Burned

Chapter 54

Bjarne Brogeland is in his office, staring into space. His hands are folded behind his head. He is thinking. And, for once, he isn’t thinking about Ella Sandland, stark-naked and free of inhibitions. He is thinking about Anette Skoppum, if she is in danger, who might be trying to hurt her and where she might be hiding. Brogeland jerks upright, picks up his telephone and calls Emil Hagen.

Hagen answers immediately.

‘Where are you?’ Brogeland barks. His voice is authoritarian. He feels he can speak like this to a junior officer.

‘Westerdal School of Communication. No one has seen her. I’m thinking I might hang round anyway.’

‘Is anyone still there this late in the evening?’

‘Yes, quite a few people, would you believe it? Last-minute exam cramming. And I think there’s a party later. There are posters on the notice board to that effect.’

‘Okay. Stay where you are and see if you can find her.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

Brogeland hangs up without saying goodbye. He leans back and starts thinking about Henning Juul. Could I really have been wrong about him, he wonders? Am I the one being used here? Could I really have been that naive?

He doesn’t have time to think about the Nigerian women before his mobile starts to vibrate on his desk. He looks at it. Talk of the devil, Brogeland thinks.

And ignores Juul’s call.

*

It feels like his feet are nailed to the floor. He has seen dead bodies before and death tends to look peaceful. Not in Stefan’s case. He looks tormented, as if he suffered right up until his final moment. Black rings around his eyes, bags under them, pallid skin; his face looks exhausted. One arm is on top of the duvet, stretching up towards his head. He is curled up against the wall as if he was trying to crawl inside it.

There is a glass on Stefan’s bedside table with a few drops of liquid in it. A pill lies next to it, on top of a book with a black cover. Valium, he thinks. An overdose. He knows he shouldn’t do it, but he goes over to the bedside table, leans forwards and sniffs the glass. It smells sharp. Alcohol. He steps closer to the bed. There is a crunching sound under his foot. He looks at the sole of his shoe and sees the remainder of something white and powdery. He mutters a curse, as he bends down and removes the blanket which overhangs the edge of bed.

He has stepped on a pill. A whole one is lying next to his shoe. Carefully, he picks it up, studies it and sniffs it. The pill and its smell remind him of something, but he can’t place it. He curses a second time and returns the pill to the exact same spot he found it, and stands up. The powder on the sole of my shoe will leave a trail, he thinks. And if I don’t boil my shoe, crime scene technicians will be able to place me here.

The room grows stuffy and humid. Henning feels the urge to run, but he doesn’t give in to it. Something on the desk stops him. It’s Henriette and Anette’s script. ‘A Sharia Caste’ is lying there, open on scene 9, the scene where the Gaarder family is having dinner. And Henning thinks that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

He rings Brogeland’s mobile. While he waits for him to reply, he tries to remember if he touched anything. The last thing he needs is the police to find his fingerprints in the Foldviks’ home.

The bathroom cabinet. Damn. He opened the bathroom cabinet. He closed it with his right hand.

Damn.

He lets the phone ring, but Brogeland doesn’t reply. He picked a great time to be busy, Henning fumes. You bloody amateur, he berates himself. But how was he to know that there was a dead body in a flat he just happened to visit?

He leaves, making sure the front door is almost closed, like it was when he arrived, and he does the same with the door to the backyard. Back outside, he feels how wonderful it is to be surrounded by fresh air, and he looks up at the windows. No one is looking down. He lets his mobile ring twenty times, at least, before he gives up. Damn, he thinks. Damn, damn, DAMN. What do I do now? I have to get hold of Bjarne. I can’t ring the police like I normally would and report this. If I do that, I’ll have to wait here, tell them what I was doing and I know it won’t look good. I won’t be able to give a proper explanation, at least not one that puts me in the clear. First Tariq and now Stefan.

No, he says to himself, I have to get hold of Bjarne.

He tries calling him again. The telephone rings and rings. Arrghhh! Henning rings the switchboard and asks to be put through to him. A female voice says ‘just a moment’. Too many long seconds pass before he is transferred.

The telephone rings again. But only twice. Then Brogeland picks up.