Jo Nesbo - The Leopard

‘In my depraved youth, yes. After paying for my crime, I went into the army and from there straight to South Africa and got a job as a mercenary.’

‘Mm. So you were a mercenary in South Africa?’

‘Three years. And South Africa is just the place where I enlisted; the fighting took place in the surrounding countries. There was always war, always a market for pros, especially for whites. The blacks still think we’re smarter, you know. They trust white officers more than their own.’

‘Perhaps you’ve been to the Congo, too?’

Tony Leike’s right eyebrow formed a black chevron. ‘How so?’

‘Went there a while back, so I wondered.’

‘It was called Zaire then. But most of the time we weren’t sure which bloody country we were in. It was just green, green, green and then black, black, black until the sun rose again. I worked for a so-called security firm at some diamond mines. That was where I learned to read a map and compass from a head torch. The compass is a waste of time there, too much metal in the mountains.’

Tony Leika leaned back in his chair. Relaxed and unafraid, Harry noted.

‘Talking of metal,’ Harry said, ‘think I read somewhere that you’ve got a mining business down there.’

‘That’s right.’

‘What sort of metal?’

‘Heard of coltan?’

Harry nodded slowly. ‘Used in mobile phones.’

‘Exactly. And in games consoles. When world mobile phone production took off in the nineties my troops and I were on a mission in the north-east of the Congo. Some Frenchmen and some natives ran a mine there, employing kids with pickaxes and spades to dig out the coltan. It looks like any old stone but you use it to produce tantalum, which is the element that’s really valuable. And I knew that if I could just get someone to finance me I could run a proper, modern mining business and make my partners and myself wealthy men.’

‘And that was what happened?’

Tony Leike laughed. ‘Not quite. I managed to borrow money, was screwed by slippery partners and lost everything. Borrowed more money, was screwed again, borrowed even more and earned a bit.’

‘A bit?’

‘A few million to pay off debts. But I had a network of contacts and some headlines, as of course I was counting chickens before they hatched, which was enough to be adopted into the circle where the big money was. To become a member, it’s the number of digits in your fortune that counts, not whether there’s a plus or minus in front.’ Leike laughed again, a hearty ringing laugh, and it was all Harry could do to restrain a smile.

‘And now?’

‘Now we’re waiting for the big coup because it’s time for coltan to be harvested. Yes indeed, I’ve said it for long enough, but this time it’s true. I’ve had to sell my shares in the project in exchange for call options so that I could pay my debts. Now things are set fair, and all I have to do is get hold of money to redeem my shares so that I can become a full partner again.’

‘Mm. And the money?’

‘Someone will see the sense in lending me the money against a small share. The return is enormous, the risk minimal. And all the big investments have been made, including local bribes. We have even cleared a runway into the jungle so that we can load directly on to freight planes and get the stuff out via Uganda. Are you wealthy, Harry? I can see if there’s any chance for you to have a slice of the action.’

Harry shook his head. ‘Been to Stavanger recently, Leike?’

‘Hm. In the summer.’

‘Not since then?’

Leike gave the question some thought, then shook his head.

‘You’re not absolutely sure?’ Harry asked.

‘I’m presenting my project to potential investors, and that means a lot of travelling. Must have been to Stavanger three or four times this year, but not since the summer, I don’t think.’

‘What about Leipzig?’

‘Is this the point where I have to ask whether I need a solicitor, Harry?’

‘I just want you eliminated from the case as soon as possible, so that we can concentrate on more relevant issues.’ Harry ran his forefinger across the bridge of his nose. ‘If you don’t want the media to catch wind of this, I assume you won’t want to involve a solicitor, or to be summoned to formal interviews, etc?’

Leike nodded slowly. ‘You’re right, of course. Thank you for your advice, Harry.’

‘Leipzig?’

‘Sorry,’ Leike said, with genuine regret in his voice and face. ‘Never been there. Should I have been?’

‘Mm. I also have to ask you where you were on certain days and what you were doing.’

‘Carry on.’

Harry dictated the four dates in question while Leike wrote them into a Moleskine notebook.

‘I’ll check as soon as I’m in my office,’ he said. ‘Here’s my number by the way.’ He passed Harry a business card with the inscription Tony C. Leike, Entrepreneur.

‘What does the C stand for?’

‘You tell me,’ Leike said, getting to his feet. ‘Tony’s only short for Anthony of course, so I thought I needed an initial. Gives a bit more gravitas, don’t you think? Think foreigners like it.’

Instead of taking the culvert, Harry accompanied Leike up the stairs to the prison, knocked on the glass window and a guard came and let them in.

‘Feels like I’m taking part in an episode with the Olsen Gang,’ Leike said when they were standing on the gravel path outside old Botsen Prison’s fairly imposing walls.

‘It’s a little more discreet like this,’ Harry said. ‘You’re beginning to become a recognisable face, and staff are arriving for work now at Police HQ.’

‘Talking of faces, I see someone has broken your jaw.’

‘Must have fallen and hit myself.’

Leike shook his head and smiled. ‘I know something about broken jaws. That one’s from a fight. You’ve just let it grow together again, I can see. You should go and have it seen to, it’s not a big job.’

‘Thanks for the tip.’

‘Did you owe them a lot of money?’

‘Do you know something about that, too?’

‘Yes!’ Leike exclaimed, his eyes widening. ‘Unfortunately.’

‘Mm. One last thing, Leike-’

‘Tony. Or Tony C.’ Leike flashed his shiny masticatory apparatus. Like someone without a care in the world, Harry thought.

‘Tony. Have you ever been to Lake Lyseren? The one in Ost-?’

‘Yes, of course. Are you crazy!’ Tony laughed. ‘The Leike farm is in Rustad. I went to my grandfather’s there every summer. Lived there for a couple of years, too. Fantastic place, isn’t it? Why d’you want to know?’ His smile vanished at once. ‘Oh, shit, that’s where you found the woman! Bit of a coincidence, eh?’

‘Well,’ Harry said, ‘it’s not so unlikely. Lyseren is a big lake.’

‘True enough. Thanks again, Harry.’ Leike proffered his hand. ‘And if any names crop up to do with the Havass cabin, or someone comes forward, just ring me and I’ll see if I can remember them. Full cooperation, Harry.’

Harry watched himself shake hands with the man he had just decided had killed six people in the last three months.

Fifteen minutes had passed since Leike left when Katrine Bratt rang.

‘Yes?’

‘Negative on four of them,’ she said.

‘And the fifth?’

‘One hit. Deep in digital information’s innermost intestinal tract.’

‘Poetic.’

‘You’ll like it. On the 16th of February Elias Skog was called by a number that is not registered in anyone’s name. A secret number, in other words. And that could be the reason that Oslo-’

‘Stavanger.’

‘-Police haven’t seen the link before. But inside the innermost intestines-’