Phantom hh-9 Read online

  ‘You’re aware of what we’re moving into here, Harry?’

  ‘Yes,’ Harry said. ‘And from now on you don’t have anything to do with it, Beate.’

  ‘Try bloody stopping me!’ The phone diaphragm crackled. Harry couldn’t remember Beate Lonn ever swearing before. ‘This is my police force, Harry. I don’t want people like Berntsen dragging it down into the dirt.’

  ‘OK,’ Harry said. ‘But let’s not draw any hasty conclusions. The only evidence we have is that Bellman met Gusto. We don’t even have anything concrete on Truls Berntsen yet.’

  ‘So what are you going to do?’

  ‘I’m going to start somewhere else. And if it’s what I hope it is, the pieces will topple against each other like dominoes. The problem is staying free long enough to launch the plan.’

  ‘Do you mean to say you have a plan?’

  ‘Of course I have a plan.’

  ‘A good plan?’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘But a plan?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘You’re lying, aren’t you?’

  ‘Not half.’

  I was racing into Oslo on the E18 when I realised how deep the mess I had landed myself in was.

  Bellman had tried to drag me upstairs. To the bedroom. Where he had the pistol he chased me with. He was willing to fricking liquidate me to keep my mouth shut. Which could only mean he was up to his knees in shit. So, what would he do now? Get me busted of course. For stealing a car, drug dealing, not paying the hotel bill, there was quite a selection. Put me behind bars before I could blab to anyone. And as soon as I was banged up and gagged, there was little doubt about what would happen: they would make it look either like suicide or like another inmate had nobbled me. So the stupidest thing I could do would be to drive around in this car that they probably already had on their radar. So I put my foot down. The place I was going was on the east of town, and I could avoid going through the centre. I drove up the hill, headed for the quiet residential areas. Parked some distance away and started walking.

  The sun had appeared again, and people were out and about, pushing prams, with disposable barbecues in those net bags hanging from the handles. Grinning at the sun as if it were happiness itself.

  I chucked the car keys into a garden and walked up to the flats.

  Found the name on the doorbell and rang.

  ‘It’s me,’ I said when he eventually answered.

  ‘I’m a bit busy,’ said the voice in the intercom.

  ‘And I’m a drug addict,’ I said. It was meant as a joke, but I felt the impact of the words. Oleg thought it was funny when for a laugh I occasionally asked punters whether perhaps they were suffering from drug addiction and wanted some violin.

  ‘What do you want?’ the voice asked.

  ‘I want some violin.’

  The punters’ line had become mine.

  Pause.

  ‘Haven’t got any. Run out. No base to make any more.’

  ‘Base?’

  ‘Levorphanol base. Do you want the formula as well?’

  I knew it was the truth, but he had to have some. Had to. I pondered. I couldn’t go to the rehearsal room, they were bound to be waiting for me. Oleg. Good old Oleg would let me in.

  ‘You’ve got two hours, Ibsen. If you haven’t come to Hausmanns gate with four quarters I’ll go straight to the cops and tell all. There’s nothing for me to lose any more. Do you understand? Hausmanns gate 92. You go straight in and it’s on the second floor.’

  I tried to imagine his face. Terrified, sweating. The poor old perv.

  ‘Fine,’ he said.

  That was the way. You just have to make them understand the gravity of the situation.

  Harry was swallowing the rest of his coffee and staring into the street. Time to move on.

  On his way across Youngstorget to the kebab shops in Torggata he received a call.

  It was Klaus Torkildsen.

  ‘Good news,’ he said.

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘At the time in question Truls Berntsen’s phone was registered at four of the base stations in Oslo city centre, and that locates his position in the same area as Hausmanns gate 92.’

  ‘How big is the area we’re talking about?’

  ‘Erm, a kind of hexagonal area with a diameter of eight hundred metres.’

  ‘OK,’ Harry said, absorbing the information. ‘What about the other guy?’

  ‘I couldn’t find anything in his name exactly, but he had a company phone registered at the Radium Hospital.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And, as I said, it’s good news. That phone was in the same area at the same time.’

