As suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped and they raced through the clouds of steam hovering above the hot tarmac.
‘What was it you said Herrem said again?’ the embassy secretary asked.
‘Valentin,’ Kari replied.
‘No, the rest.’
‘It was very unclear. A long word. May have been two. Sounded like something to do with a commode.’
‘Commode?’
‘Something like that.’
Kari stared at the rows of rubber trees planted alongside the motorway. She wanted to go home. Home as in home home.
23
Harry ran down the corridor of PHS past the Frans Widerberg painting.
She was standing in the doorway of the gym. Ready for battle in tight-fitting sports gear. Her arms crossed, leaning against the door frame, she followed him with her eyes. Harry was about to nod, but someone shouted ‘Silje!’ and she went inside.
On the first floor Harry popped his head round the door to see Arnold.
‘How did the lecture go?’
‘Not bad, but they probably missed your gruesome, if irrelevant, examples from the so-called real world,’ Arnold said, continuing to massage his bad foot.
‘Anyway, thanks for covering my slot,’ Harry smiled.
‘No problem. What was so important?’
‘Had to go up to the Pathology Unit. The pathologist has agreed to exhume the body of Rudolf Asayev and do a second post-mortem. I used your FBI stats on dead witnesses.’
‘Glad I could be of use. By the way, you have another visitor.’
‘Not. .’
‘No, neither frøken Gravseng nor any of your ex-colleagues. I said he could wait in your office.’
‘Who. .?’
‘Someone you know, I believe. I gave him some coffee.’
Harry met Arnold’s gaze. Nodded quickly and left.
The man in the chair in Harry’s office hadn’t changed much. Bit more meat on the bones, a touch of grey around the temples. But he still had the boyish fringe befitting the suffix ‘junior’, a suit that looked borrowed and the sharp-eyed, quick-witted gaze that could read a document page in four seconds flat and quote every word, if necessary, in a court of law. Johan Krohn was, in brief, the law’s answer to Beate Lønn, the lawyer who won even when Norwegian law was his opponent.
‘Harry Hole,’ he said in his youthful voice, got up and proffered his hand. ‘Been a long time,’ he said in English.
‘Not long enough,’ Harry said, shaking his hand. Squeezing his titanium finger against Krohn’s palm. ‘You’ve always been bad news, Krohn. Coffee all right?’
Krohn squeezed back. Hard. The additional kilos must be muscle.
‘Your coffee’s good,’ he smiled knowingly. ‘My news as usual is bad.’
‘Oh?’
‘I’m not in the habit of showing up in person, but I wanted to have a tête-à-tête before putting anything into writing. This is about Silje Gravseng, who is your student.’
‘My student,’ Harry repeated.
‘Is that not the case?’
‘In a sense. You made it sound as if she were personally mine.’
‘I’ll do my best to be as precise as possible,’ Krohn said, puckering his lips into a smile. ‘She came straight to me instead of going to the police. Out of fear you would back one another up.’
‘You?’
‘The police.’
‘I’m not-’
‘You were employed by the police for years and, as a PHS employee, you’re part of the system. The point is she’s frightened the police would try to dissuade her from reporting this sexual assault. And that in the long term it would damage her career if she set herself against them.’
‘What are you talking about, Krohn?’
‘Am I still not making myself clear? You raped Silje Gravseng here in this office last night, just before midnight.’
Krohn observed Harry during the ensuing silence.
‘Not that I can use this against you, Hole, but your absence of visible surprise is eloquent and reinforces my client’s credibility.’
‘Does it need reinforcing?’
Krohn placed the tips of his fingers together. ‘I hope you’re aware of the seriousness of this matter, Hole. The very fact that this rape has been reported and made public will turn your life upside down.’
Harry tried to imagine him in his lawyer’s gown. The trial. The accusatory finger pointing at Harry in the dock. Silje bravely drying a tear. The lay judges’ open-mouthed expressions of indignation. The cold front from the public gallery. The ceaseless scratching of the court sketcher’s lead pencil on his pad.
‘The only reason I’m sitting here, instead of two policemen with handcuffs ready to usher you out through the corridors, past your colleagues and your students, is that this approach would have a cost for my client as well.’
‘Which is?’
‘I’m sure you know. She would always be the woman who sent a colleague to prison. Grassed up, it would be said. I understand this is frowned upon in police circles.’
‘You’ve seen too many films, Krohn. The police like to see rape cases cleared up, whoever the suspect is.’
‘And the trial would be a strain for a young girl, of course. Especially with important exams looming. As she didn’t dare to go to the police, and had to think hard before she came to me, much of the forensic and biological evidence will already be lost. And that means the trial might drag on for longer than it would otherwise.’
‘And what evidence have you got?’
‘Bruising. Scratch marks. A torn dress. And if I have to ask for this office to be gone through with a fine-tooth comb, I’m sure we’ll find bits of the same dress.’
‘If?’
‘Yes. I’m not just bad news, Harry.’
‘Oh?’
‘I have an alternative to offer you.’
‘The devil’s, I assume.’
‘You’re an intelligent man, Hole. You know we don’t have damning evidence. This is a typical rape case, isn’t it? It’ll be one person’s word against another’s and we’ll end up with two losers. The victim is suspected of loose morals and making false accusations, and everyone assumes the man who has been acquitted got off lightly. Given this potential lose-lose situation, Silje Gravseng has presented me with a wish, a suggestion, which I have no hesitation in supporting. Let me for a moment step out of my role as your adversary’s lawyer, Hole. I advise you to support it too. For the alternative is she reports you. She’s absolutely clear about that.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes. As someone who wants to maintain law and order as her profession, she sees it as her civic duty to ensure that rapists are punished. But, fortunately for you, not necessarily by a judge.’
‘So, principled in a way?’
‘If I were you, I would be less sarcastic and a little more grateful, Hole. I could have recommended she report you to the police.’
‘What do you two want, Krohn?’
‘In brief, for you to resign from your post at PHS and never again work for, or be in any way connected with, the police. Leaving Silje to continue her studies here in peace without any interference from you. The same applies when she takes up a job. One negative word from you and the agreement is declared null and void, and the rape will be reported.’
Harry placed his elbows on the table, put his head in his hands. Massaging his forehead.
‘I’ll set up a written agreement in the form of a settlement,’ Krohn said. ‘Your resignation in exchange for her silence. Secrecy is a prerequisite on both sides. You will, however, hardly be able to damage her if you did break secrecy. Her decision will be met with sympathetic understanding.’
‘While I’ll be seen as guilty because I went along with this settlement.’
‘View it as damage limitation, Hole. A man with your background will easily be able to find work. As an insurance investigator, for example. They pay better than PHS, believe me.’
‘I believe you.’
‘Good.’ Krohn flipped up the lid of his phone. ‘How’s your calendar for the next few days?’