BEFORE the sun made an unanticipated, brash
appearance, and in the blinking of an eye it burned
off all the clouds in the sky. Harry was sitting with
his feet on the desk and his hands behind his head,
kidding himself that he was thinking about the
Märklin rifle. But his thoughts had wandered
outside the window, along the newly washed
streets which smelled warm now, along the wet
tarmac and the tramlines up to the top of
Holmenkollen, to the grey smudges of snow still
lying in the shadow of the spruce forest, where
Rakel, Oleg and he had hopped around on the
muddy paths to avoid the deepest puddles. Harry
had vague memories of going on Sunday walks like
that even when he was Oleg’s age. If they were
long walks, and he and Sis were lagging behind,
his father had put pieces of chocolate on the lowest
branches. Sis was still convinced that Kvikklunsj
bars grew on trees.
Oleg hadn’t said a lot to Harry the first two times
he visited. But that was fine. Harry didn’t know
what to say to Oleg either. Their discomfort had
eased slightly when Harry discovered he had
Tetris on his GameBoy. With neither mercy nor
shame, Harry had played at his best and beaten the
six-year-old boy by over 40,000 points. After that
Oleg had begun to ask Harry about cases, and why
snow was white, and all the other things that give
grown men deep furrows in their foreheads and
make them concentrate so hard that they forget to
be embarrassed. Last Sunday Oleg had seen a hare
in its winter coat and had run on ahead, leaving
Harry to hold Rakel’s hand. It was cold on the
outside and warm on the inside. She had twisted
her head round and smiled at him as she swung her
arms high, forwards and backwards, as if to say:
We’re playing games, this isn’t for real. He had
noticed she became tense when people approached
and he had let go of her hand. Afterwards they had
drunk cocoa on the Frogner slopes and Oleg had
asked why it was spring.
He had invited Rakel out for a meal. This was the
second time. The first time she had said she would
think about it and rang back to say no. This time
she had also said she would think about it, but at
least she hadn’t said no. Yet.
The telephone rang. It was Halvorsen. He
sounded sleepy.
‘I’ve checked 70 out of the 110 suspected of
using a weapon in GBH assaults,’ he said. ‘So far,
I’ve found eight skinheads.’
‘How did you find that out?’
‘I rang them. It’s amazing how many of them are
at home at four in the morning.’
Halvorsen laughed a little insecurely as Harry’s
end went quiet.
‘You rang each one?’ Harry asked.
‘Of course,’ Halvorsen said. ‘Or their mobiles.
It’s amazing how many of them have —’
Harry interrupted him.
‘And so you asked these violent criminals if they
wouldn’t mind giving an up-to-date description of
themselves to the police?’
‘Not exactly. I said we were looking for a suspect
with long red hair and asked if they had dyed their
hair recently,’ Halvorsen said.
‘I don’t follow you.’
‘If you’d shaved your head, what would you
answer?’
‘Hm,’ Harry said. ‘There are obviously a few
canny types up there in Steinkjer.’
The same nervous laugh.
‘Fax me up the list,’ Harry said.
‘You’ll have it as soon as I’m back.’
‘Back?’
‘One of the officers down here was waiting for
me when I got in. Needed to see the case notes I’ve
been working on. Must be urgent.’
‘I thought Kripos was working on the Gjelten
case now,’ Harry said.
‘Obviously not.’
‘Who is it?’
‘I think he’s called Vole, or something like that,’
Halvorsen said. ‘There’s no Vole in Crime Squad.
Do you mean Waaler?’
‘That’s it,’ Halvorsen said and, a little ashamed,
added, ‘There are so many new names right now . .
.’
Harry felt like giving the young constable a
bollocking for handing over case material to
people whose names he hardly knew, but this
wasn’t the time to be sharp with him. The boy had
been up for three nights in a row and was probably
dead on his feet.
‘Good work,’ Harry said, and was about to put
down the phone.
‘Wait! Your fax number?’
Harry stared out the window. The clouds had
begun to draw in over Ekeberg Ridge again.
‘You’ll find it on the telephone list,’ he said.
The phone rang the second he put it down. It was
Meirik, who asked him to go to his office straight
away.