The Fourth Man (30 page)

Authors: K.O. Dahl

Tags: #Police Procedural, #Police, #Oslo (Norway), #Mystery & Detective, #Detectives, #Crime, #General, #Suspense, #Fiction

They looked into each other’s eyes. He attempted to see inside and interpret what was going on in the black wells surrounded by the blue lustre, but he gave up.

‘Surely you won’t deny me a last wish,’ she continued with a mocking smile.

‘It will have to be a modest wish then.’

‘I said I was going to go swimming. If you like, you can join me.’

He stared at the water and hesitated.

She began to undress. Soon she stood in front of him wearing a bikini. The wind caressed her black hair. Once again she brushed her lips against his cheek. ‘Do you dare to be so decent?’

He sat on the sand as she walked to the water’s edge. He watched her attractive form wading in, her bronzed legs ploughing through the foaming sea, her swaying hips. The water must have been cold – no one else had ventured out. Yet she went on undeterred. When she started swimming, he stood up to see her better. He scanned the sea for her dark hair which was hidden by the waves until it bobbed up again. Disappeared. Bobbed up. Disappeared.

He thought about what she had said.

He scanned the sea in vain.

He felt a paralysis spreading across his body.

When he finally managed to turn away and ran to the hotel the two policemen were already on their way across the sand.

‘And that was fine with you? Her going into the sea?’

Frølich didn’t answer.

‘Go on,’ Gunnarstranda said in a monotone.

‘She undressed …’

‘Concentrate on the essentials.’

Frølich scratched his cheek. ‘She waded into the sea without looking back.’

‘And?’

‘When the water was up to her waist she started swimming into the open sea.’

‘Was anyone else swimming?’

‘No one.’

Gunnarstranda gave him a stern look.

‘There was nothing to hide behind, no mountain, no rock, no boat, not even a beach ball, nothing but sand and sea.’

‘You could have refused.’

‘Perhaps I could have said it was not permitted, but what then? I didn’t have the authority to arrest her. That was up to the Croatian police.’

‘But you shouldn’t have been on your own with her.’

‘Listen …’

‘No,’ Gunnarstranda interrupted him angrily. ‘It’s you who should listen. You were entrusted with bringing her back to Norway. But she’s gone. Disappeared!
Your
ex-lover goes swimming and disappears.’

‘The local police explained about the currents in the sea. She drowned.’

‘And you accept that? That she simply disappeared?’

‘We’ve got the money, her things, passport, bank card, all her personal items. Believe me, Elisabeth Faremo is dead.’

‘That woman has been dead once before, Frølich!’ Gunnarstranda stood up and went to the door. He turned before leaving. They faced each other. ‘The case is closed,’ Gunnarstranda announced. ‘Are you happy?’

Frank Frølich didn’t answer. He absentmindedly watched the door closing. In his mind he had one single image: the figure of a sun-tanned woman in a blue bikini leisurely wading further and further out into the sea without looking back. He raised his hand to scratch his cheek again. It wouldn’t stop itching. He continued scratching. It began to smart. He put his hand on his thigh. His cheek still smarted. He couldn’t get the idea out of his head. It smarted and burned precisely where she had touched his cheek with her lips before turning to wade into the sea.

CENTRAL OSLO

There will be time to murder and create
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

T. S. ELIOT
(from
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
)

Praise for K. O. Dahl and
The Fourth Man

“A crime master of style.”

—Aftenposten
(Norway)

“An absorbing study of sexual enthrallment, dogged police work, and a harrowing twist or two: Fans of procedurals … will snap this one up.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Effective and entertaining crime … . We let ourselves be both mesmerized and entertained.”

—Adresseavisen
(Norway)

“Elite crime writing … Dahl is one of the big names of Norwegian crime fiction, and
The Fourth Man
shows why.”

—Stavanger Aftenblad
(Norway)

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com

First published as
Fjerde raneren
in Norway by Kagge Forlag

eISBN 9781429989237

First eBook Edition : January 2011

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Dahl, Kjell Ola, 1958—

[Fjerde raneren. English]

The fourth man / K. O. Dahl.—1st U.S. ed

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37569-0
ISBN-10: 0-312-37569-7

I. Title.