I'm Travelling Alone (16 page)

Mia carried the box to the incident room and put it on the table. She sat down and stared at the wall. As always, Ludvig had put up pictures from both cases, Post-it notes and arrows, names and questions. Pauline and Johanne.
Dresses? Who?
At least they knew the answer to that now, even though they had got no further than a cardboard box left behind by a dead man with an eagle tattoo on his neck. She removed the lid and spread out some of the contents on the large table. There was not muchin the box. A few photographs. One showing a dog. A golden retriever. A guy on a fishing trip; his face was not included in the photograph, only the large salmon he held in his hands. A car. Who on earth has a photograph of their car? Mia thought, and delved deeper into the box. Underneath a pile of bills, she found what she was looking for. A laptop and an iPhone. She tried turning on the iPhone. The battery was dead. She searched the box for the charger, but did not find one, nor one for the laptop; when she tried turning it on, it too had run out of power.

Mia was on her way to her office to fetch her own charger when she heard noise from one of the offices further down the corridor. It would appear that not everyone had gone home after all. The new nerd was still there – what was his name again? Gabriel. Gabriel, that was it. Mia was annoyed that her brain still refused to work properly; her diet of pills and alcohol on the island had left its traces: nausea and dizziness, no appetite and jumbled thoughts that refused to straighten out. She walked down the corridor to Gabriel’s office and made up her mind to start exercising again. She used to be in great shape once, but that was a long time ago. She wondered if Chen was still in town. Probably. But he was pissed off with her. Or was she pissed off with him? She couldn’t remember. She made a mental note. Call Chen. Get back to exercising. Get the blood flowing through her muscles. Get her brain working again.

‘Hello, are you still here?’

Mia popped her head round the door without knocking. The young man with the blond hair jumped.

‘Oh, I didn’t hear you,’ he said apologetically.

Mia thought she detected the hint of a blush in his cheeks.

‘Sorry, my mistake.’ She smiled. ‘I was just wondering if you could help me with something.’

‘Of course.’ Gabriel nodded. ‘Do you mind if I finish connecting these?’

He pointed to some cables lying on the floor.

‘Take all the time you need,’ Mia said.

‘I thought the police were supposed to be experts,’ Gabriel smiled as he crawled under the desk with the cables in his hand. ‘But whoever installed this had no idea what they were doing.’

‘Don’t ask me. I don’t know anything about computers. I’m down in the incident room.’

‘OK, I’ll be with you in a minute.’

Mia stopped by her own office on her way back and picked up the chargers, for both the laptop and the iPhone. Who keeps photographs of their car and their dog? Mia had no photographs at the office. She’d put everything she owned into storage when she moved to Hitra. Paid three years’ rental in advance. She didn’t want to have to think about her personal possessions now. Her photographs, her parents or Sigrid. She pushed the thought aside and continued to the incident room. She connected Roger Bakken’s laptop and phone to the chargers and went out on Munch’s smoking terrace to get a bit of fresh air. The evening twilight was descending over the city and it was growing colder. She pulled her leather jacket around herself more tightly and missed her knitted beanie. Why was she acting like this? Behaving like a spoilt brat? Was she starting to feel sorry for herself? Now? She had never complained a single day in her life. She had a sudden urge for a cigarette. She had never smoked, but it seemed the right thing to do up here. Smoking in order to think, that was what Holger did. And where was he, anyway? She checked her watch: it was two hours since he had gone to see his solicitor. She hoped it was nothing serious; they had enough on their plate as it was.

‘Ahem, Mia?’

Gabriel had appeared in the incident room. Mia went back inside to join him. Suddenly, she felt bad for the guy, new to working with the police. Had anyone bothered showing him the ropes? Told him what he was here to do?

‘How are you, Gabriel? she said, sitting down on the big table.

The young hacker looked away and then down at the floor. he was definitely blushing. He really was a delicate little petal, Mia thought, and produced a packet of lozenges from her pocket.

‘Oh, I’m all right,’ Gabriel said.

‘You’re settling in? Do you have everything you need?’

‘I’ve just finished installing the equipment. Looks good. In fact, I’m going to a meeting in Grønland later. Induction. Someone called Møller?’

‘Ah, yes, we call him Hat-trick.’ Mia nodded. ‘He’s good.’

