The Catalyst Killing (K2 and Patricia series Book 3) (42 page)

Beate said that Patricia had told her I would call, and had given her a short message to read over the phone.

The message was as follows: ‘Thank you for your thoughts with regards to the death of my father. I hope that you will understand that I will now have to focus on the various formal and practical things that have to be done in connection with my father’s funeral and the continued operation of his companies. I would be very grateful if you and your parents would come to the funeral. Best wishes, Patricia Louise I. E. Borchmann.’

There was silence on the line for a moment. I thanked Beate, and asked if she could send a message back that I and my parents would of course come to the funeral.

Beate’s voice was trembling when she promised to give Patricia the message. Then there was another moment’s silence.

‘There’s something I would like to tell you, even though maybe I shouldn’t . . .’ Beate stammered.

She stopped, hesitant, until I asked her to continue. I had no idea what to expect, but did not imagine it could make things any worse.

Beate lowered her voice to little more than a whisper when she continued.

‘They called Miss from the hospital yesterday just before you came. I was standing right beside her and heard what was said. The doctor started by telling her that her father was extremely ill, and that the end was now perhaps only a matter of hours away rather than days. Then the director came onto the phone. He said that she should come now if she wanted to see him again.’

I felt a lump building in my throat. I was whispering now as well when I asked what Patricia had answered.

‘Miss said that she would of course come as soon as she could, but that she did not dare to leave the house and telephone until the case was closed and the murderer had been arrested. It could cost other people their lives and it was extremely important for you, she added. And she couldn’t tell you the truth because she was afraid it would distract you from such an important murder investigation. The director said that he understood and just hoped that she would get there on time. Then he asked her to send you his greetings, and to wish you all the best with the rest of your life.’

The lump in my throat was now enormous and hard. I struggled with it for what seemed like a small eternity before I managed to whisper a final question. And that was whether the conversation she had just recounted to me was the last time that Patricia and her father had spoken together.

Beate replied very quietly and slowly that yes, it unfortunately was.

I thanked her in a barely audible whisper for telling me. Then we put down the telephone at the same time with great care and no noise.

I just sat there for the rest of the evening, old images of Ragnar Sverre Borchmann’s dashing figure flickering through my mind, alternating with Patricia’s immobile expression earlier in the day. I sat beside the phone with my memories until well past midnight, in the hope that it would ring again. But it never did.

The fact that I had successfully closed my third murder investigation brought me as little joy in those few long hours as Patricia’s fortune would bring her. I thought to myself that one did not know what real loneliness was until one had sat alone in oppressive silence: alone in a room with a telephone that never rang, no matter how desperately one might want it to.

It was only many years later that I found out that in the course of my conversation with the maid, and throughout the evening that followed, Patricia had been sitting silently in her usual place by the telephone, chain-smoking. Around midnight, Beate had ventured to say that Patricia should perhaps call me. She had promptly been told that a maid who tried to make a career as a counsellor could just as easily end up without a job.

As I sat there alone in the silence, I felt like the loneliest person in the world. Finally I understood what Patricia had meant earlier in the day. There was no end to sad stories about parents and children in this investigation. And my great triumph was now overshadowed by tragedy. It really did feel as though everything had suddenly come crashing down.

Afterword

My third thriller is also, like the first two, a historical novel. I have again tried to present a realistic picture of Norwegian history forty-two years ago, but have also allowed myself creative licence. Those readers who know the geography of Oslo will be able to find the streets, but not the house numbers. Those who know their history will recognize some of the minor characters from political circles at the time. But they will also notice that certain details do not fit: for example, the head of the police security service in this book has far more in common with the man who developed the service before retiring in 1967 than the man who held the position in 1970.

And once again, the author is more than happy to receive honest feedback from readers. This can be sent via Facebook, or by email to [email protected].

While working on the novel, I have also benefited from the advice and support of many people. My most important adviser at the publisher Cappelen Damm was, as always, my excellent editor Anne Fløtaker. Anders Heger has also been a much-valued adviser, Sverre Dalin a sensitive and focused copy editor, and the knowledgeable Nils Nordberg has acted as an expert adviser.

As for my personal advisers, my greatest thanks go to my loyal primary adviser, Mina Finstad Berge, who once again has made some invaluable comments with regards to the language and content. A legendary inventor is said to have kept the plans for his machines in his head for several weeks after seeing the drawings, and could therefore predict any weaknesses they might have. I was inspired by this story to include one of my primary advisers in the plot this time, as an experiment, and Mina deserves special thanks for agreeing to participate in this unpredictable and revealing literary experiment.

I also owe a huge thanks to my good friends Ingrid Baukhol, Jorunn Bjørgum, Tone Bratteli, Lene Li Dragland, Marit Lang-Ree Finstad, Anne Lise Fredlund, Kathrine Næss Hald, Else Marit Hatledal, Hanne Isaksen, Bjarte Leer-Salvesen, Torstein Lerhol, Espen Lie, Kristine Kopperud Timberlid, Arne Tjølsen and Magnhild K. B. Uglem, as well as my sister, Ida Lahlum. Of these, Arne and Magnhild deserve particular thanks this time. I would also like to thank the historian and writer James Godbolt for his advice on radical left-wing groups in 1970, and the historian and writer Roy Andersen for his advice regarding what is said about the police security service.