  ‘Mm.’ Harry entered a door, walked past three occupied tables and stopped in front of a counter on which was displayed a selection of unnaturally bright kebabs. ‘Have you got his address?’

  Klaus Torkildsen read it out, and Harry jotted it down on a serviette.

  ‘Have you got another number for that address?’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘I was wondering if he had a wife or a partner.’

  Harry heard Torkildsen typing on a keyboard. Then came the answer: ‘No. No one else with that address.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Have we got a deal then? We’ll never speak again?’

  ‘Yes. Apart from one final thing. I want you to check Mikael Bellman. Who he’s spoken to over recent months, and where he was at the time of the killing.’

  Loud laughter. ‘The head of Orgkrim? Forget it! I can hide or explain away a search for a lowly officer, but what you’re asking me to do would get me sacked on the spot.’ More laughter, as if the idea were really a joke. ‘I expect you to keep your end of the bargain, Hole.’

  The line went dead.

  When the taxi arrived at the address on the serviette a man was waiting outside.

  Harry stepped out and went over to him. ‘Ola Kvernberg, the caretaker?’

  The man nodded.

  ‘Inspector Hole. I rang you.’ He saw the caretaker steal a glance at the taxi which was waiting. ‘We use taxis when there are no patrol cars.’

  Kvernberg examined the ID card the man held up in front of him. ‘I haven’t seen any signs of a break-in,’ he said.

  ‘But someone’s rung in, so let’s check. You’ve got a master key, haven’t you?’

  Kvernberg nodded and unlocked the main door while the policeman studied the names on the bells. ‘The witness maintained he’d seen someone climbing up the balconies and breaking into the second floor.’

  ‘Who rang in?’ asked the caretaker on his way up.

  ‘Confidential matter, Kvernberg.’

  ‘You’ve got something on your trousers.’

  ‘Kebab sauce. I keep thinking about getting them cleaned. Can you unlock the door?’

  ‘The pharmacist’s?’

  ‘Oh, is that what he is?’

  ‘Works at the Radium Hospital. Shouldn’t we ring him at work before we enter?’

  ‘I’d rather see if the burglar’s here so we can arrest him, if you don’t mind.’

  The caretaker mumbled an apology and hastened to unlock the door.

  Hole went into the flat.

  It was obvious that a bachelor was living here. But a tidy one. Classical CDs on their own CD shelf, in alphabetical order. Scientific journals about chemistry and pharmacy stacked in high but neat piles. On one bookshelf there was a framed photograph of two adults and a boy. Harry recognised the boy. He was stooping a little to one side with a sullen expression. He can’t have been more than twelve or thirteen. The caretaker stood by the front door watching carefully, so for appearances’ sake Harry checked the balcony door before going from room to room. Opening drawers and cupboards. But there was nothing compromising on view.

  Suspiciously little, some colleagues would say.

  But Harry had seen it before; some people don’t have secrets. Not often, it’s fair to say, but it happe
ned. He heard the caretaker shifting weight from foot to foot in the bedroom door behind him.

  ‘No signs of a break-in or anything taken,’ Harry said, walking past him towards the exit. ‘Maybe a false alarm.’

  ‘I see,’ said the caretaker, locking up after them. ‘What would you have done if there had been a thief there? Taken him in the taxi?’

  ‘We’d have probably called for a patrol car,’ Harry smiled, pulling up and examining the boots on the stand by the door. ‘Tell me, aren’t these two boots very different sizes?’

  Kvernberg rubbed his chin while scrutinising Harry.

  ‘Yes, maybe. He’s got a club foot. May I have another look at your ID?’

  Harry passed his card to him.

  ‘The expiry date-’

  ‘The taxi’s waiting,’ Harry said, snatching the card back and setting off down the stairs at a jog. ‘Thanks for your help, Kvernberg!’

