Cockroaches(108)

Blood dripped from the hand, bounced on the edge of the table and spattered Løken’s shirt with small red dots. Jens put the hand down. The fingers pointed to the ceiling.

“On the other hand, with both hands intact there is no limit to what one can do. You can strangle a person, roll a joint and hold a golf club. Do you know how far medical science has advanced today?”

Jens waited until he was sure Løken wasn’t going to answer.

“They can sew a hand back on without damaging so much as a nerve. They go up into your arm and pull down nerves like rubber bands. Within six months you’ll barely know that once it had been severed. Of course that depends on whether you can get to a doctor fast enough and you remember to take the hand with you.”

He passed behind Løken’s chair, rested his chin on his shoulder and whispered in his ear:

“Look what a nice hand. Beautiful, isn’t it? Almost like the hand in the Michelangelo painting. What’s it called?”

Løken didn’t answer.

“You know, the one they used in the Levi’s ad.”

Løken had fixed his gaze on a point in the air above him. Jens sighed.

“Obviously neither of us is an art connoisseur, eh? Well, perhaps I’ll buy a few famous pictures when this is over, see if that can stimulate some interest. By the way, how much time do you think we have before it’s too late to sew on the hand? Half an hour? An hour? Perhaps longer if we’d put it in ice, but I’m afraid we’ve run out today. Fortunately for you, it’s only a fifteen-minute drive from here to Answut Hospital.”

He took a deep breath, put his mouth close to Løken’s ear and yelled:

“WHERE ARE HOLE AND THE WOMAN?”

Løken gave a start and bared his teeth in a painful grin.

“Sorry,” Jens said. He picked a bit of papaya off Løken’s cheek. “It’s just that it’s rather important for me to get hold of them.”

A hoarse whisper stirred Løken’s lips. “You’re right …”

“What?” Jens said. He leaned close to his mouth. “What did you say? Speak up, man!”

“You’re right about papayas. They do stink of vomit.”


Liz folded her hands on top of her head.

“The Jim Love stuff. I can’t quite picture Brekke in the kitchen mixing prussic acid into opium.”

Harry smirked. “Brekke said the same about Klipra. You’re right. He had someone to help him, a pro.”

“You don’t exactly put out a want ad for people like that, do you.”

“Nope.”

“Maybe someone he just happened to meet? He goes to some pretty shady places. Or …” She paused when she saw him watching her. “Yes?” she said. “What is it?”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s our old friend Woo. He and Jens have been working together all along. It was Jens who ordered him to bug my phone.”

“It seems like too much of a coincidence that the same guy who was working for Molnes’s creditors was also working for Brekke.”

“That’s because it’s not a coincidence. Hilde Molnes told me the loan shark’s thugs who had rung her after the ambassador’s death immediately stopped calling after she had spoken to Brekke on the phone. I doubt that he scared them, let’s put it like that. When we visited Thai Indo Travelers, Mr. Sorensen said they had no scores to settle with Molnes. He may have been telling the truth. My guess is Brekke paid off the ambassador’s debts. In exchange for other services, naturally.”

“Woo’s services.”

“Exactly.” Harry looked at his watch. “Bloody hell, what’s happened to Løken?”

Liz got up with a sigh. “Let’s try calling him. Maybe he’s fallen asleep.”

Harry scratched his chin, lost in thought. “Maybe.”


Løken felt a pain in his chest. He’d never had heart problems, but knew a little about the symptoms. If it was a heart attack he hoped it was powerful enough to kill him. He was going to die anyway, so it would be good if he could cheat Brekke of the pleasure. Although who knows, perhaps he didn’t get any pleasure out of it. Perhaps it was for Brekke as it had been for him—a job that had to be done. One shot, a man falls and that’s that. He looked at Brekke. He watched his mouth move and realized to his surprise that he couldn’t hear anything.

“So when Ove Klipra asked me to sort out Phuridell’s dollar debt he did it over lunch instead of on the phone,” Jens said. “I couldn’t believe my ears. An order of around half a billion and he gives it to me verbally without any traceable record! That’s the kind of chance you can wait half your life for in vain.”