Killing Moon полностью

‘Helene, I understand,’ Aune said, ‘but why the drug dealer?’

‘Because he’s one of the few people at the party who hasn’t been identified. And because he turned up in a face mask and sunglasses.’

‘So what? Maybe he hasn’t been vaccinated. Or suffers from mysophobia. Sorry, Øystein, a fear of bacteria.’

‘Maybe he was sick and didn’t want to infect people,’ Truls said. ‘But did all the same. The reports say both Susanne and Bertine had a high temperature a couple of days after the party and at any rate, felt unwell.’

‘But now we’re overlooking the most obvious reason,’ Aune said. ‘A drug dealer is, after all, involved in something which is highly illegal, so it’s hardly remarkable he should wear a mask.’

‘Øystein,’ Harry said. ‘Explain.’

‘OK. If you sell... let’s say cocaine, then you’re not that worried about being identified. The police know pretty much who is selling on the street anyway and they don’t care, it’s the men behind the scenes they want. And if the police bust you, it happens during the transaction, and then a mask isn’t gonna be much use to you. So it’s the other way round — if you’re going to sell on the street, then you want the customers to recognise your face and remember that you sold them good shit the last time. And if you offer home deliveries, which it sounds like this guy does, then it’s even more important that the customer sees and trusts your honest face.’

Truls grunted a laugh.

‘Do you think you can find out who the guy at the party was?’ Harry asked.

Øystein shrugged. ‘I can try. There aren’t many Norwegians at the home-delivery end of the business.’

‘Good.’

Harry paused, closed his eyes before opening them again, as though he were keeping to a script and had mentally turned a page.

‘Since we’re going to stick with the hypothesis that the killer knew at least one of the victims, let’s take a look at what might actually support this idea. Susanne Andersen heads right across the city, from the lively west side of the city centre to a place where there’s no evidence to suggest she knows anyone, where as far as anyone is aware she hasn’t been before and where not much happens on a Tuesday night...’

‘Some nights fuck all happens,’ Øystein said. ‘I grew up nearby.’

‘So what was she doing there?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Øystein said. ‘She was meeting the guy who did her in.’

‘OK, then we’ll work based on that,’ Harry said.

‘Cool,’ Øystein said. ‘The country’s leading expert agrees with me.’

Harry gave a crooked smile and rubbed the back of his neck. He would soon need the one drink he had left today; he had dispatched the other two on the way from the Forensic Medical Institute when he and Øystein had made a pit stop at Schrøder’s.

‘While I’m at it,’ Øystein said, ‘I was wondering about something. The guy took Susanne for a walk in Østmarka, and that worked for him, yeah? The, like, perfect murder. Isn’t it bloody odd that he takes Bertine to Grefsenkollen? Never change a winning formula — wouldn’t that go for murderers too?’

‘It’s probably true of serial killers,’ Aune said. ‘Unless repeating the approach means increasing the risk of being discovered. And Susanne had already been reported missing around Skullerud, so there were police and search parties in the area.’

‘Yeah, but they went home as soon as it was dark,’ Øystein said. ‘No one could have known another girl would disappear. No, the guy wouldn’t have been taking much of a risk bringing her to Skullerud. And he obviously knew the area well.’

‘I don’t know,’ Aune said. ‘Perhaps it was simply that Bertine agreed to take a walk with him, but she insisted on Grefsenkollen?’

‘But it’s further from where she lives to Grefsenkollen than to Skullerud, and in the reports it says that nobody the police spoke with had any knowledge of Bertine ever being in Grefsenkollen.’

‘Maybe she had heard good things about Grefsenkollen,’ Aune said. ‘It offers views at least. As opposed to Østmarka, where it’s just forest and small hills.’

Øystein nodded thoughtfully. ‘OK. But there is one other thing I don’t get.’

He focused on Aune, since Harry seemed to have dropped out of the conversation and was sitting with his fingers to his forehead, staring at the wall.

‘Bertine could have walked only so far from the car, right? And they’ve been searching for two weeks now, so I don’t understand why the dogs can’t find her. Do you know how good dogs smell? I mean, what a good sense of smell they have? In one of the reports Truls got there’s a tip-off from a farmer in Wenggården in Østmarka. He got in touch with the police a week ago to say that his lame old bulldog was lying in the living room barking like it only does when there’s a carcass nearby. I know Østmarka, and that farm is at least six bloody kilometres away from where they found Susanne Andersen. If a dog can smell a corpse from that far away, why can’t they find Bertine—’

‘It can’t.’

All four men turned in the direction the voice was coming from.