Harry Hole Oslo Sequence 10 - Police

larger investigative unit. Bellman won’t allow anything else.’
    ‘With all due respect,’ Harry said. ‘To hell with Bellman. I’m no smarter than any of you, but I’m new and that gives us a chance to look at this with fresh eyes.’
    Katrine snorted. ‘Bollocks. You didn’t mean that “no smarter” stuff.’
    ‘No, I didn’t, but let’s pretend I did,’ Harry said, without batting an eyelid. ‘Let’s start from the beginning again. Motive. Who would want to kill police officers who have failed to solve cases? Because that’s the common denominator here, isn’t it? Come on, you tell me.’
    Harry folded his arms, slipped down in his chair and closed his eyes. Waiting.
    Bjørn Holm was the first to break the silence. ‘Relatives of the victims.’
    Katrine weighed in. ‘Rape victims who aren’t believed by the police or whose cases aren’t properly investigated. The murderer punishes the police for not clearing up other sexually motivated murders.’
    ‘René Kalsnes wasn’t raped,’ Hagen said. ‘And if I thought my case hadn’t been investigated properly I would have confined myself to killing the officers concerned, not all the others.’
    ‘Keep the suggestions coming and we can shoot them down afterwards,’ Harry said, sitting up. ‘Ståle?’
    ‘Those who have been wrongfully convicted,’ Aune said. ‘They’ve served their time, they’re stigmatised, they’ve lost their job, respect for themselves and the respect of others too. The lions that have been expelled by the pride are the most dangerous. They don’t feel any responsibility, only hatred and bitterness. And they’re willing to take risks to avenge themselves as their lives have been devalued anyway. As herd animals they feel they haven’t got a lot to lose. Inflicting suffering on those who have inflicted suffering on them is what makes them get out of bed in the morning.’
    ‘Avenging terrorists then,’ Bjørn Holm said.
    ‘Good,’ Harry said. ‘Make sure we check all rape cases where there is no confession from the accused and the case wasn’t cut and dried. And where time has been served and the individual concerned is out of prison.’
    ‘Or perhaps it isn’t the accused,’ Katrine said. ‘The accused could be still inside or could have taken his life in desperation. And the girlfriend or brother or father has vowed to wreak revenge.’
    ‘Love,’ Harry said. ‘Good.’
    ‘Heck, you can’t mean that,’ Bjørn came in.
    ‘Why not?’ Harry said.
    ‘Love?’ His voice was metallic, his face distorted into a strange grimace. ‘You can’t think that this bloodbath has anything to do with love ?’
    ‘In fact I do,’ Harry said, slipping back down in his chair and closing his eyes.
    Bjørn got up, red-faced. ‘A psychopathic serial killer who, out of love, does . . .’ His voice cracked and he nodded to the empty chair. ‘. . . this.’
    ‘Look at yourself,’ Harry said, opening one eye.
    ‘Eh?’
    ‘Look at yourself and feel. You’re furious, you hate, you want to see the miscreant dangle by the neck, die, suffer, don’t you? Because you, like us, loved the woman who sat there. So the mother of your hatred is love, Bjørn. And it’s love, not hatred, that makes you willing to do whatever it takes, go to any lengths to get your hands on the guilty party. Sit down.’
    Bjørn sat down. And Harry got up.
    ‘That’s what strikes me about these murders too. The lengths he goes to to reconstruct the original crimes. The risks the murderer is willing to take. I’m not sure, bearing in mind all the work involved, that behind everything is sheer bloodlust or hatred. The bloodthirsty murderer kills prostitutes, children or other easy targets. Someone who hates without love is never so extreme in his efforts. I think we should look for someone who loves more than he hates. And so the question is, from what we know about Valentin Gjertsen, has he really got the capacity to love so much?’
    ‘Maybe,’ Gunnar Hagen said. ‘We don’t know everything about Valentin Gjertsen.’
    ‘Mm. When’s the date for the next unsolved murder?’
    ‘There’s a bit of a gap now,’ Katrine said. ‘May. There was a case nineteen years ago.’
    ‘That’s more than a month away,’ Harry said.
    ‘Yes, and there was no sexual element. It was more like a family feud. So I took the liberty of examining a missing persons case that looks like murder. A girl disappeared in Oslo. She was reported