Nemesis

6

Chilli

The day's first rays had just risen over the edge of Ekeberg Ridge, peeped under the half-drawn blind in the Crime Squad conference room and wedged themselves between the folds of skin around Harry's pinched eyes. Rune Ivarsson stood at the end of the long table, legs apart, rocking up and down on the soles of his feet, his hands behind his back. A flip chart with WELCOME in big red letters at his rear. Harry presumed this was something Ivarsson had picked up at a seminar on presentations and made a half-hearted attempt to stifle a yawn as the Head of the Robberies Unit began to speak.

'Good morning, everyone. The eight of us sitting around the table constitute the team assembled to investigate the bank robbery committed in Bogstadveien on Friday.'

'Murder,' Harry mumbled.

'I beg your pardon?'

Harry straightened up in his chair. The damned sun was blinding him whichever way he turned. 'I suppose it would be correct to base the investigation on the fact that it was a murder.'

Ivarsson gave a wry smile. Not to Harry, but to the others sitting around the table whom he took in with one fleeting glance. 'I thought I should start by introducing you to each other, but our friend from Crime Squad has already made a start. Inspector Harry Hole has been kindly loaned by his superior, Bjarne Mшller, as his speciality is murder.'

'Serious Crime,' Harry said.

'Serious Crime. On the left of Hole, we have Torleif Weber from Forensics who led the inquiry at the crime scene. As many of you know, Weber is our most experienced forensic investigator. Famous for his analytical powers and unerring intuition. The Chief Superintendent once said that he would have liked to have Weber with him as a tracker dog in his hunting parties.'

Laughter around the table. Harry didn't need to look at Weber to know that he wasn't smiling. Weber almost never smiled, at least not for people he didn't like, and he liked almost no one. Especially among the younger stratum of bosses which, in Weber's opinion, was comprised exclusively of incompetent careerists with no feeling for the profession or the force, but who had stronger instincts for the administrative power and influence which could be attained through brief appearances at Police HQ.

Ivarsson smiled and swayed up and down like the skipper of a sea-going vessel as he waited for the laughter to die down.

'Beate Lшnn is quite new in this context and our video recording specialist.'

Beate's face went as red as a beetroot.

'Beate is the daughter of Jшrgen Lшnn who served for over twenty years in what was then called the Robberies and Serious Crime Unit. So far she seems to be following in her legendary father's footsteps. She has already contributed vital evidence which has helped solve a number of cases. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but over the last year in the Robberies Unit we have had a conviction rate bordering on fifty per cent, which in an international context is reckoned to be-'

'You have mentioned it before, Ivarsson.'

'Thank you.'

This time Ivarsson eyed Harry directly when he smiled. A stiff, reptilian smile baring his teeth far beyond the jawbone on both sides. And he continued to smile that smile for the rest of the introductions. Harry knew two of them. Magnus Rian, a young detective from Tomrefjord who had been in Crime Squad for six months and made a solid impression. The other was Didrik Gudmundson, the most experienced investigator around the table and the second-in-command of the Robberies Unit. A quiet, methodical policeman with whom Harry had never had any problems. The last two were also from the Robberies Unit, both with Li as a surname, but Harry immediately established that they were not identical twins. Toril Li was a tall blonde woman with a narrow mouth and a closed face, while Ola Li was a squat, red-haired man with a rounded face and laughing eyes. Harry had seen them enough times in the corridor for many to think it would be natural to say hello, but it had never occurred to him.

'As for myself, I should be familiar to you from other contexts,' Ivarsson concluded the round by saying. 'But just for formality's sake, I am the PAS of the Robberies Unit and have been appointed to lead this investigation. And to come back to what you said initially, Hole, this is not the first time we have had to investigate a robbery with a fatal outcome for the innocent parties.'

Harry tried not to rise to the bait. He really did, but the crocodile grin made it impossible.

'Also with a conviction rate of just under fifty per cent?'

Only one person at the table laughed, but his laughter was loud. Weber.

