The Leopard(82)

‘He sent a woman to Rwanda and the Congo to cover up a murder and at the same time to buy the murder weapon for the next. Afterwards he killed her. In other words, he went to extremes to hide one murder, yet for the next one, a few weeks later, he did absolutely nothing. And for the next murder again, he’s like a matador shoving his bollocks in our faces with a flourish of his cloak. This is a personality change at fast-forward speed. It doesn’t make sense.’

‘Do you think there could be several killers? Each with a different method?’

Harry shook his head. ‘There is one similarity. The killer doesn’t leave any clues. If serial killers are rare, one that kills without leaving any clues is a white whale. There is only one of them in this case.’

‘Right, so what are we talking here?’ Kaja threw up her arms. ‘A serial killer with multiple-personality disorder?’

‘A white whale with wings,’ Harry said. ‘No, I don’t know. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. We’re only doing this for fun. It’s a Kripos case now.’ He drained his coffee. ‘I’m going to take a taxi to the hospital.’

‘I can drive you.’

‘Thank you but no. Go home and prepare for new and interesting cases.’

Kaja heaved a weary sigh. ‘The business with Bjørn . . .’

‘Must not be mentioned to a soul,’ Harry completed. ‘Have a good sleep.’

Altman was leaving Harry’s father’s room at Rikshospital when he arrived.

‘He’s asleep,’ the nurse said. ‘I gave him ten milligrams of morphine. You can sit here, no problem, but he’s unlikely to stir for several hours.’

‘Thank you,’ Harry said.

‘That’s OK. I had a mother who … well, who had to put up with more pain than was necessary.’

‘Mm. Do you smoke, Altman?’

Harry saw from the guilt-ridden reaction that Altman did, and invited him to join him outside. The two men smoked while Altman, first name Sigurd, explained that it had been because of his mother that he had specialised in anaesthesia.

‘So when you gave my father an injection just now . . .’

‘Let’s say it was a favour from one son to another,’ Altman smiled. ‘But I cleared it with the doctor, naturally. I would like to keep my job.’

‘Wise,’ Harry said. ‘Wish I were as wise.’

They finished their cigarettes, and Altman was about to go when Harry asked: ‘Since you’re an anaesthetics expert, could you tell me how a person might get hold of ketanome?’

‘Oh dear,’ Altman said. ‘I probably shouldn’t answer that.’

‘It’s OK,’ Harry said with a wry smile. ‘It’s about the murder case I’m working on.’

‘Aha. Well, unless you work with anaesthetics, ketanome is very hard to get hold of in Norway. It works like a bullet, almost literally – the patient is knocked flat. But the side effects – ulcers – are nasty. In addition, the risk of a cardiac arrest with an overdose is high. It’s been used for suicide. But not any more. Ketanome was banned in the EU and Norway some years ago.’

‘I know that, but where would you go to get ketanome?’

‘Well, ex-Soviet states. Or Africa.’

‘The Congo, for example?’

‘Definitely. The producer sells it at dumping prices since the European ban, so it ends up in poor countries. It’s always like that.’

Harry sat by his father’s bedside watching his frail pyjama-clad chest rise and fall. After an hour he got up and left.

Harry decided he would postpone making a call until he had unlocked the house, put on ‘Don’t Get Around Much Any More’ – one of his father’s Duke Ellington records – and taken out the brown clump. He saw that Gunnar Hagen had left a message, but he had no intention of listening to it as he knew roughly what it was about. Bellman would have been nagging him again: from now on they were not allowed to touch the murder case however compelling their excuses. And Harry was to report for normal duties if he still wanted a job with the police. Well, perhaps not the last part. It was time to head off on his travels. And the travels should start here, now, tonight. He took out the lighter with one hand while the other brought up the two texts he had received. The first was from Øystein. He suggested ‘a gentlemen’s night out’ in the not too distant future, with an invitation to Tresko, who was probably the most well-to-do of the three. The second was a number Harry didn’t recognise. Harry opened the message.

I see from the Aftenposten website that you’re in charge of the case. I can help. Elias Skog talked before he was glued to the bath. C.