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The Redbreast(157)



‘I’m only trying to tell the truth. Even knew that

what he was writing was, if not lies, then a

distortion of the truth. We talked about it once. He

defended himself by saying that it served the

purpose of bringing the people together. The only

thing he couldn’t bring himself to put in the desired

heroic light was the King’s escape to freedom. He

wasn’t the only Resistance man who felt deserted

in 1940, but I’ve never met anyone so one-sidedly

condemnatory as Even, not even among soldiers on

the front. Remember that all his life he had been

abandoned by people he loved and trusted. I think

he hated every single one of them who left for

London with the whole of his heart. Really.’

They sat down on a bench and looked down over

Fagerborg church, the roofs in Pilestredet which

led down towards the town and the blue Oslo fjord

twinkling far away.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Fauke said. ‘So beautiful that it

can sometimes seem worth dying for.’

Harry tried to take it all in, to make it fit. But

there was one minor detail missing.

‘Even began to study medicine in Germany before

the war. Do you know where in Germany?’

‘No,’ Fauke said.

‘Do you know if he had any specialisation in

mind?’

‘Yes, he told me that he dreamed of following in

the footsteps of his famous foster father and his

father.’

‘And they were?’

‘You don’t know about the Juul consultants? They

were surgeons.’

89

Grønlandsleiret. 16 May 2000.

BJARNE MØLLER, HALVORSEN AND HARRY WERE

WALKING side by side down Motzfeldts gate. They

were in deepest Little Karachi and the smells, the

clothes and the people around them reminded them

as little of Norway as the kebabs they were

chewing on reminded them of Norwegian grilled

sausages. A boy, dressed up for the festivities in a

Pakistani style, but with a 17 May ribbon on his

gilt jacket lapels, came skipping down the

pavement towards them. He had a strange, snubbed

nose and was holding a Norwegian flag in his

hand. Harry had read in the papers that Muslim

parents were arranging a 17 May party for children

today so that they could concentrate on Eid

tomorrow.

‘Hurrah!’

The boy flashed them a white smile as he sped

past.

‘Even Juul is not just anyone,’ Møller was saying.

‘He’s perhaps our greatest authority on war

history. If this is right, there’ll be a hell of a fuss in

the newspapers. It doesn’t bear thinking about, if

we’re mistaken. If you are mistaken, Harry.’

‘All I’m asking for is permission to bring him in

for questioning, with a psychologist present. And a

search warrant for his house.’

‘And all I’m asking for is at least one piece of

evidence or a witness,’ Møller said, gesticulating.

‘Juul is well-known, and no one has seen him

anywhere near the crime scenes. Not once. What

about the telephone call Brandhaug’s wife

received from your local hostelry, for example?’

‘I showed the photo of Even Juul to the woman

working at Schrøder’s,’ Halvorsen said.

‘Maja,’ Harry prompted.

‘She couldn’t remember seeing him,’ Halvorsen

said.

‘That’s exactly what I’m saying,’ Møller groaned,

wiping the sauce from his mouth.

‘Yes, but I showed the photo to a couple of them

sitting there,’ Halvorsen said, casting a quick

glance at Harry. ‘There was an old guy in a coat

who nodded and said we should arrest that one.’

‘Coat,’ Harry repeated. ‘That’s the Mohican,

Konrad Åsnes, wartime seaman. He’s quite a

character, but not a reliable witness any more, I’m

afraid. Anyway, Juul has told us that he was at the

Kaffebrenneri across the road. There are no pay

phones over there. So if he was going to ring it

would be natural to go over to Schrøder’s.’

Møller pulled a face and looked sceptically at his

kebab. He had only tagged along, somewhat

unwillingly, to try the burek kebab which Harry

had talked up as ‘Turkey meets Bosnia meets

Pakistan meets Grønlandsleiret’.

‘And do you really believe all that split-

personality stuff, Harry?’

‘I think it sounds just as incredible as you do,

boss, but Aune reckons it’s a possibility. And he’s

willing to help us.’

‘And so you think Aune can hypnotise Juul and

can coax out this Daniel Gudeson inside him and

get a confession?’

‘It’s not definite that Even Juul has any idea what