The Last Fix (47 page)

    'On
the assumption that Kramer killed her he could have driven home to his mother
first - with the corpse in the car - and then panicked. He could have told his
mother some twaddle. She told him to go back and search and then he drove back.
He could have stopped in Hvervenbukta and tipped the body over the crash
barrier. Then he could have driven on a bit and thrown away her clothes.

    'We
therefore examined the car Kramer was driving and found some hair, some stains
which could have been semen and a variety of textile fibres. But for the time
being these things have only been recorded. The best evidence we have against
Kramer is the semen. But, according to Kramer's mother, he was having a
relationship with Katrine. So Kramer may well have been telling the truth when
he said they had consensual sex in the car that night.'

    'But
it has not been proved that Kramer did not rape Katrine,' Fristad interjected
in inquisitorial manner, without a grimace.

    Gunnarstranda:
'There is, of course, a chance that Kramer did commit rape and then murder.
That's what he claims in the suicide note.'

    'But
you don't believe the letter is genuine?'

    'Not
on the face of it.'

    'What
do the pathologists say about Kramer's body?' Fristad asked.

    'They
are holding both options open. But the strongest indication that he died by his
own hand is that he was found strangled with the noose around his neck.'
Gunnarstranda rummaged through the pile of photographs and found one of Kramer
with the cord around his neck. 'In addition, we have the suicide note in which
Kramer writes that he took Katrine's jewellery, posted it to Raymond Skau, thus
laying a false trail to cast suspicion of Katrine's murder on to him.' v

    'But
is that improbable?'

    'Not
at all. Kramer and Katrine were on very intimate terms. Kramer must have known
a lot about Katrine's past and Raymond Skau constituted a large chunk of that
past. Kramer could have had many motives for damaging Skau, about which we know
nothing.'

    'Ahhh…,'
Fristad said, lost in thought. He sat studying the photographs.

    No
one said anything. At length the public prosecutor raised his eyes. 'And?' he
asked with a sideways grimace.

    'The
problem is the particles of skin under Katrine's nails. First of all, we didn't
find any indication on Kramer's body that would confirm that he had been
scratched. In addition, the DNA analysis shows that the skin did not belong to
Kramer.'

    Fristad
was quiet. Everyone went quiet.

    Gunnarstranda
sorted his papers into piles.

    'Does
that mean she scratched someone else?' Fristad asked at last.

    Gunnarstranda
put down the papers. 'It's possible. But we don't know. It's feasible that she
might have scratched someone else during the course of the evening. She might
have bumped into someone at the party or someone in the queue at McDonald's in

    Aker
Brygge. Nevertheless, if Kramer had lived, and he had been charged, this
evidence would have given the defence very strong cards.'

    'But
the case seems pretty clear, doesn't it?' Fristad said in a loud voice. 'We
have Kramer's confession. He says he killed her and he planted the jewellery on
Skau because he knew she owed him money and all that other stuff about trying
to shift the blame on to someone else. Then he committed suicide. Seems very
tempting to drop the whole thing.'

    'Except
that the accused should be given the benefit of the doubt.'

    'But
the accused is bloody dead.'

    'He
should still be given the benefit of the doubt,' Gunnarstranda asserted with
obduracy. 'If the particles of skin under Katrine Bratterud's nails belong to
someone else, a person with a motive, then we have to ask ourselves why Kramer
would make a false confession in a suicide note.'

    'And?'

    'If
Katrine was killed by someone else, not Kramer, I don't understand why he would
confess.'

    Fristad
pulled a wry face. 'Now you're making the case unnecessarily complicated,
Gunnarstranda. We're talking about an ex-tart, aren't we? A bloody junkie. Why
should a case like this be so damned complicated - and contain so many
conspiratorial motives that involve- premeditated murder and so on, and so on?'

    'I'm
not complicating the case,' Gunnarstranda yelled back angrily. 'I just expect
it to be tied up in a correct manner! The only thing I want is for us to wait
before we prioritize other work until all those involved have been checked out
and we have completed the essential investigation.'

    'What's
so fishy about Kramer's death?' Fristad asked.

    'Traces
of sedatives were found in Kramer's body. If he killed himself he might have
taken them to dull his senses. However, the problem with Kramer taking
sedatives before dying is that we couldn't find a box of tablets or a
prescription anywhere in the flat. The point is that, if he had taken
sedatives, it doesn't make sense to me that we cannot find any traces of said
sedatives in his flat.'

    'But
he was working at a drugs rehab clinic. He did a bit of hash and cocaine
himself, I've read. Kramer must have had innumerable contacts, and getting hold
of illegal drugs on the street is as easy as wink.'

    Gunnarstranda
glanced up at Fristad, who was nodding and grimacing. 'I'm just saying it's
odd,' the policeman said. 'It's also strange that the suicide letter was not
found where he died. There are no fingerprints on the paper or the envelope. It
seems bizarre that it should turn up in a pigeonhole at the police station. And
the letter was not signed. It was printed on a laser printer and written with a
computer. But Kramer did not have his own computer. There was a computer in his
brother's flat and there is no sign of this letter on his machine. He might
have written the letter at work, at the Vinterhagen centre, but so far we
haven't been able to trace the machine on which it was written.'

    'The
bit about the fingerprints sounds particularly odd,' the public prosecutor said
as his glasses fell on to his chest.

