Death In Oslo

XIX

After a while, Adam Stubo started to understand why Warren Scifford had been given the nickname ‘The Chief’.

He didn’t have much in common with Geronimo. His cheekbones were high, his eyes were deep set, his nose was small and his facial hair was profuse, so that he already had a visible grey shadow. The man had been clean-shaven in the morning. His steel-grey hair fell in soft curls and the fringe was slightly too long.

‘No,’ Warren Scifford said and stopped outside the door of the Hotel Opera’s presidential suite. ‘I don’t know who the man in the CCTV footage was.’

His face was blank and his look direct, without giving away anything. There was nothing to express indignation at being asked the question, no fake or real surprise at what Adam was intimating.

‘It just seemed that way,’ Adam insisted, playing with the key. ‘It definitely looked like you knew him.’

‘Then I gave the wrong impression,’ Warren said, without so much as blinking. ‘Shall we go in?’

There had been nothing reminiscent of native Indians about the American’s outburst in the gym hall, but now he had obviously pulled himself together. He went into the suite and stood in the middle of the room, with his hands in his pockets. He stood there for a long time.

‘So we’re assuming that she was in the dirty laundry basket on the way out,’ he eventually summarised; he seemed to be talking to himself. ‘Which would mean that she was hidden away somewhere when the two agents came in at seven o’clock.’

‘Or had hidden herself away,’ Adam said.

‘What?’

‘She might have been hidden away,’ Adam explained. ‘But equally she might have hidden herself. One is more passive than the other.’

Warren wandered over to the window and stood there with his back to Adam. He leaned his shoulder nonchalantly against the window frame, as if he was admiring the view of the Oslo Fjord.

‘So you think that she might be involved in this herself in some way?’ he said suddenly, without turning. ‘That the President of the United States of America might orchestrate her own disappearance in a foreign country. I see.’

‘I didn’t say that,’ Adam replied. ‘I simply suggested that there could be many explanations. That all possibilities must be kept open in an investigation like this.’

‘That can be ruled out,’ Warren said calmly. ‘Helen would never put her country in a situation like this. Never.’

‘Helen?’ Adam repeated, astonished. ‘Do you know her that well?’

‘Yes.’

Adam waited for him to explain. But he didn’t. Instead, he started to walk around the large suite, still with a saunter, still with his hands in his pockets. It was difficult to know what he was looking for, but his eyes darted here, there and everywhere.

Adam sneaked a look at his watch. It was twenty past five. He wanted to go home. He wanted to ring Johanne and find out what was going on, and not least, where she was. If he could get away soon, he might still have a chance of persuading her to come home with Ragnhild before bedtime.

‘I think we can assume that the agents only checked the room superficially before they ran out to raise the alarm,’ Adam said, in an attempt to encourage the American to be more communicative. ‘And there are lots of possible hiding places. The cupboards over there, for example. Have the men been questioned, by the way? Have they been asked what they did in here?’

Warren stopped in front of the double doors of the wardrobe, which were light oak. He didn’t open them.

‘This really is a beautifully designed room,’ he said. ‘I love the way Scandinavians use wood. And the view…’ He threw out his arm and moved over to the window again. ‘It’s magnificent. Apart from that building site down there. What’s that going to be?’

‘The opera house,’ Adam said, and took a few steps towards him. ‘Hence the name of the hotel. But listen, Warren, all this secrecy is not helping anyone. I understand that the case may have implications for the US that we might not, or cannot, understand. But-’

‘We will tell you what you need to know. Don’t worry.’

‘Cut the crap,’ Adam hissed.

Warren spun round. He flashed a smile, as if Adam’s outburst amused him.

‘Don’t underestimate us,’ Adam said, his cheeks flushed with unfamiliar rage. ‘You’d be making a mistake. Don’t underestimate me. You should know better.’

Warren shrugged and opened his mouth to say something.

‘You knew that man in the film,’ Adam snarled. ‘None of us who were there are in any doubt. And you don’t need to be a detective with nearly thirty years’ experience to realise that he must have been in the room all night. It’s not the President’s hiding place that you’re looking for. She could have been anywhere. Under the bed, in the wardrobe.’ Adam pointed around the room. ‘For that matter, she could have hidden herself behind the curtains. And considering the terrible…’ A fine shower of spray fell on to Warren’s face. He didn’t move a muscle, and Adam took a step closer as he drew breath, and then continued: ‘… what an appalling job those special agents of yours did when they searched the room, the woman could have been hanging from the lampshade without being discovered!’

‘They were scared,’ Warren said.

‘Who was?’

