The Leopard(109)

The living room was dark; the only light came from the drinks cabinet, which was open. But it was enough for him to recognise the person sitting in shadow by the window.

‘Bellman,’ Harry said. ‘You’re sitting in my father’s armchair.’

‘I took the liberty,’ Bellman said. ‘Since the sofa had a particular smell. Even the dog shied away.’

‘May I offer you something?’ Harry nodded towards the cabinet and sat down on the sofa. ‘Or did you find something for yourself ?’

Harry could discern Bellman shaking his head. ‘Not me. But the dog did.’

‘Mm. I take it as read that you have a search warrant, but I am curious about the grounds given.’

‘An anonymous tip-off about you having smuggled drugs into the country via an innocent third party and the possibility that it was here.’

‘And it was?’

‘The sniffer dogs found something, a ball of some yellowish-brown substance wrapped in silver foil. Doesn’t look like the usual sort of thing we confiscate in this country, so for the moment it’s not clear what we’re dealing with. But we’re considering having it analysed.’

‘Considering?’

‘It might be opium, or it might be a lump of plasticine or clay. It depends.’

‘Depends on what?’

‘On you, Harry. And me.’

‘Really?’

‘If you agree to do us a favour, I might tend to the view that it is plasticine and overlook any tests. A boss has to prioritise his resources, isn’t that so?’

‘You’re the boss. What sort of favour?’

‘You’re a man who doesn’t like beating around the bush, Hole, so let me give it to you straight. I want you to take on the role of scapegoat.’

Harry saw a brown ring of Jim Beam at the bottom of the bottle on the table but resisted the temptation to put it to his lips.

‘We’ve just had to release Tony Leike as he has watertight alibis for at least two of the murders. All we have on him is a phone call to one of the victims. We’ve been a bit forceful with the press. Together with Leike and his future father-in-law they could make things uncomfortable for us. We’ll have to issue a press statement tonight. And it will say that the arrest was undertaken on the basis of the blue chit you, the controversial Harry Hole, wheedled out of the poor sylphlike solicitor at Police HQ. And that this was a solo operation that you, and you alone, organised, and you shoulder all of the responsibility. Kripos smelt a rat after the arrest, intervened and in conversation with Leike clarified the facts. And immediately released him. You will have to join us and sign the press statement, and you will never make a statement about the investigation again, not a word. Understood?’

Harry contemplated the dregs in the bottle a second time. ‘Mm. A tough order. Do you think the press will swallow the story after you were standing with your hands raised, taking the honour for the arrest?’

‘I assumed responsibility, the press statement will say. I saw fronting the arrest as a management responsibility, even though we had misgivings that a policeman might have committed a blunder. But when Harry Hole later insisted on being allowed to take his place at the front, I didn’t stand in his way because he was an experienced inspector and didn’t even work for Kripos.’

‘And my motivation is that if I don’t sign I will be charged with drug smuggling and possession?’

Bellman pressed his fingertips together and rocked back in the chair.

‘Correct. But more important for your motivation is perhaps the fact that I can see to it that you’re held on remand with immediate effect. Shame since I know you would have liked to be at the hospital with your father who, I understand, has little time left. Very sad business.’

Harry leaned back against the sofa. He knew he ought to have been angry. The old – the younger – Harry would have been. But what this Harry wanted most was to bury himself in the sweat- and vomit-stained sofa, close his eyes and hope they would go, sling their hooks, Bellman, Kaja, the shadows by the window. But his brain continued its automatic acquired reasoning.

‘Quite apart from me,’ he heard himself say, ‘why would Leike bear out this version? He knows it was Kripos who arrested him, who questioned him.’

Harry knew the answer before Bellman spelt it out.

‘Because Leike knows that there will always be an unpleasant shadow hanging over someone who has been arrested. Especially unpleasant for someone such as Leike, who at this moment is trying to win the trust of investors, of course. The best way to rid himself of this shadow is to endorse a version that maintains the arrest was down to a loose cannon, an isolated unprofessional element in the police force who ran amok. Agreed?’