Harry went to the desk and pulled out one of the drawers. 'Emptied?'

'He took everything he had here with him. It filled one plastic bag.'

'The computer too?'

'It was a laptop.'

'Which he attached to a mobile phone?'

She raised an eyebrow. 'I don't know anything about that.'

'I just wondered.'

'Anything else you want to see?'

Harry turned round. Vigdis was leaning against the door frame with one arm over her head and the other on her hip. The feeling of dйjа vu was overwhelming.

'I have one last question, fru…Vigdis.'

'Oh, are you in a rush, Inspector?'

'The clock's running on a taxi outside. The question is simple. Do you think he could have killed her?'

She studied Harry in her own time as she lightly kicked at the door sill with the heel of her shoe. Harry waited.

'Do you know the first thing he said when I told him about his whore? Promise me you won't tell anyone, Vigdis. I shouldn't tell anyone! For Arne the notion that others considered us happy was more important than whether we really were. My answer, Inspector, is that I have no idea what he is capable of. I don't know the man.'

Harry took a card out of his inside pocket. 'I'd like you to give me a call if he contacts you or if you find out where he is. Immediately.'

Vigdis looked at his card with a tiny smile playing around her pale pink lips. 'Only then, Inspector?'

Harry didn't answer.

On the stairs outside he turned to her. 'Did you tell anyone?'

'That my husband was unfaithful? What do you think?'

'I think you're a practical woman.'

She beamed.

***

'Eighteen minutes,' Шystein said. 'Shit, my pulse was beginning to race.'

'Did you ring my old mobile number while I was in there?'

'Of course. It just rang and rang.'

'I didn't hear a thing. It's not there any more.'

'Sorry, but have you heard about vibrate?'

'What?'

Шystein simulated an epileptic fit. 'Like that. Vibrate mode. Silent phone.'

'Mine cost one krone and just rang. He's taken it with him, Шystein. What happened to the blue BMW down the street?'

'Eh?'

Harry sighed. 'Let's get going.'

31

Maglite

'Are you telling me some psycho is after us because you can't find the person who killed a member of his family?' Rakel's voice screeched down the phone.

Harry closed his eyes. Halvorsen had gone to Elmer's and he had the office to himself. 'In a nutshell, yes. I've come to an agreement with him. He's kept his part.'

'And that's why we're being hunted? That's why I have to leave the hotel with my son, who in a few days' time will find out whether he's allowed to stay with his mother or not? That's…that's…' Her voice rose into a furious, intermittent falsetto. He let her go on without interrupting. 'Why, Harry?'

'The oldest reason in the world,' he said. 'Blood revenge. Vendetta.'

'What's it got to do with us?'

'As I said: nothing. You and Oleg are not the end, only the means. This man sees it as his duty to avenge the killing.'

'Duty?' Her scream pierced Harry's eardrum. 'Vengeance is one of these territorial things you men like so much. It's not about duty, it's the Neanderthal urge!'

He waited until he thought she was finished. 'I'm sorry about this, but there's nothing I can do right now.'

She didn't answer.

'Rakel?'

'Yes.'

'Where are you?'

'If what you say is right, about how easily they found us, I'm not sure I'll risk telling you on the phone.'

'OK. Are you somewhere safe?'

'I think so.'

'Good.'

A Russian voice faded in and out, like on a short-wave radio station.

'Why can't you reassure me that we're not in any danger, Harry? Tell me it's your imagination, they're bluffing…' Her voice had become frayed at the edges. '…anything…'

Harry took his time to answer. Then he said in a slow, clear voice: 'You need to be frightened, Rakel. Frightened enough to do the right thing.'

'And that is?'

Harry took a deep breath. 'I'll straighten things out. I promise you. I'll straighten things out.'

***

Harry called Vigdis once Rakel had hung up. She answered after the first ring.

'Hole here. Are you sitting by the phone waiting for someone, fru Albu?'

'What do you think?' Harry could tell by the slurred speech that she had had at least a couple of drinks since he left.

'I've no idea, but I'd like you to report your husband missing.'

'Why? I don't miss him.' She gave a short, sad laugh.

'Well, I need a reason for setting the search machinery in motion. You can choose. Either you report him missing or I announce he's being investigated. For murder.'

A long silence followed. 'I don't understand, Constable.'

'There's not a lot to understand, fru Albu. Shall I say you've reported him missing?'

'Wait!' she shouted. Harry could hear a glass being smashed at the other end. 'What are you talking about? Arne is already being investigated.'

'By me, yes, but I haven't informed anyone yet.'

'Oh? And what about the three officers who came here after you left?'

Harry could feel a cold finger running up his spine. 'Three officers?'

'Don't you communicate in the police force? They wouldn't go. I was almost frightened.'

Harry had got out of his office chair. 'Did they arrive in a blue BMW, fru Albu?'

'Do you remember what I told you about the fru stuff, Harry?'

'What did you tell them?'

'Not much. Nothing I didn't tell you, I don't think. They had a look at some photos and…well, they weren't exactly impolite, but…'

'How did you get them to leave?'

'Leave?'

'They wouldn't have left unless they found what they were after. Believe me, fru Albu.'

'Harry, now I'm getting tired of reminding-'

'Think! This is important.'

'My God, I didn't say anything, I'm telling you. I…yes, I played a recorded message Arne left on the answerphone two days ago. Then they left.'

'You said you hadn't talked to him.'

'I haven't. He just said he'd picked up Gregor. And that was true. I could hear Gregor barking in the background.'

'Where was he ringing from?

'How should I know?'

'At any rate, your visitors knew. This is a matter of…' Harry tried to think of another way of saying it, but gave up: '…life or death.'

***

There was a lot Harry didn't know about roads and communication. He didn't know that calculations had shown that the building of two tunnels in Vinterbro and the extension of the motorway would reduce rush-hour congestion on the E6 south of Oslo. He didn't know that the crucial argument in favour of this billion-kroner investment had not been the voters who commuted between Moss and Drшbak, but traffic safety. The road authorities used a formula to calculate the social benefit, based on an evaluation of one human life at 20.4 million kroner, which included ambulances, re-routing of traffic and future loss of tax income. Heading south on the E6 in Шystein's Mercedes, bumper to bumper, Harry didn't even know what value he placed on Arne Albu's life. He certainly didn't know what could be gained by saving it. All he knew was that he couldn't afford to lose what he risked losing. Not under any circumstances. So it didn't do to think too much.

The recorded message Vigdis Albu had played him over the telephone had lasted five seconds and contained only one valuable piece of information. It was enough. There was nothing in the ten short words Arne Albu said before ringing off: I took Gregor with me. Just so that you know.