Harry Hole Oslo Sequence 10 - Police

call from someone pretending to be a detective. He says he wants them at the crime scene right away because they know all about the previous murder and they need information to see if it can help them to make the correct decisions while the evidence is still fresh.’
    Beate went in first. She knew her way around of course. It was more than a cliché to say forensics officers never forgot a crime scene. She came to a halt in the living room. The sunlight fell from the window and lay in crooked rectangles on the bare, evenly faded wooden floor. It must have been sparsely furnished for years. The family had probably taken most of it with them after the murder.
    ‘Interesting,’ said Ståle Aune, who had taken up a position by a window overlooking the forest between the house and what he assumed to be Berg School. ‘The murderer uses the hysteria he has created himself as bait.’
    ‘If I got a call like that I would consider it very plausible,’ Katrine said.
    ‘And that’s why they go there unarmed,’ Beate continued. ‘They think the danger’s over. That the police are already in position, so they can take their time and fill up with petrol on the way.’
    ‘But,’ Bjørn said with his mouth full of Wasa cracker and caviar, ‘how does the murderer know the victim won’t ring a colleague and find out there isn’t any murder?’
    ‘Presumably the murderer has told them not to talk to anyone until further notice,’ Beate said, eyeing the crumbs falling on the floor with disapproval.
    ‘Also plausible,’ Katrine said. ‘Experienced police officers wouldn’t be taken aback by that. They know it’s important to keep a suspicious death quiet for as long as possible.’
    ‘Why is it important?’ Ståle Aune asked.
    ‘The murderer might drop his guard when he thinks the body hasn’t been found,’ Bjørn said and sank his teeth into another bit of the crispbread.
    ‘And Harry reeled all this off just like that?’ Katrine asked. ‘After reading the newspapers?’
    ‘He wouldn’t be Harry otherwise,’ Beate said, hearing the tram rattle past across the road. From the window she could see the roof of Ullevål Stadium. The windows were too thin to shut out the drone of traffic from Ring 3. And she remembered how cold it had been, how they had frozen in their white overalls. But also how she had formulated the idea that it hadn’t only been the temperature that had made it impossible to be in this room without shivering. Perhaps that was why it had been vacant for so long. Potential tenants or buyers could still feel the cold. The chill of the stories and rumours circling at that time.
    ‘Fair enough,’ said Bjørn. ‘He’s worked out how the murderer lures the victim. But we already knew they’d gone there willingly, under their own steam. So it’s not exactly a quantum leap in the investigation, is it?’
    Beate went over to the second window and her gaze scanned the area. It would be easy to hide the Delta team in the forest, in the dip in the ground by the metro rails and perhaps in the neighbouring houses on both sides. In short, surround this house.
    ‘He always did come up with such simple ideas you scratched your head afterwards wondering why you hadn’t thought of them,’ she said. ‘The crumbs.’
    ‘Eh?’ Bjørn said.
    ‘The crispbread crumbs.’
    Bjørn looked down at the floor. Back up at Beate. Then he tore a sheet from his notepad, crouched down and brushed the crumbs onto the paper.
    Beate looked up and met Katrine’s enquiring eyes.
    ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Beate said. ‘Why the fuss? This isn’t a crime scene. But it is. Every place where an unsolved crime has been committed is and remains a crime scene with the potential to reveal evidence.’
    ‘Are you counting on finding clues from the Saw Man here?’ Ståle asked.
    ‘No,’ Beate said, examining the floor. ‘They must have planed it off. There was so much blood, and it must have stained so deep into the wood, that scrubbing would have made no difference.’
    Ståle glanced at his watch. ‘I’ve got a patient soon, so what about telling us Harry’s suggestion?’
    ‘We never informed the press,’ Beate said, ‘but when we found the body in this room we first had to ascertain whether it really was human.’
    ‘Oooh,’ Ståle said, ‘do we want to hear any more?’
    ‘Yes,’ Katrine said firmly.
    ‘The body had been sawn up into such small parts that at first sight it wasn’t easy to