Burned

Chapter 42

Before Henning starts to read it, he spends a little time staring at the first page of the screenplay. He feels apprehensive. A little nervous, too, when he thinks about it, though he can’t quite explain why. Perhaps because the answer to why and how Henriette Hagerup was killed is lying right in front of him?

He takes a deep breath and begins: 1. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

A woman, MERETE WIIK (21), stands with her back to the camera. The light reflects off the spade she holds in her hand. She is breathing heavily, she is exhausted. She wipes the sweat off her brow. Then she sinks the spade into the ground.

2. EXT — OUTSIDE THE TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

A car drives up beside the tent. The driver turns off the engine. We see the boot open. MONA KALVIG (23) gets out. She goes to the boot.

3. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

MONA KALVIG opens the tent and enters. She is carrying a heavy bag. She stops in front of a hole in the ground.

MONA:

You’ve done a lot of digging.

Merete wipes away sweat and smiles.

MERETE:

It’s good exercise.

MONA:

Have you tried it?

MERETE:

No, it’s your hole, so I thought you should do the honours.

4. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

Close-up of the hole. Mona jumps into it and checks it out. It comes up to her waist.

MONA:

It’s perfect.

MERETE:

Great. Did you bring your mobile?

MONA:

Yep.

MERETE:

Time to send the first one?

Mona climbs out of the hole and brushes off moist sand. She takes a mobile out of her pocket and checks the time. Then she flashes Merete a conspiratorial smile.

5. INT — A FLAT IN GALGENBERG:

A man, YASHID IQBAL (28), is watching Hotel Caesar on TV2. His mobile beeps. He picks it up and checks his messages. He frowns as he reads it. The sender is ‘Mona mobile’. We see what it says:

‘Sorry. It means nothing. HE means nothing. You’re the one I love. Can we talk about it? Please?’

6. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EARLY EVENING:

The women are sitting next to each other. They share a cup from a flask. Steam is coming from the cup.

MERETE:

Was it good?

Mona slurps the hot tea.

MONA:

Mm.

MERETE:

I didn’t mean the tea.

MONA:

Then what did you -

Mona realises what Merete was referring to. Mona smiles.

MONA:

It was especially good today. I like it when he’s rough.

MERETE:

Perhaps it was extra good because you knew it was the last time.

MONA:

Perhaps.

MERETE:

Will you miss it?

Mona shrugs. She passes the cup to Merete. They are quiet for a while.

MERETE:

Time to send the next one?

MONA:

We’ll wait. Give him a little more time.

MERETE:

Okay.

End of credit sequence and logo.

So far it reads like the introduction to a snuff movie, Henning thinks. He reads on: 7. INT — A FLAT IN GALGENBERG — EVENING:

Yashid Iqbal is in his kitchen. He opens the fridge and takes out a carton of skimmed milk. He is about to get a glass from a cupboard when his mobile beeps again. He takes his mobile out of his pocket. It is another message from ‘Mona mobile’. He reads it:

‘I promise to make it up to you. Please — give me another chance?’ Yashid Iqbal shakes his head, mutters ‘what the hell is she —?’ then he presses ‘call sender’. He is irritated as he walks around the kitchen. But he doesn’t get a reply. He tosses his mobile aside in anger.

8. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

Mona and Merete are still sitting beside the hole.

MERETE:

Do you think it’s going to work?

MONA:

It has to.

Mona’s mobile vibrates. The display says YASHID.

MERETE:

That’s him calling.

MERETE:

Aren’t you going to answer it?

MONA:

No.

Merete looks at Mona. It is clear that Mona is the boss.

9. INT — A FLAT IN ST HANSHAUGEN — EVENING:

The GAARDER family is having dinner. The mood is tense. The son, GUSTAV, is sullen and picking at his food. The wife, CAROLINE, looks at her husband, HARALD. He is eating, but he is uncomfortable.

GUSTAV:

Please may I leave the table?

CAROLINE:

But you’ve hardly eaten a thing.

GUSTAV:

Not hungry. Please may I leave?

Caroline sighs, nods to her son and watches him leave the room. She looks at her husband.

CAROLINE:

We are pushing him away. You are pushing him away.

Harald looks up from his plate.

HARALD:

Me?

CAROLINE:

Yes, who else?

Harald sighs.

HARALD:

Are you going to bring that up again? I thought we were done with all that?

CAROLINE:

Easy for you to say. Oh, it’s so easy for you to be ‘done with all that’.

Caroline mimics him. Harald flares up.

