Cockroaches(88)

“It wasn’t a very lucky recommendation, was it?”

“No, not exactly …” Jens seemed perplexed.

“I got someone to sniff around the company yesterday and it turns out that to all intents and purposes it’s gone bankrupt,” Harry said.

“That’s correct, but what makes you so interested in Phuridell?”

“Let me put it this way: I’m more interested in Klipra. You have a general idea of what he owns. How hard will this hit him?”

Jens shrugged. “Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but along with BERTS he’s financed so many buyouts on credit that the whole thing is a house of cards. One puff of wind and it could collapse, if you know what I mean. And then Klipra’s had it as well.”

“So he bought Phuridell on your company’s—or should I say your—recommendation. Only two weeks later it goes bust and now there’s a chance that everything he’s built up will crash to the ground because of one broker’s advice. I don’t know much about company analyses, but I do know that three weeks is a very short time. He must have reckoned you’d sold him a second-hand car without an engine. Cowboys like you should be behind bars.”

The direction of Harry’s thoughts began to dawn on Jens.

“You don’t mean Ove Klipra …? You’re joking!”

“Well, I have a theory.”

“And that is?”

“Ove Klipra murdered the ambassador at the motel and made sure the finger of suspicion pointed at you.”

Jens stood up. “Now you’re really off beam, Harry.”

“Sit down and listen, Jens.”

Jens dropped back down into the chair with a sigh. Harry leaned across the table.

“Ove Klipra is an aggressive man, isn’t he? A so-called man of action?”

Jens hesitated. “Yes.”

“Suppose Atle Molnes has something on Klipra and demands a large sum of money from him just as Klipra is fighting to keep his head above water.”

“What sort of something?”

“Let’s just say that Molnes needs money and he’s got his hands on some material that could make Klipra’s life very uncomfortable. Normally Klipra might have been able to deal with it, but in this already tight spot the pressure’s too much for him. He feels like a cornered rat. Are you with me?”

Jens nodded.

“They leave Klipra’s house in the ambassador’s car because Klipra insists they should do the handover of the compromising material and the money in a more discreet place. The ambassador has no objections, with good reason. I doubt Klipra has you on his mind when he steps out of the car by his bank and sends the ambassador off to the motel. Which he does so that he can later get into the motel unseen. But then he starts thinking. Perhaps he can kill two birds with one stone. He knows the ambassador had visited you earlier in the afternoon and you would be drawn into the police inquiry anyway. Then he started toying with the idea: perhaps kind herr Brekke hasn’t got an alibi for the evening?”

“Why on earth would he think that?”

“Because he’s requested a company analysis from you for the day after. You’ve been his broker for so long that he knows a bit about how you work. Perhaps he even rings you from a phone box and has confirmation that you aren’t taking calls and no one else can give you an alibi. He has tasted blood, now he wants to go further and persuade the police you’re lying.”

“The video recording?”

“As you’re Klipra’s regular currency adviser he must have visited you several times and knows the system in the car park. Perhaps Molnes mentioned in passing that you had accompanied him down to his car, and he knew you would say that in your statement to the police. And any half-decent detective would check this on the video.”

“So Ove Klipra bribed the attendant and killed him afterward with prussic acid? Sorry, Harry, but it’s asking too much to imagine that Ove Klipra would haggle with a black kid, buy opium and spike it with prussic acid in his kitchen.”

Harry took the last cigarette from his packet; he had been saving it for as long as he could. He glanced at his watch. Actually there was no reason to believe that Runa would phone at five in the morning. Yet he noticed that he made sure the phone was on the periphery of his vision. Jens proffered his lighter before Harry had a chance to find his own.

“Thank you. Do you know anything about Klipra’s background, Jens? Did you know he came here as a jack-of-all-trades but in reality he was escaping from Norway amid ugly rumors that had started to spread.”

“I knew he never finished the engineering degree he started in Norway, yes. The rest is news to me.”