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‘And when are you planning on finding out?’

‘Hard to say, boss. At the moment my priority is finding a killer who, for all we know, may be looking for his next victim.’

There was silence at the other end. Katrine closed her eyes and cursed herself. She would never learn.

‘I’ve just had Winter on the phone, and he rules out anyone at Kripos. I’d be inclined to agree with him. So, you’re the one who needs to find the person concerned and shut their mouth, Bratt. You hear me? This makes us all look like idiots. I’m calling the Police Chief now before he calls me to ask about it. Keep me informed.’

Melling hung up. Katrine shifted her gaze to Harry’s phone, which he was holding up for her. It was Dagbladet’s website. She skimmed Våge’s comments.

‘The guy really has it in for Røed,’ she said.

‘Have you?’ Harry asked.

‘Have we what?’

‘Speculated if the murders were arranged so as to look like they were a sexually motivated murder?’

She shrugged. ‘Not that I’ve heard. I bet it’s Våge’s own speculation, and he’s attributing it to a source because he knows it can never be checked.’

‘Mm.’

They drove down towards the motorway.

‘What do you lot think?’ she asked.

‘Well. Most of the team think it’s a rapist and serial killer, and that the link between the two victims is coincidental.’

‘Because?’

‘Because Markus Røed has an alibi and contract killers don’t have sex with their victims. What do your lot think?’

Katrine checked the traffic in the mirror. ‘OK, Harry, I’ll give you something. What Våge didn’t write is that one of the post-mortem technicians found the same type of condom powder in both girls. So it’s the same perpetrator.’

‘Interesting.’

‘What he also didn’t write is that the medical examiners aren’t ruling out that the girls were raped, even though they didn’t find any clear physical indicators. They only do in one in three cases. Minor injuries in just half the rapes. The remainder they find nothing.’

‘Do you think that’s what’s happened here?’

‘No. I think it’s because the victims were dead before intercourse took place.’

‘Mm. The thrill begins with death.’

‘What?’

‘Something Aune says. With sadists, their sexual excitement begins with the suffering and ceases when the victim dies. With necrophiliacs their excitement begins when the victim is dead.’

‘OK, but then you were rewarded a little all the same.’

‘Thanks. What do you make of the boot prints at the scenes?’

‘Who said there were boot prints?’

Harry shrugged. ‘The crime scenes are in the forest, so I presume the ground is soft. It’s hardly rained over the past few weeks, so obviously there’ll be boot prints.’

‘They have the same pattern,’ Katrine said, after some hesitation. ‘The victim’s and the suspected perpetrator’s footprints are close to one another, as if he was holding her or was threatening her with a weapon.’

‘Mm. Or just the opposite.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Maybe they walked with their arms around each other. Like a couple. Or two people about to engage in mutual, consensual sex.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘If I was threatening someone, I’d walk behind them.’

‘You believe the girls knew their killer?’

‘Maybe. Maybe not. What I don’t believe in are coincidences. Susanne went missing four days after the party at Røed’s building, and Bertine one week after that. They met the perpetrator there. There was a man at the party I’m guessing you don’t have on that guest list.’

‘Oh?’

‘A guy in a face mask and sunglasses selling cocaine?’

‘No one’s mentioned anyone like that to us, no. Not so strange, perhaps, if he was selling cocaine to the guests.’

‘Or because you soon forget faceless people. He wasn’t selling to the guests, rather handing out samples of something we think was close to pure cocaine to a few guests.’

‘How do you know?’

‘That’s not important. What is important is that he was in contact with both Susanne and Bertine. Do you know of anyone else at the party who talked to both girls?’