‘People like me don’t get politics,’ Truls said, belching discreetly. ‘Don’t get why the Minister of Justice would rather let a bloody serial killer run free than allow Norway’s best-known detective to get away with lying about being Officer Hans fucking Hansen. Especially when it was that very lie that led to Bertine Bertilsen being found.’
Mikael took a sip of the bottle. He may have liked beer at one time, but he didn’t any longer, not really. But those in the Labour Party and the Labour movement were generally sceptical of people who didn’t drink beer.
‘Do you know how you become Minister of Justice and retain that position, Truls?’ Mikael continued without waiting for an answer. ‘You listen. You listen to those you know are looking out for your best interests. Listen to those who have the experience you do not. I have good people who will present this in the right way. They’ll make it look like the Minister of Justice’s office stopped a millionaire from forming his own private army of investigators and lawyers. It will show that we don’t allow American-style conditions where the wealthy enjoy all manner of privileges, where only the most expensive lawyers win, where the claim that everyone is equal before the law is just some patriotic tripe. Here, in Norway, we don’t have equality just on paper, and that’s something we’re going to carry on working for.’ Mikael made a mental note of a couple of the points, perhaps they could be used in a future speech, albeit in a more sublime form.
Truls laughed that grunted laugh that always put Mikael in mind of a pig.
‘What?’ Mikael could hear he sounded more annoyed than he had intended. It had been a long day. Serial killers and Harry Hole might get column inches, but they weren’t the only things a Minister of Justice had on his plate.
‘I’m just thinking how great it is we have that whole equality before the law,’ Truls said. ‘Imagine, in this country even a Minister of Justice couldn’t prevent the police from investigating him if they were to get a tip-off. And it might come out that there was a body encased in the concrete on his terrace. Not anyone society really missed, just a member of a biker gang who smuggled heroin and was connected to two dirty cops. Equality before the law would mean the investigation would reveal that the Minister of Justice was once a young policeman more concerned with money than power. That he had a slightly naive childhood friend who one night helped him cover up the evidence in the much smarter friend’s new house.’ Truls stamped his foot on the cement again.
‘Truls,’ Mikael said slowly. ‘Are you threatening me?’
‘Not at all,’ Truls said, putting the empty beer bottle down next to the chair and getting to his feet. ‘I just think what you said about listening sounded like a good idea. Listening to those who have your best interests at heart. Thanks for the beer.’
Katrine stood in the doorway of the nursery looking at them.
Gert asleep in his bed and Harry asleep on a chair with his forehead against the headboard. She squatted down so she could see Harry’s face too. And concluded that the resemblance was even more pronounced when they slept. She shook Harry gently. He smacked his lips, blinked and looked at his watch before getting to his feet and following her out into the kitchen, where she put the kettle on.
‘You’re home early,’ he said, sitting down at the kitchen table. ‘Weren’t you having a good time?’
‘Yeah. He’d picked the restaurant because it had a Montrachet wine which, apparently, I’d said I liked the first time we went on a date. But a meal can only last so long.’
‘But you could have gone on someplace else. Had a drink.’
‘Or gone back to his place for a quickie,’ she said.
‘Yeah?’
She shrugged. ‘He is sweet. He still hasn’t invited me back to his home. He wants to wait with the sex until we know for sure that the two of us are meant for one another.’
‘But you...’
‘Want to fuck as much as possible before we realise we’re
Harry laughed.
‘At first I thought he was playing hard to get.’ She sighed. ‘And that does work on me.’
‘Mm. Even when you know it’s a tactic?’
‘Sure. I’m turned on by anything I can’t have. Like you that time.’
‘I was married. Do all married men turn you on?’
‘Only the ones I can’t have. There aren’t many of those. You were annoyingly faithful.’
‘Could have been even more faithful.’
She made instant coffee for Harry and tea for herself. ‘I seduced you when you were drunk and in despair. You were at your weakest, and that’s something I’ll never forgive myself for.’
‘No!’
It had come so quickly and sharply it gave her a start and the tea sloshed and spilt.
‘No?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I won’t let you take that guilt away from me. It’s—’ he took a sip, grimacing as though he had scalded himself — ‘all I have left.’
