Ю Несбё - The Jealousy Man and Other Stories

‘In other words you ordered him to kill Dumbo and the girl.’

Colin shook his head. ‘It would have been enough if he’d threatened the girl to keep quiet and Dumbo had been sentenced, case closed. Instead this Ragnar decided on drastic action because — as he said afterwards — the dead don’t talk. He was pleased as punch when he came and told me what he’d done. No, he hadn’t got the girl, obviously she didn’t completely trust Green and had given him a false address. But that hardly mattered, he said, because he’d shut Dumbo up on a permanent basis, so now he couldn’t retract his confession. He couldn’t understand why I was so angry...’

‘Don’t you feel you have more than a little guilt in all this, Colin?’

He shrugs and sticks out his lower lip the way he always does when he’s pretending not to understand the obvious.

‘It wasn’t my choice. He acted on his own free will.’

‘You allowed his evil nature free play because you knew what the result would be. It was obviously you who gave him the girl’s address. That was the choice of your own free will, Colin.’

‘I thought he might have a word with her, not...’ He spread his arms out wide. ‘OK, so maybe I’m naive, but I do actually believe in people’s ability to learn. To change and choose what is good.’

‘That’s good to know,’ I say.

‘Meaning what?’

‘That you believe that free will combined with experience can turn someone who was previously bad into a person who will choose the good.’

‘Don’t you?’

‘Oh, yes,’ I say. ‘That’s why we release people from prison and hope it’s safe. So for the sake of you and your family let’s hope it is true, Colin.’

‘Now what are you talking about, Will?’

By now I’m having to shout to be heard above the helicopter. ‘I’m simply saying that your survival, like mine and like everyone else’s, is in the final analysis dependent on our ability to learn the qualities of mercy, wisdom and forgiveness. And in particular the ability of those closest to us to learn them.’

‘Amen to that!’ Colin calls to the stars and the descending helicopter as he finally raises his champagne glass.

Within twenty-four hours of my meeting Yvonne outside the prison where Dumbo had just been murdered she was standing at our door.

‘Thank you for coming,’ I said.

She muttered something uneasy in reply. I had realised some time ago that certain people, certain sections of the population, are just not used to those who go around thanking each other for things.

She told me her name as we stood in the living room, looking out at Heidi playing Hawks and Doves with Sam. Heidi put on a deep menacing voice as she advanced on him, fingers hooked like a hawk’s claws. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, all that came through the window were Sam’s squeals of delight.

‘He’s a nice boy,’ she said. ‘How...’ She didn’t finish her question.

‘He seems to have forgotten everything,’ I said. ‘Can you understand that?’

Yvonne shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but for kids most of what happens is new and dramatic, even everyday things that seem trivial to us grown-ups. For example, I don’t know if seeing someone in your family getting a beating is worse than being stung by a wasp, or your teddy bear losing an eye.’

I looked at the young woman. Something told me she was speaking from experience.

‘So then why are children traumatised by sexual assault but apparently not by circumcision?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But I would guess pain and humiliation are easier to take if the pain feels natural and necessary in some way. People can get tortured in a meaningless war and lose their minds, but not people who have a tooth taken out without an anaesthetic. Or a woman giving birth.’

I nodded. Now Heidi had caught Sam and they laughed as they rolled around on the grass. Heidi laughing; it struck me that was a sound I hadn’t heard since that terrible night.

‘Context,’ I said.

‘Eh?’

‘I read somewhere that some people believe our minds can deal with pain better if we’re able to put it in a context that seems to us to justify it.’

Yvonne nodded. ‘Good. Then someone’s written down what I think.’

‘But...’ I said, drawing a breath and folding my hands. ‘The pain of losing Amy for me and Dumbo for you aren’t things we can place in a meaningful context. So we need to find other ways of dealing with the pain, am I right?’

‘Revenge,’ she said.

I looked down at my hands. Colin used to say I always folded them before saying something important. And that when a lawyer is about to say something important that usually means bad news.

‘That’s one way,’ I said. ‘The human appetite for revenge distinguishes us from the animals, but from an evolutionary perspective it’s still logical. If everyone knows that killing a child will lead to revenge, that will make the child’s life safer. But if there’s dispute over the question of guilt in the death of the child then any act of revenge is liable to give rise in turn to yet another act of revenge. Which in turn gives rise to yet another. It was spirals of bloodthirsty revenge like that that decimated the population of Iceland, for example. And the same thing happened in Albania. In Iceland they solved the problem by establishing a court consisting of the best minds in the community and they were charged with the task of deciding on questions of guilt or innocence, and where necessary passing sentence and carrying out the punishment. In so doing they eliminated the need for revenge. And this idea is not just the basis of the use of courts for dispensing justice but for the whole idea of societies in which the law is the same for everyone. This meant the end of a tyrannical system in which the strong were always in the right. Because when it is the state that is strongest the tyrannical and the barbarous must defer to the power of the law. Justice, common sense and humanity are the guiding principles. And that is what I want — that is why I have not executed Brad but intend to charge him in front of an independent court of law.’

I’m not sure I understood everything he said, but I think I got his point.

In the first place the rules of the road are for everyone who drives, and when there’s been a crash it’s not always best to leave it to the two hotheads involved to sort it out themselves.

‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘But how about when you realise the judge has been bought by the other side and that might is right after all? Should you just roll over and let it happen? Or should you stand up and fight?’

Will, as he insisted I call him, looked at me as he scratched his chin.

‘My wife and son are coming in,’ he said. ‘I think maybe it’s best if you don’t meet. Come with me.’

I followed him down into the basement. Saw he’d made quite a few changes. He took me into a room that looked like a cross between the bridge of a ship and the control room in a recording studio.

‘What do you need?’ he asked. ‘To get what you want.’

‘A weapon,’ I said.

‘A weapon?’

‘Ragnar stole my Remington rifle. But for this I’m going to need something heavy.’

Will nodded. He left the room and returned with a machine gun. He demonstrated for me how it worked. It could be used to mow down a small squad of men but was light enough for me to hold. He placed four hand grenades on the table in front of me.

‘Enough?’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Why are you helping me? I was one of those who attacked your family.’