The back in the swivel chair was broad and filled out the flannel shirt. Black curls hung down onto the collar.
‘Are you winning, Krongli?’ Harry asked, sitting in the chair beside him.
The man’s head of curls twisted round. ‘Harry!’ he shouted, with genuine pleasure in his voice and on his face. ‘How did you find me?’
‘Why do you think I’m looking for you? Perhaps I’m a regular here.’
Krongli laughed as he watched the horses jerking down the long straight, each with a tin jockey on its back. ‘No, you aren’t. I come here whenever I’m in Oslo, and I’ve never seen you.’
‘OK. Someone told me I’d probably find you here.’
‘Hell, have I got a reputation? Perhaps it’s not quite appropriate for a policeman to come here, even though it’s on the right side of the law.’
‘Regarding right side of the law,’ Harry said, shaking his head to the croupier who pointed to the beer tap with a raised eyebrow. ‘There was something I wanted to talk to you about.’
‘Fire away,’ Krongli said, concentrating on the racecourse, where the blue horse on the far track was in the lead, but heading towards a wide outside bend.
‘Iska Peller, the Australian woman you gave a lift to from the Håvass cabin, says you groped her friend, Charlotte Lolles.’
Harry didn’t detect any change in Krongli’s concentrated expression. He waited. At length, Krongli looked up.
‘Do you want me to react?’
‘Only if you want to,’ Harry said.
‘I interpret that as you would like me to. Groped is the wrong word. We flirted a bit. Kissed. I wanted to go further. She thought it was enough. I maintained a bit of constructive persuasion, the way women often expect of a man – after all, that’s part of the role play between the sexes. But nothing more than that.’
‘That doesn’t match what Iska Peller says Charlotte told her. Do you think Peller’s lying?’
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘But I do think Charlotte wanted to give a slightly different version to her friend. Catholic girls like to appear more virtuous than they are, don’t they?’
‘They decided to spend the night in Geilo rather than at your house. Even though Peller was ill.’
‘She was the one who insisted on leaving. I don’t know what was going on between those two, friendship between girls is often a complicated business, isn’t it. And it’s my bet the Peller girl hasn’t got a boyfriend.’ He lifted the half-empty glass in front of him. ‘Where are you going with this, Harry?’
‘It’s a bit strange you didn’t say anything to Kaja Solness about meeting Charlotte Lolles when Kaja was in Ustaoset.’
‘And it’s a bit strange you’re still working on this case. Thought it was a Kripos matter, especially after the newspaper headlines today.’ Krongli’s mind was back on the horses. Out of the bend came the yellow horse in the third track, leading by a tin horse’s length.
‘Yes,’ Harry said. ‘But rape cases are still a Crime Squad matter.’
‘Rape? Haven’t you sobered up yet, Harry?’
‘Well.’ Harry pulled a pack of cigarettes from his trouser pocket. ‘I’m more sober than I hope you were, Krongli.’ He stuffed a crumpled cigarette between his lips. ‘All the times you beat up and raped your ex up there in Ustaoset.’
Krongli turned slowly to Harry, knocking over his beer glass with his elbow. The beer was soaked up by the green felt; the stain advanced like the Wehrmacht over a map of Europe.
‘I’ve just come from the school where she works,’ Harry continued, lighting the cigarette. ‘She was the one who told me I’d probably find you here. She also told me that when she left you and Ustaoset, she was escaping rather than moving out. You—’
Harry got no further. Krongli was fast, spun his chair round with his foot and was on Harry before he could react. Harry felt the grip around his hand, knew what was coming, knew because this was what they practised from the first year at college: the police power half nelson. And yet he was a second too late, two days’ drinking too sluggish, forty years too stupid. Krongli twisted his wrist and arm behind his back and pushed his temple forward into the felt. The side of his damaged jaw. Harry screamed with pain and blacked out for a second. Then he was back with the pain and made a frenetic attempt to free himself. Harry was strong, always had been, but immediately knew he had no hope against Krongli. The powerfully built officer’s breath was hot and moist against his face.
‘You shouldn’t have done that, Harry. You shouldn’t have spoken to the whore. She says whatever comes into her head. Does whatever comes into her head. Did she show you her cunt? Did she, Harry?’