  I went to Hausmanns gate, and, course, no one had fixed the locks, so I went straight up to the flat. Oleg wasn’t there. Nor anyone else. They were out getting stressed. Gotta getta fix, gotta getta fix. Several junkies living together, and the place looked like it. But there was nothing there, of course, just empty bottles, used syringes, bloodstained wads of cotton wool and empty fag packets. Fricking burnt earth. And it was while I was sitting on a filthy mattress and cursing that I saw the rat. When people describe rats they always say a huge rat. But rats are not huge. They’re quite small. It’s just that their tails can be quite long. OK, if they feel threatened and stand up on two legs they can seem bigger than they are. Apart from that, they’re poor creatures who get stressed the same as us. Gotta getta fix.

  I heard a church bell ring. And I told myself that Ibsen would be coming.

  Had to come. Shit, I felt so bad. I had seen them standing and waiting when we went to work, so happy to see us it was moving. Trembling, their banknotes at the ready, reduced to being amateur beggars. And now I was there myself. Sick with longing to hear Ibsen’s lame shuffle on the stairs, to see his idiotic mush.

  I had played my cards like a fool. I wanted a shot, nothing else, and all I had achieved was to bring the whole pack of them down on me. The old boy and his Cossacks. Truls Berntsen with his drill and crazed eyes. Queen Isabelle and her fuck-buddy-in-chief.

  The rat scampered along the skirting board. Out of sheer desperation I checked under the carpets and mattresses. Under one mattress I found a picture and a piece of steel wire. The picture was a crumpled and faded passport photo of Irene, so I guessed this had to be Oleg’s mattress. But I couldn’t understand what the wire was for. Until it slowly dawned on me. And I felt my palms go sweaty and my heart beat faster. After all, I had taught Oleg to make a stash.

  36

  Hans Christian Simonsen way between tourists up the slope of the Italian white marble that made the Opera House look like a floating iceberg at the end of the fjord. When he was atop the roof he looked around and caught sight of Harry Hole sitting on a wall. He was on his own, as the tourists by and large went to the other side to enjoy the view of the fjord. But Harry was sitting and staring inwards at the old, ugly parts of town.

  Hans Christian sat down beside him.

  ‘HC,’ Harry said without looking up from the brochure he was reading. ‘Did you know that this marble is called Carrara marble and that the Opera House cost every Norwegian more than two thousand kroner?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you know anything about Don Giovanni?’

  ‘Mozart. Two acts. An arrogant young rake, who believes he is God’s gift to women and men, cheats everyone and makes everyone hate themselves. He thinks he is immortal, but in the end a mysterious statue comes and takes his life as they are both swallowed up by the earth.’

  ‘Mm. There’s the premiere of a new production in a couple of days. It says here that in the final scene the chorus sings, “ Such is the end of the evil-doer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life.” Do you think that’s true, HC?’

  ‘I know it isn’t. Death, sad to say, is no more just than life is.’

  ‘Mm. Did you know a policeman was washed ashore here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Anything you don’t know?’

  ‘Who shot Gusto Hanssen?’

  ‘Oh, the mysterious statue,’ Harry said, putting down the brochure. ‘Do you want to know who it is?’

  ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Not necessarily. The important thing to prove is who it isn’t, that it isn’t Oleg.’

  ‘Agreed,’ said Hans Christian, studying Harry. ‘But hearing you say that doesn’t tally with what I’ve heard about the zealous Harry Hole.’

  ‘So perhaps people change after all.’ Harry smiled quickly. ‘Did you check the progress of the investigation with your police solicitor pal?’

  ‘They haven’t gone public with your name yet, but it has been sent to all airports and border controls. Put it this way, your passport’s not worth a lot.’

  ‘That’s the Mallorca trip up in smoke.’

  ‘You know you’re wanted, yet you meet in Oslo’s number-one tourist attraction?’

  ‘Tried-and-tested small-fry logic, Hans Christian. It’s safer in the shoal.’

  ‘I thought you considered loneliness safer.’

  Harry took out his pack of cigarettes, shook and held it out. ‘Did Rakel tell you that?’

  Hans Christian nodded and took a cigarette.

  ‘How long have you two been together?’ Harry asked with a grimace.

  ‘A while. Does it hurt?’

  ‘My throat? Little infection perhaps.’ Harry lit Hans Christian’s cigarette. ‘You love her, don’t you.’

