The Leopard(74)

‘I’m not saying any more than what I’m saying,’ Harry said. ‘For the moment. My colleague in Leipzig is going through her personal data and criminal records now, so we’ll soon know a bit more about Fräulein Verni.’

‘But this is fantastic news,’ Hagen said, sending a gleam from Harry to Kaja, who gave him a nod of encouragement.

‘Not . . .’ Harry said, with a swig from his cup of coffee, ‘… for Adele Vetlesen’s family.’

Hagen’s smile faded. ‘True. Do you think there’s any hope for … ?’

Harry shook his head. ‘She’s dead, boss.’

‘But . . .’

At that moment the telephone rang.

Harry took it. ‘Ja, Günther!’ And repeated with a strained smile: ‘Ja, Dirty Harry. Genau.’

Gunnar Hagen and Kaja observed Harry as he listened in silence. Harry rounded off the conversation with a ‘Danke’ and cradled the receiver. Cleared his throat.

‘She’s dead.’

‘Yes, you said that,’ Hagen said.

‘No, Juliana Verni is. She was found in the River Elster on the 2nd of December.’

Hagen cursed under his breath.

‘Cause of death?’ Kaja asked.

Harry stared into the distance. ‘Drowning.’

‘Might have been an accident.’

Harry shook his head slowly. ‘She didn’t drown in water.’

In the ensuing silence they heard the rumble of the boiler in the adjacent room.

‘Wounds in the mouth?’ Kaja asked.

Harry nodded. ‘Twenty-four to be precise. She was sent to Africa to bring back the instrument that would kill her.’





34


Medium


‘SO JULIANA VERNI WAS FOUND DEAD IN LEIPZIG THREE days after she flew home from Kigali,’ Kaja said. ‘Where she’d travelled as Adele Vetlesen, booked in at the Gorilla Hotel as Adele Vetlesen and sent a postcard written by the real Adele Vetlesen, probably dictated.’

‘That’s about the size of it,’ said Harry, who was in the process of brewing some more coffee.

‘And you think that Verni must have done that in collusion with someone,’ Hagen said. ‘And this second person killed her to cover the traces.’

‘Yes,’ Harry said.

‘So it’s just a question of finding the link between her and this second person. That shouldn’t be too difficult. They must have been very close if they committed this kind of crime together.’

‘Well in that case I’d have thought it would be pretty difficult.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because,’ Harry said, smacking down the lid of the machine and flicking the switch, ‘Juliana Verni had a record. Drugs. Prostitution. Vagrancy. In short, she was the type it would have been easy to hire for a job like this, if the money was right. And everything so far suggests that the person behind it won’t have left any clues for us, that he has considered most angles. Katrine discovered that Verni travelled from Leipzig to Oslo. From there she continued to Kigali using Adele’s name. Nevertheless, Katrine did not find so much as a phone conversation between Verni’s mobile and Norway. This person has been scrupulous.’

Hagen shook his head dejectedly. ‘So close . . .’

Harry sat on the desk. ‘There is another dilemma we have to resolve. The overnight guests at Håvass cabin that night.’

‘What about them?’

‘We cannot exclude the possibility that the page torn out of the guest book is a hit list. They have to be warned.’

‘How? We don’t know who they are.’

‘Through the media. Even if it means we would be letting the killer know we’ve picked up his trail.’

Hagen slowly shook his head. ‘Hit list. And you’ve only reached this conclusion now?’

‘I know, boss.’ Harry met Hagen’s eyes. ‘If I’d gone to the media with a warning as soon as we stumbled on the Håvass cabin, it might have saved Elias Skog’s life.’

The room went quiet.

‘We can’t go to the media,’ Hagen said.

‘Why not?’

‘If someone responds to the media alert, perhaps we can find out who else was in the cabin and what really happened,’ Kaja said.

‘We can’t go to the media,’ Hagen said, getting to his feet. ‘We’ve been investigating a missing persons case and uncovered links with a murder case, which is in the Kripos hands. We have to pass the information on and let them take it further. I’ll ring Bellman.’

‘Wait!’ Harry said. ‘Should he take all the credit for what we’ve done?’

‘I’m not sure there will be any credit to share, will there?’ Hagen said, heading for the door. ‘And you can start moving out now.’