'Hi,' she said, tilting her head and smiling. 'Work or spiritual thirst?'
'Well, your father is quite a speaker.'
'He would have been an international star of Pentecostalism.'
Harry thought he caught a glimpse of Rikard in the crowd behind her. 'Listen, I have a couple of questions. If you feel like walking in the cold I can accompany you home.'
Martine looked doubtful.
'If that's where you want to go,' Harry hastened to add.
Martine looked around before answering. 'I can walk you home. Your place is on the way.'
The air outside was raw, thick, and smelt of fat and salty car exhaust. 'I'll get straight to the point,' Harry said. 'You know both Robert and Jon. Is it possible that Robert might have wanted to kill his brother?'
'What did you say?'
'Think a little before you answer.'
They took tiny steps on the thick ice, past the revue theatre Edderkoppen, through the deserted streets. The Christmas dinner season was coming to an end, but taxis were still shuttling passengers with festive clothes and aquavit eyes up and down Pilestredet.
'Robert was a bit wild,' Martine said. 'But kill?' She shook her head with vigour.
'He may have got someone else to do it?'
Martine shrugged. 'I didn't have much to do with Jon and Robert.'
'Why not? You grew up together, so to speak.'
'Yes, but I didn't have much to do with anyone really. I liked my own company best. As you do.'
'Me?' came the surprised response from Harry.
'One lone wolf recognises another, you know.'
Harry glanced to his side and met teasing eyes.
'You must have been the type of boy who went his own way. Exciting and unapproachable.'
Harry smiled and shook his head. They passed the oil drums in front of the derelict though colourful facade of Blitz. He pointed.
'Do you remember when they occupied the property here in 1982 and there were punk gigs with Kjøtt, The Aller Værste and all the other bands?'
Martine laughed. 'No. I had just started school then. And Blitz wasn't exactly the sort of place we in the Salvation Army would frequent.'
Harry grinned. 'No, well, I went there from time to time. At the beginning, at least, when I thought it might be somewhere for people like me, outsiders. But I didn't fit in there, either. Because when it came down to it Blitz was about uniformity and thinking alike. The demagogues had a field day there, like . . .'
Harry paused, but Martine completed the sentence for him. 'Like my father in the Citadel this evening?'
Harry thrust his hands deeper into his pockets. 'My point is that you soon become lonely if you want to use your own brain to find answers.'
'And what answer has your lonely brain come up with so far then?' Martine put her hand under his arm.
'It seems to me that both Jon and Robert have a number of amours behind them. What's so special about Thea since they both have their eyes on her?'
'Was Robert interested in Thea? That wasn't my impression.'
'Jon says so.'
'Well, as I said, I haven't had a lot to do with them. But I remember that Thea was popular with the boys during the summers we spent at Østgård. Competition starts early, you know.'
'Competition?'
'Yes, boys who want to become officers have to find themselves a girl within the Army.'
'Do they?' asked Harry in surprise.
'Didn't you know that? If you marry outside you lose your job in the Army straight away. The whole command chain is based on married officers living and working together. They have a joint calling.'
'Sounds strict.'
'We're a military organisation.' Martine said this without a hint of irony.
'And the boys knew that Thea wanted to be an officer? Even though she's a girl.'
Martine smiled and shook her head. 'I can see you don't know much about the Salvation Army. Two-thirds of the officers are women.'
'But the commander is a man? And the chief administrator?'
Martine nodded. 'Our founder William Booth said his best men were women. Nevertheless, we are like the rest of society. Stupid, self-assured men ruling over smart women with a fear of heights.'
'So the boys fought every summer to be the one who ruled over Thea?'
'For a while. But Thea stopped going to Østgård all of a sudden, so the problem was solved.'
'Why did she stop?'
Martine shrugged. 'Perhaps she didn't want to go. Or her parents didn't want her to go. So many boys around day and night at that age . . . you know.'
Harry nodded. But he didn't know. He had never even been to a confirmation camp. They walked up Stensberggata.
'I was born here,' Martine said, pointing to the wall that used to run around Rikshospitalet before it was pulled down. Before long the new residential project Pilestredet Park would be there.
'They've kept the building with the maternity ward and converted it into flats,' Harry said.
'Do people really live there? Think of all the things that have happened there. Abortions and . . .'