‘The agents. They haven’t said so themselves, of course. But that’s what happened. Frightened people don’t do a good job.’

‘Frightened? Frightened? You’re standing here saying that the world’s best security agents… that your Gurkha boys were frightened!’

Warren finally took a step back. His indifferent expression had been replaced by something that resembled scepticism. Adam interpreted it as arrogance.

‘This is not like you,’ the American said.

‘You don’t know me.’

‘I know your reputation. Why do you think I asked for you, in particular, to be my liaison?’

‘I have in fact wondered about that,’ Adam said, calmer now.

‘The Gurkhas are soldiers. Secret Service agents aren’t.’

‘Whatever,’ Adam muttered.

‘But you’re right. I do want to find out where the man in the suit might have hidden.’

‘Then in heaven’s name let’s look!’

Warren shrugged again and pointed to the adjoining room. Adam nodded and walked towards the open door. He stood for a moment and waited for Warren to go in first. The American had stopped in the middle of the floor. He was staring at a point on the ceiling.

‘The ventilation system has been checked,’ Adam said impatiently. ‘A metal grate two metres further in means that it wouldn’t be possible to get any further. And it hasn’t been tampered with.’

‘But what about this vent here?’ Warren asked, his voice getting higher as he leant his head back. ‘There are visible marks on the screw heads. Can you see?’

‘Of course there are marks,’ Adam said, standing by the door to the office of the suite. ‘The police have taken it out to see if the ventilation pipes were used as an escape.’

‘But now we know better,’ Warren said and pulled a chair over. ‘Now we’re not looking for an escape, but rather a hiding place. Isn’t that so?’

He climbed up on to the chair, carefully placed a foot on each arm and pulled out a Swiss Army knife from his jacket pocket.

‘Doesn’t the Secret Service use dogs?’ Adam asked.

‘Yes, of course.’

Warren had teased out a tiny screwdriver from the red knife.

‘Wouldn’t the dogs have reacted to the smell of a person in the ceiling?’

‘Madam President is allergic to dogs.’ Warren groaned as he started to unscrew the four screws that held the perforated metal grate in place on the ceiling. ‘The Secret Service use sniffer dogs well in advance of her arrival, so there’s enough time to vacuum afterwards. Can you give me a hand, please?’

He undid the last screw in the metal grate. It was square, and about half a metre across. He just managed to catch it when it suddenly came loose.

‘Here.’ He passed it to Adam. ‘I assume that fingerprints and the like were secured a long time ago.’

Adam nodded. Warren hopped down on to the floor with remarkable grace.

‘I need something higher than this to stand on,’ he said and looked around. ‘I would rather not touch anything up there.’

‘Look,’ Adam said quietly; he held the metal grate up to his eyes and squinted. ‘Look, Warren.’

The American leant towards him; their heads almost touched. Warren looked over the top of his glasses.

‘Glue? Tape?’

He folded the screwdriver back into the army knife and pulled out an awl. With great care he pricked at the almost transparent, apparently sticky mass. It could hardly be more than a millimetre wide and perhaps half a centimetre long.

‘Be careful,’ Adam warned him. ‘I’ll get it sent over for analysis.’

‘Glue,’ Warren stated and straightened his glasses. ‘Perhaps the remains of double-sided tape.’

Adam looked instinctively at the ceiling, where an edging of enamelled metal framed the opening. The light in the room made it impossible to see any details in the shaft. The reflection of the table lamp showed that the actual ventilation pipe was matt aluminium. But he was more interested in two tiny specks on the white frame than in the space inside.

‘We definitely need something to stand on,’ Warren said, and went over to the door into the other room. ‘Maybe we can…’ The rest was swallowed in a mumble.

‘I’ll call for some people,’ Adam said. ‘This is the responsibility of Oslo Police and I…’

Warren didn’t answer.

Adam followed him into the smaller room. A large black desk was positioned at an angle in the middle of the room. The surface was empty apart from a beautiful flower arrangement and a leather folder, which Adam assumed contained writing paper. In front of the glass doors out on to the terrace was a chaise longue with exquisite silk cushions in shades of pink and red. They matched the curtains and a feature wall with Japanese-inspired, patterned wallpaper.

On the opposite wall, behind a sitting area, was a robust bookshelf in solid wood, which must have been about one and a half metres tall. The American tried to tip it.

‘It’s free-standing,’ he said, emptying the shelves of ten or so books and a glass bowl. ‘Can you give me a hand?’

‘This is not our job,’ Adam said and pulled out his mobile phone.

‘Give me a hand,’ Warren said. ‘I just want to look, not touch.’

