The Man In The Window [Mannen i vinduet - no]

'Notnecessarily.'

Frølich,perplexed: 'You don't think they talked?'

'Idon't think they necessarily discussed her infidelity,' Gunnarstranda said.

'Whynot?'

'Thereare things we choose not to talk about.'

'Butthis is adultery.'

'Iknow it's adultery, but you and Reidar Folke Jespersen may not have the samemoral code.'

'Code?'

Gunnarstrandawaved him on. 'Oh, never mind. Go on. Where were you?'

'Myguess is they started rowing. I think she became aggressive when he refused totalk to her – or when he stuck to his guns and insisted she stopped meeting theother man. Because she had been unfaithful he refused to sleep in the same bed.I assume he went down to the shop to sleep there. She couldn't put up with hissulking and followed – down to the shop where the row continued – and in theend she grabbed a bayonet hanging on the wall and stabbed him!' Frølichillustrated with stabbing motions in the air.

'Sleepin the shop? Why didn't he go to one of the many sofas in the flat?'

'All right,he didn't go downstairs to sleep, he went to the shop to look at the thingsKarsten had been talking about, or to check the door was locked – or just tosit and meditate for all I know. It doesn't change anything. She ended upstabbing him!'

'Andthen?'

'Hm?'

'Whathappened then?' Gunnarstranda asked with interest.

'Well,she undressed him, scribbled those things on his chest and forehead and draggedthe body to the shop window. We know all this…'

'Yes,but go on. What happened then?'

'Well,then she goes up to her room – and then she panics. She fakes a kind of nervousbreakdown and tries to work out how she can get off the hook.' Frølich throwshis arms in the air. 'The upshot is she phones Karsten to foist this break-infantasy on everyone around her.'

'Andthen?' Gunnarstranda urges his colleague on with a flourish of the hand.

'Shecould have rung her lover,' Frølich says with triumph in his voice. 'If shereally was frightened, she should have phoned her lover. But she doesn't; sherings Reidar's son. Why would she do that – if it wasn't to establish analibi…?'

'Butthen?'

Frølich:'Yes, things go wrong. She's rebuffed by Karsten's wife – Susanne – as it ishalf past two at night. She sits up until the morning biting her nails. But bya stroke of good fortune this paper girl shows up. So she doesn't have todiscover the body. Nor does she have to ring the police.'

'Thereare some flaws in your theory.'

'Fine,but at least it is a theory. And when I asked her whether she had heard anynoises that night, she went ashen. I'm sure she's holding something back.Absolutely certain.'

'Possible,'conceded the inspector, thinking. They stared at each other as Gunnarstrandaadded: 'However, why put the body in the shop window?'

Frølichreflected. 'That's a question we'll have to ask all the suspects,' he said.'It's irrelevant as a counterargument to the theory.'

'Irrelevant?The wife displaying her murdered husband in the shop window is illogical. Ifshe were trying to cover up the murder and claim it was the result of abreak-in, the logical thing to do would be to leave the body on the shop floor- dressed. It would be logical to damage the door frame or smash a window -much more logical than stripping the body and dragging it to the window.'

Theysat gazing into the air.

'Hemay have threatened her with divorce and loss of the inheritance,' Frølich saidat length. 'That would explain why he revoked the original will. It would alsoexplain why he didn't suggest a new will to the solicitor.' Frølich jumped tohis feet with excitement. 'Of course. It's obvious. That's how it was! He useddivorce and the inheritance to put pressure on his wife.'

Gunnarstrandashook his head. 'We've already been through the inheritance business.'

'Well…'Frølich was thinking aloud. 'She must have gone for the old goat for money fromthe very outset. Women who marry old men do it for money – everyone says that.Assuming this goes for her too, she's stuck it out for almost twenty-five yearswaiting for riches, and now, all of a sudden, this dream of paradise isjeopardized by her infidelity. That's why she kills Reidar, so that he doesn'thave time to leave the money to others in a new will.'

