There might be two other reasons, Henning thinks, why Mjones won’t talk. Firstly, he knows that the money he was paid for killing Pulli is waiting for him somewhere when he has served his sentence. Secondly, he might also be scared that what happened to Pulli could happen to him even though he might not know the identity of his employer and so couldn’t give him up even if he wanted to. Most orders for hits are made in code and under fictitious names.
The smell of a barbecue wafts towards them. Soon they reach a gravel path. The sunlight sparkles in the water. In the distance a red kayak slices through the dark-blue surface. Nansen and Henning sit down on a bench overlooking the lake.
‘I need to ask you something,’ he begins. ‘You usually visited Tore once a week while he was inside. During that time did he ever seem… how can I put it?… more tense or nervous than usual?’
She turns to him. ‘His mood varied, but I can’t think of anything in particular. Why do you ask?’
‘Because… ’
Henning looks down and thinks about Pia Nokleby. When he spoke to her a couple of days after the arrest of Gunhild Dokken, he asked again if the police had put in a request for Pulli’s telephone records from the prison. Her reply had been no, they hadn’t prioritised it. And Knut Olav Nordbo from Oslo Prison confirmed the same day that it was now too late.
‘I think Tore was killed because he knew who was behind the fire in my flat,’ Henning says. ‘I don’t think that Tore contacting me was the direct cause, but that he might have been speaking to someone else about it before he called me.’
‘Why would Tore have done that?’
‘I don’t know. Because he thought it might be to his advantage?’
‘How?’
‘If Tore knew who torched my flat, he might have tried to use that knowledge as leverage against that man or whoever that man works for. People who are in the same line of business as he used to be in and who might be coerced into helping him.’
‘Tore would never have threatened anyone,’ Nansen says, shaking her head. ‘Not any more.’
‘Are you sure about that, Veronica? Prison is hell, and it’s even worse if you’re innocent. I don’t have a problem believing that Tore was desperate — especially since his appeal was about to be heard. I can easily imagine that the person or persons who were responsible for the death of my son didn’t want that information to come out.’
Nansen looks at him before she bows her head. ‘And now we’ll never know what it was,’ she says.
‘No,’ Henning sighs. ‘I don’t suppose we will.’
Chapter 118
Special offers from supermarkets, requests from estate agents looking for a property just like his, furniture sales — Henning fails to catch all the junk mail that spills from his mailbox as he opens it. He bends down, picks it up and flicks through his post with lukewarm interest. But he freezes when he sees the name Erling Ophus and his address in Leirsund written on the back of an A4 envelope.
The police report, Henning thinks.
He runs up the stairs as quickly as he can and opens his brand-new front door. Once he has sat down on the sofa, he tears open the envelope and pulls out two sheets. He reads:
Venue and Fire Investigation Report
Commissioning party: Chief Inspector Tom Arne Sveen, E-section, Oslo Police Station.
Remit: Location investigation following a fire at 23 Markveien, Oslo, at approximately 20.35.
Date of request: Tuesday 12 September 2007 at 08.10.
Investigators: The scene of the fire was examined by Engineering Inspector Rune Olsen, Oslo Electricity Board, Fire Chief Nicolai Juve, Oslo Fire Service, and Chief Inspector Tom Arne Sveen who prepared this report at 10.00 on 12 September 2007.
Conclusion
After examining the scene of the fire and considering other information relating to this incident, it is my opinion that:
• the fire originated in the hallway behind the front door of the second-floor flat belonging to HENNING JUUL, but that
• the cause of the fire remains unknown.
Location of the fire
23 Markveien is an apartment block containing thirteen flats and a full basement. The flat on the second floor is accessed through a communal front door.
Additional information
The door to the second-floor flat was unlocked. The communal front door at street level was also open.
Investigation of the scene of the fire
The fire started in the hallway behind the front door to the left when viewed from the landing outside. There is most damage to the surface of the internal west-facing wall. Here the internal wall has completely burned away and there is substantial damage to the back of the external wall.
The wall between the hallway and the stairwell was badly damaged as the internal wall had been destroyed, but the fire damage was considerably less on the back of the panel.
Having removed debris from the floor in the hallway near the stairwell, we noticed that the floor covering (linoleum) and chipboard flooring were badly charred and there were some burn marks to the surface of the underlying wooden floor. This damaged area extended across the whole floor, all the way to the walls.
Samples taken
A section of partly charred woodwork was taken from the internal west wall.
Examination of material
This sample will be sent to Kripos to be tested for accelerants.
Observations
The photo shows that the fire started low, in the hallway right inside the front door leading to the flat. The damage was relatively major and the fire spread to large parts of the flat.
The open kitchen window caused the fire to spread quickly.
The front door showed no signs of forced entry.
Chief Inspector Tom Arne Sveen
Henning puts down the report. So the kitchen window was open, he thinks, though he can’t remember why. Perhaps they had been frying eggs, Jonas and him, and needed to air the room. If only they had eaten crispbread instead.
He looks inside the envelope and discovers a yellow Post-it note that must have fallen off the report. He takes it out. The note says Ring me when you have read the report, and Ophus’s initials and mobile number are written below the message. Henning rings him immediately and introduces himself when Ophus answers.
‘Oh, hi,’ Ophus says. ‘It’s you, is it? You’ve got the report, I gather?’
‘Yes.’
‘I didn’t get the chance to send you the photographs, and they wouldn’t have been very helpful either, as photocopies. Black and white, you know. Everything looks like soot.’
‘Hm.’
‘But I wanted to ask you about your front door. I remember us talking about how you always locked it, but that you couldn’t remember if you had locked it that day. Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ Henning replies, intrigued.
‘The report says that your front door was unlocked and that there was no sign of forced entry.’
‘I can only imagine that I didn’t lock it.’
‘Yes, that was what you said. But something puzzled me when I took a closer look at the photographs of your door. Had you attached something to it? A picture or a piece of paper, something like that?’
‘No. Or… I don’t remember. I don’t think so. We always stuck things on the fridge. Oh, yes, I put up a picture Jonas had made at nursery, a picture of him and me, but that was on the outside of the door.’