‘I’m sure they will,’ Harry said. ‘Shall we say an hour from now?’

The high-pitched laughter came down the line once more. ‘Another nice try, Harry. Surely you don’t think I’m planning on giving you enough time to alert the Rapid Response Unit and gather half the police force before the exchange?’

‘OK, but we’re some distance away. How much time do we have to get there?’

‘I think you’re lying, Harry. I don’t think you’re that far away. Can you see the moon from where you are?’

Øystein walked quickly to the window. Nodded.

‘Yeah,’ Harry said.

‘Then you can see that the eclipse is under way. When the moon is completely covered, I’ll slit Alexandra’s throat.’

‘But—’

‘If the astronomers’ calculations are correct, you have... let me see... twenty-two minutes. Just one more thing. I have eyes and ears in many places and if I see or hear that the police have been alerted before you arrive, Alexandra dies. OK, hurry up now.’

‘But—’ Harry stopped and held up the phone to let the others know the connection had been broken.

He checked the time. Helge Forfang had given them just long enough; if they took Ring 3 it wouldn’t take more than five or six minutes to the Forensic Medical Institute at Rikshospitalet.

‘Did you all get that?’ he asked.

‘Part of it,’ Aune said.

‘His name’s Helge Forfang, he works at the Forensic Medical Institute and he’s holding a colleague hostage on the roof. He wants to exchange her for me. We have twenty minutes. We can’t contact the police, if we do there’s a good chance of him discovering it. We need to go there now, but it’s just me and one more.’

‘Then I’m coming,’ Truls said firmly.

‘No,’ Aune said just as firmly.

The others looked at him.

‘You heard him, Harry. He’s going to kill you. That’s why he wants you there. He loves her, but he hates you. He’s not going to negotiate. He might have a tenuous grip on reality, but he knows as well as you or me that nobody gets a reduced sentence by bargaining over a hostage.’

‘Maybe,’ Harry said. ‘But even you can’t be sure just how deranged he is, Ståle. He might believe that he can.’

‘That seems unlikely, and you’re planning to risk your life on it?’

Harry shrugged. ‘The clock is ticking, gentlemen. And yes, I think an old, washed-up murder detective instead of a young medical research talent is a plus. It’s simple mathematics.’

‘Exactly!’ Aune said. ‘It’s simple mathematics.’

‘Good, we agree. Truls, you ready to go?’

‘We have a problem,’ Øystein said from the window. He was tapping on his phone. ‘I can see the traffic is at a complete standstill on the road down there. Unusual this late in the evening. And checking the NRK travel website here they’re saying Ring 3 is closed due to smoke from a burning house. That means all the smaller roads are chock-a-block, and speaking as a taxi driver, I can guarantee we won’t make it to Rikshospitalet in twenty minutes. Not thirty either.’

The people in the room, Jibran included, looked at one another.

‘Right,’ Harry said. Glanced at his watch. ‘Truls, would you like to abuse your non-existent authority as a policeman?’

‘I’d love to,’ Truls said.

‘Good. Then let’s go down to A&E and commandeer an ambulance with lights and sirens, what do you say?’

‘Sounds fun.’

‘Stop!’ Aune shouted, slamming his fist on the bedside table, upending a plastic cup and sending water spilling onto the floor. ‘Aren’t you listening to what I’m saying?’

52

Friday

Sirens

Prim heard the sound of the sirens rise and fall out in the darkening night. Soon the whole of the moon would be eaten up and the sky lit only by the yellow lights of the city below. They weren’t police sirens, and neither were they the sirens of the fire engines he had heard earlier in the evening. It was an ambulance. Of course, it could be an ambulance on its way to the Rikshospital but something told him it was Harry Hole announcing his arrival. Prim had opened the bag with the police scanner and had it switched on. It was possible Harry could inform his colleagues without word of it being communicated through the ether, Prim wasn’t the first criminal with access to police frequencies. But something about the peaceful and relaxed atmosphere of the radio traffic told Prim that there were at least not many police in the city who knew what was happening. The most dramatic incident of the evening appeared to be the charred human remains in a burning villa in Gaustad.