Medusa (38 page)

Viken’s bushy eyebrows reared up and faced each other like two hairy snakes about to copulate.

– What’s the matter with that bloke? he growled. – Hasn’t he got a wife?

The flowers had been sent from Flower Power in Majorstua on Wednesday evening at 6.40. Nina spoke to the florist on the phone. He thought he could remember the man who had made the purchase, a bouquet of nine long-stemmed roses. The description was vague, but it fitted Glenne.

Nina entered the information and thought about it. The delivery man had been there Wednesday evening. When no one answered, he had hung the flowers on the door. They were still there on Friday morning. But according to Arve, Miriam had been home when he called her yesterday evening. So why hadn’t she taken them inside?

Again she looked at what Arve had written about Miriam. There was something she hadn’t quite understood, and she knew it had to do with this report. Something Arve had said. She still couldn’t think what it was … She noticed that he hadn’t added the information about the engagement. She sat there, staring at the screen. Miriam had mentioned that the man she had been engaged to was someone she met in her first year in Norway. In other words, when she was attending the folk high school in Nordfjord. It would be possible to check the list of former pupils, but it was by no means certain that the fiancé had gone to the same school as her. It would be easier to ask someone who actually knew her.

During her interview Miriam had named two other students as her closest friends. Nina had made a note of their names. She looked them up in her notebook. Thought she should let Arve have them. Didn’t want him thinking she was taking over his job. That she thought he wasn’t doing it well enough. On the other hand, he had undertaken to check a mass of mobile phone calls and would have enough to be getting on with. He would thank her for it. Then she could remind her of their agreement. To have a drink together. Or two.

She was about to call directory enquiries when Viken burst in.

– Now we’ve got him, he trumpeted.

Nina had never seen him looking so elated.

– The photos you and Arve found in Miriam’s flat. They were covered in big juicy fingerprints. Want to guess whose?

It wasn’t hard to guess, but she didn’t want to spoil his surprise.

– Glenne, Viken said as calmly as he could. – Dr Axel Glenne.

Nina had the feeling of climbing aboard a merry-go-round that was already in full swing.

– He might be the one who sent them to her, she offered tentatively.

Viken drummed away on the door frame.

– I called Frøen. Nina, even he realises what this means.

Across his face were written the words:
What did I tell you?
All the more important, then, for her to tell him what she had found out.

– Miriam had a lengthy relationship after she arrived in Norway. She was engaged. I’m just trying to find out who the man was.

Viken gestured to her.

– That’ll have to wait. I need you for something else. We don’t have much bloody time. We’re going after Glenne now, with everything we’ve got.

O
SWALD HAD BEEN
restless all morning. He paced back and forth in the room making deep growling noises, and paid no attention to Signy Bruseter when she spoke to him. He hadn’t eaten, and she hadn’t been able to wash him. According to the night shift he’d been the same all night, wandering around restlessly, not getting a minute’s sleep. And of course, it affected Tora too. She sat there in her chair and never stopped whimpering. Several times Signy had been on the point of calling Mette Martin and warning her, but she decided to hang on until Åse Berit showed up. Åse Berit always managed to calm Oswald down, no matter how upset he was.

At a quarter past eleven, Signy heard the front door open and gave a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Åse Berit Nytorpet who came into the room, however, but a much older woman. A tiny, skinny little thing with permed silver hair and thick glasses.

– I heard things were a bit upside down here today so I came in earlier, she said.

Signy stared at her in surprise.

– Isn’t Åse Berit coming?

– Åse Berit’s off sick.

The old woman held out a withered, scrawny hand.

– I’m Ingeborg, she said. Ingeborg Damhaug. I used to work here before, worked here for years.

Signy smiled bravely. Åse Berit was so big and buxom you could take shelter behind her when Oswald was upset. But what use would this little bag of bones be?

– What’s the matter with Åse Berit?

The old woman sighed.

– It’s all just got too much for her. The police have been up there and turned their farm inside out. Even taken up the floor. Åse Berit’s nerves couldn’t stand it.

