Nemesis(39)

When he fell asleep, he dreamed that he was standing in the bank with the gun again. The people around him were made of marble.





15

Gadjo





'WHAT FANTASTIC WEATHER IT IS TODAY,' BJARNE MŘLLER said as he came sailing into Harry and Halvorsen's office the next morning.





'Well, you would know, wouldn't you. You've got a window,' Harry said without looking up from his cup of coffee. 'And a new chair,' he added as Mřller dropped into Halvorsen's defective chair, which gave a scream of pain.





'Hi, sunshine,' Mřller said. 'Having a bad day?'





Harry shrugged. 'I'm pushing forty and I've started to enjoy grumbling. Anything wrong with that?'





'Not at all. Good to see you in a suit, by the way.'





Harry lifted the lapels of his jacket as if he had only now discovered the dark suit.





'There was a meeting of Unit Heads yesterday,' Mřller said. 'Do you want the short or the long version?'





Harry stirred his coffee with a pencil. 'We have to stop investigating Ellen's case. Is that it?'





'The case was closed ages ago, Harry. And the Head of Forensics says you're pestering them to check all sorts of old evidence.'





'We found a new witness yesterday who—'





'There's always a new witness, Harry. They just don't want any more.'





'But—'





'We've drawn a line under it, Harry. Sorry.'





Mřller turned at the door. 'Go for a walk in the sun. It might be the last warm day for a while.'





* * *





'Rumours going round it's sunny,' Harry said as he entered the House of Pain and saw Beate. 'Just so you know.'





'Turn off the light,' she said. 'And I'll show you something.'





She had sounded excited on the telephone, but she didn't mention why. She picked up the remote control: 'I didn't find anything on the tape from the day the skip was ordered, but take a peek at this one from the day of the robbery.'





Harry saw the 7-Eleven on the screen. He saw the green skip outside the window, the cream buns inside the shop, the back of the head and bum-crack of the boy he had talked to the day before. He was serving a girl who was buying milk, Cosmopolitan and condoms.





'The recording is timed at 15.05, so about fifteen minutes before the robbery. Look now.'





The girl took her things and left, the queue moved forward and a man in a black boiler suit and a peaked cap with the earflaps pulled well down pointed at something on the counter. He held his head down so that his face couldn't be seen. Under his arm he was carrying a folded black holdall.





'What the hell,' Harry whispered.





'That's the Expeditor,' Beate said.





'Sure? Lots of people wear black boiler suits, and the robber didn't have a cap.'





'When he goes away from the counter, you'll see they're the same shoes as on the video. And notice the bulge on his left. That's the AG3.'





'He's taped it to his body. But what's he doing in a 7-Eleven?'





'He's waiting for the armoured van and he needs a lookout post where he won't be conspicuous. He's done a recce in the area and knows that the security van comes between 15.15 and 15.20. In the meantime, he can't exactly walk around wearing a balaclava and announce his intentions, so he uses a cap which covers most of his face. When he goes to the counter, if you look hard, you can see a small rectangle of light flickering on it. It's a reflection off glass. You're wearing sunglasses, aren't you, you Expeditor bastard.' Beate spoke in a low voice, but fast, with an anger Harry had not heard from her before. 'He's obviously aware of the camera in the 7-Eleven, too. He doesn't show any of his face. Look at him checking the angles! In fact, he does it really well. I've got to give him that.'





The boy behind the counter gave the man in the boiler suit a cream bun and picked up the ten-kroner coin he put down.





'Hello.'





'Right,' Beate said. 'He's not wearing gloves. But he doesn't seem to have touched anything in the shop. And there you can see the rectangle of light I was telling you about.'





Harry didn't say a word.





The man went out of the shop as the last person in the queue was being served.





'Mm. We'll have to start searching for witnesses again,' Harry said, getting up.





'I wouldn't be too optimistic,' Beate said, still staring at the screen. 'Remember only one witness reported having seen the Expeditor escape in the Friday rush hour. The robber's best hiding place is in a crowd.'





'OK, but have you got any other suggestions?'





'Sit down or you'll miss the climax.'





Mildly disconcerted, Harry shot her a look and faced the screen. The boy behind the counter had turned towards the camera with a finger jammed up his nose.





'One man's climax is another—' Harry grumbled.