HARALD:

I don’t know what else you want me to do. I’ve told you that I won’t be seeing her again. What more do you expect?

CAROLINE:

That you actually mean it, possibly? That you stop thinking about her day in and day out, like you are now?

Harald looks away, realises that he cannot bluff.

HARALD:

I can’t help it.

CAROLINE:

(mimics her husband)

‘I can’t help it.’

Caroline sighs. Harald doesn’t reply. A long pause ensues.

CAROLINE:

I think we should get a divorce.

HARALD:

What?

CAROLINE:

Why not? It’s not like we’ve a life together.

HARALD:

You don’t mean that, Caroline. What about Gustav?

CAROLINE:

So now you suddenly care about him? You weren’t worried when you -

Caroline cannot bear to complete the sentence. She breaks down and sobs. Harald puts down his knife and fork, resigned.

10. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — EVENING:

Close-up of the display on Mona’s mobile. We watch her text. ‘Please reply? Please? I’ll never do it again. I promise.’ She presses ‘send’.

11. INT — A FLAT IN GALGENBERG — EVENING:

Yashid wanders restlessly around the flat. He talks to his brother, FAROUK IQBAL, who is in the living room, drinking milk. They speak in broken Norwegian.

YASHID:

Whore.

FAROUK:

I tried telling you.

YASHID:

Fucking whore.

Yashid’s mobile beeps again. The brothers look at each other.

FAROUK:

Is that her?

YASHID:

Don’t know, you moron. I haven’t checked it yet.

FAROUK:

Then do it, you moron.

Yashid glares at his brother. Then he opens the text and reads it. He tosses the mobile on to the sofa.

YASHID:

Fucking whore.

It’s tempting think the characters in the script are based on real people, Henning thinks. But it’s also a little too convenient.

The desire for coffee resurges. He orders one from the waiter behind the bar, who looks like he minds very much that Henning has bought just the one coffee in all the time he has been there. There are only two other people in the cafe. They are eating their salad in silence.

His coffee arrives just as he is about to start reading again. 12. INT — A TENT ON EKEBERG COMMON — LATE EVENING:

Close-up of the hole in the ground. Mona has jumped into it again. Merete is filling up the hole with earth.

MERETE:

You managed to sort out his computer?

MONA:

Oh yes. It was easy. He took a shower after we had had sex, not a problem.

MERETE:

Have we remembered everything?

MONA:

I think so. Wait a moment — let me get my arms out.

MERETE:

Okay.

Mona pulls her arms out of the sandy soil.

MONA:

Right. Carry on.

Merete carries on filling the hole. Soon the sand reaches all the way up to Mona’s armpits. Merete puts down the spade, she is panting.

MERETE:

Anything you want to say before we begin?

Mona considers this. She clears her throat.

MONA:

(in a solemn voice):

This is for all the women in the world. But especially for us in Norway.

Merete smiles. The camera moves slowly from Merete’s face to the ground behind her. We see the spade. We see the bag Mona brought with her. It is open. Next to it lies a large heavy stone.

Henriette can’t possibly have subjected herself to this, Henning thinks, and looks up. She can’t possibly have acted out a role, used her own script and let herself be stoned to death to promote a political message?

It’s only a movie, Henning. He hears his mother’s voice and remembers how he used to climb up on her lap when Detective Derrick solved murder mysteries every Friday evening. Someone must have used Henriette’s script against her. To mock her? To point the finger at someone?

He reads on: Caption against a black background: Two weeks later

13. INT — AN INTERVIEW ROOM AT THE POLICE STATION — LATE MORNING:

Yashid Iqbal sits at a table. Police officers sit opposite. The officers look grave.

OFFICER 1:

What did you do after you received the text messages, Yashid? Did you go over to confront her?

Yashid doesn’t reply.

OFFICER 2:

We know that you tried to call her. We also know that you left your flat just after eight o’clock that night.

OFFICER 1:

There’s evidence of a brutal sexual assault, Yashid.

OFFICER 2:

And we have your laptop. You checked her e-mail that afternoon. Why did you do that?

OFFICER 1:

We get it, Yashid. You got angry. It’s understandable. She was screwing around, you got angry and you taught her a lesson.

OFFICER 2:

You can make it much easier for yourself by talking, Yashid. Tell us what happened. You’ll feel better for it.

Yashid says nothing.

OFFICER 1:

After you got the text messages, you went to the place where she was filming. You raped her and buried her in a hole in the ground. Afterwards, you picked up some heavy stones and threw them at her until she died. That’s the appropriate punishment, isn’t it? For being unfaithful?

