid giant suddenly appeared in the doorway. He stood in the middle of the floor and beat himself on the chest and bellowed: Oswald catch bear, Oswald catch bear. She imitated his performance. – But the old ladies didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. They sat down on the sofa with him and petted him and he quietened down after that.
Arve Norbakk nodded.
– They’re very good with him.
She pushed her chair back.
– Do you know…? Have you been there?
He looked at her for a long time. The expression in his eyes changed; they seemed to harden, and then open again. He leaned against the desk and smiled.
– Oswald is my brother, he said.
62
NINA STRUGGLED TO stay focused. She scrolled down through the report from the visit to Reinkollen, and then, again, the interview with Miriam Gaizauskaite. Arve had gone to his office, and no one else had arrived in the meantime. As she tried to read through the documents, she kept hearing herself making fun of Oswald. She bit her lip. She hadn’t felt so stupid for a long time. She’d apologised several times. Arve tried to laugh it off. Assured her that he didn’t take it personally. Enjoyed a good story. Things a lot worse than that got said and done. That it was ignorance, not malice. Are you sure you’re not mad at me? she’d asked repeatedly. Before he left, he stroked her hair. To reassure her, perhaps. Or for some other reason.
Before she could make up her mind about that, the phone rang. It was reception.
– I’ve got someone on the line who wants to talk to you. Says he’s a Catholic priest at a church here in Oslo.
Miriam, thought Nina. Without further ado she asked for him to be put through. The man introduced himself as Father Raymond Ugelstad, a Dominican friar.
– This is about Miriam, she said at once.
– Yes, said the priest. – She mentioned your name when she was here the other day. I believe you’ve spoken to her.
The voice was light and nasal. She imagined a stout elderly man, a monk in a brown habit.
– I’m ringing because I’m worried. Quite frankly, I think something might have happened to her…
Two minutes later, Nina knocked on Arve Norbakk’s door. It was a relief to get the chance to talk to him about what the priest had said. It would ease the embarrassment of their last conversation, might even remove it completely.
– I’ve just had a phone call. About Miriam.
She explained.
– We’d better check it out immediately, Arve responded. – I just tried to call her but she didn’t answer.
The door to Miriam Gaizauskaite’s flat was ajar. There was a bunch of flowers hanging on the door handle. Nina opened the little card that was tied to it with gold thread. When this is over… she read. She showed it to Arve, who had to lean against her to read the handwriting.
– I don’t like this, she murmured as she pushed the door open with the toe of her shoe. – Miriam?
Arve was standing right behind her.
– We ought to call for backup before we go in, Nina.
– We don’t have time for that. She had no objection to showing him that she could be decisive. – Backup in case of what? You think there’s a giant bear in there?
He laughed. – I can see you’re not the nervous type.
Nina peered into the living room. It looked pretty much as it had done the last time she was there. A few Pepsi bottles on the table, a pile of books. The alcove was empty, the bed made but the duvet rumpled.
– Miriam? she said again as she headed towards the kitchen.
Not there either. Washing-up was piled on the worktop. A plate on the table. Beside it an opened envelope and some photographs. She picked one of them up. It was Miriam. It had been cut in half, she noted as she turned it over. And the fourth will be… she read on the back.
Viken drummed on the tabletop. He was freshly shaved and his aftershave smelled different from the one he usually used. The neatly ironed white shirt was buttoned up well past the declivity in his neck. Nina knew that Finckenhagen and Jarle Frøen were being carpeted by the Chief Constable now that the charges against Glenne had been dropped. They were the ones who had to take the rap. More than anything the chief disliked it when people tried to shove the responsibility down through the ranks. And as soon as he was done with Finckenhagen, she had called Viken in and given him a carpeting of her own, which was a lot softer to stand on and didn’t seem to have made any particular impression on him. Viken was if anything even more obstinate, and what Nina and Arve had just told him about the finds at Miriam’s flat seemed to leave him more convinced than ever that he had been right. He put Nina in mind of a dog that never lets go once it has sunk its teeth into something.
– This is no time for being wise after the event, he said in a voice that seemed to leave the matter open to doubt. – I assure you that Finckenhagen knows exactly what I think. I asked for a man to be left on guard outside Miriam’s flat. I asked that a minimum of resources be left available to keep an eye on Glenne after we let him go. My words fell on deaf ears.
He glared, but Nina saw a glint of satisfaction in the grey eyes.
– You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her, he said, addressing himself to Arve Norbakk.
The sergeant was leaning in the doorway.
– I called her last night. Everything seemed to be in order. I asked her to keep my number handy and to get in touch instantly if something happened.
Viken raised a hand.
– You did what you could, Arve. I’m glad somebody knows what we’re trying to do here.
Norbakk’s response to being praised was inscrutable.
– And another thing, he said. – I had Glenne on the phone to me twice last night.
Viken raised his eyebrows.
– What did he want?