Thomas Enger - Scarred

‘Take another look at the wall. See if you can find anything to suggest there might have been other pictures.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Because I think you’re missing one.’

Bjarne hangs up after talking to Henning and immediately calls Daniel Nielsen. This time he fully expects Nielsen to pick up – even though he is at work. It takes only a couple of seconds before Bjarne is proved right.

He tells Nielsen about the evidence – or lack of – in Nielsen’s flat.

‘That’s what I kept telling you.’

‘I know, but we still had to check it out. However, I want to talk to you about something else. You’re very interested in photography, aren’t you? I noticed that you have a lot of pictures on your walls at home.’

‘Yes, I suppose I do,’ Nielsen replies unwillingly.

‘And no one went to Erna Pedersen’s room more often than you in the last few months?’

‘No, that’s… probably true.’

Bjarne waits a moment before he continues.

‘If I were to say there were two photographs on her wall, next to the chest of drawers – what would you say?’

There is silence for a few seconds.

‘That you would be right. Or at least there used to be two until recently.’

Bjarne sticks a finger in his ear to block out the background noise.

‘What do you mean?’

‘When I started looking after Erna Pedersen, there was only one picture on the wall, a photograph. But not all that long ago a second photograph appeared. Why do you ask about that?’

Bjarne makes eye contact with Ella Sandland, who realises the conversation is important. She comes up to him.

‘I want you to think carefully, Nielsen. One photo was Erna Pedersen’s son and his family. The other one – do you remember what kind of picture it was?’

‘It was a school photo,’ Nielsen replies immediately.

Sandland makes a what’s going on movement with her head, but Bjarne ignores her.

‘A school photo?’

‘Yes, you know – a typical group photo of everyone in the same class.’

‘Aha?’ Bjarne says.

‘But it was taken quite a few years ago.’

Bjarne nods while he thinks about Erna Pedersen again. She was a teacher and she muttered something about fractions before she was killed. And someone recently put up an old school photo on her wall, a picture that wasn’t there after she died. Which means it’s highly likely that the killer took it with him.

Why on earth would he want to do that?

The press release had been sent by fax late last night and it caused frantic activity in every newspaper office, both before and after their deadlines. The first paper versions hitting the streets of Norway didn’t have time to include the news that a young Labour politician had made contact with every editor in the country, but that was about to change.

Fresh editions with new front pages went to press; a few newspapers also increased the number of pages to give both the press release and various follow-up articles sufficient space as it had now become obvious that it was going to be the story of the week. In the press release the unnamed young man announced that it would be his final word on the matter. He doesn’t want a sexual assault by one of the country’s best-known politicians to be brought up every time he himself features in the media as he has major political ambitions of his own. Nevertheless, in his statement he challenges the Secretary of State for Justice and he also gives a brief summary of the incident.

It started with a glance. At first, the man felt honoured that a Minister – and a woman he has always liked – and yes, in that way, too – would be interested in him. During that evening one glance turned into many. And when he spilled a little red wine on his white shirt and went up to his hotel room to change, he suddenly found Trine standing right behind him. She asked if he wouldn’t rather change in her room instead, and the rest, he wrote, people could work out for themselves.

Afterwards, when she had practically shoved him out of the door, he had felt used. And when he contacted the Minister a couple of weeks later to get her to admit that she had crossed a line, he was coldly dismissed with ‘Plenty of men would count themselves lucky to have been in your shoes.’

VG has twelve pages about Trine, Dagbladet has nine. Aftenposten devotes practically its entire front page and four pages inside the newspaper to the alleged assault and there are reactions and commentaries about them in addition to a series of pictures of Trine. The sexiest and most seductive photographs have been dug out and reproduced. Newspapers carry editorials that demand that Juul-Osmundsen either resign as soon as possible or come up with an explanation, ‘and a good one at that’. No one can understand why she hasn’t yet resigned and they mock her for apparently running away from the Ministry of Justice yesterday to escape the media.

Several newspapers have visited Hotel Caledonien, they have discovered which room was registered in Trine’s name on the night in question, and they have – as usual – photographed the door. ‘ It happened behind this door ,’ reads the caption. The media have contacted every single member of the Labour Party’s youth branch who was present that night to ask if they know the identity of the victim. No one does. But the media keep speculating. They have also spoken to other party members who were there, but no one remembers seeing Trine during the dinner. A revelation that causes several media commentators to conclude that ‘she probably had other things on her mind’.

When Henning gets to the offices of 123news , he realises that Trine won’t be able to ride out this storm. Too much negative publicity about her has appeared in the wake of the initial story. She is accused of having doctored a working environment survey in the Justice Department because it made her look bad. Sacked a member of staff, apparently for no reason. Failed to produce receipts for her travelling expenses. Accepted gifts without declaring them or paying tax on them. During an official trip to India, her Indian counterpart presented her with a rug, which she brought back and put in one of the guest bedrooms in her house in Ullern. Last Christmas she was given a 3.5-litre bottle of whisky by the Parliament’s Press Association, which she failed to declare.

The press has also resurrected a story from two years ago when she travelled to the US and flew business class, even though economy class tickets were available on the same flight. Travelling too often and too expensively never enhances a politician’s popularity. And what about that cookery course she was given by the famous Norwegian chef and food writer, Arne Brimi?

The house, which Trine and her husband bought for 17.8 million kroner last year, becomes a story in itself. Several papers have included photo montages and added catty captions to the effect that Labour politicians don’t usually live in mansions. A quote from an unnamed Labour Party politician helps to pour petrol on the flames: ‘How many of us can afford to live like this? And I’ve heard she has a cleaner as well.’ And a chalet in the Hafjell ski resort with four, possibly even five bedrooms? Shame on you. Nor does it help Trine’s case that her husband drives a Porsche Cayenne, a hugely polluting car. And since when is it appropriate for a Minister to wear such short skirts or be allowed to borrow jewellery for free for three months at a time from one of Oslo’s most prestigious jewellers?

Opposition politicians also make sure to stick the knife in with a ‘what she promised but failed to deliver’ list. Anything she has done in the last three years that can be interpreted even remotely as a failure is dumped in a box labelled ‘character assassination’. And more is to come. The fact that she doesn’t get on very well with the head of Norway’s police force gives especially the Conservative section of the opposition yet another reason to demand that the Minister be replaced at the earliest opportunity. If the opposition hadn’t already lost confidence in her over the Hotel Caledonien scandal, then they certainly will now. In an opinion poll on the front page of 123news , 97 per cent of readers demand that Trine resign immediately, 2 per cent disagree, while 1 per cent ‘don’t know’. These figures are practically identical in every other publication that Henning checked before he went to work.