'My apologies, I obviously omitted to mention something about Hole,' Ivarsson said without smiling. 'He is said to have a talent for comedy. A real wit, I've heard say.'

There was a second's embarrassed silence. Then Ivarsson gave a brief honk of laughter and a low chuckle spread around the table.

'OK, let's start with a summary.' Ivarsson flipped over the front sheet. The next bore the title FORENSIC EVIDENCE. He took the top off a marker and prepared himself. 'It's all yours, Weber.'

Karl Torleif Weber stood up. He was a short man with a lion's mane of grey hair and a beard. His voice was an ominous, low-frequency rumble, but, for all that, clear. 'I'll be brief.'

'By all means,' Ivarsson said, putting the pen to paper. 'But take all the time you need, Karl.'

'I'll be brief because I don't need much time,' Weber growled. 'We haven't got a thing.'

'Right,' Ivarsson said, lowering the pen. 'You haven't got a thing. Exactly what do you mean by that?'

'We have a print of a brand new Nike shoe, size 45. Most things about this robbery have such a professional ring about them that the only information I can infer is that it is unlikely to be the size he normally takes. The bullet has been analysed by the ballistics boys. It is standard 7.62 millimetre ammo for the AG3, the most common ammunition to be found in the kingdom of Norway since it is in every military barracks, arms store and home of a reserve officer or volunteer around the country. In other words, impossible to trace. Apart from that, you would think he had never been in the bank. Or outside it. We've searched for evidence there, too.'

Weber sat down.

'Thank you, Weber, that was…erm, informative.' Ivarsson turned over the next sheet. WITNESSES.

'Hole?'

Harry slumped even further into his chair. 'Everyone who was in the bank was questioned immediately afterwards, and no one can tell us anything we can't see on the video. That is to say, they remember a few things which we know to be incorrect. One witness saw the robber heading up Industrigata. No one else has called in.'

'Which brings us to the next point-getaway cars,' Ivarsson said. 'Toril?'

Toril Li stepped forward, switched on the overhead projector, where there was already a transparency with a summary of private vehicles stolen over the past three months. In her strong Sunnmшrsk dialect she explained which four cars she considered to be the most probable getaway cars, basing her judgement on the fact that they were run-of-the-mill brands and models, neutral, light colours and new enough for the robber to feel confident that they wouldn't let him down. One particular car, a Volkswagen GTI parked in Maridalsveien was of interest as it had been stolen the night before the bank raid.

'Bank robbers tend to steal cars as near the time to the robbery as possible so they don't appear on patrol-car lists,' Toril Li elucidated. She switched off the overhead projector and picked up the transparency on her way back to her seat.

Ivarsson nodded. 'Thanks.'

'For nothing,' Harry whispered to Weber.

The title on the next sheet was VIDEO ANALYSIS. Ivarsson had put the top back on the marker. Beate swallowed, cleared her throat, took a sip of water from the glass in front of her and coughed again before beginning, her eyes firmly fixed on the table. 'I've measured the height-'

'Speak a little louder, would you please, Beate.' Reptilian smile. Beate cleared her throat several times.

'I've measured the height of the robber from the video. He's 1.79. I checked this out with Weber, who agrees.'

Weber nodded.

'Brilliant!' Ivarsson called out with laboured enthusiasm in his voice. He snatched the top off the marker and wrote: HEIGHT 1.79 m.

Beate continued talking to the table: 'I've just spoken to Aslaksen from the university, our voice analyst. He's had a look at the five words the robber says in English. He…' Beate peered nervously up at Ivarsson, who was standing with his back to her, ready to take notes. '…said the recording quality was too poor to do anything with. It was unusable.'

Ivarsson dropped his arm at the same time as the low sun disappeared behind a cloud and the large rectangle of light on the wall behind them faded away. There was a deafening silence in the room. Ivarsson inhaled and moved forward onto the balls of his feet.

'Fortunately, we have saved our trump for last.'

