Hakan Nesser - Hour of the wolf

‘Jesus,’ said Ulrike. ‘Just think how far it can be between people’s hearts at times.’

Marlene burst out crying again, but it was sufficient to blow her nose into her paper napkin this time.

‘I’ve felt so lonely,’ she said. ‘And I’ve been quite scared of meeting you.’

‘He’s not all that dangerous,’ Ulrike assured her. ‘I’ve begun to realize that more and more.’

‘Hmm,’ said Van Veeteren, who had sat down on his chair again. ‘Cheers.’

‘I’m going to bear his child,’ said Marlene. ‘It feels so horrendously unreal, and I don’t know how things are going to turn out. It had never occurred to us that only one of us would be around to look after it.’

She sighed deeply and tried to smile.

‘Forgive me. It’s just that it’s so hard. Thank you for giving me a hug.’

‘Good Lord,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘Dammit all. Cheers! I promise to look after you. You and the child, of course. Hmm.’

‘I should jolly well think so,’ said Ulrike Fremdli. ‘Let’s finish off the soup now — there’s a bite of meat to follow.’

‘What about your parents?’ he asked cautiously an hour later. ‘Do you get any support from them?’

Marlene shook her head.

‘I was a druggie. My mum does her best, but it’s not exactly what you could call support. I hope you believe me when I say I’ve put all that behind me now… Because it’s true: I really have. We both did it together, Erich and I. Mind you, it sometimes feels as if you manage to lift yourself up and the reward is to get knocked down again

…’

‘Life is much overrated,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘But it’s better if you don’t discover that too soon.’

Marlene looked at him with eyebrows slightly raised.

‘Hmm,’ she said. ‘Perhaps it is. Erich said you’d never been much of an optimist — but I like you even so. I hope you’ll allow me to carry on doing so.’

‘Of course,’ said Ulrike. ‘He has a certain grumpy charm, you’re absolutely right there. More coffee?’

Marlene shook her head.

‘No, thank you. I must go now. I’d love to invite you round, but you know what it’s like at my place… Although the heating is much better now.’

‘We expect to see you here for Christmas,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘And New Year. Them as can do it, does it… And all that.’

Ulrike laughed and Marlene smiled. He wondered how long it had been since he last put two women in such a good mood at the same time. And concluded that it had never happened before. As they stood in the hall Marlene remembered something.

‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘There was that note…’

‘What note?’ said Ulrike, helping her on with her duffel coat.

‘I found a note,’ said Marlene. ‘When I was doing the cleaning the other day. Erich always used to leave notes all over the place… With times and names and addresses and suchlike.’

‘Really?’ said Van Veeteren, and realized that he had just become a CID officer again for a second.

‘The police went through all the bits of paper Erich had left lying around these last few weeks, but they didn’t find this one. It was under a table mat in the kitchen. I know he wrote it recently, because there was also a note about a job he did one of the last days as well.’

‘What else did it say?’ asked Van Veeteren.

‘Just a name,’ said Marlene. ‘Keller.’

‘Keller?’

‘Yes, Keller. It’s not exactly an unusual name, but I don’t know anybody called that. And it’s not in the address book. Anyway, that was all. Do you think I should phone the police and tell them about it?’

Van Veeteren thought for a moment.

‘Yes, do that,’ he said. ‘Keller? Keller? No, I don’t know anybody of that name either. But phone them, as I said. Give Reinhart a buzz — they need all the help they can get. Have you got his number?’

Marlene nodded. Then she hugged them both, and after she’d gone it felt as if she’d left a vacuum behind her.

It was remarkable. A big vacuum.

‘You’re going to be a granddad,’ said Ulrike, sitting down on his knee.

‘Ouch,’ said Van Veeteren. ‘I know. Was it three days you said?’

‘Nights,’ said Ulrike. ‘I’m working during the day. Tomorrow, at least.’

Aron Keller saw the red Audi drive past in the street outside. Then he watched it park on the drive up to number seventeen. He was able to do that because his living room had a bay window on the front of the building. That was where he was standing. It was where he often stood. On the second floor, half-hidden by the two magnificent hibiscus bushes. It provided him with a first-class view of what was going on outside.

Which was not normally very much. Nevertheless, he often stood there. It had become a habit as the years passed. Standing in the bay window for a while, now and then.

A bit later he thanked his lucky stars that he had done so. That he had stayed there for a minute or so after he’d watched the murderer-doctor pass by in his shiny-clean car.

He came back. The doctor came walking back again. Went to the kiosk and bought a newspaper. He didn’t usually do that. Not normally.

Aron Keller remained standing in the bay window, waiting. Just as motionless as the hibiscus bushes. Watched the Audi back out into the street, then reverse back up the drive. Then the doctor got out of the car, and disappeared into his house to fetch something — Keller couldn’t see what it was. Came back and sat behind the wheel again. Sat there in the car in front of his house. Keller felt the sweat in the palms of his hands. After only another minute or so the doctor got out of the car and started walking to the kiosk again. Just outside the entrance door, Keller’s own entrance door, he slowed down and stared at the scooter. Then continued to the kiosk. Bought something he put into a brown paper carrier bag and came back once more. Keller took two paces backwards into the room until the doctor had gone past. Then returned to his position in the bay window, and watched the doctor sit down behind the wheel of his car again.

Sit there and stay there. The minutes passed. Still he sat there in the front seat, doing nothing.

Bugger, Keller thought. He knows. The bastard knows.

When he walked past number seventeen quite a long time later, the doctor was still sitting in the car. That was the final proof he needed. Keller went round the back of the row of terraced houses and returned to his flat from the rear. Took a beer from the refrigerator when he was back inside, and emptied it in three swigs. Stood in the bay window. The Audi outside number seventeen was empty. The sun had set.

But he doesn’t know, he thought. The murderer-doctor doesn’t know that I know that he knows. I’m one step ahead. I’m still in control.

If you look at it from a purely quantitative point of view, Chief Inspector Reinhart thought during a brief smoking break at about eleven o’clock on Saturday morning, we don’t need to be ashamed of the work we’ve put in.

There was plenty of evidence to back up that thought. After hearing what Edita Fischer had to say, they suddenly found themselves with so many doctors to interview that Rooth, deBries and Bollmert were all pressed into duty as well. To be sure, if he were honest with himself Reinhart regarded the whole rigmarole as grasping at straws: but as there were no other straws lying around (and in view of Chief of Police Hiller’s generous promise of unlimited resources), they had to follow everything up, of course. Nobody called the operation ‘Rooth’s hypothesis’ any more — least of all Rooth himself once it had become clear that he would have to work on both Saturday and Sunday.