Yashid looks at the police officers. Yashid’s lawyer leans towards him and whispers into his ear. Yashid leans forward.

YASHID:

I love Mona. I’m innocent.

The police officers look at each other and sigh.

Caption against a black background: Five months later

14. INT — OSLO COURTHOUSE — NOON:

Yashid sits next to his lawyer. Harald Gaarder sits some rows behind him. He looks depressed and gloomy. Farouk Iqbal is there, too. He looks anxious. The judge enters. Everyone stands up.

JUDGE:

Sit down, please.

Everyone sits down. The judge looks at the jury.

JUDGE:

Has the jury reached a verdict?

FOREMAN OF THE JURY:

We have.

15. INT — OSLO COURTHOUSE — NOON:

Close-up of Yashid. He looks down. He is visibly nervous. The camera zooms out. Merete sits at the back of the courtroom. The picture of her grows sharper. She remains in focus while the foreman of the jury reads out the verdict.

FOREMAN OF THE JURY:

In the case against Yashid Iqbal we, the jury, find the defendant guilty of all charges.

The courtroom erupts with jubilation. Merete looks at Harald Gaarder. She smiles to him. Gaarder looks away and leaves. Merete takes out a mobile. She writes a text message. We see what she writes.

‘One down. Plenty more to go.’ She scrolls through her contacts, finds Mona, and presses ‘send’.

THE END.

He puts down the script, slightly disappointed, and rubs his eyes. The trailer promised a blood-dripping thriller and all he got was a mediocre drama. The script was supposed to be his Pandora’s Box, but there was no mention of stun guns, floggings or severed hands. He begins to wonder if other, more brutal, versions of the script exist.

The initial premise was fine: Two women stage a ‘murder’ and make sure that one woman’s boyfriend is arrested and convicted of the murder, even though he is innocent. It is only a flight of fancy, Henning reasons, wishful thinking. Translated into real life, Mona and Merete will respectively be Henriette and Anette, while Mahmoud Marhoni is Yashid Iqbal. And Tariq is Farouk.

So far so good. And, so far, most of it matches Henning’s own theories. Mahmoud Marhoni is innocent, and someone is trying to set him up. Text messages, hinted infidelity, a last rough fuck which borders on rape. It won’t be easy for a suspect to distance himself from that kind of evidence, especially not if the suspect stays silent during interview.

But who is Harald Gaarder? His family and its fate were given so much space in the script that they must be important. But are they important in real life, too? As his mother said, it’s only a film. Not everything has to mirror reality.

He explores the possibility, anyway. Harald Gaarder had an affair with Mona — who else could it have been — and the infidelity is punished by stoning. But then why do Gaarder and Merete look at each other at the end? Why was she smiling?

The real life Gaarder character must know Anette. The man who had an affair with Henriette must be known to both women. The only one Henning can think of, based on the people he has met so far, is Yngve Foldvik. But Foldvik hasn’t read the script, so it can’t be him. Unless Foldvik is lying? But why would he lie about that? He must be aware that this kind of allegation is easy to check, if the police can be bothered. Evidence on his computer, copies of the script somewhere, in his office, at home. If he is caught out in such a simple lie, it’s handcuffs straight away and welcome to Ullersmo Prison. There must be other adults, he thinks, another family. Anette’s, perhaps? Or Henriette’s?

He thinks about Henriette. Beautiful, gentle, extrovert Henriette. What sort of person were you really? Foldvik described your work as ‘provocations with substance’. Henning can see what he meant, even though the issue of sharia is examined in a narrow and very simplistic manner. The message seems to be that idiots who promote sharia need to be got rid of, and that we — for our own sake — mustn’t shy away from any means in the fight to protect ourselves and our culture; women the world over — unite — and don’t put up with it.

But where is the gunpowder? When is the explosion? Where are the incriminating lines, the ammunition, which caused someone to act out what was a fantasy? Hagerup isn’t exactly Theo van Gogh, the Dutch director who made films critical of Islam and who was killed with eight pistol shots in Amsterdam in 2004. The killer went on to cut van Gogh’s throat, insert two knives into his chest and attach a long threatening letter to them. As far as Henning knows, Hagerup wasn’t Islamophobic. And her boyfriend was a Muslim.

The more Henning thinks about it, the more convinced he is that someone close to Anette and Henriette must be behind this. I have to find out who was involved in the filming, he thinks, who had access to the script and if any outsiders read it. The killer, or the killers, must be among them.