'Have I ever lied? I'm asking you.'
'Definitely.'
'Have I ever lied about anything that counts?'
'Not as far as I know.'
'OK. I'm not lying to you now, either. You're right, I haven't told you everything. And, yes, you're risking your job by helping me. All I can say is you would be in even more trouble if I told you the rest. As it is, you'll have to trust me. Or back out. You can still refuse.'
They sat looking across the fjord. The gulls were two small dots in the distance.
'What would you have done?' Halvorsen said.
'Backed out.'
The dots became bigger. The gulls were coming back.
* * *
When they returned to Police HQ there was a message from Mřller on the answerphone.
'Let's go for a walk,' he said when Harry called. 'Anywhere at all,' Mřller added when they were outside.
'Elmer's,' Harry said. 'I need some smokes.'
Mřller followed Harry down a muddy track across the grass between Police HQ and the cobbled drive up to Botsen prison. Harry had observed that planners never seemed to appreciate that people will always find the quickest route between two points irrespective of where the road is. At the end of the track was a sign which had been kicked over: DON'T WALK ON THE GRASS.
'Have you heard about the bank robbery in Grřnlandsleiret early this morning?' Mřller asked.
Harry nodded. 'Interesting that he chose to do it a hundred metres from the police station.'
'Coincidentally, the bank alarm was being repaired.'
'I don't believe in coincidences,' Harry said.
'Oh? You think it was an inside job?'
Harry shrugged. 'Or someone knew about the repairs.'
'Only the bank and the repairers knew. And us.'
'It wasn't the bank raid you wanted to talk about, was it, boss?'
'No,' Mřller said, skipping around a puddle. 'The Chief Superintendent has been in discussion with the Mayor. All these robberies are bothering him.'
On the path, they stopped for a woman with three children in tow. She was telling them off in an angry, drained voice, and avoided Harry's eyes. It was visiting time at Botsen.
'Ivarsson is efficient. No one doubts that,' Mřller said. 'However, this Expeditor seems to be of a different calibre from what we're used to. The Chief Superintendent thinks that conventional methods may not be enough this time.'
'Perhaps not, but then what? One "two" more or less is no scandal.'
'A "two"?'
'Away team wins. Unsolved case. Standard vernacular now, boss.'
'There's more at stake than that, Harry. The media have been on our backs all day, it's been a nightmare. They're calling him the new Martin Pedersen. And on the website of Verdens Gang it says they have found out we call him the Expeditor.'
'Always the same old story,' Harry said, crossing the road on red with a circumspect Mřller at his heels. 'The media determine what we prioritise.'
'Well, he did murder someone after all.'
'And murders which are no longer in the public eye are dropped.'
'No!' Mřller snapped. 'We're not starting all that again.'
Harry shrugged and stepped over a newspaper stand which had been blown down. In the street a newspaper was flicking through its own pages at a furious tempo.
'So what do you want?'
'The Chief is, naturally enough, preoccupied with the PR side of things. An isolated bank raid is forgotten by the general public long before the case is dropped. No one notices that the man hasn't been caught. On this occasion, however, everyone's eyes are on us. And the more talk there is about raids of this kind, the more the public's curiosity is aroused. Martin Pedersen was a normal person who did what many dream about; he was a modern Jesse James escaping from the law. That sort of case creates myths, heroes, and people identify with it. Hence, further recruitment for the bank-robbing industry. The number of bank raids soared right across the country while the press were writing about Martin Pedersen.'
'You're frightened of this spreading. Fair enough. What's that got to do with me?'
'As I said, no one doubts Ivarsson's efficiency. No one doubts that. He is a correct, traditional policeman who never oversteps the line. The Expeditor, however, is no traditional bank robber. The Chief is not happy with the results so far.' Mřller nodded towards the prison. 'The episode with Raskol has reached his ears.'
'Mm.'
'I was in the Chief's office before lunch and your name was mentioned. Several times, in fact.'
'My God, should I feel honoured?'
'You are, at any rate, an investigator who has achieved results using unconventional methods.'
Harry's smile stretched into a sneer. 'A kind definition of a kamikaze pilot…'