The Head of the Robberies Unit flipped over the last sheet of paper.

SURVEILLANCE.

'For those of you who do not work in the Robberies Unit we should perhaps explain that we always bring in the surveillance section first when we have a video recording of a bank raid. In seven out of ten cases a good video recording will reveal the identity of the robber, if he's one of our old friends.'

'Even if he's masked?' Weber asked.

Ivarsson nodded. 'A good undercover investigator will identify an old lag by his build, body language, the way he speaks during the robbery, all the small details you cannot hide behind a mask.'

'But it's not enough knowing who it is,' Ivarsson's second-in-command Didrik Gudmundson interposed. 'We have to-'

'That's right,' Ivarsson broke in. 'We have to have proof. A robber can spell his name out to the camera, but so long as he's masked and does not leave tangible evidence, in the eyes of the law we have nothing.'

'So, how many of the seven you recognise end up being convicted?' Weber asked.

'A few,' Gudmundson said. 'It's still better to know who has committed a robbery, even if they go free. Then we learn something about the pattern and their methods. And we get them the next time.'

'And if there's no next time?' Harry asked. He noticed how the thick veins over Ivarsson's ears expanded when he laughed.

'Dear murder expert,' Ivarsson said, still in jocular mood. 'If you look around you, you'll see that most people are smiling in their beards at what you just asked. That's because a bank robber who has pulled off a successful raid will always-always-strike again. That's a law of gravity with bank robbers.' Ivarsson peered out of the window and allowed himself another chuckle before spinning round on his heel. 'If that's the end of adult education for today, perhaps we can see if we have any suspects.'

Ola Li looked at Ivarsson, uncertain whether he should get up or not, but decided in the end to remain seated. 'Well, I was on duty last weekend. We had an edited video ready by eight on Friday evening, and I got the surveillance folk in to view the video in the House of Pain. Those not on duty were called in on Saturday. In all, thirteen surveillance officers were here, the first at eight o'clock on Friday and the last…'

'That's fine, Ola,' Ivarsson said. 'Just tell us what you found.'

Ola laughed nervously. It sounded like the tentative cry of a seagull.

'Well?'

'Espen Vaaland is off sick,' Ola said. 'He knows bank robber turf pretty well. I'll try to get him here tomorrow.'

'What you're trying to say is…?'

Ola's eyes did a racing jig around the table. 'Not a great deal,' he said softly.

'Ola is still relatively new here,' Ivarsson said and Harry noticed how his jaw muscles were beginning to grind. 'Ola demands a hundred per cent certainty when identifying people, and that's laudable, but it's a bit too much to expect when the robber-'

'The killer.'

'-is covered from top to toe, average height, keeps his mouth shut, moves atypically and wears shoes too big for him.' Ivarsson raised his voice. 'So give us the whole list, Ola. Who's in the running?'

'No one.'

'There must be some names!'

'No,' Ola said with a gulp.

'Are you trying to tell us that no one had any suggestions, that all of our volunteer slum rats, zealous undercover boys that they are, who take pride in their daily dealings with the worst scum in Oslo, who in nine out of ten cases hear rumblings about the getaway driver, the man carrying the swag, the lookout, are suddenly unwilling even to hazard a guess?'

'They guessed alright,' Ola said. 'Six names were mentioned.'

'Well, spit them out then, man.'

'I've checked all the names. Three are in the nick. One was seen in Plata market square when the robbery was being committed. One is in Pattaya in Thailand. I've checked that. And there was one all the undercover officers mentioned because he has a similar build and the robbery was so professional, and that is Bjшrn Johansen from the Tveita gang.'

'Oh yes?'

Ola looked as if he wanted to slide off his chair and disappear under the table.

'He's in Ullevеl hospital, and last Friday he was being operated on for aures alatae.'

'Aures alatae?'

'Sticky-out ears,' Harry groaned, flicking a drop of sweat off his eyebrow. 'Ivarsson almost exploded. How many have you done?'