Signy looked down at her feet.

– Apparently there’s someone sneaking around the village telling tales on folk, Ingeborg sniffed with contempt. – Now, Oswald, what’s all this, walking up and down and not eating anything?

– Oswald catch bear.

– Right you are, cooed Ingebord. – I’m sure you can, but now you just come and sit down.

She put an arm around the giant resident and led him over to the dining table.

– Ingeborg catch bear, Oswald shouted, and the old woman burst out laughing.

– Yes, that’ll be the day, she chortled, wiping away the tears, and it looked as though Oswald was joining in her laughter.

She put milk on the table and Oswald drank it down in one gulp. She refilled the glass and buttered some bread, and he ate with a hearty appetite.

– Oswald and I are old chums, hummed Ingeborg. – Isn’t that right, Oswald?

– Oswald drive bus, he rumbled, his mouth full of bread and liver pâté.

After his meal, she took him by the hand and led him into his room.

– Now you just have a nice little lie-down, Oswald, you’ve been up and about all night.

– I’ve known Oswald since he was seven or eight years old, Ingeborg explained later as they sat at the table. – Oh, it breaks my heart to think about him, that lad.

Signy sipped at her coffee.

– Åse Berit told me his father used to lock him up in the cellar when he was a little boy. Surely that can’t be true?

Ingeborg shook her head and stared in front of her. Tora had fallen asleep in her chair, her head hanging down at an angle, drooling at the mouth. Ingeborg got up and wiped her face, placed a pillow under the bony chin.

– It’s true all right, she said. – I was working in child care at the time. It was a terrible business.

– But the father must have been a complete madman. Didn’t anyone say anything?

Ingeborg shot Signy a bleak look.

– That’s the thing that bothers me most of all, that we didn’t act sooner. We got several messages saying things were going to pieces up at old Norbakk’s, but it wasn’t until a member of the family rang and said we’d better get ourselves up there as fast as possible …

She bit at the pale strip of her underlip.

– It’s over twenty years ago now, but I’ll tell you this, Signy, it’s a sight I will never forget. Never.

– What happened?

Ingeborg sat for a while with her eyes closed. To Signy her eyelids seemed as sheer as tissue paper. It was as though the old woman were looking straight through them at her.

– We went to the cabin, up in the forest, she said at length, the eyes expressionless when she opened them again. – And what a mess when we got up there. Bottles everywhere, filthy clothes and unwashed dishes, a broken window so it was freezing cold inside. First off we couldn’t find the boys anywhere. Not until we went down into the cellar. They were locked inside, both of them. And there was Arve with his arms around Oswald, trying to keep him warm.

– Arve? wondered Signy.

Ingeborg took out a handkerchief and blew into it.

– Oswald’s older brother. They’d been sitting down there for days. The father had given them a bottle of water and tossed them a few crusts of bread before he took off.

– So then you did something?

– Oh yes. Young Arve was fostered with some people down in Lillestrøm. Oswald was taken into institutional care, and now he’s never had it so good. But we waited too long before doing anything … Well, the father was sentenced for child neglect. Served a few months. When he got out, he lived like an animal up in that cabin. Drank himself to death in the end.

Suddenly Ingeborg’s wizened face lit up.

– But I’ll tell you this, Signy, that Arve Norbakk is what they call a real superkid. It’s amazing how well he’s managed. Before we found foster parents for him, he was living with us, and I’ve been following his progress ever since.

She exposed a line of pearly white teeth that looked completely genuine.

– Always bright and positive, that Arve. The only thing that upset him was if someone said something bad about his father. Then he’d scream and carry on. If the police hadn’t locked his father up, according to Arve, he would never have drunk himself to death. He hated the police more than anything else. Not counting his mother, who’d left them. I was so worried about him. But then he calmed down, and he never spoke about either one of them again.

– My God, Signy exclaimed. – What could make a child say something like that?

Ingeborg sighed and looked at her watch.

– Well well, Signy, I suppose we’d better go in and wake Oswald, or he’ll be up all night again.

