by Jo Nesbo
‘This dealer who confessed, for example. Adidas?’
‘Real name: Chris Reddy.’
‘Anyway, aren’t you done with this case now that Oleg Fauke has been released?’
‘Anyway, shouldn’t he have both hands on the racket for backhand?’
‘Do you know anything about tennis?’
‘Seen a bit on TV.’
‘One-handed backhands develop character.’
‘I don’t even know if the blood has anything to do with the killing. Perhaps someone’s frightened of being linked with Gusto?’
‘Such as?’
‘Dubai maybe. Besides, I don’t think Adidas killed Gusto.’
‘Why not?’
‘A hardened dealer suddenly confessing out of the blue?’
‘See your point,’ Bellman said. ‘But it is a confession. And a good one.’
‘And it’s just a drugs killing,’ Harry continued, ducking a stray ball. ‘And you’ve got enough cases to crack.’
Bellman sighed. ‘It’s the same as it’s always been, Harry. Our resources are under too much pressure for us to be able to prioritise cases for which we already have a solution.’
‘ A solution? What about the solution?’
‘As boss one is obliged to acquire slippery formulations.’
‘OK, so let me offer you two case solutions. In exchange for help with finding a house.’
Bellman stopped hitting balls. ‘What?’
‘A killing in Alnabru. A biker called Tutu. A source informed me he got a drill through his head.’
‘And the source is willing to testify?’
‘Maybe.’
‘And the second?’
‘The undercover guy who washed up by the Opera House. Same source saw him dead on Dubai’s cellar floor.’
Bellman scrunched up one eye. The pigment stains flared up and Harry was reminded of a tiger.
‘Dad!’
‘Go and fill the water bottle in the dressing room, Filip.’
‘The dressing room’s locked, Dad!’
‘And the code is?’
‘The year the king was born, but I don’t remember-’
‘Remember and quench your thirst, Filip.’
The boy shuffled through the gate, arms hanging by his sides.
‘What do you want, Harry?’
‘I want a team combing the area around Frederikkeplassen, at the university, over a radius of one kilometre. I want a list of all the detached houses that fit this description.’ He passed Bellman a sheet of paper.
‘What happened at Frederikkeplassen?’
‘Just a concert.’
Realising he wasn’t going to be told any more, Bellman looked down at the paper and read aloud: ‘“Old timber house with long shingle drive, deciduous trees and steps by the front door, no overhang”? Sounds like a description of half the houses in Blindern. What are you after?’
Harry lit a smoke. ‘A rat’s nest. An eagle’s lair.’
‘And if we find it, what then?’
‘You and your officers need a search warrant to be able to do anything while a normal civilian like me could get lost one autumn evening and be forced to take refuge in the nearest house.’
‘OK, I’ll see what I can do. But explain to me first why you’re so keen to catch this Dubai.’
Harry shrugged. ‘Professional deformation perhaps. Get the list and email it to the address at the bottom. Then we’ll see what I can get for you.’
Filip returned without water as Harry was leaving, and on his way to the car he heard a ball hit the racket frame and a low curse.
Distant cannons rumbled in the armada of clouds, and it was as dark as night when Harry got into his car. He started the engine and rang Hans Christian Simonsen.
‘Harry here. What are the current penalties for grave desecration?’
‘Er, four to six years, I would guess.’
‘Are you willing to risk that?’
A tiny pause. Then: ‘To what end?’
‘To catch the person who killed Gusto. And perhaps the person who’s after Oleg.’
‘And if I’m not willing?’
A very tiny pause. ‘I’m in.’
‘OK, find out where Gusto is buried and get some spades, a torch, nail scissors and two screwdrivers. We’ll do it tomorrow night.’
As Harry drove across Solli plass the rain came. It lashed the rooftops, lashed the streets, lashed the man standing in Kvadraturen opposite the open door to the bar.
The boy in reception sent Harry a dour look as he came in.
‘Would you like to borrow an umbrella?’