'I've just passed twenty-one.' Halvorsen's voice resounded around the walls. As it was early afternoon they had the fitness centre in the basement of the police station almost to themselves.

'Have you taken a short cut or what?' Harry clenched his teeth and managed to increase the rate a little. There was already a pool of sweat around his ergometer bike while Halvorsen's forehead was barely moist.

'So, you haven't got a bean then?' Halvorsen asked, breathing regularly and calmly.

'Unless there's something in what Beate Lшnn said at the end, we haven't got a lot, no.'

'And what did she say?'

'She's working on a program which can make a 3-D image of the robber's head and face from the video pictures.'

'Plus mask?'

'The program uses the information it gets from the pictures. Light, shadow, recesses, protrusions. The tighter the mask, the easier it is to make an image which resembles the person underneath. Nevertheless, it's only a sketch, but Beate says she can use it to match pictures of suspects.'

'Is it the FBI identification program?' Halvorsen turned to Harry and with a certain fascination verified that the sweat stain which had started at the dating agency logo on Harry's chest had now spread to cover the whole of the T-shirt.

'No, she has a better program,' Harry said. 'How far?'

'Twenty-two. Which one?'

'Fusiform gyrus.'

'Microsoft? Apple Mac?'

Harry tapped his forefinger on a bright red forehead. 'Software common to all. Sits in the temporal lobe in the brain and its sole function is to recognise people. That's all it does. It's the bit that makes sure we can distinguish between hundreds and thousands of human faces, but scarcely a dozen rhinos.'

'Rhinos?'

Harry pinched his eyes and tried to blink away the smarting sweat. 'That was an example, Halvorsen, but there's no doubt that Beate Lшnn is a special case. Her fusiform can do a couple of extra turns which, so to speak, allow her to remember all the faces she has seen in her life. And I don't just mean people she knows or has spoken to, but faces behind sunglasses she passed in a crowded street fifteen years ago.'

'You're kidding.'

'Nope.' Harry tucked in his head as he regained enough breath to continue: 'There are only about a hundred known cases like hers. Didrik Gudmundson said that she took a test at Police College and beat several well-known identification programs. The woman is a walking archive of faces. If she asks you Haven't I seen you somewhere before? you can take it from me, it's not just a chat-up line.'

'Jeez. What's she doing in the police? With talent like that, I mean.'

Harry shrugged. 'Do you remember the officer who was shot during a bank raid in the eighties in Ryen?'

'Before my time.'

'He happened to be close by when the call went out and as he was the first to arrive on the scene, he went into the bank to negotiate unarmed. He was mown down by automatic gunfire and the robbers were never caught. It was later used at Police College as an example of what you shouldn't do when you surprise bank robbers.'

'You should wait for reinforcements. You must not confront robbers or expose yourself, bank employees or the robbers to unnecessary danger.'

'Right, that's what the manual says. The odd thing is that he was one of the best and most experienced investigators they had. Jшrgen Lшnn. Beate's father.'

'Right. And you think that's why she joined the police? Because of her father?'

'Possibly.'

'Is she good-looking?'

'She's good. How far?'

'Just passed twenty-four, six left. And you?'

'Twenty-two. I'll catch you up, you know.'

'Not this time,' Halvorsen said, increasing his speed.

'Yes, I will, because here come the hills. And here I come. And you'll be psyched out and get cramp. As usual.'

'Not this time,' Halvorsen said, pedalling harder. A bead of sweat became visible in his thick hairline. Harry smiled and leaned over the handlebars.

Bjarne Mшller stared alternately at the shopping list he had received from his wife and at the shelf, at what he thought might be coriander. Margrete had fallen in love with Thai food after their holiday in Phuket last winter, but the Crime Squad head was still not completely at ease with the various vegetables which were flown daily from Bangkok to the Pakistani grocer's store in Grшnlandsleiret.

