Fear Not (46 page)

The fact that
VG
knew significantly more than he did in a case he was investigating was a blow. Far worse was the knowledge that Johanne had gone to the Oslo police with information he didn’t even know about.

Adam picked up his small suitcase and his coat and headed for the door. As it closed behind him he realized that the gnawing pain in his stomach wasn’t due to hunger.

He felt humiliated by his own wife, and he couldn’t even manage to feel angry any longer. He just had a pain in his stomach.

Just like when he was a little boy, ashamed of something he’d done.

*

Kristen Faber’s secretary wasn’t in the least ashamed of the fact that she occasionally made copies of documents to take home. Her husband loved to hear about the cases she came into contact with, and sometimes they had great fun with a police interrogation where the suspect tried to wriggle out of things even when it was obvious he or
she was guilty, or with a hopeless performance in court by some poor sod who couldn’t afford a brief. She never kept the documents for very long. They ended up on the fire as soon as the case was no longer exciting.

As far as the will from the big oak cupboard in the archive was concerned, it wasn’t exactly for fun that she made a copy and popped it in her bag. On the contrary, her husband had grown very serious when she told him about the case during dinner the previous evening. He didn’t know anything about poor Niclas Winter, but he had heard of the testator. He was very keen to take a look at the will, so this morning she had made two copies. Only one was placed in Kristen Faber’s archive.

It couldn’t do any harm if her husband took a little look.

She fastened the accompanying letter to the original will and slipped them both in an envelope. It had taken less than two minutes to establish that the inheritance fund was the right destination for such a document, and to make sure nothing went wrong she was going to take it to the post office and send it by registered mail. Best to be on the safe side in such matters. The court had once claimed that Faber had been late lodging an appeal, even though she was 100 per cent certain she had posted the papers in time.

Not that the will was as important as an appeal, but the dressing-down from her boss on that occasion had made an impression. There was going to be no doubt that this letter had been posted. She pulled on her coat, put the envelope in her bag and hummed a little tune as she locked the door and set off in the bright morning sunshine.

F
OLDER FOUND
this morning. Had been borrowed by Special Needs teacher and put back in the wrong place. Sorry to have bothered you
Live Smith

Johanne read the text twice, not knowing whether to feel relieved or angry. On the one hand it was obviously a good thing that Kristiane’s file had been found. On the other, it frightened her that the school had such inadequate routines when it came to handling sensitive material. As she locked the door of her office behind her it struck her that she ought to be delighted. If Kristiane’s file really had simply been put in the wrong place, it ought to ease her anxiety that someone was watching her daughter.

She pushed her mobile into her bag and crept out of the building without being seen. It was only two o’clock and she couldn’t concentrate on anything but trying to get hold of Adam. She still hadn’t heard a thing, and he wasn’t answering his phone.

She had lost count of how many times she had tried to call him.

*

Kristen Faber’s secretary decided to ring through an order just to be on the safe side. Laksen’s Delicatessen in Bjølsen was the best place for calves’ liver, and her husband set great store by a good liver casserole for Sunday lunch. It had to be calves’ liver, otherwise the flavour was too strong. They might still have dried stockfish, too, even if the season was over. Fish on Saturday and beef on Sunday, she thought contentedly. The phone rang just as she was about to pick it up. She grabbed it quickly and reeled off the usual formula: ‘Mr Faber’s office, how may I help you?’

‘Hello, sweetheart!’

‘Hello yourself,’ she said amiably. ‘I was just about to ring Laksen’s to order some stockfish and calves’ liver, so we can have a lovely weekend.’

‘Fantastic,’ her husband said on the other end of the phone. ‘I’m looking forward to it. Is Mr Faber there?’

‘Kristen? You want to speak to Kristen?’

She couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d suddenly appeared in front of her. Her husband had never set foot in the office, nor had he ever met Kristen Faber. The office was her domain. Since her husband’s sight began to deteriorate and he took early retirement, he had suggested a couple of times that he might take a stroll down to the city centre to see what she got up to during the day. Out of the question, she said. Home was home, work was work. Admittedly, she enjoyed telling him what she’d been doing, and they laughed together at the documents she sometimes took the liberty of showing him, but she didn’t want any link between her husband and her rude, self-righteous boss.

‘What for?’

‘Well, it’s … There’s something not quite right about that will you brought home yesterday.’

‘Not quite right? What do you mean by that?’

She had read it aloud to him last night. He could still read, but the tunnel vision meant that he asked her to read to him more and more often these days. It was quite nice, actually. After the evening news she would read him bits and pieces from the newspaper, with pauses for major and minor discussions on the day’s events.

‘There’s something …’

Kristen Faber burst in through the door leading to the lobby.

‘I need something to eat,’ he puffed. ‘The lunch break will be over in half an hour, and I’ve got to sort out some documents. A baguette or something, OK?’

The secretary nodded, keeping her hand over the mouthpiece.

‘I’ll nip out right away,’ she said.

As soon as his office door closed, she went back to her conversation.

‘There’s absolutely no need to speak to Kristen, darling.’

‘But I have to—’

‘Look, we’ll talk about this when I get home, all right? I’m up to my eyes in work today. We’ll have a chat this afternoon.’

She hung up without waiting for an answer.

As she pulled on her coat as quickly as possible, she felt a pang of guilt for once. Perhaps taking confidential papers home wasn’t entirely legal. She had never really looked at it that way; after all, she had unrestricted access to all the papers here, and her husband could almost be regarded as a part of her after all these years.

