‘Yes.’
‘Both of you will take the lift up, walk to the door leading to the roof, open it a crack and let me know you’re there. If you come rushing out, I’ll cut Alex’s throat. You understand that too, right?’
Harry swallowed. ‘Yeah.’
‘So, when I tell you, both of you will back out through the door and onto the roof.’
‘Back out?’
‘That’s how they do it in maximum security prisons, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Then you understand. You’ll go first. Eight steps backwards. Then you’ll stop and go down on your knees. Whoever’s with you will take four steps backwards and then kneel. If that’s not done exactly as—’
‘I get it. Eight and four steps backwards.’
‘Good, you’re quick. I’ll put the knife to your throat while Alexandra walks to the door of the roof. Your colleague will accompany her down to the car and they will drive away.’
‘And then?’
‘Then the negotiations can begin.’
There was a pause.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Harry. Why swap a good hostage for a bad one? Why give up a young, innocent woman who both the police and the politicians know will stir much stronger feelings among the public than an ageing, male police detective?’
‘Well...’
‘The answer is simply that I love her, Harry. And to make sure she’s willing to wait for me to be a free man I must demonstrate my true love to her. I think the jury will also see it as a mitigating factor.’
‘I’m sure they will,’ Harry said. ‘Shall we say an hour from now?’
The high-pitched laughter came down the line once more. ‘Another nice try, Harry. Surely you don’t think I’m planning on giving you enough time to alert the Rapid Response Unit and gather half the police force before the exchange?’
‘OK, but we’re some distance away. How much time do we have to get there?’
‘I think you’re lying, Harry. I don’t think you’re that far away. Can you see the moon from where you are?’
Øystein walked quickly to the window. Nodded.
‘Yeah,’ Harry said.
‘Then you can see that the eclipse is under way. When the moon is completely covered, I’ll slit Alexandra’s throat.’
‘But—’
‘If the astronomers’ calculations are correct, you have... let me see... twenty-two minutes. Just one more thing. I have eyes and ears in many places and if I see or hear that the police have been alerted before you arrive, Alexandra dies. OK, hurry up now.’
‘But—’ Harry stopped and held up the phone to let the others know the connection had been broken.
He checked the time. Helge Forfang had given them just long enough; if they took Ring 3 it wouldn’t take more than five or six minutes to the Forensic Medical Institute at Rikshospitalet.
‘Did you all get that?’ he asked.
‘Part of it,’ Aune said.
‘His name’s Helge Forfang, he works at the Forensic Medical Institute and he’s holding a colleague hostage on the roof. He wants to exchange her for me. We have twenty minutes. We can’t contact the police, if we do there’s a good chance of him discovering it. We need to go there now, but it’s just me and one more.’
‘Then I’m coming,’ Truls said firmly.
‘No,’ Aune said just as firmly.
The others looked at him.
‘You heard him, Harry. He’s going to kill you. That’s why he wants you there. He loves her, but he hates you. He’s not going to negotiate. He might have a tenuous grip on reality, but he knows as well as you or me that nobody gets a reduced sentence by bargaining over a hostage.’
‘Maybe,’ Harry said. ‘But even you can’t be sure just how deranged he is, Ståle. He might believe that he can.’
‘That seems unlikely, and you’re planning to risk your life on it?’
Harry shrugged. ‘The clock is ticking, gentlemen. And yes, I think an old, washed-up murder detective instead of a young medical research talent is a plus. It’s simple mathematics.’
‘Exactly!’ Aune said. ‘It’s simple mathematics.’
‘Good, we agree. Truls, you ready to go?’
‘We have a problem,’ Øystein said from the window. He was tapping on his phone. ‘I can see the traffic is at a complete standstill on the road down there. Unusual this late in the evening. And checking the NRK travel website here they’re saying Ring 3 is closed due to smoke from a burning house. That means all the smaller roads are chock-a-block, and speaking as a taxi driver, I can guarantee we won’t make it to Rikshospitalet in twenty minutes. Not thirty either.’
The people in the room, Jibran included, looked at one another.
‘Right,’ Harry said. Glanced at his watch. ‘Truls, would you like to abuse your non-existent authority as a policeman?’
‘I’d love to,’ Truls said.
‘Good. Then let’s go down to A&E and commandeer an ambulance with lights and sirens, what do you say?’
‘Sounds fun.’
‘Stop!’ Aune shouted, slamming his fist on the bedside table, upending a plastic cup and sending water spilling onto the floor. ‘Aren’t you listening to what I’m saying?’
52
Friday
Sirens
Prim heard the sound of the sirens rise and fall out in the darkening night. Soon the whole of the moon would be eaten up and the sky lit only by the yellow lights of the city below. They weren’t police sirens, and neither were they the sirens of the fire engines he had heard earlier in the evening. It was an ambulance. Of course, it could be an ambulance on its way to the Rikshospital but something told him it was Harry Hole announcing his arrival. Prim had opened the bag with the police scanner and had it switched on. It was possible Harry could inform his colleagues without word of it being communicated through the ether, Prim wasn’t the first criminal with access to police frequencies. But something about the peaceful and relaxed atmosphere of the radio traffic told Prim that there were at least not many police in the city who knew what was happening. The most dramatic incident of the evening appeared to be the charred human remains in a burning villa in Gaustad.
Prim had placed his chair right behind Alexandra’s, so they both faced the metal door where the policeman and his companion would make their entrance. He had considered allowing only Harry to come, but he couldn’t rule out needing someone else there to remove her by force if necessary. Now and again the smell of smoke was carried on a puff of wind down from Gaustad, situated only a half-kilometre or so away. Prim didn’t want to breathe it in. Didn’t want any more of Markus Røed inside him. He was done with hate. Now love remained. All right, Her first reaction had been to reject him. No wonder. The way he had blurted everything out had naturally come as a shock to her, and the automatic reaction to shock is flight. She had believed they were just friends! Maybe she had really believed that he was gay. Maybe she had mistaken it for a flirtation of sorts, an excuse for her to invite him out on the town and to parties without any ulterior motive. He had partly played along, thought maybe she needed that excuse, even admitted to having had sex with one man without mentioning his stepfather’s abuse. He and Alexandra had had such a good time! The idea of him loving her needed time to mature, clearly, the business with the diamond ring had been too soon. Yes, love remained. But in order for their love to have a chance to grow, what was keeping it in the shade had to go.
Prim felt the syringe in his inside pocket. After speaking with Harry, Prim had held it up in front of Alexandra and explained. She might not have had enough insight into microbiology to be the ideal audience, but with her background in medicine she was more qualified than the average listener. Qualified enough to understand what a parasitological breakthrough it had been to create parasites that work ten times faster than the older, slower ones. But he couldn’t say he had reaped the anticipated oohs and aahs when he had related how his gondii parasites had penetrated Terry Våge’s brain in under an hour. No doubt she was too frightened to concentrate. She probably believed her life was in danger. And, yes, it might well have been if Harry Hole hadn’t been so predictable. But Hole was going to do exactly as he, Prim, commanded, he belonged to the old school — women and children first. And he was going to get here in time. Prim was finally feeling the joy, the joy that had been so absent when he was boiling his stepfather’s head. Sure, the battle was lost. Alexandra had refused the ring, and Harry Hole had found him out. But the war remained, and that he would win. The first thing to do was to eliminate his rival for good. That was how it worked in the animal kingdom, and we humans are — at the end of the day — animals. Then he would of course have to go to prison. But from there he would teach Her to love him. And she would, because with Harry defeated, she would understand that it was he and not the policeman who was her male. It was that simple. Not banal but simple. Uncomplicated. It was only a question of time.