Nemesis(17)

Weber sat down.





'Thank you, Weber, that was…erm, informative.' Ivarsson turned over the next sheet. WITNESSES.





'Hole?'





Harry slumped even further into his chair. 'Everyone who was in the bank was questioned immediately afterwards, and no one can tell us anything we can't see on the video. That is to say, they remember a few things which we know to be incorrect. One witness saw the robber heading up Industrigata. No one else has called in.'





'Which brings us to the next point–getaway cars,' Ivarsson said. 'Toril?'





Toril Li stepped forward, switched on the overhead projector, where there was already a transparency with a summary of private vehicles stolen over the past three months. In her strong Sunnmřrsk dialect she explained which four cars she considered to be the most probable getaway cars, basing her judgement on the fact that they were run-of-the-mill brands and models, neutral, light colours and new enough for the robber to feel confident that they wouldn't let him down. One particular car, a Volkswagen GTI parked in Maridalsveien was of interest as it had been stolen the night before the bank raid.





'Bank robbers tend to steal cars as near the time to the robbery as possible so they don't appear on patrol-car lists,' Toril Li elucidated. She switched off the overhead projector and picked up the transparency on her way back to her seat.





Ivarsson nodded. 'Thanks.'





'For nothing,' Harry whispered to Weber.





The title on the next sheet was VIDEO ANALYSIS. Ivarsson had put the top back on the marker. Beate swallowed, cleared her throat, took a sip of water from the glass in front of her and coughed again before beginning, her eyes firmly fixed on the table. 'I've measured the height—'





'Speak a little louder, would you please, Beate.' Reptilian smile. Beate cleared her throat several times.





'I've measured the height of the robber from the video. He's 1.79. I checked this out with Weber, who agrees.'





Weber nodded.





'Brilliant!' Ivarsson called out with laboured enthusiasm in his voice. He snatched the top off the marker and wrote: HEIGHT 1.79 m.





Beate continued talking to the table: 'I've just spoken to Aslaksen from the university, our voice analyst. He's had a look at the five words the robber says in English. He…' Beate peered nervously up at Ivarsson, who was standing with his back to her, ready to take notes. '…said the recording quality was too poor to do anything with. It was unusable.'





Ivarsson dropped his arm at the same time as the low sun disappeared behind a cloud and the large rectangle of light on the wall behind them faded away. There was a deafening silence in the room. Ivarsson inhaled and moved forward onto the balls of his feet.





'Fortunately, we have saved our trump for last.'





The Head of the Robberies Unit flipped over the last sheet of paper.





SURVEILLANCE.





'For those of you who do not work in the Robberies Unit we should perhaps explain that we always bring in the surveillance section first when we have a video recording of a bank raid. In seven out of ten cases a good video recording will reveal the identity of the robber, if he's one of our old friends.'





'Even if he's masked?' Weber asked.





Ivarsson nodded. 'A good undercover investigator will identify an old lag by his build, body language, the way he speaks during the robbery, all the small details you cannot hide behind a mask.'





'But it's not enough knowing who it is,' Ivarsson's second-in-command Didrik Gudmundson interposed. 'We have to—'





'That's right,' Ivarsson broke in. 'We have to have proof. A robber can spell his name out to the camera, but so long as he's masked and does not leave tangible evidence, in the eyes of the law we have nothing.'





'So, how many of the seven you recognise end up being convicted?' Weber asked.





'A few,' Gudmundson said. 'It's still better to know who has committed a robbery, even if they go free. Then we learn something about the pattern and their methods. And we get them the next time.'





'And if there's no next time?' Harry asked. He noticed how the thick veins over Ivarsson's ears expanded when he laughed.





'Dear murder expert,' Ivarsson said, still in jocular mood. 'If you look around you, you'll see that most people are smiling in their beards at what you just asked. That's because a bank robber who has pulled off a successful raid will always–always–strike again. That's a law of gravity with bank robbers.' Ivarsson peered out of the window and allowed himself another chuckle before spinning round on his heel. 'If that's the end of adult education for today, perhaps we can see if we have any suspects.'





Ola Li looked at Ivarsson, uncertain whether he should get up or not, but decided in the end to remain seated. 'Well, I was on duty last weekend. We had an edited video ready by eight on Friday evening, and I got the surveillance folk in to view the video in the House of Pain. Those not on duty were called in on Saturday. In all, thirteen surveillance officers were here, the first at eight o'clock on Friday and the last…'