‘Excellent,’ Gabriel nodded. ‘I haven’t seen police databases before; it’ll be fun to see how they work.’

Mia smiled.

‘You’re a hacker and you’ve never had a look at our databases? I find that hard to believe. Or sneaked a peek at Interpol? Come on, you must have done that?’

Gabriel reddened again and looked tongue-tied.

‘I don’t know …’

‘I’m just pulling your leg. Relax. I don’t care. Do I look as if I care?’

Mia winked at him and offered him a lozenge. Gabriel took one and sat down on a chair. Mia liked this boy. Nice and clever. Polite and shy. It was good to be around such people again. In fact, she was starting to feel better. Her brain was recalibrating.

‘What can I do for you?’

‘Those two,’ Mia said, pointing to the laptop and the mobile that were currently charging.

‘Who do they belong to?’

‘Roger Bakken. The guy who ordered the dresses the girls were wearing.’

‘The one with the tattoo?’ Gabriel asked.

‘Yes. You’re well informed?’

Gabriel smiled.

‘I record all the unit’s phone calls, text messages and conversations. Everything shows up on my computer.’

Mia took another lozenge.

‘Really? Anything new?’

Gabriel gave her a strange look.

‘Are you asking me? I haven’t been here long.’ he smiled.

‘It’s been a while since I was here last.’ She winked. ‘But, seriously? Everything anyone says and all our text messages?’

‘Yep.’ Gabriel nodded. ‘Plus, all our mobiles have a tracker so I can see where you all are. Security and hyper-communication.’

‘Good God. Quite useful, though.’

‘Absolutely.’ The young man nodded.

‘So when Curry calls gay chatlines at night we’ll know about it the next day, is that right?’

Gabriel looked uncomfortable. He was not sure if she was joking or if she was up to something.

‘In theory, yes,’ he said, his cheeks rather red once more.

‘I’m just kidding.’

She got up and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Gabriel went over to the laptop and the mobile, sat down on the floor and turned on both devices. He continued to stare at them while they slowly came to life. The iPhone was up and running first, asking for a pin code. The laptop followed soon after; that too was password protected.

‘Will it be easy to access it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Can you do it?’

‘Now?’

‘Yes, please.’

‘Sure.’

Gabriel got up, went to his office and returned with a memory stick. Mia watched as the young hacker went to work on the computer.

‘I have a program called Ophcrack on this,’ Gabriel said as he inserted the memory stick into the laptop.

He pressed and held down the start button on the laptop until it turned off. He turned it back on again.

‘All I have to do is change the start-up sequence so that it reads the memory stick before it reads the hard drive. Do you understand?’

Mia nodded. She was not the sharpest person in the world when it came to computers, but this much she understood. Gabriel turned off the laptop and turned it back on again.

‘There. As it starts up, it’ll start by reading the memory stick and then it’ll load Ophcrack.’

Mia watched while Gabriel worked.

‘Right, as you can see, this machine has two users, Roger and Randi.’

‘Who is Randi?’

Gabriel shrugged.

‘Perhaps he had a girlfriend?’

‘Remind me to check that out. Randi.’

‘OK.’ Gabriel nodded. ‘Which password do you want me to crack?’

‘Let’s start with Roger.’

‘OK,’ Gabriel said, pointing to the screen. ‘Take a look at the columns saying LM Pwd 1 and LM Pwd 2. If the password is more than seven characters long, and it probably is, the first seven characters will appear in the column LM Pwd 1 and the rest in LM Pwd 2. Now all I have to do is select the user.’

Gabriel selected ‘Roger’ and clicked a command in the program, ‘Crack’.

‘And hey presto.’

Mia waited in tense anticipation for a few seconds while the program ran. Soon, the password appeared on the screen in front of them.

‘FordMustang67.’

The car in the photograph. If she had not had this young genius to help her, she could probably have cracked it herself. Not in a few seconds, obviously, but eventually.

‘Is this something everyone can do?’ Mia wanted to know.

‘Ophcrack is freeware, it’s available on the Net, so as long as you know what you’re looking for, yes, then everyone can do it.’ Gabriel nodded and turned the computer on and off again.

The login screen appeared and Gabriel was about to type in the password when Mia’s phone rang. The display read ‘Holger Munch’. She went out on the smoking terrace to answer it.

