Harry Hole Oslo Sequence 10 - Police

mean?’
    ‘I mean I read newspapers. I read that Nilsen had gone to Tryvann in a Golf that was left in the car park, and they were his footprints in the snow down to the ski-lift hut. And that you had CCTV images from a petrol station in Drammen showing Anton Mittet alone in his car before his murder. They knew police had been killed in exactly this way. Yet they still went.’
    ‘Of course we’ve wondered about that,’ Beate said. ‘But we haven’t found the right answer. We know they were called from phone booths not far from the crime scenes, so our guess is they knew who it was and this was their chance to catch the murderer on their own.’
    ‘No,’ Harry said.
    ‘No?’
    ‘Forensics found an empty gun and a box of ammo in Anton Mittet’s glove compartment. If he had thought the murderer was there he would have at least loaded the gun first.’
    ‘He might not have had the time and the murderer struck before he could open the glove compartment and—’
    ‘He was called at 22.31, but he filled up with petrol at 22.35. So he had time after he’d received the call.’
    ‘Perhaps he ran out of petrol?’
    ‘Nope. Aftenposten has put the petrol station video online under the heading: “ THE LAST IMAGES OF ANTON MITTET BEFORE HE WAS EXECUTED ”. It shows a man filling up for only thirty seconds before the pump trigger clicks, meaning the tank is full. So Mittet had plenty of petrol to get to the crime scene and back home, which in turn means he wasn’t in any hurry.’
    ‘Right. So he could have loaded the gun, but he didn’t.’
    ‘Tryvann,’ Harry said. ‘Bertil Nilsen also had a gun in the glove compartment of his car. Which he didn’t take with him. Accordingly we have two officers with experience of murder cases who turn up at unsolved crime scenes even though they know a colleague has recently been murdered in this way. They could have armed themselves, but they didn’t and apparently they had plenty of time to do so. Veteran policemen who have stopped playing the hero. What does all this tell you?’
    ‘OK, Harry,’ Beate said, turning, leaning back against the door and shutting it, ‘what should it tell us?’
    ‘It should tell you that they didn’t think they were going to catch a murderer there.’
    ‘Well, so they didn’t think that. Perhaps they thought it was a rendezvous with a beautiful woman who got a kick out of having sex at crime scenes.’
    Beate meant this as a joke, but Harry answered without batting an eyelid. ‘Not enough notice.’
    Beate considered the matter. ‘What if the murderer pretended to be a journalist interested in talking about other unsolved cases in the wake of these? And told Mittet he wanted to talk late at night to get the right atmosphere for the photographs?’
    ‘It takes a bit of an effort to get to the crime scenes. At least to Tryvann it does. I read that Bertil Nilsen drove from Nedre Eiker, which is a thirty-minute drive. And serious police officers don’t volunteer their time in order to give the press another shocking murder headline.’
    ‘When you say they don’t volunteer their time, do you mean . . .?’
    ‘Yes, I do. My guess is they thought it was work.’
    ‘And it was a colleague ringing?’
    ‘Mm.’
    ‘The murderer rang them, pretending to be a policeman working at the crime scene because . . . because it was a potential scenario for the cop killer to strike next time and . . . and . . .’ Beate rubbed the uniform button in her ear. ‘. . . and said he needed their help to reconstruct the original murder!’
    She could feel herself smiling like a schoolgirl who had just given the teacher the right answer, and she blushed like one when Harry laughed.
    ‘We’re getting warmer. But with the restrictions on overtime I’d imagine Mittet would have been surprised to be summoned in the middle of the night and not during working hours.’
    ‘I give up.’
    ‘Oh?’ Harry said. ‘What kind of call from a colleague would make you go anywhere at all in the middle of the night?’
    Beate smacked her forehead. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘We’ve been such idiots!’

18
    ‘ WHAT ARE YOU saying?’ Katrine said, shivering in the cold gusts of wind as they stood on the steps outside the yellow house on Bergslia. ‘He rings his victims and says the police murderer has struck again?’
    ‘It’s as simple as it’s brilliant,’ Beate said, confirming the key fitted, turning it and opening the door. ‘They get a