Jo Nesbo - The Redbreast

'I'll think about it.'

Harry slumped down into the chair.

'Aren't you going to get it fixed soon? It sounds decidedly out of sorts.'

'It can't be fixed,' Harry said sulkily. 'Sorry. Did you find anything in Vienna?’

‘I'm coming to that. You first.'

'I tried to check Even Juul's alibis for the time his wife went missing. He claimed he was walking round the city centre, popped into the Kaffebrenneri in Ullevalsveien, but he didn't meet anyone there who could corroborate his story. The staff working in the Kaffebrenneri say they're too busy to be able to prove or disprove anything.'

'The Kaffebrenneri is right across the street from Schroder's,' Harry said.

'So?'

'I'm just stating a fact. What did Weber say?'

'They haven't found anything. Weber said that if Signe Juul had been taken to the fortress in the car the night-watchman saw, they would have found something on her clothes, fibres from the back seat, soil or oil from the boot, something.'

'He'd spread out bin liners in the car,' Harry said.

'That's what Weber said too.'

'Did you check the dry hay they found on her coat?'

'Yep. It could be from Mosken's stable. Plus a million other places.'

'Hay. Not straw.'

'There's nothing special about the hay, Harry, it's just… hay.’

‘Damn.' Harry looked around him grumpily. 'What about Vienna?'

'More hay. Do you know anything about coffee, Halvorsen?’

‘Eh?'

'Ellen used to make decent coffee. She bought it in some shop here in Gronland. Maybe…'

'No!' Halvorsen said. 'I'm not making you coffee.'

'Promise me you'll try,' Harry said, getting up again. 'I'll be out for a couple of hours.'

'Was that all you had to say about Vienna? Hay? Not even a straw in the wind?'

Harry shook his head. 'Sorry. That was a dead end too. You'll get used to it.'

Something had happened. Harry walked up along Gronlandsleiret as he tried to put his finger on what it was. There was something about the people in the streets, something had happened to them while he was in Vienna. He was a long way up Karl Johans gate before he realised what it was. Summer had arrived. For the first time in years Harry was aware of the smell of tarmac, of the people passing him, of the flower shop in Grensen. As he walked through the Palace Gardens the smell of freshly mown grass was so intense that he had to smile. A man and a woman wearing Palace overalls stood looking up at the top of a tree, discussing and shaking their heads. The woman had unbuttoned the top of her overall and tied it around her waist. Harry noticed that when she looked up at the tree and pointed, her colleague was stealing furtive glances at her tight T-shirt instead.

In Hedgehaugsveien the hip and the not quite so hip fashion boutiques were going through their final paces to dress people up for the Independence Day celebrations. The kiosks were selling ribbons and flags, and in the distance he could hear the echo of a band putting its final touches to the traditional marching tune. Showers were forecast, but it would be warm.

Harry was sweating when he rang the doorbell at Sindre Fauke's.

Fauke was not particularly looking forward to the national holiday.

'Too much fuss. And too many flags. No wonder Hitler felt close to the Norwegians. Norwegians are hugely nationalistic. We just dare not admit it.'

He poured the coffee.

'Gudbrand Johansen ended up at the military hospital in Vienna,' Harry said. 'The night before he was supposed to leave for Norway he killed a doctor. Since then no one has seen him.'

'Well, I never,' Fauke said, loudly slurping the scalding hot coffee. I knew there was something wrong with that boy.'

'What can you tell me about Even Juul?'

A lot. If I have to.'

'Well, you have to.'

Fauke raised a bushy eyebrow.

'Are you sure you're not barking up the wrong tree now, Hole?’

‘I'm not sure of anything at all.' Fauke blew at his coffee thoughtfully.

'OK. If it's absolutely necessary. Juul and I had a relationship which was like Gudbrand Johansen and Daniel Gudeson's in many ways. I was a surrogate father for Even. It probably has something to do with the fact that he had no parents.'

Harry's coffee cup stopped in mid-air on the way to his mouth.

'Not many people knew that because Even used to make things up as he went along. His invented childhood consisted of more people, details, places and dates than most people would remember from their childhood. The official version was that he had grown up with the Juul family on a farm in Grini, but the truth is that he grew up with various foster parents and in various institutions around Norway before finally landing in the childless Juul family as a twelve-year-old.’

‘How do you know he lied about it?'

'It is rather a strange story, but one night Even and I were on watch outside the camp we had set up in the forest, north of Harestua, when something strange happened to him. Even and I were not particularly close at that point and I was extremely surprised when he began to tell me about how he had been abused as a child and how nobody had ever wanted him. He told me some extremely intimate details of his life, and some of it was painful listening. Some of the adults he had been placed with ought to have been…' Fauke shuddered.

'Let's go for a walk,' he said. 'Rumour has it the weather's nice outside.'

They walked up Vibes gate to Stenspark, where the first bikinis were on display and a glue-sniffer had strayed from his shelter at the top of the hill looking as if he had just discovered planet Earth.

'I don't know what brought it on, but it was as if he became another person that night,' Fauke said. 'Very odd, but the strangest thing was that the next day he behaved as if he had forgotten the conversation we had had.'

'You said that you weren't very close, but you told him about some of your experiences on the Eastern Front?'

'Yes, of course. Not a lot else was happening in the forest. For the most part we were moving around and keeping an eye on the Germans. And there were quite a few long stories while we were waiting.'

'Did you talk much about Daniel Gudeson?'

Fauke stared at Harry.

'So, you've found out that Even Juul is obsessed by Daniel Gudeson?’

‘I'm just guessing for the time being,' Harry said. 'Yes, I talked about Daniel a lot,' Fauke said. 'He was like a legend, Daniel Gudeson was. It's rare to meet such a free, strong and happy spirit as him. And Even was fascinated by the stories. I had to tell them again and again, especially the one about the Russian he went into no man's land to bury.'

'Did he know that Daniel had been to Sennheim during the war?'

'Of course. Even remembered all the details about Daniel I was beginning to forget and he reminded me. For some reason, he seemed to have totally identified with Daniel, although I can hardly imagine two more different people. Once when Even was drunk he suggested I start to call him Uriah, just as Daniel had done. And if you ask me, it was no coincidence that he only had eyes for young Signe Alsaker at the end of the war.'

'Oh?'

'When he found out that Daniel Gudeson's fiancee's case was due to come up, he went to the courtroom and sat there all day just looking at her. It was as if he had decided in advance that he was going to have her.'

'Because she had been Daniel's girl?'

'Are you sure this is important?' Fauke asked, walking up the path towards the hill so quickly that Harry had to walk faster to keep up with him.

'Absolutely.'

'I'm not sure if I should say this but, personally, I believe Even Juul loved the myth of Daniel Gudeson more than he ever loved Signe Juul. I'm sure that his admiration for Gudeson was a strong contributory factor in his not resuming medical studies after the war, but studying history instead. Naturally enough, he specialised in the history of the Norwegian Occupation and the Norwegian soldiers at the Eastern Front.'