‘Not unless your hotel’s leaking,’ Harry said, running a hand through his brush-like hair and sending a fine spray through the air. ‘Any messages?’
The boy laughed as if it were a joke.
As Harry was climbing the stairs to the second floor he thought he heard footsteps further down and stopped. Listened. Silence. Either it had been the echo of his own steps he had heard, or else the other person had stopped as well.
Harry walked on slowly. In the corridor he increased his speed, inserted the key in the lock and opened the door. Scanned the darkened room and peered across the yard to the woman’s illuminated room. No one there. No one there, no one here.
He switched on the light.
As it came on he saw his reflection in the window. And someone else standing behind him. At once he felt a heavy hand squeeze his shoulder.
Only a phantom can be so fast and silent, Harry thought, whirling round, but he knew it was already too late.
27
‘I saw them. Once. It was like a wake.’
Cato still had his large, dirty hand resting on Harry’s shoulder.
Harry heard himself gasp and felt his lungs pressing against the inside of his ribs.
‘Who?’
‘I was talking to someone selling the devilry. His name was Bisken and he wore a leather dog collar. He came to me because he was frightened. The police had hauled him in for possession of heroin, and he had told Beret Man where Dubai lived. Beret Man had promised him protection and an amnesty if he would testify in court. And while I was standing there they came in a black car. Black suits, black gloves. He was old. Broad face. He looked like a white aborigine.’
‘Who?’
‘I saw him, but… he wasn’t there. Like a phantom. And when Bisken saw him he didn’t move, didn’t try to run or struggle when they took him with them. After they’d gone it was as if I’d dreamt it all up.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’
‘Because I’m a coward. Have you got a ciggy?’
Harry gave him the pack, and Cato fell into the chair.
‘You’re chasing a ghost, and I don’t want to be involved.’
‘But?’
Cato shrugged and held out his hand. Harry passed him the lighter.
‘I’m an old, dying man. I have nothing to lose.’
‘Are you dying?’
Cato lit his cigarette. ‘It’s not acute, perhaps, but we’re all dying, Harry. I just want to help you.’
‘With what?’
‘Don’t know. What plans have you got?’
‘Can I trust you?’
‘Christ, no, you can’t trust me. But I’m a shaman. I can also make myself invisible. I can come and go without anyone noticing.’
Harry rubbed his chin. ‘Why?’
‘I told you why.’
‘I’m asking again.’
Cato looked at Harry, first with a reproachful glare. Then, when that didn’t help, he heaved a deep sigh of annoyance. ‘Perhaps I had a son once myself. One I didn’t treat as well as I should have. Perhaps it’s a new opportunity. Don’t you believe in fresh opportunities, Harry?’
Harry eyed the old man. The furrows in his face looked even deeper in the darkness, like valleys, like slashes from a knife. Harry thrust out his hand, and reluctantly Cato took the cigarettes from his pocket and handed the
m back.
‘I appreciate it, Cato. I’ll tell you if I need you. But what I’m going to do now is link Dubai to Gusto’s death. From there the tracks will lead directly on to the burner in the police and the killing of the undercover cop who was drowned in Dubai’s house.’
Cato slowly shook his head. ‘You have a pure and courageous heart, Harry. Perhaps you’ll go to heaven.’
Harry poked a cigarette between his lips. ‘So there’ll be a kind of happy ending after all then.’
‘Which has to be celebrated. May I offer you a drink, Harry Hole?’
‘Who’s paying?’
‘Me, of course. If you stump up. You can say hello to your Jim, I can say hello to my Johnnie.’
‘Get thee hence.’
‘Come on. Jim’s a good man deep down.’
‘Goodnight. Sleep well.’
‘Goodnight. And don’t sleep too well, in case-’
‘Goodnight.’
It had been there all the time, but Harry had succeeding in suppressing it. Up until now, up until Cato’s invitation. It was enough, it was impossible to ignore the gnawing now. It had started with the violin fix, that had set it in motion, had released the dogs again. And now they were baying and clawing, barking themselves hoarse and gnashing at his intestines. Harry lay on the bed with his eyes closed, listening to the rain and hoping sleep would come and carry him away.
