Sohlberg and the Gift (41 page)

During their conversation Sohlberg had moved his chair away from Inspector Skrautvol as slowly and discretely as he could. The inspector smoked each of her 60 daily cigarettes down to the last millimeter—as if each stub held the world’s last tobacco leaves. Even more offensive for Sohlberg’s nose and lungs was the fact that Inspector Skrautvol puffed away on repulsive Russian cigarettes—Sobranie Black and Belomorkanal. Despite the acrid stench of tobacco fumes on her person and her clothes Sohlberg intensely liked and respected Inspector Skrautvol.

“Has Gansum’s daughter . . . Astrid Isaksen . . . been told?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll call her,” said Sohlberg without any enthusiasm.

“Fine. But you also need to know that Håkon Krogvig fled the scene.”

“He escaped?” Sohlberg’s anger instantly changed to horror.

“Krogvig is gone. Vanished. Whereabouts unknown. That’s why I feel this case is not going to end well.”

“But . . . doesn’t he have a G.P.S. unit on him?”

“He cut the titanium band off his G.P.S. locator with a steel saw tipped with diamonds.”

“How did he smuggle that inside the Dove Center?”

“I still don’t know. But I have a good idea who may’ve helped him.”

“Who?”

“This orderly . . . Rolf Vika.”

“Did he admit it?”

“Not yet. But we took his cell phone . . . it’s incriminating to say the least. We also confiscated the cell phones for all other employees at the Dove Center.”

“Good thinking. . . I’m sure that made you very popular. Did anyone threaten to go to court?”

“No. If they did . . . do you think I care?”

“Of course not.”

“What are they going to do? . . . The Criminal Procedure Act . . . lets me confiscated things if they are ‘believed to be important as evidence.’”

“Excellent work in getting the cell phone.”

“It gets better and better . . . I researched the names of all persons that Rolf Vika called the last thirty days . . . I found out that one of them belongs to Krogvig’s brother. I went and interviewed the brother . . . and before he could deny anything I told him I knew what he had done and that he was going to be charged not just for helping set his brother free but also for any assaults or murders that his brother commits while on the loose. . . .

“That got him thinking since I reminded him he has a wife and three daughters. He confessed to sending his brother the saw through Vika the orderly.”

“Wow,” said an admiring Sohlberg. “You’ve done good. . . .”

“Like I said . . . it gets better. You see . . . I wasn’t satisfied with that break in the case. . . . I wanted more . . . I wanted to see if I could find any other dirt on Rolf Vika so as to get him to confess . . . I figured he’d probably have some drug dealer on his phone directory since I found a tiny amount of marijuana at his work locker.

“So I went down the list of phone numbers that he called the past ninety days and that had called him. . . . I did a reverse lookup and found one number that really stood out.”

“Whose?”

“Kasper Berge . . . remember him? . . . The former prosecutor . . . now the big hot-shot Venstre politician trying to take over his party as the Unge Venstre
youth leader.”

Euphoria would not even come close to describing Sohlberg’s bliss. He realized that Berge had been keeping track of Jakob Gansum—and probably Sohlberg’s own visits to the insane asylum—through the orderly Rolf Vika and perhaps other employees of the Dove Center.

Why else would Kasper Berge have phone contact with someone who worked at the insane asylum where Berge had locked up Jakob Gansum?

And . . . where there’s a Berge there’s a Holm . . . Liv Holm.

Giddy with an overpowering joy Sohlberg felt like kissing Kristina Skrautvol on the lips even if that meant getting a slap and an official reprimanded if not a second degree burn by her dangling and lit cigarette.

“Now,” continued Inspector Skrautvol, “why would a lowly orderly like Rolf Vika have the phone number for a wealthy and powerful politician?”

“Well . . . I have a tip for you . . . have you contacted Berge?”

“No. Not yet. I need much more information about Berge’s relationship to Vika before I drop in on a former prosecutor who’s now a big shot in politics.”

“Inspector Skrautvol . . . I think I might have the information you need.”

“Really? . . . How so?”

“Take a look at the phone numbers that called Berge and that Berge called.”

“Done. I already asked his phone company to give me that information for the past ninety days.”

“I predict that you will see a London number in England.”

“I already saw one that he called a lot during the past two weeks.”

“Inspector Skrautvol . . . I predict that London phone number belongs to Liv Holm.”

“The woman you arrested for looting the Eide estate?”

“Yes. . . . Let me explain. . . . Kasper Berge is tied to Liv Holm who is tied to the
real
Ludvik Helland who was just arrested in London. I suggest you go interview Berge today . . . as soon as you’re done here . . . ask him to explain his relationship with Liv Holm and the
real
Ludvik Helland.”

~ ~ ~

The always skeptical Inspector Skrautvol only left the hospital after thoroughly interrogating Sohlberg for almost an hour.