'That's green chilli, boss,' a voice by his ear said and Bjarne Mшller spun round and looked into Harry's flushed, sweat-stained face. 'Couple of those and a few slices of ginger and you can make tom yam soup. There'll be steam coming out of your ears, but you'll have sweated out a fair bit of crap.'

'Looks like you've had a foretaste, Harry.'

'Just a little cycle race with Halvorsen.'

'Oh yes? And what's that in your hand?'

'Japone pepper. A small red chilli.'

'Didn't know you cooked.'

Harry gazed with wonderment at the bag containing the chilli, as if it was new to him, too. 'By the way, lucky I met you, boss. We have a problem.'

Mшller could feel his scalp chafing.

'I don't know who decided Ivarsson should lead the investigation into the killing in Bogstadveien, but it's not working.'

Mшller put the list in the shopping basket. 'How long have you worked together now? Two whole days?'

'That's not the point, boss.'

'Can't you just do your job for once in your life, Harry? And let others decide how it's organised? Having a go at not being against everyone won't inflict permanent damage, you know.'

'I just want the case to be solved as quickly as possible, boss, so that I can get on with the other one, you know.'

'Yes, I know, but you've been working on that case for a good deal longer than the two months I promised you, and I cannot defend the commitment of time and resources with personal considerations and emotions, Harry.'

'She was a colleague, boss.'

'I know!' Mшller barked. He paused, looked around, then continued in more muted tones: 'What's your problem, Harry?'

'They're used to working on robberies, and Ivarsson is not in the slightest bit interested in constructive input.'

Bjarne Mшller was unable to suppress a grin at the thought of Harry's 'constructive input'.

Harry leaned forward. He spoke quickly and intensely: 'What's the first thing we ask ourselves when a murder has been committed, boss? Why? What's the motive? That's what we ask. In the Robberies Unit they automatically take it for granted money is the motive and don't ask the question.'

'So what do you think the motive is?'

'I don't think anything. The point is that they use completely the wrong methodology.'

'A different methodology, Harry, different. I have to get these vegetable things bought and go home, so tell me what it is you want.'

'I want you to talk to the people you have to talk to so that I can have one person to work solo with.'

'Step down from the investigation team?'

'Parallel investigation.'

'Harry-'

'That was how we caught the Redbreast, do you remember?'

'Harry, I can't interfere-'

'I want to work with Beate Lшnn, so that she and I can start afresh. Ivarsson is already getting bogged down-'

'Harry!'

'Yes?'

'What's the real reason?'

Harry shifted weight. 'I can't work with the smiling croc.'

'Ivarsson?'

'I'll go and do something extremely stupid.'

Bjarne Mшller's eyebrows met across the bridge of his nose in a black V: 'Is that supposed to be a threat?'

Harry placed a hand on Mшller's shoulder. 'Just this one favour, boss. I'll never ask for anything else again. Ever.'

Mшller growled. Over the years, how many times had he put his head on the block for Harry, instead of heeding the well-meant career advice from older colleagues? Keep him at arm's length, they said. A loose cannon, he is. The only thing that was certain about Harry Hole was that one day something was going to go disastrously wrong. However, because, in some mysterious way, he and Harry had so far always landed on their feet, no one had been able to implement any drastic measures. So far. The most interesting question of all, though, was: Why did he put up with it? He looked across at Harry. The alcoholic. The troublemaker. The ever-unbearable, arrogant bullhead. And the best investigator he had, apart from Waaler.

'You keep your nose clean, Harry. Otherwise I'll shove you behind a desk and lock the door. Have you got that?'

'Received loud and clear, boss.'

Mшller sighed. 'I have a meeting with the Chief Superintendent and Ivarsson tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see. I'm not promising anything, do you hear?'

'Aye, aye, boss. Regards to your wife.' Harry craned his head round on the way out. 'Coriander's on the far left, bottom shelf.'

Bjarne Mшller stood staring into his shopping basket. He remembered the reason now. He liked the alcoholic, obstreperous, stubborn bastard.