Punishment aka What Is Mine

TWENTY-FOUR

And you’re wasting time on this?”

Adam Stubo rubbed his face. The palm of his hand rasped against the dry stubble. It was past two in the morning on Wednesday, May 24. A cluster of around twenty-five journalists and nearly as many photographers huddled outside Asker and Bærum Police Station in Sandvika. They were being kept out of the red-brick building by a couple of police cadets, who had resorted to brandishing their batons in the last fifteen minutes. They paced back and forth in front of the entrance, angrily smacking their batons into their hands, like caricature policemen from a Chaplin film. The photographers pulled back a step or two. Some of the journalists started to look at their watches. One guy from Dagbladet, whom Adam Stubo recognized, yawned loudly and obviously. He barked at one of the photographers before shambling over to a Saab that was parked illegally. He got in, but the car didn’t move.

Adam Stubo let the curtain fall and turned back to the room.

“Jesus, Hermansen, the poor guy has never hurt a fly!”

“And who said that our abductor necessarily had a criminal record?”

Hermansen blew his nose on his fingers and swore.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Well, what the hell do you mean then? Just four hours after yet another child was abducted, there’s a guy at the first crime scene, dressed in camouflage like he’s planning a career in the CIA, jerking himself off and moaning the girl’s name to himself! And now he’s sitting downstairs and can’t tell us what he was doing on Thursday, May 4, when Emilie Selbu disappeared, or May 10, when Kim was abducted. He can’t even remember what he was doing at five o’clock today.”

“That’s quite simply because the man’s got nothing to tell,” said Adam Stubo drily. “The man’s an idiot, literally. At least, he’s not all there. He’s terrified, Hermansen.”

Hermansen lifted a dirty coffee cup to his mouth. The sour smell of stress and sweat pervaded the room. Adam wasn’t sure whom it was coming from.

“He’s a driver by trade,” growled Hermansen. “Can’t be a complete idiot. Drives for a courier company. And he does have a record. No less than…”

He grabbed a file and pulled out a document.

“Five fines and two sentences for sexual offences.”

Adam Stubo wasn’t listening. Once again, he looked stealthily out at the journalists. Their numbers had dwindled. He rubbed his nose and tried to work out what time it would be on the East Coast of the U.S.

“Indecent exposure,” he sighed heavily, without looking at Hermansen. “The man was arrested for flashing. Nothing else. He’s not the man we’re looking for, unfortunately.”

“Indecent exposure.”

Adam tried to stay neutral. It was impossible. Something about the words themselves echoed contempt for the action they described and could only be spat out, scornfully. The camouflage man had shrunk to a pile of cloth. The sweat was dripping. The man’s shoulders were so narrow that the arms of his jacket covered his hands. He had a sling around his neck but wasn’t using it. The crotch of his pants sagged down as far as his knees.

“Fifty-six years old,” said Adam Stubo slowly. “Is that correct?”

The man didn’t answer. Adam pulled a chair over to him and sat down. He rested his elbows on his knees and tried not to wrinkle his nose at the smell of urine and old sweat. This time he was certain of where the smell was coming from.

“Listen,” he said quietly. “Can I call you Laffen? Laffen, that’s what they call you, isn’t it?”

A slight nod indicated that the man was at least able to hear.

“Laffen,” smiled Stubo. “My name is Adam. It’s been a tiring evening for you, hasn’t it?”

Again, a slight nod.

“We’ll soon get everything straightened out. I just need you to answer a few questions. Okay?”

Another nod, almost imperceptible this time.

“Do you remember where you were caught? Where those two men… where they found you?”

The man didn’t react. His eyes, which were clearer at such close range, were like two black marbles in his narrow face. Adam carefully put his hand on the man’s knee and still got no reaction.

“You drive a car, don’t you?”

“Ford Escort 1991 model. Metallic blue. One point six liter engine, but it’s been souped up. The stereo cost eleventhousandfourhundredandninetykroner. Bucket seats and a spoiler. Did it all myself.”

His voice grated. Adam felt like he had put money into an old jukebox, especially when the man continued:

“Did it myself. Did it myself. Bucket seats and spoiler.”

“Great.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Why were you there then?”

“For no reason. Just… just standing there. Looking. It’s not against the law to look.”

The man pulled up his left sleeve. A blinding white plaster cast came into view.

“They broke my arm. I didn’t do nothing.”

It was half past three in the morning. Adam Stubo had been awake for twenty-one hours. God knows how long it was since the detainee had last slept. Adam slapped him lightly on the knee and got up.

“Try to get some sleep on the bunk over there,” he said in a friendly tone. “As soon as it’s daylight we’ll get everything straightened out, and then you can go home.”

As he closed the door carefully behind him, he realized that the camouflage man could pose a problem. He couldn’t get drunk in a brewery, let alone carry out three sophisticated abductions and one elaborate return of a child’s body. Sure, the man had a driver’s licence and therefore must be able to read and write. But “driver by trade” as Hermansen had called him was a huge exaggeration all the same. Laffen Sørnes was on disability and delivered hot meals to the elderly in Stabekk twice a week. Unpaid.

The problem was not the flasher himself. The problem was that the police had not arrested anyone else yet. Three children had disappeared. One boy was already dead. All the police had after three weeks of investigation was a middle-age flasher in a Ford Escort.

The flasher could turn out to be a major headache.

“Let him go,” said Adam Stubo.

Hermansen shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, but then we’ve got nothing. Zip. You tell them that, those vultures out there.”

He nodded at the window.

“Let the flasher go home as soon as it’s daylight,” Stubo yawned. “And for God’s sake, get the man another lawyer, one who makes sure that his client isn’t kept awake all night. That’s my advice. He’s not our man. And you…”

He pulled a cigar from his breast pocket and pointed a finger.

“I can’t decide what you do out here in Asker and Bærum. But if I were you… I’d fine the bastards who broke his arm. If not, you’ll be living in the Wild West before you know it. Mark my words. It’ll be like Texas.”