Harry Hole Oslo Sequence 10 - Police

chair and snuggled her nose up against his neck. Her skin was still hot and smelt of Rakel and lovemaking. And Princess Myrrha’s tears.
    ‘Opium,’ he said. ‘Quite a name for a perfume.’
    ‘Don’t you like it?’
    ‘Yes, I do.’ Harry blew smoke at the ceiling. ‘But it’s quite . . . pronounced.’
    She lifted her head. Looked at him. ‘And you’re telling me that now?’
    ‘I hadn’t thought about it before. I didn’t really now, either.’
    ‘Is it the booze?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘The alcohol in the perfume. Is it that . . .?’
    He shook his head.
    ‘But there’s something,’ she said. ‘I know you, Harry. You’re troubled, restless. Look at the way you’re smoking. You’re sucking it out as if it were the last drop of water in the world.’
    Harry smiled. Stroked the gooseflesh on her back. She kissed him lightly on the cheek. ‘So if it’s not alcoholic abstinence, it’s the other variety.’
    ‘The other variety?’
    ‘The police variety.’
    ‘Oh, that,’ he said.
    ‘It’s the police murders, isn’t it?’
    ‘Beate came here to persuade me. She said she’d talked to you first.’
    Rakel nodded.
    ‘And that you’d given the impression it was fine by you,’ Harry said.
    ‘I said it was up to you.’
    ‘Had you forgotten our promise?’
    ‘No, but I can’t force you to keep a promise, Harry.’
    ‘And what if I’d said yes and joined the investigation?’
    ‘Then you would have broken your promise.’
    ‘And the consequences?’
    ‘For you, me and Oleg? Greater chance that we would be doomed. For the investigation into the murders of the three officers? Greater chance of success.’
    ‘Mm. The former is definite, Rakel. The latter highly doubtful.’
    ‘Maybe. But you know very well that we could be doomed anyway, whether you work for the police or not. There are several pitfalls. One is that you start climbing the walls because you can’t do what you feel you were born to do. I’ve heard of men whose relationships break down just in time for the autumn hunt.’
    ‘Elk. Rather than birds of the featherless variety, you mean?’
    ‘Yes, that does have to be said in their favour.’
    Harry inhaled. Their voices were lowered, calm, as though they were discussing the shopping. That was how they talked, he thought. That was what she was like. He pulled her to him. Whispered in her ear.
    ‘I want to keep you, Rakel. I want to keep this.’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Yes. This is good. This is the best I’ve ever known. And you know what makes me tick, you remember Ståle’s diagnosis. An addictive personality bordering on OCD. Booze or hunting, it makes no difference, my mind starts whirring in the same grooves. As soon as I open the door, I’m there, Rakel. And I don’t want to be there. I want to be here . Hell, I’m on the way there now, only talking about it! I’m not doing this for Oleg and you; I’m doing it for me.’
    ‘There, there.’ Rakel stroked his hair. ‘Let’s talk about something else then.’
    ‘Yes. So they said Oleg would be out early?’
    ‘Yes. There are no more withdrawal symptoms. And he seems more motivated than ever. Harry?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘He told me what happened that night.’ Her hand continued to stroke him. He wanted it to be there for ever.
    ‘Which night?’
    ‘You know. The night the doctor patched you up.’
    ‘Oh, he told you, did he?’
    ‘You told me you were shot by one of Asayev’s dealers.’
    ‘In a sense that’s true. Oleg was one of them.’
    ‘I preferred the old version. The one about Oleg appearing at the crime scene afterwards, seeing how badly hurt you were and running along the Akerselva to A&E.’
    ‘But you never really believed it, did you?’
    ‘He told me he burst in and forced a doctor at gunpoint to go with him.’
    ‘The doctor forgave Oleg when he saw my state.’
    Rakel shook her head. ‘He would have liked to tell me the rest as well, but he says he doesn’t remember much from those months.’
    ‘Heroin does have that effect.’
    ‘But I thought you might fill in the gaps for me now. What do you say?’
    Harry inhaled. Waited a second. Let out the smoke. ‘I prefer to say as little as possible.’
    She tugged his hair. ‘I believed you that time because I wanted to. My God, Harry, Oleg shot you. He should be in prison.’
    Harry shook his head. ‘It was an accident, Rakel. All that’s behind us now, and as long as the police don’t find the Odessa gun no one can link Oleg to the