‘No, I’m going to get people over here now.’

‘Adam,’ Warren exclaimed in exasperation, throwing out his arms, ‘you said it yourself. This suite has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb, and all the evidence has been secured. But they still… someone has overlooked a small detail. You and I are both experienced policemen. We won’t damage anything. I just want to have a look. OK? Then these people of yours can come over and do their job.’

‘They’re not my people,’ Adam muttered.

Warren smiled and started to pull at the bookshelf. Adam hesitated for a little while longer before reluctantly taking hold of the other end. Together they managed to get the bookshelf into the main room and position it right under the open shaft.

‘Will you hold it steady?’

Adam nodded and Warren tested with one foot on the second lowest shelf. It held him, so with his right hand on Adam’s shoulder, he carried on climbing to the top. He had to twist his neck in order to study the small specks Adam had noticed.

‘Glue here too,’ he mumbled without touching it. ‘Looks like the same stuff that was on the grate.’

He stuck his head up into the shaft.

‘Plenty of room,’ he confirmed. His voice sounded hollow and muffled, due to the reverberation within the metal walls. ‘It would be perfectly possible for…’

Adam couldn’t make out the rest.

‘What did you say?’

Warren lowered his head down from the opening in the ceiling.

‘Just as I thought,’ he said. ‘It’s big enough for a grown man. And these friends of yours…’ He bent his knees and dropped to the floor. ‘I hope that they secured any evidence in the shaft before they crawled in to check the grates.’

‘I’m sure they did.’

‘But they overlooked this,’ said Warren and once again bent down over the loose grate.

‘We don’t know that for certain.’

‘Would there still be traces there if they’d discovered it? Wouldn’t the whole grate have been taken in for investigation?’

Adam didn’t answer.

‘And this,’ Warren continued and pointed with his penknife to a spot in the middle of the grate. ‘Do you see? All the scratches?’

Adam studied the nearly invisible stripes in the white metal. Someone had scraped against the enamel without breaking it.

‘Genius in its simplicity,’ he said quietly.

‘Quite,’ said Warren.

‘Someone has unfastened the grate, pulled a stay tied to string or rope through the middle hole, attached double-sided tape to the edge of the grate…’

‘And climbed in,’ concluded Warren. ‘It was simply a matter of pulling the grate up to close it. Then there he was. That explains why he was carrying a small ladder.’ He pointed at the ceiling with his thumb. ‘All he had to do was crawl in when-’

‘But how the hell did he manage to get in in the first place?’ Adam cut in. ‘Can you explain to me how anyone managed to get into the suite where the US president was staying, set up all this…’ he pointed at the ceiling and then at the loose grate that was lying on the table, ‘get comfy in the air vent, then creep out and take the President away with him, and get away with it?’

He coughed before continuing, his voice low and exasperated. ‘And all that in a hotel room that was minutely examined only a few hours before the President retired. How is it possible? How is that at all possible?’

‘There are lots of loose ends here,’ Warren said, with his hand on the Norwegian’s shoulder.

Adam moved almost imperceptibly, and Warren lifted his hand.

‘We have to find out when the CCTV cameras were turned on,’ he said swiftly. ‘And if they were ever turned off. We must establish when the room was last examined before Madam President came back from the meal. We must-’

‘Not we,’ Adam corrected and pulled out his mobile phone again. ‘I should have called ages ago. That is the investigators’ job. Not yours. Not mine.’

He held Warren’s gaze as he waited for an answer at the other end. The American was as expressionless as he had been when they came into the suite half an hour ago. When Adam made contact, he turned away and walked slowly towards the windows facing the fjord, talking in a low voice.

Warren Scifford sank down into a chair. He stared at the floor. His arms hung limply by his sides, as if he didn’t really know what to do with them. His suit didn’t look so elegant any more. It was crumpled and his tie knot was loose.

‘Is anything wrong?’ Adam asked. He had finished his conversation and turned round without warning.

Warren quickly straightened his tie and stood up. The surprise in his face vanished so swiftly that Adam wasn’t sure if he had seen correctly.

‘Everything,’ Warren laughed. ‘Everything’s wrong at the moment. Shall we go?’

‘No. I’ll wait here for my colleagues to come. It shouldn’t be long.’

‘Then,’ Warren started, lightly brushing the right sleeve of his jacket, ‘I hope that you won’t mind if I go.’

‘Not at all,’ Adam said. ‘Just ring me when you need me.’

He wanted to ask Warren where he was going, but something stopped him. If the American wanted to play that game, he would let him have all the secrets he liked.

Adam had other things to think about.