It didn’t.
He had a phone number in his mobile he had apportioned two letters. AA. Alcoholics Anonymous. Trygve, an AA member and sponsor he had used several times before at critical points. Three years. Why start now, now there was everything to play for and he needed more than ever to be sober? It was madness. He heard a scream outside. Followed by laughter.
At ten past eleven he got up and left. He barely registered the rain splashing down on his skull as he crossed the street to the open door. And this time he didn’t hear the footsteps behind him, for Kurt Cobain’s voice filled his auditory canals, the music like an embrace, and he stepped inside, sat on the stool by the counter and called to the barman.
‘Whis… key. Jim… Beam.’
The barman stopped wiping down the counter, put the cloth beside the corkscrew and lifted the bottle from the mirror shelf. Poured. Set the glass on the counter. Harry placed his forearms either side of the glass and stared into the golden-brown liquid. And for that moment nothing else existed.
Not Nirvana, not Oleg, not Rakel, not Gusto, not Dubai. Not Tord Schultz’s face. Not the figure that muffled the street noise as it came in. Nor the movement behind him. Nor the singing tone of the springs as the blade shot out. Nor the heavy breathing of Sergey Ivanov standing a metre from him with legs together and hands held low.
Sergey looked at the man’s back. He had both arms resting on the counter. It couldn’t be more perfect. The hour had come. His heart was pounding. Pounding wildly with fresh blood, as it had done the first time he had fetched the heroin packages from the cockpit. All fear was gone. Because he knew now, he was alive. He was alive and about to kill the man before him. Take his life, make it part of his own. The very idea of it made him grow; it was as though he had already consumed the enemy’s heart. Now. The movements. Sergey took a deep breath, stepped forward and placed his left hand on Harry’s head. As if in blessing. As if he were going to baptise him.
28
Sergey Ivanov couldn’t get a hold. Simply could not get a hold. The damn rain had soaked the man’s skull and hair, and the short spikes slipped through his fingers preventing him from snatching his head back. Sergey’s left hand shot forward again, grasped the man’s forehead and pulled it to him as he brought the knife round his throat. The man’s body jerked. Sergey slashed with the knife, felt it make contact, felt it slice through skin. There! The hot jet of blood on his thumb. Not as deep as he expected, but three more heartbeats and it would all be over. He raised his gaze to the mirror to see the fountain. He saw a bared row of teeth and beneath that a gaping wound from which blood was streaming down the front of the shirt. And the man’s eyes. It was that look — a cold, angry predatory glare — that made him realise the job was not yet done.
When Harry had felt the hand on his head he had known instinctively. Known it was not a drunken customer or an old acquaintance, but them. The hand slid off and that gave Harry a tenth of a second to look in the mirror, to see the glint of steel. He already knew where it was heading. Then the hand was around his forehead and jerking him backwards. It was too late to put a hand between throat and blade, so Harry stood on the foot rail and levered himself upwards while squeezing his chin against his chest. He felt no pain as the knife sliced his skin, didn’t feel it until it cut through to the chin and penetrated the sensitive membrane around the bone.
Then he met the other man’s eyes in the mirror. He pulled Harry’s head back towards his own, making them resemble two friends posing for a picture. Harry felt the blade being pressed against his chin and chest, trying to find a way into one of the two neck arteries, and he knew that within a few seconds it would succeed.
Sergey wrapped the whole of his arm around the man’s forehead and jerked with all his might. The man’s head tilted backwards, and in the mirror he saw the blade finally find the gap between chin and chest and slide in. The steel bit into the throat and moved to the right, towards the neck artery, the arteria carotis. Blin! The man had managed to lift his right hand and stick a finger between knife and artery. But Sergey knew the razor-sharp edge would sever a finger. It was just a question of applying enough pressure. He pulled. And pulled.