However, it probably wasn’t quite the right thing to do, she thought, picking up her bag before dashing off to Hansen’s bread shop. At any rate, she didn’t want any contact whatsoever between her husband and Kristen Faber.

Bjarne had a habit of letting his tongue run away with him.

*

‘Have you been running, sweetheart? You’re all sweaty!’

Johanne hugged her daughter, who flung her arms around her and didn’t want to let go.

‘All the way from Tåsensenteret,’ she said. ‘And I had a really good week at Dad’s. Did you manage OK without me?’

‘I did,’ nodded Johanne, kissing the top of her head. ‘And how are you?’

The last remark was directed at Isak. He had put Kristiane’s bag down on the hall floor and was standing with his hands in his pockets. He looked tired. His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, and he looked as if he couldn’t decide whether to stay around or leave straight away.

‘Not too bad,’ he said hesitantly.

‘Do you want to come in for a while?’

‘Thanks, but …’

He took his hands out of his pockets and gave Kristiane a hug. ‘Could you pop up and see Ragnhild, chicken? I just want a word with Mum. Love you. Thanks for coming.’

Kristiane smiled, picked up her bag and dragged it up the steep staircase.

‘I’m going out on the mountains at the weekend,’ said Isak. ‘Is it OK if I hang on to Jack?’

‘Of course.’

The yellow mongrel sat down on the steps and shook his head.

‘What is it?’ asked Johanne. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, but …’

He took a deep breath and started again.

‘I really don’t want to worry you, but …’

Johanne took his hand. It was ice cold.

‘Is it something to do with Kristiane?’ she asked sharply.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Well … not really. She’s had a really good time. It’s just that …’

He shifted his body weight from his right to his left foot, and leaned against the opposite side of the door frame.

‘It’s so cold with the door open,’ Johanne said. ‘Come inside. Stay there, Jack. Stay.’

Both the dog and Isak did as they were told. He leaned against the wall, and Johanne sat down on the stairs opposite him.

‘What is it?’ she said anxiously. ‘Tell me.’

‘I think …’

He broke off again.

‘Tell me,’ Johanne whispered.

‘I’ve had a strange feeling that somebody is watching me. Or rather … that someone is watching …’

He looked like a little boy, standing there. His jacket was too big for him and he couldn’t stand still. His gaze flickered here and there before he looked her in the eye. She was just waiting for him to start scraping one foot on the floor.

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ she said calmly, getting up.

He took his hands out of his pockets again and spread them helplessly.

‘I can’t really explain it,’ he said in a subdued voice. ‘It’s so kind of—’

‘You’re staying here,’ she said, letting Jack in and locking the door.

She pushed the handle to double-check that the lock had clicked into place.

‘You need to speak to Adam.’

‘Johanne,’ he said, reaching out to grab her arm. ‘Does that mean I’m right? Do you know something that—?’

‘It means exactly what I say,’ she said, without trying to free herself from his grasp. ‘You need to tell Adam about this, because he wouldn’t believe me.’

He let go, and she turned and led the way up the stairs.

Not that I’ve ever given him the chance
, she thought, and decided to try calling him for the sixth time in three hours.

He was probably furious.

She was so frightened she was having difficulty walking in a straight line.

*

The man in the dark-coloured hire car had had no difficulty finding his way. It was actually just a matter of following the same road all the way from Oslo to Malmö, then taking a right turn across the sound to Denmark.

Even though it got dark at such an ungodly hour in this country, and in spite of the fact that the snow had been coming down thick and fast ever since Christmas, it was easy to maintain a good speed. Not too fast, of course; a couple of kilometres over the speed limit aroused the least suspicion. The traffic had been heavy coming out of Oslo, even at three o’clock, but as soon as he had travelled a few kilometres along the E6, it eased off. The map showed that he was essentially following the coastline, so he assumed that Friday afternoons brought traffic chaos on this particular road in the spring and summer. Evidently, the sea wasn’t quite so appealing at minus eight and in a howling gale.

He was approaching Svinesund, and the time was ten to five.

He would drive to Copenhagen and leave the car with Avis on Kampmannsgade. Then he would walk a few blocks before asking a taxi driver to take him to a decent hotel on the outskirts of the city centre. He was too late to catch the last flight to London anyway. He had got rid of the dark clothes. It had taken him more than two hours to cut them into strips, which he divided into small piles and stuffed in the pockets of the capacious red anorak. It made him look fatter, which was good. In the space of just over an hour he had got rid of a bundle here and a bundle there in the public rubbish bins he passed on his stroll through Oslo.

He had had to leave at short notice.

He didn’t speak much Norwegian, just enough to send simple text messages. However, a passing glance at the newspaper stand next to the small reception desk this morning had made him realize there was
no time to lose. Not that he rushed anything, but the instructions were clear.

No doubt the others were also on their way out of the country. He didn’t know how they were travelling, but purely to pass the time in the evenings he had come up with a number of alternative routes. Only in his head, of course; there wasn’t a single scrap of paper with his handwriting on it in Norway. Apart from the distorted signatures when he had used the Visa cards, which were actually genuine but issued under false names. The cold weather in Norway had been a blessing. He had made sure he signed only when he was wearing his outdoor clothes, so that it didn’t seem odd when he kept the tight pigskin gloves on.

For example, the individual or individuals who had been in Bergen should drive to Stavanger, in his opinion, and fly from there directly to Amsterdam. But it wasn’t his business to speculate on the travel plans of others, any more than it was his business to know who they were.