Signy jumped to her feet.

– Just you sit there.

She opened the door to Oswald’s room. A blast of wind struck her from the wide-open window. The bed was empty.

N
OT UNTIL SHE’D
started the car and Viken had jumped in beside her did Nina get round to asking where they were going.

Viken said: – Arve checked the list of calls to Glenne’s mobile phone. Somebody called him from a landline in Tåsenveien at three minutes past nine yesterday evening. The owner of the house is a Rita Jentoft.

– Jentoft? I’ve heard that name somewhere before … We interviewed her. I think it was Sigge.

– Correct. Fifty-two-year-old woman, born in Gravdal in Vestvågøy county, lived in Oslo for twenty-five years. Widowed for the last eight. Trained medical secretary. Now works at a certain clinic in Bogstadveien. No previous convictions. Want her income tax details?

– I get it, said Nina. – His secretary.

She stopped at the entrance to the driveway. A patrol had already arrived. Viken jumped out even before she turned the engine off. Two constables in uniform stood on the steps.

– No one answered when we rang the bell, one of them said. – The door isn’t locked but we were given orders to wait for you.

– The back, barked Viken.

– We’ve got a man there.

– Good. Then let’s go in.

He opened the door.

– Police! he shouted from the hallway.

Ten minutes later, they had established that the house was empty, from basement to loft.

The waiting room at the Bogstadveien medical centre was packed. A woman wheeled a pram back and forth in front of the reception desk. The child inside screeched and howled. The telephone ringing behind the counter sounded almost as angry, but there was no one there to take the call. Viken opened the glass side door and let Nina in front of him into a corridor. On the right was a door to a storage room with shelves full of hypodermic syringes and other items and equipment. Another door had Axel Glenne’s name on it. It was unlocked, the office within dark and empty. On the next door the sign read
Inger Beate Garberg
. Viken knocked and stepped inside in the same moment. A woman in a white coat turned towards him. Her long greyish hair hung in a braid down her back. On a bench behind her was a man with his legs drawn up. He was naked from the waist down.

– What’s going on here? the doctor shouted, pointing at Viken with her plastic-gloved finger. – You’ve no right to come barging in like this.

Viken mumbled a sort of apology. – Police, he explained. – Can we have a word with you? Now.

Dr Garberg came out into the corridor with them. She was half a head taller than Viken, and he looked a little ill at ease.

– Where is Rita Jentoft? asked Nina.

Dr Garberg rolled her eyes.

– In reception, I presume, or gone to the toilet, I have no idea.

– Have you seen Axel Glenne since yesterday evening? Viken wanted to know.

– No, the doctor seethed, – I have not seen him, and it’s about time you left that man alone. You’ve done enough as it is. How is he supposed to deal with all that stuff you’ve released to the newspapers about him? It’s the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever come across.

She was incandescent with rage, and Viken took a couple of paces back. He almost collided with a small, stout woman who emerged from the door behind him.

– What’s all the shouting about? she wondered.

Ignoring her, Dr Garberg continued her tirade. She peeled off the plastic glove, crumpled it and tossed it to the floor. Now it was about the patients’ archives, which the police had been interfering with without her permission.

– I’ll deal with this, Inger Beate, said the stout woman, and led them into Glenne’s office.

Viken nudged Nina.

– Our female medical friend is suffering from hysteria, he diagnosed. – Recommended treatment, half a bottle of red wine and a roll in the hay.

Rita Jentoft had what Nina would call shock-bleached hair. Not really suitable for a woman past forty. But she was smart, and friendly, and she gave precise answers to all their questions.

– Are you sure about that? Nina repeated. – Did Glenne say that he had told the police about what he had found in Miriam Gaizauskaite’s flat?

– I’ve told you twice, and I’ll tell you twice more if you like, Rita Jentoft answered. – Axel was in a state of shock over what he’d found. He was terrified something might have happened to that
student
. She almost spat the last word out. – That was why it was life and death for him to get down here to find that envelope.