‘To keep his mouth shut and not to trust anyone. He may have known there was a burner somewhere.’
Harry looked around the large, airy cathedral of a reception area at Telenor HQ in Fornebu. At the desk ten metres away two people stood waiting. He saw them receiving passes and being collected by the person they were visiting at the barriers. Telenor had obviously tightened up their procedures, and his plan of more or less gatecrashing Klaus Torkildsen’s office was no longer viable.
Harry assessed the situation.
Torkildsen would certainly not appreciate the visit. For the simple reason that he had been caught exposing himself, which he had managed to keep secret from his employer, but which Harry had used for several years to pressurise him into giving him access to information, sometimes way beyond what a telephone company was legally entitled to do. Nevertheless, without the authority a police ID card endowed, Torkildsen would probably not even see Harry.
To the right of the four gates leading to the lifts was a larger gate which had been opened to let in a group of visitors. Harry made a swift decision. He strode up to the group and edged to the middle of the throng, which was shuffling towards the Telenor representative holding the gate open. Harry turned to his neighbour, a small man with Chinese features.
‘Nin hao.’
‘Excuse me?’
Harry saw the name on the visitor’s pass. Yuki Nakazawa.
‘Oh, Japanese.’ Harry laughed and patted the little man several times on the shoulder, as if he were an old friend. Yuki Nakazawa returned a tentative smile.
‘Nice day,’ Harry said, still with his hand on the man’s shoulder.
‘Yes,’ Yuki said. ‘Which company are you?’
‘TeliaSonera,’ Harry said.
‘Very, very good.’
They passed the Telenor employee and from the corner of his eye Harry could see him coming towards them and knew roughly what he would say. And he was right.
‘Sorry, sir. I can’t let you in without a name badge.’
Yuki Nakazawa looked at the man in surprise.
* * *
Torkildsen had been given a new office. After walking a kilometre through an open-plan office Harry finally saw a familiar large physique in a glass cage.
Harry went straight in.
The man was sitting with his back to him, a telephone pressed to his ear. Harry could see the shower of spittle stand out against the window. ‘Now you get the bloody SW2 server up and running!’
Harry coughed.
The chair swivelled round. Klaus Torkildsen was even fatter. A surprisingly elegant, tailored suit succeeded in partially hiding the rolls of flab, but nothing could hide the expression of sheer fear that spread across his extraordinary face. What was so extraordinary about it was that with such an expanse at their disposal, the eyes, nose and mouth had deemed it appropriate to assemble on a small island amid an ocean of face. His eyes descended to Harry’s lapel.
‘Yuki … Nakazawa?’
‘Klaus.’ Harry beamed and stretched out his arms for a hug.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Torkildsen whispered.
Harry dropped his arms. ‘I’m happy to see you too.’
He perched on the edge of the desk. Same place he had always sat. Invade and find higher ground. Simple and effective way to rule. Torkildsen gulped, and Harry saw large, shiny beads of sweat forming on his brow.
‘The mobile network in Trondheim,’ Torkildsen grumbled, indicating the phone. ‘Should have had the server up and running last week. Can’t trust anyone any bloody more. I’m pushed for time. What do you want?’
‘The list of calls to and from Gusto Hanssen’s mobile since May.’ Harry grabbed a pen and wrote the name on a yellow Post-it.
‘I’m management now. I don’t work on the floor.’
‘No, but you can still get me the numbers.’
‘Have you got any authorisation?’
‘If I had I would’ve gone straight to a police contact instead of you.’
‘So why wouldn’t your police solicitor authorise this?’
The old Torkildsen would not have dared to ask this. He had become tougher. Had more confidence. Was it the new promotion? Or something else? Harry saw the back of a photo frame on the desk. The kind of personal photo used to remind yourself you had someone. So, unless it was a dog, it was a woman. Perhaps even with a child. Who would have thought it? The old flasher had got himself a woman.
‘I no longer work for the police,’ Harry said.
Torkildsen smirked. ‘Yet you still want info on conversations?’
‘I don’t need much, just this mobile.’
‘Why should I? If anyone found out I’d passed this kind of info on I’d get the boot. And it wouldn’t be hard to see if I’d been in the system.’