  The solicitor inhaled in a way which suggested to Harry that he had hardly smoked since the parties of his student days.

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  Harry nodded.

  ‘But you were always there,’ Hans Christian said, sucking on the cigarette. ‘In the shadows, in the wardrobe, under the bed.’

  ‘Sounds like a monster,’ Harry said.

  ‘Yes, I suppose it does,’ Hans Christian said. ‘I tried to exorcise you, but I failed.’

  ‘You don’t need to smoke the whole cigarette, Hans Christian.’

  ‘Thank you.’ The solicitor threw it away. ‘What do you want me to do this time?’

  ‘Burglary,’ Harry said.

  They drove straight after the onset of darkness.

  Hans Christian picked up Harry from Bar Boca in Grunerlokka.

  ‘Nice car,’ Harry said. ‘Family car.’

  ‘I had an elkhound,’ Hans Christian said. ‘Hunting. Cabin. You know.’

  Harry nodded. ‘The good life.’

  ‘It was trampled to death by an elk. I consoled myself with the thought that it must be a good way for an elkhound to die. In service as it were.’

  Harry nodded. They drove up to Ryen and snaked round the bends to Oslo’s best viewing points in the east.

  ‘It’s right here,’ Harry said, pointing to an unlit house. ‘Park at an angle so that the headlights are shining at the windows.’

  ‘Shall I…?’

  ‘No,’ Harry said. ‘You wait here. Keep your phone on and ring if anyone comes.’

  Harry took the jemmy with him and walked up the shingle path to the house. Autumn, sharp night air, the aroma of apples. He had a moment of deja vu. He and Oystein creeping into a garden and Tresko on the lookout by the fence. And then suddenly out of the dark a figure came hobbling towards them wearing an Indian headdress and squealing like a pig.

  He rang.

  Waited.

  No one came.

  Nonetheless Harry had the feeling someone was at home.

  He slotted the jemmy inside the crack by the lock and carefully applied his weight. The door was old with soft, damp wood and an old-fashioned lock. Then he used his other hand to insert his ID card on the inside of the crooked snap latch. Pressed harder. The lock burst open. Harry slid inside and closed the d
oor behind him. Stood in the darkness holding his breath. Felt a thin thread on his hand, probably the remains of a spider’s web. There was a damp, abandoned smell. But also something else, something acrid. Illness, hospital. Nappies and medicine.

  Harry switched on his torch. Saw a bare coat stand. He continued into the house.

  The sitting room looked as if it had been dusted with powder; the colours seemed to have been sucked out of the walls and the furniture. The cone of light moved across the room. Harry’s heart stopped when it was reflected back from a pair of eyes. Then went on beating. A stuffed owl. As grey as the rest of the room.

  Harry ventured further into the house and was able to confirm afterwards that it was the same as the flat. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  Until, that is, he reached the kitchen and discovered the two passports and the plane tickets on the table.

  Although the passport photo had to be almost ten years old Harry recognised the man from his visit to the Radium Hospital. Her passport was brand new. In the photo she was almost unrecognisable, pale, hair hanging in lank strands. The tickets were to Bangkok, departure in ten days.

  Harry went down to the basement. Headed for the only door he had not looked behind. There was a key in the lock. He opened it. The same smell he had noticed when he was in the hall met him. He flicked the switch inside the door, and a naked bulb lit the steps leading to the cellar. The feeling that someone was at home. Or ‘Oh, yes, the gut instinct’, which Bellman had said with light irony when Harry had asked whether he had checked Martin Pran’s record. A feeling that Harry now knew had misled him.

  Harry wanted to go down, but something was holding him back. The cellar. Similar to the one he had grown up with. When his mother had asked him to fetch potatoes, which they kept in the dark in two big bags, Harry had raced down trying not to think. Trying to imagine that he was running because it was so cold. Because they were in a hurry to prepare the meal. Because he liked running. It had nothing to do with the yellow man waiting down there; a naked, smiling man with a long tongue you could hear slithering in and out of his mouth. But that wasn’t what stopped him. It was something else. The dream. The avalanche through the cellar corridor.