'Masked man with an AG3.'

'And the bird has flown?'

'Very much flown.'

'Anyone talked to witnesses?'

'Yes, indeed. Li and Li are busy down at HQ.'

'Any details about what happened yet?'

'The robber gave the female branch manager twenty-five seconds to unlock the ATM while he held the gun to the head of one of the women behind the counter.'

'And he made her do the talking?'

'Yup. And when he came into the bank, he used the same English words.'

'This is a hold-up. Nobody move!' a voice behind them said, followed by a short, staccato laugh. 'So nice you were able to come, Hole. Oh dear, slipped in the bath?'

Harry lit his cigarette with one hand while passing the pack to Ivarsson, who shook his head. 'Filthy habit, Hole.'

'You're right.' Harry put the pack of Camel in his inside pocket. 'You should never offer your cigarettes but assume that a gentleman buys his own. Benjamin Franklin.'

'Really?' Ivarsson said, ignoring Weber's grin. 'You're very knowledgeable, Hole. Perhaps you know our bank robber has struck again-just as we said he would?'

'How do you know it was him?'

'As you've probably heard, it's a carbon copy of the Nordea robbery in Bogstadveien.'

'Oh?' Harry said, inhaling deeply. 'Where's the body?'

Ivarsson and Harry eyeballed each other. The reptilian teeth glinted. Weber interposed: 'The branch manager was fast. She emptied the cash machine in twenty-three seconds.'

'No murder victims,' Ivarsson said. 'Disappointed?'

'No,' Harry said, releasing the smoke through his nostrils. A gust of wind dispersed the smoke. But the fog in his head refused to let go.

***

Halvorsen looked up from Silvia as the door opened.

'Can you fix me a high-octane espresso pronto?' Harry said, collapsing in his office chair.

'Good morning to you, too,' Halvorsen said. 'You look bloody awful.'

Harry put his face in his hands: 'I can't remember diddly-squat about what happened last night. I have no idea what I was drinking, but I'll never let a drop pass my lips ever again.'

He peeped out between his fingers and saw his colleague with a deep frown of concern etched in his brow.

'Relax, Halvorsen, it was just one of those things. I'm as sober as this desk now.'

'What happened?'

Harry gave a hollow laugh. 'Stomach contents suggest I had dinner with an old friend. I've rung several times to have that confirmed, but she won't answer.'

'She?'

'Yes, she.'

'Not a very clever policeman, then, eh?' Halvorsen said circumspectly.

'You concentrate on the coffee,' Harry growled. 'An old flame, that was all. Quite innocent.'

'How do you know if you can't remember anything?'

Harry rubbed the palm of his hand over his unshaven chin, reflecting on what Aune had said about drugs simply emphasising latent tendencies. He didn't know if he found that reassuring. Isolated details were beginning to emerge. A black dress. Anna had been wearing a black dress. And he was lying on the stairs. And a woman helped him up. With half a face. Like one of Anna's portraits.

'I always have blackouts,' Harry said. 'This is no worse than any of the others.'

'And your eye?'

'Probably bumped into a kitchen cupboard when I came home or some such thing.'

'I don't want to worry you, Harry, but it looks like something more serious than a kitchen cupboard.'

'Well,' Harry said, taking the cup of coffee with both hands. 'Do I look bothered? The times I ended up in a drunken free-for-all, it was with people I didn't like when I was sober, either.'

'Message from Mшller, incidentally. He asked me to tell you it was fine, but didn't say what.'

Harry rolled the espresso round in his mouth before swallowing it. 'You'll find out, Halvorsen, you'll find out.'

***

The bank robbery was discussed in detail at the briefing by the investigation team at Police HQ that afternoon. Didrik Gudmundson informed them that three minutes passed from the moment the alarm sounded until the police appeared, but by then the robber had already fled the crime scene. In addition to surrounding and blocking off the closest streets immediately with patrol cars, within the subsequent ten minutes they had set up an outer cordon covering the main traffic arteries: the E18 by Fornebu, Ring 3 by Ullevеl, Trondheimsveien by Aker hospital, Griniveien above Bжrum and the intersection by Carl Berners plass. 'I wish we could call this an iron cordon, but you know what it's like with staffing nowadays.'

Toril Li had interviewed a witness who reported having seen a man with a balaclava over his head jumping into the passenger side of a waiting white Opel Ascona in Majorstuveien. The car had promptly turned left up Jacob Aalls gate. Magnus Rian mentioned that another witness had seen a white car, possibly an Opel, driving into a garage in Vindern and that straight afterwards a blue Volvo had left. Ivarsson studied the map hanging on the whiteboard.

'Doesn't sound unreasonable. Put out an alert for blue Volvos too, Ola. Weber?'

'Textile fibres,' Weber said. 'Two behind the counter he leapt over and one by the door.'

'Yesss!' Ivarsson punched a fist in the air. He had taken to strutting around the table behind them, which Harry found extremely irritating. 'So all we have to do is find a few candidates. We'll put the video of the burglary out on the Net as soon as Beate is finished with the editing.'

'Is that wise?' Harry asked, rocking his chair back against the wall to cut off Ivarsson's passage.

The PAS looked at him in surprise. 'Wise? We wouldn't exactly object to anyone ringing in to give us the name of the person in the video.'

Ola interrupted. 'Do you remember the time a mother rang in to say she had seen her son on a burglary video on the Net? And it turned out he was already inside for another robbery?'

Loud laughter. Ivarsson smiled. 'We never turn away new witnesses, Hole.'

'Or new copycats?' Harry put his hands behind his head.

'An imitator? Now get a grip, Hole.'

'Hm. If I were going to rob a bank today, I would obviously copy the most sought-after bank robber in Norway at this moment and divert suspicion towards him. All the details of the Bogstadveien robbery were available on the Net.'

Ivarsson shook his head. 'I'm afraid your average bank robber these days is not so sophisticated, Hole. Would someone else like to explain to Crime Squad what the typical hallmark of an inveterate robber is? No? Well, he always-with painful precision-repeats what he did on the previously successful occasion. It is only when he fails-if he doesn't get the money or he is arrested-that he changes the pattern.'

'That substantiates your theory, but it doesn't exclude mine,' Harry said.

Ivarsson cast a desperate look around the table, as if begging for help. 'Fine, Hole. You will have the chance to test your theories. In fact, I've just decided to experiment with a new approach. The gist is that a small party will work independently of, but in parallel with, the investigation team. The idea originates with the FBI and the aim is to avoid getting into a rut, having only one view of the case, which does often happen with large groups of officers when, consciously or unconsciously, a consensus is formed about the principal features of an investigation. The small party can bring a new and fresh focus because they are working separately and are not influenced by the other group. This method has proved to be effective in tricky cases. Most of us here, I am sure, will agree that Harry Hole has the natural qualifications to be a member of such a party.'