“So what did she say?”
“She accepted, and I regretted it at once. It was just a flirtation, so I asked for her card and said I’d ring one day so that we could agree on a date. That hasn’t materialized of course, but I’m pretty sure she won’t have forgotten me.”
“Have you still got her card?”
“Yes, isn’t that great?”
Harry deliberated. “Listen, Jens, that’s all well and good, but it isn’t that easy. You still don’t have an alibi. Theoretically, you could have taken the lift back down. You might have just picked up something you left in your office, right?”
“Oh.” He sounded puzzled. “But …”
Jens stopped and Harry heard a sigh.
“Hell, you’re right, Harry.”
Harry hung up.
34
Sunday, January 19
Harry woke with a start. Above the monotonous hum coming from Taksin Bridge he heard the roar of a riverboat starting up on Chao Phraya. A whistle sounded and the light made his eyes smart. He sat up in bed, buried his face in his hands and waited for the whistle to stop until he realized it was the telephone. Reluctantly he lifted the receiver.
“Did I wake you?” It was Jens again.
“Never mind,” Harry said.
“I’m an idiot. I’m so stupid I don’t know if I dare tell you this.”
“Then don’t.”
Silence except for the click of a coin being pressed into a machine.
“I’m joking. Come on.”
“OK, Harry. I’ve been lying awake all night and thinking, trying to remember what I was doing while I was in the office that night. You know, I can remember to the decimal currency transactions I made several months ago, but I’m not capable of remembering simple, factual things while I’m in prison with a murder sentence hanging over me. Can you understand that?”
“That might be the reason why. Haven’t we been through this before?”
“OK, well, this is what happened. You remember I said I’d blocked my calls when I was in the office that night? I was lying there thinking that was Sod’s Law. If it had been connected and someone had called I would have had it on the recorder and could have proved where I was. And with this one you can’t mess around with the time either, as the park attendant did with the video.”
“What’s your point?”
“I remembered, thank God, that I could ring out even if I’d blocked incoming calls. I rang our receptionist and got her to go up and check the recorder. And, you know, she found a call I’d made, and then I remembered the whole thing. At eight I phoned my sister in Oslo. Beat that!”
Harry had no intention of trying.
“Your sister can give you an alibi and you really didn’t remember?”
“No. And do you know why? Because she wasn’t at home. I just left a message on her answerphone to say that I’d rung.”
“And you didn’t remember?” Harry repeated.
“Christ, Harry, you forget that kind of call before you’ve even put the phone down, don’t you. Do you remember all the calls you’ve made when there was no answer?”
Harry had to concede he was right.
“Have you spoken to your lawyer?”
“Not today. I wanted to tell you first.”
“OK, Jens. Call your lawyer now and I’ll send someone up to your office to verify what you’ve said.”
“This kind of recorder is valid in law, you know.” There was a strained tone to his voice.
“Relax, Jens. Not much longer. They’ll have to let you go now.”
The receiver crackled as Brekke breathed out. “Please say that again, Harry.”
“They’ll have to let you go.”
Jens laughed a strangely dry laugh. “In which case, I’ll treat you to a meal, Harry.”
“You’d better not.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m a policeman.”
“Call it an interview.”
“I don’t think so, Jens.”
“As you wish.”
A bang came from the street below, perhaps a firework or a puncture.
“I’ll think about it.”
Harry cradled the receiver, went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He asked himself how it was possible to spend so long in tropical climes and still be so pale. He had never liked the sun particularly, but it hadn’t taken this long to tan before. Perhaps his lifestyle over the last year had put paid to his pigment production? He threw cold water in his face, thought of the swarthy drinkers at Schrøder’s and looked in the mirror again. Well, at any rate the sun had given him a port wine nose.
35
Sunday, January 19