Jo Nesbo - The Leopard

I have printed a photo of Jussi Kolkka from Dagbladet’s web page and pinned it up on the wall next to the others. There wasn’t a word in the news about Harry Hole and the other police officers who were there. Or Iska Peller, for that matter. Was it a bluff? They’re trying anyway. And now there is a dead policeman. They’re going to try harder. They HAVE to try harder. Do you hear me, Hole? No? You should do. I’m so close I could whisper it in your ear.

Olav Hole’s condition was unchanged, Dr Abel had said.

Harry sat by the hospital bed looking at his unchanged father while a heart monitor played its beep-beep song interspersed with skipped beats. Sigurd Altman came in, greeted Harry and noted down the figures from the screen onto a pad.

‘Actually, I’m here to visit a Kaja Solness,’ Harry said, getting up. ‘But I don’t know which ward she’s in. Could you…?’

‘Your colleague who was brought in by helicopter the other night? She’s in intensive care. Only until they’ve got all the test results. She’d been buried in the snow for quite a while. When they said Havass I assumed she must have been this witness from Sydney the police were talking about on the radio.’

‘Don’t believe everything you hear, Altman. While Kaja was lying in the snow the Australian lady was safe and warm in Bristol, with her own guards and full room service.’

‘Hang on.’ Altman scrutinised Harry. ‘Were you buried in the snow as well?’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘The unsteady step you just took. Dizzy?’

Harry shrugged.

‘Confused?’

‘Constantly,’ Harry said.

Altman smiled. ‘You’ve got a bit too much CO2 in you. The body disposes of it quickly when you breathe in oxygen, but you ought to have a blood test so that we can check your carbon dioxide levels.’

‘No, thank you,’ Harry said. ‘How’s he getting on?’ He nodded towards the bed.

‘What did the doctor say?’

‘Unchanged. I’m asking you.’

‘I’m not a doctor, Harry.’

‘So you don’t need to answer like one. Give me an estimate.’

‘I can’t…’

‘It’ll remain between us.’

Sigurd Altman eyed Harry. Was on the point of saying something. Changed his mind. Chewed his lower lip. ‘Days,’ he said.

‘Not even weeks?’

Altman didn’t answer.

‘Thanks, Sigurd,’ Harry said and went to the door.

Kaja’s face was pale and beautiful against the pillowslip. Like a flower in a herbarium, Harry thought. Her hand was small and cold in his. On the bedside table was today’s Aftenposten with the AVALANCHE BURIES CABIN IN HAVASS headline. It described the tragic event and quoted Mikael Bellman, who said it was a great loss that Officer Kolkka had died protecting Iska Peller. He was thankful, however, that the witness had been saved and she was now safe.

‘So the avalanche was started with dynamite?’ Kaja said.

‘Yes, it’s beyond doubt,’ Harry replied.

‘So you and Bellman worked well together up there, did you?’

‘Yes, indeed.’ Harry turned to shield his coughing fit.

‘Heard you found a snowmobile at the bottom of a ravine. With a possible body underneath.’

‘Yes. Bellman stayed in Ustaoset to go back to the site with the local County Officer.’

‘Krongli?’

‘No, he couldn’t be located. But his deputy, Roy Stille, seemed solid. They’ve quite a job on their hands, though. We weren’t sure where we were, more snow has fallen and it’s drifting, and in that terrain…’ Harry shook his head.

‘Any idea who the body might be?’

Harry shrugged. ‘I would be very surprised if it wasn’t Tony Leike.’

Kaja’s head spun round. ‘Oh?’

‘I haven’t told anyone yet, but I saw the corpse’s fingers.’

‘What about them?’

‘They were twisted. Tony Leike had arthritis.’

‘Do you think he started the avalanche? And then drove over the precipice in the dark?’

Harry shook his head. ‘Tony told me he knew the area well, it was his terrain. It was a clear day and the snowmobile wasn’t going fast – it landed only three metres from the point where it took off. And he had a burned arm, which was not caused by dynamite. And the snowmobile was not burned.’

‘Wha-?’

‘I think Tony Leike was tortured, killed and then dumped with the snowmobile so that we wouldn’t find the body.’

Kaja pulled a face.

Harry rubbed his little finger. He wondered whether it could have frostbite. ‘What do you think about this Krongli?’

‘Krongli?’ Kaja chewed on that one. ‘If it’s true he tried to rape Charlotte Lolles, he should never have become a policeman, should he.’

‘He beat his wife up, too.’

‘Doesn’t surprise me.’

‘It doesn’t?’

‘No.’

He looked at her. ‘Is there something you haven’t told me?’

Kaja shrugged. ‘He’s a colleague, and I thought he was just drunk, nothing I would spread around, but, yes, I’ve had a glimpse of that side of him. He came to my place and reckoned in a pretty persistent way we should get cosy.’

‘But?’

‘Mikael was there.’

Harry felt himself twitch.

Kaja pushed herself up into a sitting position. ‘You don’t seriously think Krongli might have…’

‘I don’t know. I only know that whoever started the avalanche must have known the area well. Krongli has a connection with some of those girls at Havass. In addition, Elias Skog said before he was killed that he had seen something which might have been a rape at Havass. Aslak Krongli sounds like he can be violent.

‘And then there’s this avalanche. If you wanted to kill a woman you thought was alone with a detective in a remote mountain cabin, how would you do it? Starting an avalanche doesn’t exactly give you a guaranteed result. So why not make it simple and effective, take along your favourite murder weapon and go straight to the cabin? Because he knew that Iska Peller and the detective were not on their own. He knew we were waiting for him. So he sneaked in and attacked in the only way that would allow him to escape afterwards. We’re talking about an insider. Someone who knew about our Havass theories and understood what was going on when he heard us naming a witness at a press conference. The local County Officer at Ustaoset-’

‘Geilo,’ Kaja corrected.

‘Krongli definitely received the urgent call from Kripos requesting permission to land the police helicopter in the national park that night. He must have known the circumstances.’

‘Then he should also have known that Iska Peller wasn’t there, that we wouldn’t have endangered the life of a witness,’ Kaja said. ‘So it’s odd he didn’t keep well away.’

Harry nodded. ‘Good point, Kaja. I agree. I don’t think Krongli thought for a second that Peller was in the cabin. I think the avalanche was a continuation of what he’s been doing for some time.’

‘Which is?’

‘Playing with us.’

‘Playing?’

‘I received a call from Tony Leike’s phone while we were at the cabin. Tony saved my number, and I’m pretty certain it wasn’t him who phoned me. The thing is the caller didn’t ring off quickly enough, voicemail started recording and you can hear something for a second before the connection is cut. I’m not sure, but to me it sounded like laughter.’

‘Laughter?’

‘The laughter of someone who is amused. Because he’d just heard my message saying that I would have no network coverage for a couple of days. Let’s imagine it was Aslak Krongli who had just had his suspicions confirmed that I was at the cabin in Havass waiting for the killer.’