Ю Несбё - The Kingdom

‘Now?’ said the voice at the other end.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve got some free time now.’

‘Fine,’ said Carl. ‘Fritt Fall in twenty.’

FRITT FALL WAS OCCUPIED BY the usual early-afternoon gang of horse-racing enthusiasts and people who keep the social security system ticking over.

‘A beer,’ I said to Erik Nerell.

He gave me such a cold stare. I had had him on my list of people I suspected of torching the hotel, but today that list had been reduced to one.

Heading for an empty table by the window I saw Dan Krane sitting alone with his beer at another window table. He was staring out emptily. He looked – how shall I put it? – a bit scruffy. I left him alone, and reckoned he’d show me the same courtesy.

I was halfway through my beer when Carl trotted in.

He gave me a bear hug and bought a cup of coffee, getting the same frosty treatment at the counter as I had. I saw Dan Krane register Carl’s presence, finish his beer and leave the premises with demonstratively heavy footsteps.

‘Yes, I saw Dan,’ said Carl before I had a chance to ask him and sat down. ‘Apparently he’s no longer living at the Aas place.’

I nodded slowly. ‘Anything else?’

‘Oh yes…’ said Carl and took a drink of coffee. ‘Excited about the owners’ meeting this evening, of course. And Shannon’s taking more and more of the decisions at home. Today she decided she’s going to use the Cadillac up until the meeting, so I’m driving the wifemobile.’ He nodded towards the Subaru out on the car park.

‘The most important thing is that you arrive for the ceremony in style,’ I said.

‘Of course, of course,’ he said and took another sip. Waited. Almost dreading things, the way it looked. Two brothers sitting there, full of dread. Lying in bunk beds, dreading the sound of the door opening.

‘I think I know who torched the hotel,’ I said.

Carl looked up. ‘Oh?’

I saw no reason to milk it and told him straight out. ‘Grete Smitt.’

Carl gave a loud laugh. ‘Grete’s a bit touched, Roy, but not that touched. And she’s quietened down now. It’s done her good, hooking up with Simon.’

I stared at him. ‘Simon? You mean, Simon Nergard ?’

‘You didn’t know that?’ Carl chuckled humourlessly. ‘The rumour is that Simon got her to drive him home to Nergard on New Year’s Eve and she stayed over. And ever since they’ve been like peanut butter and jelly.’

My brain was processing this as fast as it could. Could Grete and Simon have torched the hotel together ? I mulled it over. It tasted funny. On the other hand, a lot of things had tasted funny recently. But that wasn’t something I needed to take up with Carl. In fact, I didn’t actually need to take it up with anyone, because what the fuck did it matter who had done it? I cleared my throat. ‘There was something you wanted to talk to me about.’

Carl looked down into his coffee cup, nodded. Looked up, checked that the six other customers were sitting far enough away, leaned forward and said in a low voice: ‘Shannon is pregnant.’

‘Oh wow!’ I smiled, trying not to overact. ‘Congratulations, brother!’

‘No,’ said Carl, shaking his head.

‘No? Something wrong?’

The shaking turned into nodding.

‘With the kid?’ I asked. Even though I was lying, the very thought of there being something wrong with the child Shannon was carrying, our child, made me feel ill.

Carl’s head went back to shaking.

‘Then what?’ I asked.

‘It isn’t me who’s the…’

‘Who’s the what?’

His head finally stopped and he gave me a defeated, broken look.

‘Not the father?’

He nodded.

‘How…?’

‘Shannon and I haven’t had sex since she came home from Toronto. I haven’t been allowed to touch her. And it wasn’t her who told me she was pregnant, it was Stanley. Shannon doesn’t even know that I know.’

‘Fucking hell,’ I said.

‘Yeah, fucking hell.’ His heavy gaze wouldn’t let go of me. ‘And you know what, Roy?’

He waited, but I didn’t answer.

‘I think I know who it is.’

I swallowed. ‘Oh?’

‘Yeah. Early last autumn Shannon suddenly had to go to Notodden, see. An interview about an architect job, she said. When she came back she was absolutely frantic, for days on end. Didn’t eat, didn’t sleep. I thought it was because obviously, nothing had come of the architect job. When I gathered from Stanley that Shannon was pregnant, I asked myself how in the world she’d managed to meet another man. I mean, Shannon and I, we live in each other’s pockets. And so I began to think differently about that trip to Notodden. Shannon tells me everything, and what she doesn’t tell me, I can easily read on her. But there’s been something there I haven’t quite managed to get hold of. Something she’s been hiding. As if she had a guilty conscience about something. And when I think back, it happened after that night away she had in Notodden. And suddenly she’s taking these day trips to Notodden, says she has to go shopping. You follow?’

I had to cough to get some volume into my voice. ‘I think so.’

‘So the other day I asked her where she stayed when she spent the night at Notodden, and she said the Brattrein Hotel, I called to check. Sure enough, the reception said a Shannon Alleyne Opgard had booked a room there on 3 September. But when I asked who with, he said she’d booked the room just for herself.’

‘He told you all this? Just like that?’

‘It’s just possible I said my name was Kurt Olsen and I was calling from the sheriff’s office in Os.’

‘For God’s sake,’ I said, and could feel the back of my shirt getting wet.

‘So I asked them to go through the guest register for that particular date. And then an interesting name cropped up, Roy.’

My mouth felt dry. What the fuck had happened? Had Ralf remembered I was there and given my name? Wait, now I remember, that’s right: he said he’d reserved a room for me when he saw me going into the restaurant, he’d presumed I was going to be staying there. Had he put me down as a booking and then forgotten to delete it when it turned out I didn’t need a room?

‘An interesting and very familiar name,’ said Carl.

I steeled myself.

‘Dennis Quarry.’

I stared at Carl. ‘What?’

‘Dennis Quarry. The actor. The director. The American who stopped by the service station. He was staying at the hotel.’

I didn’t realise I’d stopped breathing until I inhaled again. ‘So what?’

‘So what? He gave his autograph to Shannon at the service station, don’t you remember?’

‘Sure. But…’

‘Shannon showed me the piece of paper afterwards, in the car. She laughed because he’d written his phone number and email address there too. Said he reckoned on being in Norway for quite a while. Was going to be –’ Carl made quotation marks in the air with his fingers – ‘ directing . I thought no more about it, and I don’t think she did either. Not until after what happened between Mari and me…’

‘You think she met him to get her revenge?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

I shrugged. ‘Maybe she loves him?’

‘Shannon doesn’t love anyone. The only thing she loves is that hotel of hers. She needs a good hiding.’

‘And I guess someone’s given her that.’

It just came out of me. Carl pounded his fist on the table, and his eyes looked as if they might explode out of his skull. ‘Did that bitch say that?’

‘Shush,’ I said, and grabbed hold of my beer glass as though it were a lifebuoy. In the ensuing silence I noticed everyone in the place had turned to look at us. Carl and I stayed quiet until we heard the conversations resume, and saw Erik Nerell bent over his mobile again.