He watched Katrine walk over to the slide, say a few words to Gert and hug him, and followed her with his eyes as she jog-trotted out of the park with the phone to her ear. He felt a tug on his hand and looked down into Gert’s upturned face.
‘Hawse.’
Harry smiled and pretended he hadn’t heard.
‘Hawse!’
Harry’s smile widened, and he looked down at his suit trousers and knew he was going to lose.
Large mammals
It was just gone eleven in the morning. The sun warmed but as soon as it slid behind one of the clouds, Katrine shuddered. She was standing by a grove of trees looking out over a beach with tall yellow marram grass and, beyond that, the glittering sea where sailing boats crossed back and forth. She turned. The stretcher with the body of the woman was on its way to the ambulance up at the road from where Sung-min was walking towards her.
‘Well?’ he said.
‘She was lying in the tall grass just by the beach.’ Katrine sighed heavily. ‘Pretty bad shape, worse than the other two. Out here it’s mostly families with small children who are up walking early, so of course one of them had to find her.’
‘Oh dear.’ Sung-min shook his head. ‘Any idea about the identity?’
‘She was naked, and her head was cut off. No one reported missing. As yet. But I’m guessing she was young and beautiful, so...’
She didn’t finish the sentence. That it wouldn’t be long. That from experience it was the young and beautiful who were reported missing earliest.
‘No tracks, I presume.’
‘No, the perpetrator was lucky, it rained last night.’
Sung-min shivered as a sudden cold gust of wind hit. ‘I don’t think it’s luck, Bratt.’
‘Me neither.’
‘Will we do something proactive to get an ID on the body?’
‘Yeah. I was thinking of calling Mona Daa at
‘Not a bad idea. Daa will go for it just to have something Våge doesn’t.’
‘My thoughts exactly.’
They watched the crime scene technicians in silence, as they continued photographing and fine-combing the cordoned-off search area for evidence.
Sung-min rocked on his heels. ‘She was brought here in a car, just like Bertine, don’t you think?’
Katrine nodded. ‘There’re no buses out here, and the taxi firms we checked had no fares to the area last night, so yeah, in all likelihood.’
‘You know if there’re any gravel or dirt roads around?’
Katrine looked at him closely. ‘Tyre tracks, that what you’re thinking? I’ve only seen tarmac roads round here. But any tyre marks have probably been washed away by the rain now.’
‘Of course, I just...’
‘You just?’
‘Nothing,’ Sung-min said.
‘Then I’ll make that call to
It was a quarter to twelve. Prim slowly unfolded the greaseproof paper in front of him.
A fresh wave of anger washed over him. They had come at irregular intervals ever since he had seen the two of them together. Like two lovebirds. Her, the Woman he loved, and that guy. When a man and a woman take a walk in the park like that, there’s little doubt about what’s going on. He was after her. A policeman as well! He hadn’t yet had time to come up with a plan to get this unexpected rival out of the way, but he would soon enough.
The greaseproof paper lay unfolded in front of him, and in the centre of it: an eye.
Prim felt his mouth get dry.
But he must.
He held the eye between two fingers, felt nausea rising. He couldn’t throw it up again, that would be a waste. He placed the eye back on the paper and tried to breathe deeply and calmly. Checked the online newspapers on his phone again. There it was, finally! In
Prim gazed at the article. It was placed above several items about the politician who had cheated on her taxes, that day’s decisive clash between Bodø/Glimt and Molde, and the war in the East.
He felt the odd intoxication at being there, centre stage, in the main role. Was this how Mummy had felt in front of a spellbound, breathless theatre audience as she brandished the magic wand of the narrator? Was this her genes and passion finally awakening within him?
