The Redbreast(178)

round the trigger. He could feel the fear of death

squeezing his heart.

‘No,’ Harry said. ‘It’s not too late.’

But he knew it wasn’t true. It was too late. The

old man was beyond reasoning, beyond this world

and this life.

‘Passwort.’

Soon it would be over for them both. There was

only some slow time left, the time on Christmas

Eve before . . .

‘Oleg,’ Harry said.

The gun was pointing directly at his head. A car

horn sounded in the distance. A spasm flitted

across the old man’s face.

‘The password is Oleg,’ Harry said.

The finger on the trigger paused.

The old man opened his mouth to say something.

Harry held his breath.

‘Oleg,’ the old man said. It sounded like a wisp

of wind from his lips.

Harry was never quite able to explain it

afterwards, but he saw it: the old man was dying at

that very moment. And then it was a child’s face

looking at Harry from behind the wrinkles. The gun

was no longer pointed at him and he lowered his

revolver. Then he stretched out a hand and put it on

the old man’s shoulder.

‘Do you promise me?’ The old man’s voice was

barely audible. ‘That they won’t . . .’

‘I promise,’ Harry said. ‘I shall personally see to

it that no names will appear publicly. Oleg and

Rakel will not suffer in any way . . .’

The old man rested his eyes on Harry for a long

time. The rifle hit the floor with a thud and then he

collapsed.

Harry took the magazine out of the rifle and put it

on the sofa before dialling reception and asking

Betty to call an ambulance. Then he rang

Halvorsen’s mobile and said the danger was over.

Afterwards he pulled the old man on to the sofa

and sat down in a chair to wait.

‘I got him in the end,’ the old man whispered. ‘He

was about to slip away, you know. In the mud.’

‘Who did you get? Harry asked, pulling hard on

his cigarette. ‘Daniel, of course. I got him in the

end. Helena was right. I was always stronger.’

Harry stubbed out his cigarette and stood by the

window. ‘I’m dying,’ the old man whispered. ‘I

know.’

‘It’s on my chest. Can you see it?’

‘See what?’

‘The polecat.’

But Harry couldn’t see a polecat. He saw a white

cloud scud across the sky like a passing doubt. In

the sunshine, he saw the Norwegian flags wafting

on all the flagpoles of the city and he saw a grey

bird flap past the window. But no polecats.

Part Ten

THE RESURRECTION

105

Ullevål Hospital. 19 May 2000.

BJARNE MØLLER FOUND HARRY IN THE WAITING

ROOM OF the oncological department. The head of

Crime Squad took a seat beside Harry and winked

at a small young girl, who frowned and turned

away.

‘I heard it’s all over,’ he said.

Harry nodded. ‘Four o’clock this morning. Rakel

has been here the whole time. Oleg’s in there now.

What are you doing here?’

‘Just wanted a little chat with you.’

‘I could do with a smoke,’ Harry said. ‘Let’s go

outside.’

They found a bench under a tree. Wispy clouds

hurried past in the sky above them. All the signs

were that it would be another warm day.

‘So Rakel doesn’t know anything?’ Møller asked.

‘Nothing.’

‘The people in the know are me, Meirik, the

Chief Constable, the Minister of Justice and the

Prime Minister. And you, of course.’

‘You know better than I do who knows what,

boss.’

‘Yes. Naturally. I’m merely thinking aloud.’

‘So what was it you wanted to say to me?’

‘Do you know what, Harry? Some days I wish I

worked somewhere else. Some place where there

is less politics and more police work. In Bergen,

for example. But then you get up on days like

today, stand by your bedroom window looking at

the fjord, the islands in it, and listen to the birds

singing and . . . do you understand? . . . Then you

don’t want to go anywhere.’

Møller watched a ladybird crawling up his thigh.

‘What I wanted to say is that we would like to

keep things as they are, Harry.’

‘And what things are we talking about?’

‘Did you know that no American president in the

last twenty years has lasted the full term without at

least ten attempts on his life being uncovered? And

that all the perpetrators without exception were

arrested without anything coming to the ears of the

media? No one profits from plans to assassinate a

head of state becoming public knowledge, Harry.

Especially not ones which could have succeeded,