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

'Haveyou any reason to doubt us?'

'No…'

'Thereare a couple of untidy details,' Gunnarstranda said. 'About the course ofevents on the night your husband was killed.'

'Ihave nothing to add,' she said coolly.

'Wehaven't managed to get a statement from Hermann Kirkenær yet.'

'Isuppose not.'

'He'sin a coma.'

'So Iunderstand.'

'Didhe say anything to you about the night your husband was killed?'

'Nothingat all. I'd rather not…'

'We'vespoken to his wife, Iselin Varås,' Gunnar- stranda interrupted. 'She saysKirkenær left the Hotel Continental between one and half past one in themorning. He returned to the hotel at the latest at three with a uniform packedin a box, which proves that he had been to the shop to pick it up.'

Hepaused to let the words sink in.

'Isthat enough proof?' she asked after a while.

'Thereare a couple of things we can't quite get to add up,' Gunnarstranda said, and turnedto Frølich: 'Could you start the engine and get the heating going?'

Frølichobeyed. He stepped hard on the accelerator.

Thecurly head in the Opel opposite peered nervously in the direction of the policecar.

'Whatthings?' Ingrid asked stiffly.

'Well,Kirkenær returning home with the uniform in a box.'

'Mm.And what's strange about that?'

'Well,we were working on the theory that Kirkenær killed your husband and got hisclothes covered in blood. Since he couldn't go out onto the streets withbloodstained clothing, we thought he had put on the uniform which he hadconveniently sent to the shop beforehand. Afterwards he had packed his ownclothes in the box where the uniform had been. But that doesn't tally withKirkenær returning home with clean clothes and a clean uniform in a box.'

'Whydo you believe everything the woman says? It's obvious she would protect herhusband.'

'Ofcourse, except that she knows nothing about her husband's real and much closerrelationship with your late husband. But you can rely on us. We have seized thebox, the uniform and the clothes. No one would have been happier than me if wehad found blood on these items. The next problem is this damned medal.'

'Whatmedal?'

'Themedal that Kirkenær was trying to get off you the night he was shot by thepolice.'

'Washe looking for a medal?'

'Yes.'

'Ididn't understand what he meant. Anyway, he didn't find a medal in my flat.'

'No,he didn't. Because I've got it,' Gunnarstranda said, retrieving a littleplastic case containing a bronze medal from his inside pocket. 'Karsten's son,Benjamin, was playing with it on the same morning as your husband was founddead.'

'Howdo you know?'

'Becausewe – Karsten, Frølich and I – saw him doing it. He even showed it to us.'

Silencein the car.

'Frølich,'Gunnarstranda said.

Withdifficulty, Frølich turned round.

'Couldyou go and take a statement from our friend in the other car?'

'Ofcourse,' Frølich said, getting out and closing the door behind him.

Thetwo of them on the back seat contemplated his large body towering over the carwhile he waited for two cars to pass. Then they watched Frølich cross thestreet and open the door for Strømsted to get out. The engine was left running.They saw Frølich order Strømsted into the rear and follow him in.

'Really,'said Ingrid Jespersen.

'It'llbe interesting to read what he says later,' Gunnarstranda said.

'It'scramped in here,' Eyold Strømsted said with apprehension. He bent forward andstared past Frølich, towards the rear of the police car where IngridJespersen's profile could dimly be seen. The defroster and the heater were onfull. An oval patch on the front windscreen had opened up. 'What are you two upto?' Strømsted asked.

'We'retaking a new statement from you,' Frølich answered laconically.

'Why'sthat?'

'Fullname?'

'EyolfStrømsted.'

'Born?'

'Fourthof the fourth, nineteen-fifty-six.'

'Maritalstatus?'

'Whatare the categories?'

'Married,single, cohabitee.'

'Cohabitee.'

'Address?'

'JacobAalls gate 11B.'

'Isit true that you share a property with Sjur Flateby, born on the eleventh ofthe ninth, nineteen-forty-eight?'

'Itis.' Strømsted looked across at the police car from which Ingrid Jespersen waswatching them with a pallid face.