My last crime novel,
Satellite People
, was hugely inspired by the queen of classic crime, Agatha Christie, and was accordingly dedicated to her. The plot of
The Catalyst Killing
is set in 1970 and makes the leap from a locked room to a public space. Rather than Agatha Christie and other earlier British crime writers, I drew inspiration this time from one of the greatest crime writers of the decade, the American Ross Macdonald (1915–83). Tragic family stories are a major theme in Macdonald’s novels, inspired both by Greek tragedies and by his own background. Following his example, I have made tragic stories of parents and children a pervasive theme of this book.

When I started writing, my intention was to dedicate
The Catalyst Killing
to Ross Macdonald. But then it dawned on me that my third novel should be dedicated to a representative from my group of advisers. It also developed into a political novel, which was never the case with Macdonald’s novels; and even though the book has in a many ways a depressing ending, there is a much stronger sense of optimism about the future than in Macdonald’s work.

Of all the representatives from various extremist milieux, it is Miriam Filtvedt Bentsen who represents hope. She is a young and idealistic person who is herself, without any thought of personal gain. The young Miriam clearly distances herself from dictatorship, violence and totalitarian ideologies, and in her free time works for a democratic party to fight for a fairer society. In this novel, she is a young SPP member in 1970, but she could equally have been a member of various other youth associations in 2012. And following the violent and bloody attack on our democratic and open society that we experienced in summer 2011, it is particularly important to nurture the hope for the future that she represents here in Norway today. The best possible response to the terrorism and extremism of our day is the peaceful political mobilization of new generations of socially engaged young people. And the author and other people involved in Norwegian cultural life must do their utmost to highlight this.

So I eventually came to the conclusion that this novel should be dedicated to my fictional character, Miriam Filtvedt Bentsen. Or Mina Finstad Berg, as she is called out there in the real world.

Hans Olav Lahlum

Gjøvik, 1 January 2012

If you enjoyed
The Catalyst Killing
you’ll love

CHAMELEON PEOPLE

the fourth instalment in the K2 and Patricia series from Hans Olav Lahlum

1972. On a cold March morning the weekend peace is broken when a young cyclist frantically rings on K2’s doorbell, desperate to speak to the detective.

However, the boy is being pursued by K2’s colleagues in the Oslo police and a bloody knife is found in the boy’s pocket: a knife that matches the stab wounds of a politician who has just been killed in the street.

The evidence seems clear-cut, and the arrest couldn’t be easier. But when the suspect refuses to talk, and his identity remains unknown, K2 finds himself far from closing the case. And then there is the question K2 can’t get out of his mind: why would a guilty man travel straight to a police detective from the scene of his own brutal crime?

Coming autumn 2016

Praise for Hans Olav Lahlum’s K2 and Patricia series

‘A captivating murder mystery series . . . Lahlum keeps the reader guessing until a clever and satisfying conclusion’

Daily Express

‘Brilliant . . . Locked-room mysteries used to be a staple of golden-age crime fiction. Now the Norwegian novelist Hans Olav Lahlum has revived the form’

Sunday Times

‘As the latest Scandinavian crime writer to break into the English market, Lahlum is an admirer of Agatha Christie . . . This crime in a cold climate deserves a warm welcome’

Daily Mail

‘[A] Scandinavian crime novel with a difference,
Satellite People
by Hans Olav Lahlum, translated from Norwegian by Kari Dickson, is the second book to feature Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen, known as K2. Set in Oslo in 1969, it is a traditional closed-circle mystery . . . The solution is ingenious, and the investigation, with leads stretching back to the German occupation of Norway during the Second World War, certainly holds the attention’

Guardian

‘If you fancy a traditional closed-circle murder mystery . . . try
The Human Flies
by Hans Olav Lahlum . . . With its conscious echoes of Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, this first whodunnit by a well-known Norwegian historian and leftist politician will delight fans of both authors’

Morning Star

‘Prepare yourself for a classic whodunnit of the highest calibre, a deviously challenging murder mystery . . . a joy to read’

Crime Fiction Lover

THE CATALYST KILLING

H
ANS
O
LAV
L
AHLUM
is a Norwegian crime author, historian, chess player and politician. The books that make up his crime series featuring Criminal Investigator Kolbjørn Kristiansen (known as K2) and his precocious young assistant, Patricia, are bestsellers in Norway.
The Human Flies
was his first book in the series and was followed by
Satellite People
and
The Catalyst Killing
. The fourth,
Chameleon People
, will be out soon.

Also by Hans Olav Lahlum

T
HE
H
UMAN
F
LIES

S
ATELLITE
P
EOPLE

First published in the UK 2015 by Mantle

This electronic edition published 2016 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-76958-8

Copyright © Hans Olav Lahlum 2012
English translation copyright © Kari Dickson 2015

Originally published in 2012 as
Katalysatormordet
by Cappelen Damm, Oslo

Main image: © Lane Oatey / Blue Jean Images / Corbis; Man standing: © Paul Gooney / Alamy

The right of Hans Olav Lahlum to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.