The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘Mm,’ Harry said, levering himself up on his arm, stretching across her and grabbing the cigarette
packet on the bedside table. ‘Not more than eighty percent of the time.’
‘What?’
‘They said on the radio that somewhere between fifteen and twenty per cent of all children in
Scandinavia have a different father from the one they think.’ He shook a cigarette out of the packet
and held it up against the afternoon light seeping in under the blind. ‘Share one?’
Rakel nodded without speaking. She didn’t smoke, but this was something they had always done
after making love: shared this one cigarette. The first time Rakel had asked to taste his cigarette, she
had said it was because she wanted to feel the same as he did, to be as poisoned and stimulated as
he was, to get as close to him as she could. And he had thought of all the girl junkies he had met
who had had their first fix for the same idiotic reason, and refused. But she had persuaded him and
eventually it had become a ritual. After they had made love slowly, lingering over it, the cigarette
was like an extension of their lovemaking. At other times it was like smoking a peace pipe after a
fight.
‘But he had an alibi for the whole of the evening Birte went missing,’ Harry said. ‘A boys’ night in
Tveita that started at six and lasted all night. At least ten witnesses, admittedly wasted for the most
part, but no one had been allowed to go home before six in the morning.’
‘Why keep it a secret that Vetlesen wasn’t the Snowman?’
‘As long as the real Snowman thinks we think we’ve got the killer he’ll lie low, hopefully, and
won’t commit any more murders. And he won’t be so wary if he thinks the hunt has been called off.
In the meantime we can quietly work our way closer at our leisure ’
‘Do I hear irony there?’
‘Maybe,’ Harry said, passing her the cigarette.
‘You don’t quite believe that then?’
‘I think our superiors have many reasons for concealing the fact that Vetlesen wasn’t our man. The
Chief Superintendent and Hagen held the press conference at the time when they were
congratulating themselves on solving the case ’
Rakel sighed. ‘And yet still I do occasionally miss Police HQ.’
‘Mm.’
Rakel studied the cigarette. ‘Have you ever been unfaithful, Harry?’
‘Define unfaithful.’
‘Having sex with someone other than your partner.’
‘Yes.’
‘While you were with me, I mean.’