'SjurFlateby has withdrawn his original statement.'

'What?'

Frølichsearched through his inside pocket for some folded A4 sheets, which he passedto the other man. 'This is your partner's new statement. Would you be so kindas to read through it?'

Strømstedtook the papers. He seemed bewildered.

'Bottomof page two,' Frølich said. He turned over the page and pointed. 'This is thebit that differs from his earlier statement. Sjur Flateby swears that you wentout on the evening of Friday 13th January and didn't return until after five inthe morning.' Frølich gave the man with the alluring curls a long, hard stare.'Before,' he continued with a cough. 'Before, you both claimed you were snug athome in front of the TV until one o'clock at night, after which you went to bedand kept each other awake until half past five. What do you say now that you nolonger have an alibi?'

'Backto the medal that Kirkenær was searching for,' Gunnarstranda said.

'Whatabout it?'

'Lookat it.'

Gunnarstrandapassed the medal to Ingrid Jespersen.

'Nazitreasure,' she said, examining it.

'Guesswhere the boy found it,' the detective said.

Sheshook her head.

Gunnarstrandapointed to the window of the antiques shop. 'He found it in the shop. Benjaminfound it while his father was working in the shop on Friday the 13th. You mightremember. In your statement you said you and Karsten were drinking coffee inthe office that morning from ten until just past eleven. During this time theboy was drawing and playing on the floor. He told me last night that he had beenrummaging through a box containing a uniform. He had pinched this off theuniform.'

Theylooked at each other. 'So?' Ingrid said at last.

'Therewere no keys in Reidar's clothes when he was found dead,' Gunnarstranda said.

'Isthat so?'

'Wethought it strange because he must have let himself in that night.'

'Soundsreasonable,' she said.

'Weknow that Kirkenær came to the shop on Friday the 13th to meet Reidar. Ourtheory was that your husband let him in. Then Kirkenær killed him. We thoughthe wore the uniform so that his blood-stained clothes would not attractattention. We thought he took Reidar's keys after killing him.'

'Didn'the?'

'Ohyes, he took the keys.'

'So,what's the problem?'

'Theproblem is that stealing the keys is totally illogical.'

Ingridstared at the policeman. 'Are you claiming…?' she said in a stiff tone, andrepeated herself: 'Are you claiming the man who broke into my flat in themiddle of the night and slashed my hand was sane, logical and in possession ofhis right mind?' She raised her bandaged hand.

'Weassumed,' Gunnarstranda said, undeterred, 'that Kirkenær took the keys fromReidar after killing him, went into your flat, possibly leaving snow on thefloor; and dropped the medal from the uniform. However, since Reidar'sgrandchild found the medal before Reidar was killed, Kirkenær can't havedropped the medal in your flat. Do you agree?'

Ingridgave him a stern look.

'Thereare two logical questions which have to be answered here. If Kirkenær didn'tdrop anything in the flat why did he go back later to look for something? Andwhy did he take Reidar's keys if he didn't need them? There is only one logicalanswer to the first question. Kirkenær took the uniform with him to remove anytraces that might indicate his personal connection with this man. He didn'trealize that the medal was missing until long after. But when he did, he knewthe medal would be traced back to the war and to him. So it was handy for himto have your husband's keys. He could use the keys to get into the shop andlook for the medal. But the answer to the second question is still problematic.Why did he take the keys when he couldn't know that he would need them? Can yourecall that the seal we had put on the shop door was broken?' Gunnarstrandaasked. He went on: 'The seal had disappeared but the door hadn't been opened. Iwent into the shop and found some fragments of a broken wine glass. But ourofficers had this glass down in the records as intact after the murder. Sosomeone must have removed the seal after the murder and gone into the shop,then smashed the glass by accident. I think it was Kirkenær. He had yourhusband's keys and searched for the medal in two stages. First of all heunlocked the shop and searched it without success. In his confusion he knockeda glass off the desk. The next night he returned. And he broke into your flat.But why would he do that? He couldn't have guessed that the medal was there.The medal could have been at the bottom of the harbour as far as he knew. Itcould have been anywhere.'