The Man in the Window (36 page)

Chapter 47

Discussion

    Gunnarstranda first rang at 3.30 a.m. without getting an answer. At 3.56 the unit leader was able to say with certainty that there were people in the flat. A man's and a woman's voices had been identified. At 4.04 the Special Forces unit had their people in position. At 4.10 one of the officers had seen a glimpse of the man through one of the windows in the flat. The man was wearing a mask. Then the unit leader asked Frølich to draw him a map showing the layout of the flat. At 4.18 Gunnarstranda rang for the second time.

    They had situated the centre of operations in Fritzners gate. Gunnarstranda was parked on the pavement in Bygdøy allé. In the car beside him sat two men, one the Special Forces leader listening to the conversation. It was blackest night outside.

    Gunnarstranda counted eighteen rings before Ingrid Jespersen answered. 'Yes,' she said nervously.

    'Police Inspector Gunnarstranda here,' he said.

    'It's the middle of the night,' she replied.

    'We have reason to believe that there is a Hermann Kirkenær in your flat,' Gunnarstranda said. His feet were freezing. The cold was coming through the car door.

    She didn't speak.

    'We have reason to believe you are in a hazardous situation.'

    'Me?' she said.

    'Could you go to a window facing Thomas Heftyes gate so that we can see you?'

    There was silence for a few seconds before she spoke. 'I'm still in bed.'

    'I can wait until you dress.'

    'Why should I?'

    'Dear fru Jespersen, answer me the following: Are you alone or is there someone with you?'

    She cleared her throat. 'I'm alone.'

    'May I speak to the man who is with you in the flat?'

    'Don't you believe me? I'm alone.'

    'Very well, fru Jespersen. We're coming up and will ring the doorbell. We expect you to let us in so that we can search the flat.'

    'No,' she gasped.

    'Why not?'

    'It's impossible.'

    'We have reason to believe that a wanted person is hiding in your flat. I can assure you that we…'

    'You can't do that,' she interrupted.

    Gunnarstranda glanced to his left and exchanged looks with the man listening. The man pulled a face and said something inaudible.

    'Well, I think it would be best if you let me talk to Kirkenær,' Gunnarstranda said, unruffled.

    This time the silence was a little longer. The sounds suggested a hand held over the receiver.

    'He's asleep,' she said on her return.

    Gunnarstranda glanced across at the two men in the car. They were grinning at her comment. 'Wake him up,' Gunnarstranda said calmly.

    'Just a moment.'

    'Hello,' said a man's voice.

    The sound of the voice created a buzz of activity in the adjacent car.

    'This is Police Inspector Gunnarstranda, Murder Squad. I'm leading the investigation into the killing of Reidar Folke Jespersen,' Gunnarstranda said, and went on: 'It's important that you understand I do not have overall authority in this situation that you have placed yourself. I therefore urge you to follow my instructions. That way we can bring this to a satisfactory conclusion.'

    'If you have nothing else to say, I see no reason to continue this conversation,' Kirkenær said, unmoved.

    'I know that your grandmother's name was Kirken
æ
r,
' Gunnarstranda said. 'I know your mother's name is or was Amalie Bruun. I know you have taken your grandmother's surname.'

    Kirkenær coughed. 'You're putting me in a very difficult position.'

    'Your position is very simple. Grant Ingrid Jespersen safe conduct out of the building and come out with your hands over your head.'

    'Just a moment,' Kirkenær said.

    Gunnarstranda exchanged a swift look with the unit leader in the adjacent car. The man motioned him to keep talking.

    'Hello,' Gunnarstranda said.

    Ingrid Jespersen came back on the line. 'Hello,' she said in a starched tone. 'We're fine here. Please don't disturb us. I invited this man here.'

    'Fru Jespersen, leave your flat. That's the only thing you can do to make us call off the action. If you don't come out, there will be very grave long-term consequences, especially for the man with you.'

    Another silence.

    Kirkenær came to the telephone. 'Ingrid likes it here with me,' he said. 'Shall we say you ring back tomorrow?'

    Gunnarstranda watched a policeman slowly releasing the safety catch of his weapon. He said: 'Grant her safe conduct.'

    'Your request cannot be complied with,' Kirkenær answered in the same formal tone.

    Gunnarstranda watched the armed policeman. He passed by the car where the unit leader was listening on the line and gesticulating.

    'Grant her safe conduct.'

    'Your request cannot be complied with,' Kirkenær repeated.

    Gunnarstranda glanced at the other car. The man listening in gesticulated again.

    'I repeat,' Gunnarstranda said, feverishly trying to think of something, 'either you come out with your hands above your head or you allow Ingrid Jespersen safe conduct out of the flat. You have ten minutes. Otherwise the matter is out of my hands. When suspected criminals take hostages, the case is automatically referred to a different department.'

    'I'm not taking hostages.'

    'The smartest move would be to comply with my request. It will save us a lot of bother, stress and unnecessary emotions.'

    Kirkenær chuckled. 'Emotions. I like you, Gunnarstranda.'

    'Ingrid Jespersen has gone through enough already. Let her go.'

    "Fraid I can't.' Kirkenær sighed. 'The lady is my ticket out of here.'

    'She's innocent.'

    'She's not innocent,' Kirkenær said with force.

    'Her husband was guiltless. Wasn't that so?'

    'He was guilty until the day he died.'

    'There was a witness who saw you that night,' Gunnarstranda said.

    'You're bluffing.'

    'No. There was a witness.'

    Kirkenær's breathing accelerated. 'Who?'