    'Agreed,'
Gunnarstranda said. 'It is odd. But it's also odd that the suicide letter isn't
signed and was not where he died. If he had to confess why not confess properly
so that all doubts would be dispelled? Why a letter addressed to Frølich
at Police HQ? Why not to his mother or to his brother? After all, he rang his
brother to talk about the mysteries of life before he died. It's strange that
he doesn't send his mother and his brother a final word.' Gunnarstranda waved
the letter in the air. 'This is just a confession. It's not a suicide letter as
I know them.'

    'He
might have sent it to Frølich to be sure it was found.'

    'Of
course,' Gunnarstranda conceded. 'But the oddest thing of all is that he
actually admitted to having sex with the girl in his first statement. It seems
crazy that he would kill to cover up a rape, and then he admits to having sex
with her as soon as the police show up.'

    'You've
got a point,' Fristad said, losing his glasses again.

    'It's
also funny that he would go to a postbox, post a suicide letter, then go home,
take sedatives and hang himself.'

    The
public prosecutor nodded, interlacing his fingers in front of him and banging
his thumbs against each other. He thought aloud: 'The perpetrator rapes the
girl, kills her, removes her clothes and other possessions to hide the
evidence. But the motive must be the same whoever strangled her'

    'The
jewellery,' Gunnarstranda said with emphasis. 'The jewellery turning up at
Skau's place complicates the matter. We have established that Katrine was
wearing jewellery that night and it turned up later in Skau's flat. Skau may,
as we have said, have bumped into her that night. He may have killed her and
taken her jewellery. The problem is that Skau's girlfriend, Linda Ros,
maintains the jewellery came in the post. The posting of the jewellery tallies
with what Kramer wrote in the letter.'

    'What
did the police officers who found the jewellery in Skau's flat say?'

    'They
said that everything was in a handbag on the table, which tallies with what the
girl said. She said the handbag was in the postbox on Wednesday afternoon. But
she didn't take in the post on the Tuesday or the Monday. We don't know when it
was put in the box.'

    'Could
Skau have put it in the postbox himself?'

    'He
could have done it on the Sunday. From Sunday evening, the day after Katrine
was murdered, he was in custody and he's in custody now.'

    'But
leaving the matter of the jewellery aside,' the public prosecutor said, 'I
understood that Skau attacked Katrine at work. If he had met her in the night
and attacked her again… then he could have killed her. Afterwards Skau could
have forged the suicide letter - couldn't he?'

    'That's
a possibility,' Gunnarstranda admitted.

    'Kramer's
death could still be suicide even if the letter is forged,' Fristad said.

    Frølich
studied the police inspector. He thought he could discern the contours of a
smile forming around the man's thin lips. The public prosecutor didn't notice.
He was sitting with his eyes closed and a rigid expression on his face - proof
that he was thinking. 'Let's imagine the following,' Fristad now declared.
'Katrine Bratterud left Henning in the car that night to get some fresh air.
Her lover was asleep and she was awake. She went for a walk. She may have
wanted to go to the toilet or smoke a cigarette or stretch her legs. She bumped
into Raymond Skau. He killed her, stripped her and stole her jewellery. Are you
with me?'

    Frølich
nodded. He had the impression the smile on Gunnarstranda's lips was even more
pronounced. He had no idea what scheme Gunnarstranda had devised, but at that
moment things were going his way, that much Frølich did know.

    Fristad
went on: 'The whole business with the jewellery stands or falls with the girl,
Linda Ros, doesn't it? Right? You found the jewellery there, at Skau's place…
then… a week later with Skau completely out of the picture… Kramer took his own
life in a fit of depression. He felt guilty, perhaps because he had left the
car park without finding her. The thought that she might have been lying on the
ground being strangled while he drove away - that sort of thought could have
pushed Henning Kramer over the edge.

    When
Kramer killed himself, Skau saw a chance to save his own skin and forged the
suicide note to lead suspicion away from him. He wrote an unsigned letter in
Kramer's name confessing the murder.'

    Fristad
beamed in triumph. 'Is that how it could have happened? I'm asking! Could that
have happened? Is it a possibility?'

    His
boyish face shone like in a TV commercial.

    Gunnarstranda
said nothing.

    Frølich
was about to say something, but the public prosecutor intercepted first. 'I
like the theory about Skau,' the public prosecutor said with enthusiasm. 'Skau
is stupid enough to write an unsigned suicide letter. He's unscrupulous enough.
Isn't he? Eh?'

    Frølich
cleared his throat ready to speak.

    Gunnarstranda's
eyes were like an eagle's. 'Let the public prosecutor finish,' the inspector
snapped.

    'Yes,'
repeated Fristad in a dream. 'I do like the Skau theory. It explains why this
ridiculous suicide letter turns up in Frølich’s pigeonhole. Skau was
being held across the street, in custody. He just dropped off a letter in an
envelope in the corridor when he was let into the yard for a walk. It was
addressed to a policeman. He smuggled it out. What do you think? The theory is
simple, plausible, could have happened. Remember, Gunnarstranda, this is not
the first time…'

    'Then
we'll have to try to persuade Linda Ros to admit she was lying about the
jewellery,' Gunnarstranda said in a soft voice. 'And then we just have to wait
for the results of the DNA test, don't we?'

    'Mm…
exactly! We need the results of the DNA test,' the public prosecutor concluded
automatically. 'If the particles of skin under the victim's nails belong to
Skau…'

    He
stood up in his excitement. 'Then it's probable that Skau strangled her,' he
repeated. 'We'll have to wait for the results of the DNA test,' the public

    prosecutor
stated. 'Thank you, gentlemen.'