‘Take what?’
‘The truth.’
‘I think I can, so long as you spare me bullshit like this.’
He ran his eye along a row of books against the wall and stopped when he saw titles like The Story of O and Catherine M – erotica, the term used in academic circles for what others call pornography.
‘Are you capable of understanding that someone can develop a deeper insight into, for instance…?’ Reidun Vestli hesitated as Frølich took the top book from the pile and held it up.
‘What, for instance?’
She looked at the book he was holding in his hands. ‘My God, don’t be so banal.’
They exchanged looks and he turned away. ‘You disappoint me,’ she said.
‘Banal?’ he asked.
‘You’re just so damned predictable and tedious.’ She put the cigarette between her sore lips and inhaled deeply. Her fingers were still trembling. ‘I really thought you were a rather interesting person,’ she said. ‘According to Elisabeth, you are.’
‘Perhaps she’s mistaken,’ he said. ‘Perhaps I’m completely predictable and tedious, but I didn’t come here to talk about me. I want you to tell me where she is.’
‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Now it’s you who disappoint me,’ he said, toe-punting a book. ‘I knew Elisabeth was studying. Is she into books like this?’
‘Don’t you know? I had expected you to know, you being a detective and all that.’
‘I just want to find her.’
‘Why?’
‘That has nothing to do with you.’
‘What will you do if you find her?’
‘That has nothing to do with you, either.’
‘Well, I know how men and women spend their time. You don’t need to give me your version.’ She pulled a scornful face. ‘Not surprising you’re jealous, you poor thing. Of course you know nothing about her mind. Has she never told you?’
‘About what? About you?’
Reidun Vestli smiled disdainfully. ‘Not about me,’ she whispered. ‘Not a single word about me, while I know most things about you. So she hasn’t talked to you about what she and I have in common? Does that make you a little jealous?’
Jealous. Am I? And if this obsessive unease I feel is jealousy, what triggered this jealousy? Elisabeth’s and Reidun’s physical or intellectual intimacy? Or both? Or the fear of being kept as an onlooker to whatever it is they share?
‘What should I be jealous of?’
‘For instance, our common sense of wonder.’
‘Wonder.’ He articulated the word with derision.
‘Yes,’ she went on. ‘Elisabeth is, for example, captivated by language. She even has her own theory about the power inherent in words, where there is no place for emotions, how words can fill out and add extra dimensions when perceptions and the physical stop short.’
Frank Frølich watched her mouth. She enjoyed saying these things. She enjoyed telling him she had a nearness with Elisabeth which he had never had. She had pronounced the word physical with disgust. This is what you are, he thought: you’re an ageing lesbo who cannot stand the thought that I entered and satisfied the woman you desire. You cannot bear the thought that as a man I am capable of giving her something you cannot. He whispered: ‘You should be able to accept…’
‘You going to bed together?’ Reidun Vestli interrupted with a malicious smile. ‘What do you think of me, actually – or of her? Do you imagine I would get involved with another person if it wasn’t about emotion? Do you think you’re something special or unique because you’ve got a dick?’
The aggression that came with the words was numbing. He managed to force out: ‘Vulgarity doesn’t become you.’
‘I’m not vulgar. I’m defending myself against you. You think you can come here and enter my home, driven by a pathetic longing to possess and dominate the woman I love. You enter this house asserting that your gender gives you extenuating characteristics which are supposed to make you special in my eyes. You don’t have an inkling about Elisabeth; you don’t know who she is. You know nothing about a single thought or dream she and I have shared. Have you and Elisabeth ever talked? Have you discussed anything? Have you and Elisabeth ever taken your minds off your genitalia to explore whether you can share the pleasure of anything intellectual?’
It was his turn to jeer at her. ‘Share the pleasure of something intellectual, my arse!’
She drew in her breath sharply. ‘Quite honestly, I cannot fathom what she sees in you at all. In addition to being simple, you’re not even particularly good-looking.’ She looked away and added casually: ‘Has it ever occurred to you she’s trying to escape from you?’
‘That idea is totally irrational.’
She sent him an oblique glance. ‘Are you frightened I know something you don’t?’
Her facial expression, the malicious glee following the question caused him to swallow hard.
She noticed and laughed. It was a bright resonant laugh, a spiteful laugh. ‘You pathetic little man, what do you take me for? I love her and she loves me. Apart from sharing a bed, we share something else, something with a soul, a mind and self-respect!’
Frølich was sweating. This intense creature who crushed him with her words, the tense atmosphere in this stuffy flat, the unmade bed where she and Elisabeth had made love. ‘The great love affair of yours seems to have faded,’ he said deliberately. ‘Or perhaps you’re ill for other reasons?’
Reidun Vestli lit another cigarette, folded her arms across her chest and smoked with trembling hands.
‘Say what you want or get out.’
‘Did I touch a sore point perhaps?’
‘As I said, get out if you have…’
‘I want to know where she is.’
‘I have no idea where she is!’
‘I think you’re lying.’
‘Your word against mine.’
He stood up. ‘It would be to Elisabeth’s benefit if you told the truth.’
‘Are you threatening me?’
‘Not at all. In my pathetic masculine way I’m taking care of her. I’m searching for her because I wish her well. I respect her decision to be with you, or on her own or with someone else. But I happen to know that she is in hiding and because I work for the police, I know she’s being stupid to hide in this way – after all, a murder has been committed. Whether she likes it or not, she’s part of this case. You may be able to satisfy her physically and intellectually, and your high-flown intellectual love may be worth more than mine, but I know one thing you cannot distort with your prattle: hiding will do her no good.’
‘You don’t know everything.’
‘If she’s hiding, I assume she’s afraid of something. And this is where she’s made a miscalculation.’
‘You don’t understand that it’s you she’s hiding from?’
‘I think Elisabeth intended to go on her travels when she supplied the alibi for her brother and his gang at the hearing. I think she contacted you to help her find somewhere to hide. I think your so-called illness started when she contacted you. And I think you and she were together in the car when I phoned you a few days ago. I’m certain you know where she is.’
Reidun Vestli slowly raised her head. The look she gave him was red-rimmed, but thoughtful at the same time.
Frølich was unsure whether he should tell her or not, but decided he would. He said: ‘Elisabeth’s brother is dead, in all probability murdered.’
Her eyes clouded over now, still thoughtful though, almost calculating.
‘It’s important you tell us where she is!’
‘Do you imagine I’m completely stupid?’ Reidun Vestli hissed. ‘Do you imagine you can come here with no other authority than your physical bulk and order me about? Will you leave! Off you go! Out!’ She shoved him towards the door. ‘Out!’ she repeated.