Ю Несбё - The Kingdom

At nine o’clock a light drizzle started falling. I could see it was falling as snow up on Geitesvingen.

At eleven o’clock it started falling as snow in the village too.

At twelve o’clock the head of sales walked in through the door.

‘Ready for all eventualities as usual,’ he grinned, once I had finished serving a customer who headed out with one of my shovels in his hand.

‘We live in Norway,’ I said.

‘We’ve got an offer for you,’ he said, and I supposed it was yet another sales campaign he was about to force onto us. Nothing at all wrong with the campaigns, eight out of ten of them work well, so the people at head office know their business. But sometimes those countrywide special offers of a parasol and volleyball or some exotic type of Spanish sausage with a Pepsi Max are a little bit too generalised. Local knowledge of local needs and likes matters too.

‘You’re going to get a call from one of the bosses,’ said the head of sales.

‘Oh?’

‘One of the bigger stations down in Sørlandet is struggling a bit. Good location with modern facilities, but the station boss hasn’t managed to get things moving down there. He doesn’t follow up on the campaigns, doesn’t report when and how he should, his staff aren’t motivated, and… well, you know. They need someone who can turn it round. It’s not part of my job, I’m just giving you a heads-up since I’m the one who suggested they have a word with you.’ He spread his arms as if to say it was nothing, from which I realised he was expecting an expansive display of gratitude.

‘Thanks,’ I said.

He smiled, waiting. Maybe he thought I owed it to him to tell him what my answer would be.

‘That’s pretty sudden,’ I said. ‘I’ll hear what they have to say and give it some thought.’

‘You’ll give it some thought?’ The head of sales laughed. ‘This is something you should be giving a lot of thought to. An offer like this doesn’t just mean more money, Roy, it’s a chance to show what you can do on the big stage.’

If he was trying to get me take the job so he would look like some kind of small-town kingmaker he’d made a bad choice of metaphor, as people say. But of course, he wasn’t to know that the mere thought of appearing on any stage, big or small, was enough to make my palms sweat.

‘There will be thinking,’ I said. ‘How about a cheeseburger campaign? What d’you think?’

At one o’clock Julie came in.

There was no one in the station and she came straight up and kissed me on the cheek. Deliberately, kept her lips soft, left them there a little too long. I don’t know what perfume she had on, only that there was too much of it.

‘Yes, and?’ I said as she let me go and looked up at me.

‘Just had to try out my new lipstick,’ she said, wiping my cheek. ‘I’m meeting Alex after work.’

‘Granada-Alex? You’re checking how much lipstick is left after a kiss?

‘No, how much feeling you lose in the lips with lipstick. Like you men and condoms, more or less, right?’

I didn’t answer. This was a conversation I didn’t want to be having.

‘Alex is actually quite sweet,’ said Julie. She put her head on one side and studied me. ‘Maybe we’ll do more than just kiss.’

‘Lucky Alex,’ I said as I pulled on my jacket. ‘You going to be all right alone?’

‘Alone?’ I saw the disappointment in her face. ‘Aren’t we going to—’

‘Sure, and I’ll be back in an hour at most. OK?’

The disappointment vanished. Then a wrinkle appeared in her forehead. ‘The shops are closed. Is it a woman?’

I smiled. ‘Call if there’s anything.’

I drove through the village and then turned in along Lake Budal. The snow was gone the moment it hit the road and the fields down here, but I could see it lying higher up on the hills. I looked at my watch. The chances of finding an unemployed roofer at home and on his own at one o’clock on a normal working day should be pretty high. I yawned. Had slept badly. Lain awake listening out for sounds from their bedroom. There were none, which made it almost worse, since it made me listen out even more intently, made me feel tense.

Driving up to the roofer’s I noticed there was at least a hundred metres of cultivated land between his white house and the nearest neighbour.

Anton Moe had probably heard and seen the car coming. He opened the door seconds after I rang the bell, his wispy hair blowing about in the wind. He looked at me quizzically.

‘Can I come in?’ I asked.

Moe hesitated, maybe thinking up some excuse to say no, then stepped aside to let me in.

‘Keep your shoes on,’ he said.

We sat down opposite each other at the kitchen table. On the wall above were a couple of framed embroideries with verses from the Bible and a cross. He could see that I had noticed the full pot of coffee standing on the worktop.

‘Some coffee?’

‘No thanks.’

‘If you’re looking for people to invest in your brother’s hotel I can save you the bother. Not much cash flowing here at the moment.’ Moe smiled sheepishly.

‘It’s about your daughter.’

‘Oh yeah?’

I looked at a little hammer lying on the windowsill. ‘She’s sixteen years old and she attends Årtun secondary school, right?’

‘That’s right.’

There was an inscription on the hammer. Roofer of the Year 2017 .

‘I want her to move away and start at Notodden secondary,’ I said.

Moe looked at me in amazement. ‘Why is that?’

‘The courses they offer there are more oriented to the future.’

He looked at me. ‘What exactly do you mean, Opgard?’

‘I mean that that’s what you should say to Natalie when you tell her why you’re sending her there, that the courses are more oriented towards the future.’

‘Notodden? It’s two hours’ drive away.’

His face showed nothing, but I guess it was dawning on him. ‘It’s good of you to concern yourself with Natalie’s welfare, Opgard, but I think Årtun is fine. She’s in her second year there already. Notodden is a big place, and bad things can happen in big places, you know.’

I coughed. ‘What I mean is, Notodden is best for all concerned.’

‘All?’

I took a deep breath. ‘Your daughter can go to bed each night without worrying about whether her father will be coming in to fuck her. You can go to bed without degrading your daughter, your family and yourself night after night, so that at some point in the future you might perhaps all be able to forget about it and pretend it never happened.’

Anton Moe stared at me, his face blazing, his eyes looking as though they were about to explode. ‘What are you talking about, Opgard? Are you drunk?’

‘I’m talking about shame,’ I said. ‘The sum total of shame in your family. Because everyone knows and no one’s done anything, everyone thinks part of the blame is on them, that it’s all lost already so there’s nothing to lose by allowing it to continue. Because when all is lost, one thing at least remains. The family. Each other.’

‘You’re sick, man!’ He had raised his voice, and yet it sounded thinner and diminished. He stood up. ‘I think you better leave now, Opgard.’

I stayed seated. ‘I can go into your daughter’s bedroom, pull off the sheet and hand it over to the sheriff to check for sperm stains and whether they’re yours. You won’t be able to stop me, but I’m guessing that won’t matter, because your daughter won’t help the police by being a witness against you, she’ll want to help her father. Always, no matter what. So the only way to put a stop to this is…’ I paused, looked up, caught his eyes. ‘Because we all want to put a stop to this, don’t we?’