The youths from further down the street had moved closer now and were enthusiastically applauding the show. The people on the other side of the street had slowly started to move on, some of them with inquisitive looks in my direction, others with obvious signs of disappointment that the show was already over.
I turned and set off quickly after Astrid Nikolaisen in the hope that she hadn’t seized the chance to make off.
Surprisingly enough, there she stood leaning against my car, with her arms resting on the roof and head in hands.
I smiled to reassure her. ‘Everything’s OK.’ I dug out my car keys and opened the door. ‘Come on… Just get in,’
She looked at me with red-rimmed eyes. Her make-up had run down her sallow cheeks in streaks. Her clothes were still in disarray. A corner of her pale blouse was sticking out from under her short bomber jacket and something that looked like the elastic from a black bra was hanging out of one of the side pockets. ‘Dirty old bastards!’ she spat out. ‘The stuff they ask you to do, you haven’t a bleedin’ clue have you? Makes you puke!’
‘Yeah, I noticed.’
She held up the thumb and index finger of her right hand, just an inch or so apart. ‘Pathetic little – worms – this size! And then they expect us, expect me to…’ She gagged again. But her stomach was empty. All that came out was horrible rasping groans, which again put me in mind of an animal, this time with its foot caught in a snare.
I felt a slight wave of nausea myself. ‘Want to talk about it?’
She looked at me baffled. ‘Talk? What the hell good does that do?’
Do you want me to go back and break Kenneth Persen’s jaw then? Is that what you’re waiting for? ‘Come on, Astrid, get in…’
Stiffly, she did as I said. I locked the door after her, went round to the driver’s side, opened the door and sat behind the wheel.
We exchanged glances. There was a momentary glint of mutual understanding between us, like a father and daughter who had finally reconciled themselves to a shared fate. Then her look clouded over, and her face closed in on itself.
I looked past her. ‘There’s still ten minutes left on the meter. Shall we stay here or shall I drive you straight home?’
She shrank away from me. ‘Home? I don’t want to go home!’
‘Your mother’s frightened for you, Astrid.’
‘Like hell she is. She hates my guts!’
‘She does n -’
‘You don’t know what happened!’
‘Yes I do. Everything.’
‘What?! Did she tell you?’ She looked at me wide-eyed.
I nodded. ‘She’s your mother, Astrid. You mustn’t think she doesn’t care about you.’
‘But after what I…’
‘She’s still so young, though, compared with… You must see that it was normal for her to react like that, but she’s forgiven you now, I can guarantee you that. So you can’t be surprised that she went off the deep end.’
She avoided my eyes. ‘That wasn’t how she… I was asleep anyway! Suddenly there he was in my bed, and… I tried to resist obviously, but… It’s not that easy… He’s strong.’
‘You can report him for rape.’
‘Ha, ha, ha! Who’d believe me, eh? I can just hear Gerd in the witness box…’
‘But I believe you, Astrid. And when you explain it to her, properly, I’m sure your mother’ll understand as well.’
‘Gerd…’ she said, almost with a note of surprise in her voice.
‘Had he done it before, Astrid?’
‘What do you think? As soon as she was out of the door he’d start pawing me! He knew where he’d got me, what with me being on the safe list and that!’
‘The safe list?’
‘Yeah. Why do you think people were always asking for us, eh?’
‘You mean… because you were on a list?’
‘Not just me! Torild as well!’
‘And this list… what did it consist of, Astrid?’
‘Consist of?’
‘Yes, what did it mean?’
‘That we were safe, obviously! That we didn’t have anything you could catch…’
‘I get it. Was there a doctor who examined you all?’
She looked away. ‘Once a month. I couldn’t stand it, but we got paid more.’
Her answer struck me like a thunderbolt. The way she said it. As though it was a summer job in a souvenir shop. I had to compose myself before I could continue. ‘And what was the name of the – er – company doctor?’
‘Dr Evensen. His surgery’s in Strandgaten.’
‘So, did you all go there in normal business hours?’
‘No, always in the evening. And there was never anybody else there.’
‘And this Dr Evensen, did he just examine you or -?’
‘Not just. But he didn’t always, erm, we didn’t always, see what I mean?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid so. And… who organised all this?’
She looked down. ‘It was K-K-Kenneth who talked me into it. He said… you could earn a real packet if you did.’ She pulled a face with a shudder of disgust. ‘Dead easy money… Just lie on your back and close your eyes.’
‘Listen, Astrid. I know it’s not easy to talk about it, but I know most of it already… They would ring you at Jimmy’s, wouldn’t they?’
‘They didn’t ring us!’
‘No, all right, but you got the jobs through Jimmy’s, didn’t you? Kalle, the guy behind the counter… you know he’s Kenneth’s brother?’
‘Yeah…’
‘And then – did you just turn up?’
She nodded.
‘Where?’
‘Different places.’
‘Cars?’
‘Yeah, that too.’
‘Other hotels, besides the Pastel?’
‘Various ones. But mostly it was there. The clients rented the room, and Kenneth took us up.’
‘What were they like, the clients?’
Her face set hard again. ‘Some of them could be fairly OK. There were a few I thought I recognised, from the papers.’
‘Politicians?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Don’t follow all that stuff.’
‘They never said their names?’
She thought for a moment. ‘Sometimes they wanted you to call them something or other. But it was just their first names, that’s if it wasn’t just James or something daft like that.’
‘James?’
‘Yeah. Can you believe it? But most of them were horrible old bastards, like that one today! I’m dead certain he was a teacher, dead certain!’
‘And how were you paid?’
‘Cash in hand! But… Kenneth kept most of it, we had to give it to him, you see, and it was no use trying to put one over on him, because he always knew how much we’d got!’
I felt a knot in my stomach. ‘But Kenneth… it’s not like him to run a show like that on his own.’
‘Oh?’
‘Was he the one who’d contacted Dr Evensen, for example?’
‘It was him who made the appointments, at any rate.’
‘You never felt there was someone behind him?’
‘Think I cared if there was anybody behind him?’
‘What did you do with the money?’
She looked out of the window. ‘Bought stuff. Clothes and CDs. Partied.’
‘Drugs?’
She muttered something.
‘What was that?’
I used to have a puff now and then… and a few tablets. Nothing else.’
‘No hard drugs then?’
‘No!’ She looked me straight in the eye as she rolled up her sleeve. ‘Want to have a look?’
‘No need. I believe you when you say -’
‘I believe you when you -! You sound just as daft as those social freaks in Child Welfare and places! You’re all just as daft, the whole lot of you! You lot don’t have a fucking clue about – anything – about what it’s like to be young nowadays…’ Suddenly there were tears in her eyes.
I placed my hand cautiously on her shoulder to calm her down. ‘Take it easy, Astrid. Take it easy.’