Harry could feel the pressure from the knife, but knew it wouldn’t make any headway. The highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal. Nothing cut through titanium, whether it was made in Hong Kong or not. But the guy was strong, soon he would realise that the blade wasn’t biting.
He groped with his free hand in front of him, knocking over his drink, and found something.
It was a T-shaped corkscrew. Of the simplest kind, with a short helix. He grabbed the handle with the point protruding between first and second fingers. Felt panic surge as he heard the knife blade slide over the prosthesis. He forced his eyes down to see in the mirror. See where he should aim. Raised his hand to the side and struck backwards, behind his head.
He noticed the other man’s body stiffen as the tip of the corkscrew perforated the skin on the side of his neck. But it was an innocuous, superficial wound and it didn’t stop him. He was beginning to shift the knife to the left. Harry concentrated. The corkscrew demanded a firm, practised hand. However, a couple of turns was all it needed to penetrate deep into the cork. Harry twisted twice. Felt it slip through the flesh. Bore its way in. Felt soft resistance. The oesophagus. Then he pulled.
It was like pulling the bung from the side of a full barrel of red wine.
Sergey Ivanov was fully conscious and saw the whole process in the mirror as the first heartbeat sent a jet of blood to the right. His brain registered, analysed and formed a conclusion: the man whose throat he was trying to cut had found a main artery with a corkscrew, pulled the vessel from his neck and it was now pumping out his life blood. Sergey had three further thoughts before the second heartbeat came and consciousness went.
He had let down his uncle.
He would never see his beloved Siberia again.
He was going to be buried with a tattoo that lied.
On the third beat of his heart he fell. And by the time the song finished, Sergey Ivanov was dead.
Harry got up from the stool. In the mirror he saw the cut running across his chin. But that wasn’t the worst; there were deep cuts to his throat from which blood was trickling and had already discoloured his entire collar.
The three other customers in the bar had gone. He looked down at the man lying on the floor. Blood was still flowing from the gash in his neck, but it wasn’t pumping. Which meant that his heart had stopped beating and there was no point trying to revive him. And even if there had been life left in him,
Harry knew this person would never have revealed who had sent him. Because he saw the tattoos protruding above the shirt. He didn’t know any of the symbols, but he knew they were Russian. Black Corn maybe. They were different from the typically Western tattoo belonging to the barman, who was pressed up against the mirror shelf and staring with pupils so black with shock they seemed to cover the whites of his eyes. Nirvana had faded out and there was total silence. Harry looked at the whiskey glass lying on its side.
‘Sorry about the mess,’ he said.
Then he picked up the cloth from the counter, wiped first where his hands had been, then the glass, then the handle of the corkscrew, which he put back. He checked that none of his own blood had ended up on the counter or the floor. Then he bent over the dead man and wiped his bloody hand, the long, ivory knife handle and the thin blade. The weapon — for it was a weapon and useless for anything else — was heavier than any knife he had ever held. The edge was as sharp as a Japanese sushi knife. Harry hesitated. Then he folded the blade into the shaft, heard a soft click as it locked, flicked the safety catch and dropped it into his jacket pocket.
‘OK to pay with dollars?’ Harry asked, using the cloth to pick a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet. ‘Legal tender in the United States, it says.’
Small whining noises came from the barman as if he wanted to say something, but had lost the power of speech.
Harry was about to go, then stopped. Turned to look at the bottle on the mirror shelf. Wetted his lips again. Stood unmoving for a second. Then his body seemed to twitch and he left.
Harry crossed the street in pouring rain. They knew where he was staying. They could have tailed him of course, but it could also have been the boy in reception. Or the burner who had got hold of his name via the routine registering of hotel guests. If he went in through the backyard he would be able to reach his room unnoticed.
The gate to the street was locked. Harry cursed.
The reception desk was unmanned as he entered.
On the stairs and in the corridor he left a trail of red dots, like Morse code, on the light blue linoleum.
