The Leopard(90)

‘Talk to you later.’

‘Wait! Don’t you want to hear about Jussi Kolkka?’

‘I’d almost forgotten about that. Shoot.’

She shot.





40


The Offer


HARRY FOUND KAJA IN CRIME SQUAD, IN THE RED ZONE ON the sixth floor. She perked up when she noticed Harry standing in the doorway.

‘Always got an open door?’ he asked.

‘Always. And you?’

‘Closed. Always. But I can see you’ve thrown out the guest’s chair. Smart move. People like to chew the fat.’

She laughed. ‘Doing anything exciting?’

‘In a way,’ he said, entering and leaning against the wall.

She placed both hands against the edge of her desk, pushed, and she and the chair sailed across the floor to the filing cabinet. There, she opened a drawer, pulled out a letter and presented it to Harry. ‘Thought you’d like to see this.’

‘What is it?’

‘The Snowman. His solicitor has applied for him to be transferred from Ullersmo to a normal hospital for health reasons.’

He perched on the edge of the desk and read. ‘Mm. Scleroderma. It’s progressing fast. Not too fast, I hope. He doesn’t deserve that.’

He looked up and saw that she was shocked.

‘My great-aunt died of scleroderma,’ she said. ‘A terrible disease.’

‘And a terrible man,’ Harry said. ‘Incidentally, I quite agree with those who say that the capacity to forgive says something about the essential quality of a person. I’m the lowest grade.’

‘I didn’t mean to criticise you.’

‘I promise to be better in my next life,’ Harry said, looking down and rubbing his neck. ‘Which, if the Hindus are right, will probably be as a bark beetle. But I’ll be a nice bark beetle.’

He looked up and saw that what Rakel called his ‘damned boyish charm’ was having an effect. ‘Listen, Kaja, I’ve come here to make you an offer.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes.’ Harry heard the solemnity in his voice. The voice of a man with no capacity to forgive, no consideration, no thoughts for anything except his own objectives. And plied the inverted persuasion technique that had worked for him far too often. ‘Which I would recommend you decline. I have, you see, a tendency to destroy the lives of those I become involved with.’

To his astonishment, he saw that her face had flushed scarlet.

‘But I don’t think it would be right to do this without you,’ he continued. ‘Not now that we’re so close.’

‘Close … to what?’ The blushes had gone.

‘Close to apprehending the guilty party. I’m on my way to the police solicitor now to request a warrant for his arrest.’

‘Oh … of course.’

‘Of course?’

‘I mean, arrest whom?’ She heaved herself back to the desk. ‘For what?’

‘Our killer, Kaja.’

‘Really?’ He watched her pupils grow, slowly, pulsating. And knew what was going on inside her. The blood rush before bringing down, felling the wild animal. The arrest. Which would be on her CV. How could she resist?

Harry nodded. ‘His name is Tony Leike.’

The colour returned to her cheeks. ‘Sounds familiar.’

‘He’s about to marry the daughter of—’

‘Oh yes, he’s engaged to the Galtung girl.’ She frowned. ‘Do you mean to say you have evidence?’

‘Circumstantial. And coincidences.’

He saw her pupils contract again.

‘I’m sure this is our man, Kaja.’

‘Convince me,’ she said, and he could hear the hunger. The desire to swallow everything raw, to have a pretext for taking the craziest decision of her life so far. And he had no intention of protecting her against herself. For he needed her. She was media-perfect: young, intelligent, a woman, ambitious. With an appealing face and record. In short, she had everything he did not have. She was a Jeanne d’Arc the Justice Ministry would not want to burn at the stake.

Harry breathed in. Then he repeated the conversation he had had with Tony Leike. In detail. Without wondering at how he was able to reproduce what had been said word for word. His colleagues had always considered this ability remarkable.

‘Håvass cabin, Congo and Lake Lyseren,’ Kaja said after he had finished. ‘He’s been to all the places.’

‘Yes, and he’s been convicted for violence. And he admits his intention was to kill.’

‘Great. But—’

‘The really great bit comes now. He rang Elias Skog. Two days before he was found murdered.’

Her pupils were black suns.

‘We’ve got him,’ she said softly.