‘What do you mean?’ Mikkelson said.
‘Well, I don’t know, but he has a private email account, I mean, he’s on the Net, Gmail, and so on. We don’t have access to those, or do we?’
Grønlie looked tentatively at Gabriel Mørk; he was well aware that he belonged to a different generation of police officers and hoped that he hadn’t been mistaken.
‘Are you telling me that everything we do online is being monitored? I certainly hope not,’ Curry quipped.
A few of the others tittered.
‘No, we don’t have access to those,’ Gabriel Mørk said.
‘So he could have got a message,’ Anette said. ‘Something which meant he had to turn up for a meeting alone?’
Mikkelson sighed.
‘And is that how we work?’
He looked across the gathering, still without getting the response he was seeking.
‘And is that how we work?’ he said again, a little louder this time. ‘No, it is not, we’re a team. A team. We don’t have room for maverick gung ho operations. Here, we keep each other informed about what is happening and we work together. No wonder you haven’t come up with anything.’
‘Actually, we’ve discovered quite a lot.’ Ludvig coughed and got up.
Kim really liked Ludvig Grønlie. He had exactly what it took to belong to the special unit. It was odd, really: several people had joined the unit only to leave soon afterwards because they just didn’t fit in. No one could quite put their finger on what it was. It was more than ability, age, background or specialism, it was also chemistry. A shared tacit understanding. This is what we do, and this is what we don’t do. He had met several talented colleagues who had joined them but never settled in. People who couldn’t stand the sight of Munch. Who thought that Mia Krüger was the most overrated investigator of her generation. Kim had worked with both Munch and Mia for a long time. And he couldn’t imagine doing any other job in the whole world.
Ludvig Grønlie gave Mikkelson a brief account about what they had discovered so far. Malin Stoltz. The flat filled with mirrors. The link between Høvikveien Care Home and a support group for childless women in Hønefoss. The Kiese movie, which, if Mikkelson had not insisted they all sat here like naughty children, would soon provide them with a location where Stoltz was holding Marion Munch.
‘Right, right,’ Mikkelson said, pushing his glasses back in place. ‘And where do we stand?’
‘Can I go now?’
It was Gabriel Mørk speaking. Kim Kolsø smiled discreetly to himself. He liked this young man. He had appeared out of nowhere and in no time become an important member of the team. A Munch special. Munch had brought in Mia Krüger in the same way. Rumour had it that she hadn’t even had to complete her training at Police College.
‘Why?’ Mikkelson said with a frown.
‘If Munch has gone to find the killer, it might be a good idea for us to know where that place is,’ Gabriel Mørk said. ‘We’re in the process of cleaning up the film. I have a mate who is brilliant at this. We’ll have the GPS coordinates soon. Perhaps it would be a better use of my time than sitting here.’
Kim laughed to himself. When he had first met Gabriel Mørk in the street, the young lad had looked as if he was afraid of his own shadow. Now it was as if he had been with the team from the start.
‘And who are you again?’ Mikkelson said, taking off his glasses.
‘Gabriel,’ Mørk replied.
‘How much police experience did you say you had?’
‘Two weeks,’ Mørk replied, deadpan.
‘I have twenty years,’ Mikkelson said, putting on his glasses again. ‘Perhaps I should be the judge of what we should be spending our time on, don’t you think?’
His attempt at sarcasm landed on stony ground. Kim could see Curry winking at Gabriel Mørk, who responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
‘Anette?’ Mikkelson said, seeking support.
‘Gabriel is right,’ Anette said, getting up. ‘The Kiese film is important and should be our number-one priority. If Munch has chosen to shut us out because Stoltz has given him an ultimatum, it is understandable. He loves his granddaughter. I would have done exactly the same.’
Kim could see the colour change in Mikkelson’s face. If he had thought that Anette Goli was on his side, he had been very much mistaken. Curry winked at Kim and got a smile back in return.
‘I see,’ Mikkelson said, sounding wounded and flicking through some papers on the table in front of him. ‘So what do we do now?’
Kim Kolsø had turned off the alerts on his mobile, but he had forgotten to turn off the vibration. His mobile suddenly jumped on the table in front of him, displaying an unknown number.
‘Yes?’ Mikkelson said irritably, glaring at him.
‘I have to take this one,’ Kim said, getting up.
‘Really?’ Mikkelson said.
‘Yes,’ Kim insisted.
‘Then…’ Mikkelson said.
Kim left the room and didn’t hear what followed. He went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee as he spoke on his mobile.
‘Kim Kolsø speaking.’
The caller was a woman.
‘Yes, hi, my name is Emilie Isaksen.’
‘Right, hi. What can I do for you?’
Kim opened the fridge and found a carton of milk. If there was one thing he and Mia Krüger agreed about, it was that you risked your life drinking the stuff that came out of the coffee machine.
‘I found your business card inside a mattress,’ the woman said. ‘And I don’t know what to do. I’m hoping you might be able to help?’
‘I might well be. What do you need help with?’ Kim said, adding some milk to his coffee.
Chapter 74
Tobias passed the blanket to Rakel and turned off his torch. This made the safe room seem completely dark, but they had no other choice. They had to conserve the torch batteries and their eyes quickly adjusted. Tobias didn’t know for how long they had been held prisoners in the underground room, but he estimated four to five days. He had opened the hatch and peered inside. He had whispered the name Rakel, the name of the girl he had just met, the Christian girl behind the fence, the girl in need of help, when someone had come up behind him and pushed him down inside. He had felt frightened and stupid, and he had hurt himself. He had fallen a long way, past a ladder, into a black hole where he had ended up on a hard concrete floor. Fortunately, he hadn’t landed on his head or his arms but on his side, and he believed that the latter had cushioned his fall, because he wasn’t in too much pain, only a bit in one hip and in one leg.
‘Should we try the hatch again?’ Rakel said in a soft voice through the darkness; he could barely make her out, although she wasn’t sitting far away from him.
‘I don’t t’ want to come across as defeatist, but they had made several attempts, most recently a few hours ago. He had climbed up the ladder and pressed his shoulder against the wooden hatch, but it hadn’t budged; it had been locked from the outside, and having the lock pick was no use as the lock was on the other side.
Fortunately, they had food. And blankets. And a torch. They had decided to conserve the batteries because they hadn’t found any spares. They were in a safe room. Rakel had explained it all to him. She had been down here several times. This was where they normally locked up naughty children. The ones who refused to do as they were told. Normally, they didn’t have to sit there very long; it depended on their offence. As far as Tobias had gathered, there were lots of different punishments on this farm. Being banned from talking for one week was one of them. Hence the notes Rakel had written and stuck through the fence. She could talk – she had not lost her voice, which was what he had first assumed – then he wondered if she was being difficult on purpose, like Chief Bromden in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. No, Rakel could talk all right and, after someone had pushed him down into the safe room where she was being held, she had talked almost non-stop. Tobias liked hearing her voice. She was unlike any other girl he had ever met and nothing like the ones at school, who mostly giggled or said silly things. Rakel spoke properly, almost like an adult. And she knew where everything in the safe room was. There was food in the boxes and large canisters of water and petrol and clothes. Everything you would need, although they had yet to find more batteries – but they surely had to be there somewhere.