'Twoarguments in contra,' Gunnarstranda said. 'First of all, the likelihood iswe're not talking big money here. The couple lived in an expensive apartment inFrogner – and I imagine they were quite well off, but there is nothing tosuggest that Jespersen was a man of great wealth. The second is that I don'tbelieve Ingrid Jespersen is the type to marry a man for his money. Anotherthing I'm also a little uncertain about is whether her infidelity undulybothered Reidar.'

'Hemade the phone call,' Frølich objected. 'He ordered his wife to stop meetingStrømsted.'

'That'strue, but we shouldn't forget that Reidar had lived with this age differencefor a very long time. Do you remember what I said when I first met Ingrid? Itook it for granted that she had a lover – why would Reidar see things anydifferently? My guess is he assumed she would take lovers from time to time.'

Frølichconsidered what Gunnarstranda had said, but also found a counter-argument: 'IfJespersen accepted that his wife would go with other men, he wouldn't havebothered to ring her on precisely that day, would he?'

'Wedon't know why he rang. Perhaps he rang to give her a shock, to show her heknew about the relationship,' Gunnarstranda said darkly, 'to tell her to gether act together. Something may…

'Possible,'Frølich interrupted. 'But it's not without significance that he rings his wifewhen she is in the process of cheating on him and that he rings his solicitor afew hours later to retract a will, which, whatever you say, favours her in someshape or form. The strange thing is that he is killed afterwards. Furthermore,you're overlooking the dirty dog himself: Strømsted. He may be involved.'

'Something,'Gunnarstranda continued undeterred, 'may have happened which caused or provokedthe telephone call from Reidar to Strømsted.'

'Butwhat could that have been?'

Theywere interrupted by the telephone. Gunnarstranda grabbed it, listened for acouple of seconds and said: 'Excellent, Yttergjerde. Stay on their tail.'

'Troublein paradise,' he said, putting down the receiver. 'That was Yttergjerde. Ingridis having another tete-a-tete with Eyolf. Driving round in the car.'

'Co-ordinatingstatements?' Frølich suggested.

'Seemedlike they were having a row.'

Thetwo men exchanged looks.

'Theydo have a relationship, which we have uncovered. It would be strange if theyweren't talking.'

Frølichscratched his beard. 'It's not strange that she's angry,' he said. 'Strømstedadmitted the relationship to me, whereas she lied when I talked to her.'

'It'llbe interesting to see if she signs her new statement,' Gunnarstranda, said,putting on a thoughtful expression. 'This Strømsted person has a long-termrelationship with a man. While he is humping Ingrid Jespersen once a week -why?' The Detective Inspector supplied his own answer: 'I suppose to satisfyhis bisexual orientation. If he's crazy about Ingrid, he wouldn't be livingwith someone else, would he?'

'Youmean because Strømsted lives with someone he cannot be the murderer?' Frølichasked, and said: 'We don't know much about the feelings between the two of them- for all we know he could be screwing her to get a few kroner from the shop…'

Gunnarstranda'sbrow was still furrowed.

'Theydrove all the way to Toyen Park the day after,' Frølich said quietly. 'Both ofthem live in the best area of Oslo. Why would they drive all the way to ToyenPark if it wasn't to hide from us and get their stories straight?' He openedhis palms. 'And now they're doing it again.'

'Ithink you have a point. Toyen is a fair distance away…'

'Whydid they go all the way to Toyen if it hadn't been to lose Yttergjerde?'Excited, Frølich sprang to his feet. 'Even if they couldn't go to Strømsted'splace, because of his partner, they could have gone to Ingrid's. But why didn'tthey? Well, first of all there are police outside the house. And second of allthey would have to have sex in the flat above the crime scene. Imagine thenight of the murder: Ingrid checked all the doors in the house. If she was inthis together with Strømsted, she's the Trojan horse.'