The Leopard(83)

Harry dropped the lighter, which hit the glass table with a loud bang, and he felt his heart race. During murder cases they always got loads of people ringing in with tip-offs, advice and hypotheses. People who were willing to swear they had seen, heard or been told all sorts, and couldn’t the police spare them a moment to listen? Often it was the same old voices again and again, but there were always some new, mixed-up windbags. Harry was quite certain that this was not one of them. The press had written a lot about the case; readers possessed a considerable amount of information. The general public had not been told that Elias Skog had been glued to the bath, however. Or been given Harry’s ex-directory mobile number.





38


Permanent Scarring


HARRY HAD TURNED DOWN DUKE ELLINGTON AND SAT WITH the phone in his hand. This person knew about the superglue. And had his number. Should he check the name and address of the caller, perhaps even have the person arrested because there was a chance he might frighten him off? On the other hand, whoever it was expected an answer.

Harry pressed ‘return call’.

It buzzed twice, then he heard a deep voice. ‘Yes?’

‘This is Harry Hole.’

‘Nice to talk to you again, Hole.’

‘Mm. When have we spoken before?’

‘Don’t you remember? Elias Skog’s flat. Superglue.’

Harry felt the carotid artery in his neck throb, cramp the space in his throat.

‘I was there. Who am I speaking to, and what were you doing there?’

The other end went quiet for a second and Harry immediately concluded the person had rung off. But then the voice was back with a drawn-out ‘Oh, sorry, I may have signed off the message with just C. Did I?’

‘Yes, you did.’

‘I generally do. This is Inspector Colbjørnsen. From Stavanger. You gave me your number, remember?’

Harry cursed himself, realised he was still holding his breath and let it out in a long hiss.

‘Are you there?’

‘Uh-huh,’ Harry said, grabbing the teaspoon on the table and scraping off a bit of the opium. ‘You said you had something for me?’

‘Yes, I have. But on one condition.’

‘Which is?’

‘It stays between us.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because I don’t want that prick Bellman coming over here thinking he’s God’s gift to criminal investigations. He and fucking Kripos are trying to get a monopoly over the whole country. Far as I’m concerned he can go to hell. The problem is my bosses. I’m not allowed to touch the bloody Skog case.’

‘So why come to me?’

‘I’m a simple lad from the provinces, Hole. But when I see in Aftenposten that you’ve been given the case I know what’s going to happen. I know you’re like me, you won’t just lie down and die, will you.’

‘Well . . .’ Harry said, looking at the opium in front of him.

‘So if you can use this to outsmart the smart-arse and it leads to Bellman’s plans for the evil empire being shelved, accept it with my blessing. I’ll wait until the day after tomorrow before sending Bellman my report. That gives you a day.’

‘What’ve you got?’

‘I’ve spoken to folk in Skog’s circle, which was small, as he was an oddball, unusually intense and travelled around the world on his ownsome. Two persons in all. The landlady. And a girl we traced via the phone numbers he had rung in the days leading up to his death. Her name is Stine Ølberg, and she said she spoke to Elias the night he was killed. They were on the bus leaving town, and he said he’d been to the Håvass cabin at the same time as the murdered girls in the newspapers. He thought it was strange no one had discovered they’d all been to the same cabin and he’d been wondering about whether to go to the police. But he was reluctant because he had no desire to get involved. And I can understand that. Skog had been in trouble with the police before. He’d been reported for stalking on two occasions. He hadn’t done anything illegal, to be fair to him. He was, as I said, just the intense type. Stine said she had been frightened of him, but that evening it was the opposite: he was the one who had seemed frightened.’

‘Interesting.’

‘Stine had pretended not to know who the three murder victims were, and then Elias had said that he would tell her about someone else who had been there, someone he was sure she did know. And this is the really interesting bit. The man is well known. At least a B-list celebrity.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘According to Elias Skog, Tony Leike was there.’

‘Tony Leike. Should I know who that is?’