    'A taxi driver by the name of Ekholt.'

    Kirkenær sniggered. 'The man's dead. I heard it myself on the radio.'

    'But you didn't need to hear it, or read about it,' said Gunnarstranda. 'We know you killed Richard Ekholt. We have proof.'

    'You're boring me, policeman.'

    'You forgot to take the driver's mobile phone with you. It was in the car where he was found. It tells us as much as Ekholt could have told us if he had been alive. Why do you think I'm here? We've surrounded you, Kirkenær. We've painstakingly slotted in the last pieces of the jigsaw. I have a print-out from Ekholt's mobile phone company which proves you contacted him and he you - all the times too. I know Ekholt was watching you that night. I assume he did something to you he should not have done…'

    'You're putting me in a worse and worse situation, Gunnarstranda.'

    'No, you put yourself in this situation…'

    'Shut up!'

    'It's over now, Kirkenær. Come out. Ingrid Jespersen is innocent.'

    'There are a variety of ways of approaching guilt, Gunnarstranda. I suppose, as a policeman, you are used to rationalizing, aren't you?'

    'That may well be true, but you…'

    Kirkenær interupted: 'But hasn't it occurred to you that if you just use your mind you're constantly operating in relation to dreams and you never find out where you really are?'

    Gunnarstranda craned his neck. Men in combat uniforms were running past the cars. A taxi had stopped and half parked on the pavement. The driver was following what was going on with interest.

    'That's not how I see my situation, but I understand your reasoning,' he said on the telephone.

    'Let's take the opposite case. Some people always have to feel; they're feelings people. Their problem is that by feeling they take in only what happens and never why things happen. Are you with me, Gunnarstranda?'

    'I'm with you.'

    'Some would say the logical approach is to think first and feel afterwards. But if you think before you feel, you twist the reality to fit your dreams instead of turning your dreams and thoughts into reality - isn't that true?'

    Gunnarstranda manouevred a half-smoked cigarette out of the ashtray and pressed the car-lighter. With the cigarette in his mouth he was unable to answer right away.

    'Isn't that right?' Kirkenær yelled.

    'Mm, yes, that's right.' Gunnarstranda took out the lighter and lit his cigarette. From the corner of his eye he could see the unit leader grimacing.

    'That's why you and I have to choose the fourth method. Feel first, think afterwards: observe, feel and use your instincts to form rational decisions.'

    'I'm sure you're right,' Gunnarstranda commented dryly and inhaled. 'But you don't take hostages to give a lecture on philosophy, do you?'

    Kirkenær chuckled. 'You see, Gunnarstranda. You've been influenced by the method. You listened to my explanation, took what I said and your other dealing with me into account and then you came to a conclusion.'

    Kirkenær continued: 'I don't expect you to under-stand. But if you had been through what I've been through, you would have known I did the only thing possible.'

    'Really?' the policeman said, playing along. In the adjacent car two men were gesticulating to him. 'Murdering Folke Jespersen or the taxi driver who saw you?'

    Kirkenær chuckled. 'Don't be so silly. If you continue like that, I'll put the phone down.'

    'But why all the bother, Kirkenær? Why first plan the buy-out, then send the SS uniform and finally put the body in the shop window?'

    'He had to be crushed, bit by bit, and to know who was taking revenge on him.'

    'But you could have just parked outside the shop and run him down, couldn't you?'

    'I wanted to crush him, not kill him.'

    'Why put him in the shop window?'

    'So that others could see his guilt.'

    'Why did you kill him?'

    'I didn't kill him.'

    'But he died.'

    'His death was beyond my control.'

    'Why did you come here?'

    'To get my revenge.'

    'And did you get it?'

    'No, I'm getting it now.'

    'I repeat,' Gunnarstranda urged. 'Ingrid Jespersen has nothing to do with this case.'

    'And what do you know about that? What authority have you got in this matter?'

    'You'll have to trust me,' Gunnarstranda said with slow precision. 'If I'm no longer…'

    'I've wished Reidar Folke Jespersen dead for a long time,' Kirkenær interrupted. 'So long in fact that the dream has an entry in the annals of time. When he did die in the end, I felt no satisfaction at all.'

    'There, you see…'

    'That's why I've come to finish off what was started,'

    Kirkenær interrupted.

    'You mustn't even think of finishing anything,' Gunnarstranda said hastily with a glance to the left. One of the men in the car was nodding encouragement and pointing to his watch.

    'Well,' the Police Inspector went on, 'the reason I've been on your heels is that you don't have the right to take the lives of others, however great the pain leading to the decision.'

    The policeman was about to go on, but Kirkenær jumped in first: 'We are speaking two different languages. The morality that you are advocating doesn't interest me, in much the same way as I don't care about the system or machinery of power that you represent.'

    'Everyone cares about something.'

    'Like what for example?'

    'Your mother and father.'

    'Folke Jespersen was my father.'

    Gunnarstranda was lost for words.

    'Didn't you know?' Kirkenær asked.

    'It was one of the hypotheses that has led to me sitting here. But has it not occurred to you that it might be a lie?'

    'Why would my mother lie?'

    'What makes you so sure she didn't? Why did she marry Klaus Fromm?'

    The other end went quiet.

    Gunnarstranda's mind whirred. He looked to the left and was met by two tense faces. 'You went to the meeting on Friday to let Folke Jespersen see you,' Gunnarstranda said. 'He recognized you. He knew you were his son. He immediately revoked his will and arranged a meeting with your mother…'