The Bat(29)

‘I went to visit him in a place called Sunnås,’ Harry said. ‘He’s still dreaming about driving a car again one day. They found me in the wreckage with a cracked skull and internal bleeding. I was on life support for several days.’

His father had visited him every day with his sister. They had sat on either side of the bed holding his hand. Because serious concussion had disturbed his vision, he wasn’t allowed to read or watch TV. So his father had read to him. Sat close to the bed and whispered in his ear so as not to wear him out while reading from Sigurd Hoel and Kjartan Fløgstad, his father’s favourite authors.

‘I had killed a man and destroyed someone else’s life, yet I was lying cocooned in love and attentive devotion. And the first thing I did when I was moved to a ward was bribe the man in the next bed to get his brother to buy me a bottle of whiskey.’

Harry paused. Bigitta’s breathing was calm and even.

‘Are you shocked?’ he asked.

‘I knew you were an alcoholic the first moment I saw you,’ Birgitta answered. ‘My father’s one.’

Harry didn’t know what to say.

‘Tell me more,’ she said.

‘The rest is . . . the rest is about the Norwegian police. Perhaps it’s better not to know.’

‘We’re a long way from Norway now,’ she said.

Harry gave her a quick squeeze.

‘You’ve heard enough for one day,’ he said. ‘To be continued in the next issue. I must be off. Is it all right if I come to the Albury and get under your feet tonight as well?’

Birgitta smiled a sad smile – and Harry knew he was getting more involved than he should.





15


Statistical Significance


‘YOU’RE LATE,’ WATKINS stated as Harry arrived in the office. He placed a set of photocopies on his desk.

‘Jet lag. Anything new?’ Harry asked.

‘You’ve got a bit of reading here. Yong Sue’s dug up some old rape cases. He and Kensington are having a bo-peep right now.’

Yong laid a transparency on the overhead projector.

‘This year in Australia more than five thousand rapes have been reported. Obviously, trying to find a pattern from such a collection is hopeless without using statistics. Cold, concise statistics. Keyword number one is statistical significance. In other words, we’re looking for a system that cannot be explained by statistical chance. Keyword number two is demography.

‘I searched first for reports on unsolved murders and rapes over the last five years containing the words “strangle” or “suffocate”. I found twelve murders and a few hundred rapes. Next, I whittled down the number by adding that the victims should be blondes aged between sixteen and thirty-five and living on the east coast. Official statistics and data concerning hair colour released by the Passport Office show that this group constitutes less than five per cent of the female population. Yet I was left with seven murders and over forty rapes.’

Yong placed another transparency on the OHP showing percentages and a bar chart. He allowed the others to read, without making any comment. A long silence followed. Watkins was the first to speak.

‘Does that mean . . .?’

‘No,’ Yong said. ‘It doesn’t mean we know anything we didn’t know before. The numbers are too vague.’

‘But we can imagine,’ Andrew said. ‘We can, for example, imagine that there is a person out there raping blonde women systematically and killing them a little less systematically. And who likes putting his hands round a woman’s throat.’

Suddenly everyone starting speaking at once and Watkins held up his hands for silence.

Harry was the first to speak up. ‘Why hasn’t this connection been discovered before? We’re talking about seven murders and forty to fifty rapes with a possible link here.’

Yong Sue shrugged. ‘Rape is unfortunately an everyday event in Australia as well, and perhaps it isn’t given the priority you think it should be given.’

Harry nodded. He felt no cause to swell his chest with pride on Norway’s account.

‘Furthermore, most rapists find their victims in the town or region where they live, and they don’t flee the area afterwards. That’s why there’s no systematic collaboration between the various states in standard rape cases. The problem in the cases that form my statistics is the geographical spread.’

Yong pointed to the list of place names and dates.

‘One day in Melbourne, a month later in Cairns and the week after in Newcastle. Rapes in three different states in under two months. Sometimes wearing a balaclava, sometimes a mask, at least once a nylon stocking and a few times the women haven’t seen the rapist at all. The crime scenes are everything from dark backstreets to parks. The victims have been dragged into cars, or their homes have been broken into at night. In summary, there is no pattern here except that the victims are blonde, have been strangled and no one has been able to give the police a description of the man. Well, there is one other thing. When he carries out the murder he’s extremely clean. Alas. He probably washes the victims, removes any traces of himself: fingerprints, semen, clothing fibres, hair, skin under the victim’s nails and so on. But apart from that there are none of the things we generally associate with a serial killer: no signs of grotesque, ritual acts or calling cards for the police saying “I was here”. After the three rapes in two months it’s been quiet for a whole year. Unless he’s behind some of the other rapes reported. But we can’t know that.’