The Leopard(156)

‘Like when he cosied up to your daughter?’

Skai flinched as if he had got a bite.

‘Your wife,’ Harry said. ‘I asked her about Tony, and she told me. It was your daughter Tony and a local boy were fighting over that time.’

The policeman shook his head. ‘They weren’t fighting, it was butchery pure and simple. Poor Ole, he’d got it into his head that he and Mia were a couple because he’d fallen in love with her and was allowed to drive Mia and her friend to a dance. He wasn’t a fighter, Ole, he was more the bookish kind. But he went for Tony. Who laid him out flat, drew a knife and … it was pretty nasty, we’re not used to that sort of thing here.’

‘What did he do?’

‘He cut off half his tongue. Put it in his pocket and left. We arrested Tony half an hour later at his grandfather’s, told him the tongue was needed at the operating theatre. Tony said he’d fed it to the crows.’

‘What I wanted to ask was whether you had ever suspected Tony of rape. Then or at any other time.’

Skai spun round.

‘Let me put it this way, Hole. Mia was never the same happy-go-lucky girl again. She still wanted the headcase, of course, but that’s the way girls are at that age. And Ole moved away. Every time the poor kid opened his mouth round here it was a reminder for him and others of the dreadful humiliation. So, yes, I would say that Tony Leike is the violent type. But, no, I don’t think he raped anyone. If so, he would have raped Mia, if I can put it like that.’

‘She … ?’

‘They were in the woods behind the dance hall. She didn’t let Tony have his way. And he accepted that.’

‘You’re sure? Sorry I have to ask, but it’s—’

The hook leapt out of the water towards them. It glinted in the first horizontal rays of the sun.

‘That’s fine, Hole. I’m police too, and I know what you’re working on. Mia’s a decent girl and doesn’t lie. Not even in a witness box. You can have the report if you want the details. I would just prefer it if Mia didn’t have to go through all of this again.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Harry said. ‘Thank you.’

Harry had informed the detectives assembled in the Odin conference room that the person he had seen under the snowmobile – who had still not been found despite the increased police presence – had Tony Leike’s arthritic fingers. And then recounted his theory. He leaned back and waited for reactions.

The Pelican peered over her glasses at Harry, but seemed to be addressing the whole morning gathering.

‘What do you mean you think Adele was willing? She was screaming for help, for goodness’ sake!’

‘That was what Elias Skog thought at a later point,’ Harry said. ‘His first impression was that he was watching two people having consensual sex.’

‘But a woman who takes a man with her to a cabin doesn’t have sex with a casual interloper in the middle of the night! Do you really have to be a woman to understand that!’ she hissed, and with her new, sensationally unbecoming dreadlocks she reminded Harry of a furious Medusa.

The response came from Harry’s neighbour. ‘Do you really think gender automatically affords you superior knowledge of the sexual preferences of half of the earth’s population?’ Ærdal paused and studied the freshly cleaned nail on his little finger. ‘Hasn’t it already been made clear that Adele Vetlesen changed partners at the drop of a hat and frequently? She agreed to have sex with a man she hardly knew at a disused factory in the middle of the night, didn’t she?’

Ærdal lowered his hand, started work on the ring finger and mumbled so low that only Harry heard it. ‘Anyway, I’ve fucked more women than you, you scrawny wader bird.’

‘Women fell easily for Tony and vice versa,’ Harry said. ‘Tony arrived at the cabin late, Adele’s boyfriend was annoyed about something and had gone to bed. He and Adele were able to flirt undisturbed. He was having trouble on the home front, and she had started to lose interest in the man she was there with. Adele and Tony fancied each other, but there were people everywhere in the cabin. So later that night they sneaked out and met by the toilet. They kissed, groped, he stood behind her, pulled down his pants and was now so excited that there was what they call in the Sexual Offences Unit “pre-ejaculatory fluid” on the tip of his penis, which went over her ski pants before he could pull them down, and they had intercourse. She was so loud in her ecstasies that she awoke Elias Skog who watched them from the window. And I believe they woke her boyfriend up as well and that he saw them from his room. I don’t think she could have cared less. Tony, on the other hand, tried to stifle her cries.’