The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘I beg your pardon?’ Harry said, sitting on the sofa.
‘You’re starting with the solution and working backwards to find out how it happened.’
‘Is that what a priori means?’
‘God knows, I just like the sound of Latin.’
‘Mm. And what do you think of our solution? Do you believe it?’
‘Me?’ Støp laughed. ‘I don’t believe anything. But that’s my profession of course. As soon as
something begins to resemble an established truth, it’s my job to argue against it. That’s what
liberalism is.’
‘And in this case?’
‘Oof. I can’t see that Vetlesen had any rational motive. Or was crazy in a way that would defy
standard definitions.’
‘So you don’t think Vetlesen is the murderer?’
‘Arguing against the belief that the world is round is not the same as believing it to be flat. I assume
you have evidence. An alcoholic beverage? Coffee?’
‘Yes, coffee, please.’
‘I was teasing,’ Støp smiled. ‘I’ve only got water and wine. No, I tell a lie, I’ve got some sweet
cider from Abbediengen Farm. And you have to taste that whether you want to or not.’
Støp scuttled into a kitchen and Harry stood up to inspect his surroundings.
‘Quite an apartment you’ve got here, Støp.’
‘It was in fact three apartments,’ Støp shouted from the kitchen. ‘One belonged to a successful
shipowner who hanged himself out of boredom more or less where you’re sitting now. The second,
where I am, belonged to a stockbroker who was banged up for insider trading. He found deliverance
in prison, sold the apartment to me and gave all the money to an Inner Mission preacher. But that’s
a kind of insider trading too, if you know what I mean. Still, I’ve heard the man is a lot happier
now, so why not?’
Støp came into the living room carrying two glasses with pale yellow contents. He passed one to
Harry.
‘The third apartment was owned by a plumber from Østensjø who decided when they were planning
the Aker Brygge harbour area that this was where he would live. A kind of class journey, I guess.
After scrimping and saving – or working in the black market and overcharging – for ten years, he
bought it. But it cost so much he couldn’t afford a removal firm and did the move himself with a
couple of pals. He had a safe weighing four hundred kilos. I suppose he must have needed it for all
his black market money. They had reaching the final landing and there were only eighteen steps left
when the infernal safe slipped. The plumber was dragged under it, broke his back and was
paralysed. Now he lives in a nursing home in the area he came from, with a view of Lake