The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

washed away.
We’re going to die, whore.
Rakel flinched. Looked around. But she was alone. All she could see in the street were other parked
cars. Were there notes on them, too? She couldn’t see any. It had to be chance; no one could have
known where her car was. She rolled down the window, held the note between two fingers and let it
go, started the engine and pulled out into the road.
Just before the end of Ullevålsveien she suddenly had a feeling someone was sitting in the back seat
staring at her. She looked and saw a boy’s face. Not Oleg, but another boy’s unfamiliar face. She
slammed on the brakes and the rubber screamed on the tarmac. Then came the angry sound of a car
horn. Three times. She stared into her mirror as her chest heaved. And saw the face of the terrified
young man in the car right behind her. Trembling, she put the car back into gear.
Eli Kvale stood in the hallway as if rooted to the floor. In her hand she was still holding the
telephone receiver. She had not been imagining things, not at all.
Only when Andreas had said her name twice did she come to.
‘Who was it?’ he said.
‘No one,’ she said. ‘Wrong number.’
When they were in bed, she wanted to snuggle up to him. But she couldn’t. Couldn’t bring herself
to do it. She was impure.
‘We’re going to die,’ the voice on the phone had said. ‘We’re going to die, whore.’
19
DAY 16.
TV.
BY THE TIME THE INVESTIGATION TEAM WAS ASSEMBLED the following morning they
had checked out six of the seven names on Katrine Bratt’s list. There was just one remaining.
‘Arve Støp?’ Bjørn Holm and Magnus Skarre queried in unison.
Katrine Bratt said nothing.
‘OK,’ Harry said. ‘I’ve spoken to Krohn on the phone. He made it quite clear that Støp does not
wish to answer the question of whether he has an alibi. Or any other questions. We can arrest Støp,
but he is perfectly within his rights not to make a statement. The only thing we’ll achieve by doing
this is to announce to the world that the Snowman is still out there. The point at issue is whether
Støp is telling the truth or this is all an act.’
‘But an A-grade celebrity as a murderer,’ Skarre said with a grimace. ‘Whoever’s heard of that?’
‘O. J. Simpson,’ Holm said. ‘Phil Spector. Marvin Gaye’s father.’