Alone and cold and hungry in the conference room Sohlberg reluctantly realized that the time had come to make the telephone call that he dreaded. He remembered the other awful calls that he had made in his career. The thought of one more call made him sick. But a phone call was better than an in-person visit and this call was—for the time being—not about the death of Astrid’s father but about his grievous stabbing. In normal situations he would have personally delivered the news. But Astrid Isaksen was too far away and he had too much to do.

An exhausted Sohlberg toyed with his police-issued cell phone for a long time before he dialed the Hovdestøylen Hotel and Lodge in Hovden. After three clerks and two assistant managers he got through to Astrid Isaksen.

“Frøken Isasksen? . . .”

”Yes. Who is this?”

“I’m Chief Inspector Sohlberg . . . the detective you met . . . you told me you wanted justice.”

“What’s wrong?”

He was surprised at her intuition but he shouldn’t have been because his voice had trembled when he identified himself.

“Your father . . . he’s been hurt. You need to come up to Oslo as soon as possible.”

A stifled cry. The shuffle of the phone being passed around. The mumbling of words. Astrid’s aunt on the line. Sohlberg’s short and then long explanation. The sudden hang-up.

Sohlberg then did what he had almost forgotten to do. He did what he seldom did and only did when in dire straits. He stopped to pray.

The girl needs her father. Please.

~ ~ ~

At 7:10 P.M.—after nine hours of surgery—one of the surgeons came out to the waiting room. Jorfald snored deeply while Dr. Nansen avidly read an enormous tome with the ponderous title
Carl Jung and The Origins of Synchronicity
.

“Are any of you family of Jakob Gansum?”

Sohlberg stood up and said, “They’re his doctors. I’m Chief Inspector Sohlberg.”

“Is his family here?”

“No. But they’re on the way. Is he going to make it?”

“It’s a close call. But he should pull through.”

~ ~ ~

After the surgeon left them alone Sohlberg avoided Nansen and Jorfald. The two psychiatrists departed soon afterwards with dejected airs and hunched shoulders. Sohlberg locked himself in the conference room and worked his phone furiously. He called Skrautvol and Thorsen with the same message:

“Please come to the hospital . . . meet me upstairs at the waiting room to the left of the surgery department. I need to set the record straight before the Zoo’s masters at the Ministry of Justice try to re-write history.”

As soon as the two detectives agreed to come over Sohlberg called his favorite reporters. He asked them to gather at the downstairs main lobby within the hour. He had little time to lose because by tomorrow the top brass at the Ministry of Justice and the Police would take over all media relations and do their best to minimize and spin and whitewash and bury the stinking mess that their predecessors had made of the Janne Eide case.

Skrautvol and Thorsen arrived by a back door at 8 P.M. Both expressed their reservations of holding a press conference without the prior permission of the Zoo’s top administrators.

“This is not a press conference,” said Sohlberg. “You will say nothing at all to the media. I will just be providing spontaneous answers to the media as all of us leave the hospital together. Keep in mind that the media will simply not believe me if I only said ‘
No comment
’ at this time. It would be more suspicious. Just let me do all the talking. Don’t say anything. If it goes badly then I’ll be the only one responsible.”

Lights flashed. Cameras and microphones flew towards Sohlberg when he and the two detectives burst out of the elevator door and walked down the media phalanx. Reporters spoke over each other. Sohlberg could barely make out their questions. He stopped walking and with Skrautvol and Thorsen squarely behind him Sohlberg took advantage of the cacophony to answer the questions that he wanted asked—an old trick that he learned from his mentor Lars Eliassen.

“Well . . . I can only tell you at this point that the
real
Ludvik Helland . . . the long-suspected killer of Janne Eide . . . was arrested in London. . . .

“Who was arrested and held in his place? . . . An innocent man . . . Jakob Gansum. . . .

“No. It’s not for me to comment if police incompetence is responsible for this horrible injustice . . . but I can tell you at this point that we have evidence that Ludvik Helland and the trustee of the Eide fortune . . . the lawyer Liv Holm . . . are responsible for framing Jakob Gansum. . . . They set him up to be a substitute for Ludvik Helland.

“What did you say? . . .
Who
is responsible for solving this case . . . and righting this injustice?

“Well . . . I think we’d have to . . . in part . . . thank Chief Inspector Ivar Thorsen. He saved and preserved old documents and other evidence in the Janne Eide case files . . . these documents and evidence will be crucial in proving that Liv Holm and Ludvik Helland and Kasper Berge conspired to frame Jakob Gansum in the murder of Janne Eide.

“Last but not least we have to thank Chief Inspector Kristina Skrautvol . . . excuse me . . . I meant to say
Inspector
Kristina Skrautvol . . . but I’m sure she will soon be a Chief Inspector. Anyway . . . her hard-work and dedication already led to the arrest of the man suspected of helping Håkon Krogvig escape from the criminally insane ward of Dove Center. . . . Yes . . . Krogvig is a suspected serail killer . . . but . . . most important . . . as part of her investigation into Krogvig’s escape Inspector Skrautvol found the telephone calls that tie Liv Holm and Ludvik Helland and Kasper Berge together in their conspiracy to loot the Eide fortune.