‘Mia here.’

‘Hi, Mia. It’s Holger.’

‘Where are you?’

‘In the car. Listen, there’s something we need to talk about.’

‘OK, right. Go on, then.’

‘Not on the phone. Let’s go for a beer.’

‘You want a beer?’

‘No, I don’t want a beer, but I do need to talk to you. It’s personal. Not work. You can have a beer; I’ll have a Farris.’

‘OK,’ Mia said. ‘Where do you want to meet?’

‘Are you at work?’

‘Yes.’

‘How about Justisen in a few minutes?’

‘No problem, Holger. See you there.’

‘See you soon,’ Holger said, and ended the call.

How strange. Holger had never minded discussing problems on the phone before, Mia thought. Then she remembered what Gabriel had just told her. Their phones were being monitored, for their own safety, of course. Once again she hoped that nothing serious had happened.

‘I’m afraid I need to leave,’ Mia said to Gabriel when she came back inside.

‘OK.’ The hacker nodded. ‘The laptop is up and running now. You want me to crack the iPhone as well?’

‘That would be super.’ Mia smiled. ‘Will you be working late?’

‘I’ll stick around for a while,’ Gabriel said. ‘I prefer to work nights anyway, and there’s a lot for me to learn.’

‘If something spectacular crops up, then call me, OK? If not, we’ll go over it tomorrow.’

‘Understood,’ Gabriel said.

‘Thanks for your help,’ Mia said.

She walked down the steps, pulled the jacket around her more tightly and made her way to Møllergata.

Chapter 26

Holger Munch was sitting under one of the heating lamps in Justisen’s beer garden. He had just lit a cigarette and was looking anxiously at his phone, typing a message, but put it down the moment Mia appeared.

‘Hello, Mia.’

‘Hello, Holger.’

‘Is it all right with you that we’re outside? I’ve already ordered.

‘Sure,’ Mia said, pulling out a chair.

It was an Oslo evening at the end of April and, truth be told, still too cold to be sitting outside, but the heating lamp helped. Mia knew there was very little point in sitting indoors with Holger; he smoked non-stop, so she might as well make herself comfortable outside from the start. She took a rug and covered her legs.

‘What have you ordered?’

‘Just a Farris and a sandwich and a beer for you; I didn’t know if you wanted anything else.’

‘No, thanks, a beer would be great,’ Mia said.

Holger glanced around the charming, rustic beer garden.

‘I haven’t been here for ages.’

‘Me neither.’ Mia smiled.

They both knew when the last time had been, but neither was prepared to say. A glance and a nod was enough. They had sat here, at the same table, two years ago, while the allegations against her were being investigated. Mia had been down in the dumps and Holger was the only person she could talk to. Somehow, a photographer from
Dagbladet
had found them, started taking photographs, refused to leave them alone. Holger had politely but very firmly escorted the photographer out of the bar. Mia had to smile at the memory. He really had been very chivalrous. She had needed him then. This time, he needed her.

‘I wasn’t trying to make a drama out of it, I just haven’t got the energy to do this on the phone. It’s not serious – I mean, it’s not as important as the case,– but, all the same, I would like your advice,’ Holger said.

A waitress appeared with their order. A bottle of mineral water and a prawn sandwich for Holger, a beer for Mia.

‘Hope you enjoy it. Just let me know if you need anything else,’ the girl said with a smile before she disappeared.

‘And, besides, we haven’t yet celebrated that we’re back.’ Holger smiled and raised his glass. ‘Cheers.’

‘Cheers.’ Mia smiled and took a sip of her beer.

She was loath to admit it, but it tasted wonderful. It hit just the right spot. She had to be careful, she was only too aware of it, but at this moment in time it was the way it was going to be. She deserved to relax. Holger ate his prawn sandwich without saying very much. He pushed his plate aside when he had finished and lit another cigarette.

‘Did you find anything useful among Bakken’s belongings?’

‘A laptop and an iPhone.’ Mia nodded.

‘Good. Anything of interest?’

‘Don’t know yet. Gabriel is checking them out as we speak.’

‘What do you make of him?’

Mia gave a light shrug and took another sip of her beer.

‘I haven’t had time to talk to him all that much, but he seems like a nice guy. Young, of course, but that’s not necessarily bad.’