'I thought they wore thick padding.'

'They do.'

They sat listening to the barking outside. The footsteps in the living room had stopped.

'Shall we go in and say hello?' Halvorsen whispered. 'It's just a question of time before-'

'Shh.'

They heard more steps. Approaching the bedroom door. Halvorsen squeezed his eyes shut. As if to steel himself against the humiliation. On reopening them, he saw Harry holding an authoritative finger over his lips.

Then they heard a voice outside the bedroom window. 'Gregor! Come on! Let's go home!'

After a couple more barks, it was suddenly quiet. All Harry could hear was short, rapid breaths, but he didn't know if they were his or Halvorsen's.

'Really obedient, those Rottweilers,' Halvorsen whispered.

They waited until they heard the car start down on the road. Then they rushed into the living room and Harry just caught sight of the back of a navy blue Jeep Cherokee disappearing. Halvorsen fell onto the sofa and leaned back.

'My God,' he groaned. 'For a while there I imagined myself returning to Steinkjer with a dishonourable discharge. What the hell was he doing? He was barely here for two minutes.' He jumped up from the sofa again. 'Do you think he'll be back? Perhaps they were just going to the shop?'

Harry shook his head. 'They went home. People like that don't tell lies to their dogs.'

'Sure?'

'Yes, of course. One day he'll shout: "Come here, Gregor. We're going to the vet to have you put down." ' Harry scanned the room. Then he went over to the shelving and ran a finger down the spines of the books in front of him, from top to bottom shelf.

Halvorsen nodded grimly and stared into space: 'And Gregor will come wagging his tail. Really strange creatures, dogs.'

Harry stopped what he was doing and grinned. 'No regrets, Halvorsen?'

'Well, I don't regret this any more than anything else.'

'You're beginning to sound like me.'

'It is you. I'm quoting you. The time we bought the espresso machine. What are you after?'

'Don't know,' Harry said, pulling out a big, thick book and opening it. 'Look at this. A photo album. Interesting.'

'Oh, yes? Now you've lost me again.'

Harry pointed behind him and continued flicking through. Halvorsen stood up and saw. And understood. Wet bootprints leading from the front door via the hallway to the shelf where Harry was standing.

Harry slotted the album back in, pulled out another and began to flip through.

'Right,' he said after a while. He pressed the album to his face. 'Here we are.'

'What's that?'

Harry set the album on the table in front of Halvorsen and pointed to one of six photographs attached to the black page. A woman and three children smiled up at them from a beach.

'That's the same photo I found in Anna's shoe,' Harry said. 'Smell it.'

'I don't need to. I can smell the glue from here.'

'Right. He's just stuck the picture in. If you move the photo a little, you can feel the glue is still soft. Smell the photo.'

'OK.' Halvorsen put his nose against the smiles. 'It smells…of chemicals.'

'What sort of chemicals?'

'Photos always smell when they've just been developed.'

'Right again. And what can we conclude from that?'

'That, erm…he likes sticking in photos.'

Harry looked at his watch. If Albu drove straight home, he would be there in an hour.

'I'll explain in the car,' he said. 'We've got the evidence we need.'

***

It was raining when they drove out onto the E6. The lights from oncoming traffic reflected on the wet tarmac.

'Now we know where the photo Anna had in her shoe came from,' Harry said. 'At a guess, I'd say Anna saw her chance to take it out of the album when she was last at the chalet.'

'But what was she going to do with it?'

'God only knows. So that she could see what stood between her and Albu perhaps. To understand better. To have something to stick pins in.'

'And when you showed him the photo, did he know where it was from?'

'Naturally. The wheel marks of the Cherokee by the chalet are the same as those before. They show he was here a couple of days ago, possibly yesterday.'

'To wash the floor and wipe all the fingerprints?'

'And to check what he already suspected-that one photo was missing from the album. So when he got home, he found the negative and took it to a chemist.'

'Probably a shop where they develop photos in an hour. Then he went back to the chalet today to stick it where the old one had been.'

'Mm.'

The rear wheels of the lorry in front of them were sending a sheet of dirty, oily water over their windscreen, and the wipers were working overtime.

'Albu has gone to great lengths to cover the traces of his escapades,' Halvorsen said. 'But do you think he took Anna Bethsen's life?'

Harry stared at the logo on the rear doors of the lorry: AMOROMA

– ETERNALLY YOURS. 'Why not?'

'He doesn't exactly strike me as a murderer. A well-educated, straight-down-the-line type of guy. Reliable father with spotless record and a business he built up himself.'

'He's been unfaithful.'

'Who hasn't?'

'Yes, who hasn't,' Harry repeated slowly. And exploded in a fit of sudden irritation: 'Are we going to stay behind this lorry and take its crap with us all the way to Oslo, or what?'

Halvorsen checked the mirror and moved into the left-hand lane. 'And what would his motive be?'

'Let's ask, shall we?' Harry said.

'What do you mean? Drive to his place and ask? Reveal that we've acquired evidence by illegal means and get fired at the same time?'

'You don't have to go. I'll do it on my own.'

'And what do you think you'll achieve by doing that? If it gets out that we entered his chalet without a warrant, there is not a judge in this land who wouldn't boot the case out of court.'

'That's precisely why.'

'Precisely…Sorry, these puzzles are beginning to take their toll, Harry.'

'Because we don't have anything we can use in a court of law, we have to turn up the heat to find something we can use.'

'Shouldn't we take him in for questioning, give him the good chair, serve espresso and run the tape?'

'No. We don't need a load of lies on tape when we can't use what we do know to prove he's a liar. What we need is an ally. Someone who can expose him on our behalf.'

'And that is?'

'Vigdis Albu.'

'Aha. And how…?'

'If Arne Albu has been unfaithful, the chances are that Vigdis will want to dig deeper into the matter. And the chances are that she's sitting on the information we need. And we know a couple of things which could help her to find out even more.'

Halvorsen slanted the mirror so that he wouldn't be dazzled by the headlamps of the lorry right up their boot. 'Are you sure this is a smart idea, Harry?'

'No. Do you know what a palindrome is?'

'No idea.'

'Word or words that can be read forwards and backwards. Look at the lorry in your mirror. AMOROMA. It's the same word whichever way you read it.'

Halvorsen was about to say something, but thought better of it and just shook his head in despair.

'Drive me to Schrшder's,' Harry said.

***

The air was stiff with sweat, cigarette smoke, rain-drenched clothing and orders for beer shouted from the tables.

Beate Lшnn sat at the table where Aune had been sitting. She was as difficult to spot as a zebra in a cowshed.

'Have you been waiting long?' Harry asked.

'Not long at all,' she lied.

In front of her was a large beer, untouched and already flat. She followed his gaze and dutifully raised the glass.