Ю Несбё - The Kingdom

‘Can you tell that too?’ I asked Martinsen.

‘We can at least see if it’s the same kind of ammunition and, if we’re lucky, if the GSR traces on Poul Hansen could have come from that type of pistol. But the chain of events is pretty clear now.’

‘And what is that?’

‘Poul Hansen shot Willum Willumsen in his bedroom in the morning, and then drove up here to try to get the money Willumsen owed him from Carl, but then the Jaguar skidded on the ice on Geitesvingen, and—’ Abruptly she stopped. Smiled. ‘Your sheriff probably wouldn’t like it if he knew how closely you were following our investigation, Opgard.’

‘I promise not to tell.’

She laughed. ‘All the same, for the good of our working relationship, I think it’s best if I say you were inside the house for most of the time we were here.’

‘Fair enough,’ I said, zipping up my jacket. ‘It sounds anyway as if the case is cleared.’

She pressed her lips together as though to say we don’t answer questions like that, but at the same time blinked a ‘yes’ with both eyes.

‘How about a coffee?’ I asked.

I spotted a momentary confusion in her eyes.

‘Because it is cold,’ I said. ‘I can bring a pot out for you.’

‘Thanks, but we’ve got our own,’ she said.

‘Of course,’ I said, turned, and left. I had the distinct feeling she was watching me. Not that she was necessarily interested, but of course you check out the arses you can. I thought of the hole in that zinc bucket and how close that bullet from the Dane had been to hitting me in the head. Professionally done, considering the car was in motion. And a good thing the drop had been so long there was no longer any front windscreen with a bullet hole in it to cause confusion about when and where Poul Hansen had fired that shot.

‘Well?’ said Carl, who was sitting at the kitchen table with Shannon.

‘I’ll say the same as Kurt Olsen,’ I answered, heading for the stove. ‘ Oh yeah .’

AT THREE O’CLOCK IT STARTED to snow.

‘Look,’ said Shannon, staring out through the thin glass windows in the winter garden. ‘Everything is disappearing.’

Large, shaggy flakes of snow were drifting down to lie like a feathered quilt across the landscape, and she was right, a couple of hours later everything was gone.

‘I’m driving to Kristiansand this evening,’ I said. ‘It seems the holiday took a few people down there by surprise, and the work’s been piling up.’

‘Keep in touch,’ said Carl.

‘Yes, keep in touch,’ said Shannon.

Her foot touched mine beneath the chair.

It had temporarily stopped snowing as I left Opgard at seven o’clock. I thought I’d better fill up with petrol, turned in at the station and saw Julie disappearing through the new sliding doors. There was only one car parked on the old boy racer hangout, Alex’s souped-up Ford Granada. I pulled up beneath the bright lights of the pumps, stepped out and started to fill up. The Granada was just a few metres away and with the light from a nearby street lamp falling on the golden-brown bonnet and windscreen we could see each other clearly. He was alone in the car, Julie had gone inside to buy something, a pizza maybe. Then they’d go home and watch a film, that was the usual thing to do around here when you started going steady. Removed from circulation, as people say. He pretended he hadn’t seen me. Not until I hooked the pump nozzle inside the fuel cap opening and walked across. Then suddenly he was very busy, sitting up straight behind the wheel, pinched out a freshly lit cigarette so the sparks danced on the snow-free asphalt beneath the roof over the pumps. Started winding up his window. Maybe someone had told him he’d been lucky Roy Opgard hadn’t been in the mood for a fight on New Year’s Eve and mentioned a couple of stories from the old days at Årtun. His hand even crept up and locked the door on his side.

I stood next to his door and tapped on the glass with the knuckle of my index finger.

He wound the window down a couple of centimetres. ‘Yes?’

‘I’ve got a suggestion.’

‘Oh?’ said Alex and looked as if he reckoned what was coming was a suggestion for a rematch. And that would be a suggestion in which he had no interest at all.

‘Julie’s bound to have told you what happened before you came along on New Year’s Eve, and that you should apologise to me. But that isn’t so easy for a guy like you. I know, because I used to be that guy myself, and I’m not asking you to do this for my sake or for yours. But it’s important for Julie. You’re her fellah, and I’m the only boss she’s had who’s treated her decently.’

Alex gaped, and I realised that what I said was making sense to him.

‘For this to look right I’m going to go over and finish fuelling, slowly. And when Julie comes back, you get out of the car and walk over to me, and you and I set things straight so she sees it.’

He stared at me, his mouth half open. I don’t really know how smart Alex is, but when he did finally close his mouth I figured he’d realised that this would actually solve a couple of problems. In the first place, Julie would stop going on about how he wasn’t man enough to dare to apologise to Roy Opgard. In the second place, it would mean he could stop looking over his shoulder and waiting for me to have my revenge.

He nodded.

‘See you,’ I said, and returned to the Volvo. I positioned myself behind the pump so Julie didn’t see me when she re-emerged a minute later. I heard her get into the car, heard the door close. A few seconds later a car door opening. And then Alex was standing in front of me.

‘Sorry,’ he said, and held out his hand.

‘These things happen,’ I said. Over his shoulder I saw Julie staring at us, wide-eyed, from inside the car. ‘But, Alex?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Two things. Number one. Be kind to her. Number two. Don’t throw away lighted cigarettes when you’re parked this close to the pumps.’

He swallowed and nodded again. ‘I’ll pick it up,’ he said.

‘No,’ I said. ‘I’ll pick it up after you’ve gone. OK?’

‘OK,’ Alex said with his mouth. And then added a ‘thanks’ with his eyes.

Julie waved gaily to me as they drove by.

I got into my car and drove off. Slowly, the milder weather had made the roads more treacherous. Passed the county sign. I didn’t look in the mirror.

IN THE SECOND WEEK OF January I received a summons to attend a company meeting of the Os Spa and Mountain Hotel SL. It was scheduled for the first week in February. The order of business was simple and consisted of one point: Where do we go from here?

The formulation opened up all sorts of possibilities. Should the hotel be scrapped? Or should it be sold to other interested parties and only the SL company be scrapped? Or should the project continue, only with a new timetable?

The meeting wasn’t due to start until seven, and it was still only one as I pulled into the yard outside Opgard. A metallic white sun shone from a cloudless sky, and it was higher above the mountain peaks than it had been the last time I was home. As I stepped out of the car Shannon was standing there, so beautiful that it was painful.

‘I’ve learned to walk on these,’ she said, holding up a pair of skis in delight. I had to stop myself from taking her in my arms. Only four days earlier we had shared a bed in Notodden. I could still taste her on my tongue and feel the warmth of her skin.

‘She’s good!’ said Carl as he emerged from the house with my ski boots in his hands. ‘Let’s take a trip over to the hotel.’