The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

confess that she felt a certain attraction. And this attraction had something to do with the fact that he
was the guest all TV channels in Scandinavia wanted to get their hands on right now. For he was the
man who had caught the Snowman, the biggest crime story in Norway for many years.
‘I said I would be late,’ Harry Hole got in before she could utter a word.
She sniffed his breath. The last time he had been on the show he had been visibly drunk and had
annoyed a whole nation. Or at least between 20 and 25 per cent of it.
‘We’re just happy you’re here,’ she twittered. ‘You’ll be on second. Then you sit in for the rest of
the show; the others will take their turns.’
‘Fine,’ he said.
‘Take him to make-up,’ Oda said to the assistant. ‘Use Guri.’
Guri wasn’t just efficient, she knew how to make a worn face presentable for a TV audience with
some simple, and some less simple, tricks.
They went off and Oda took a deep breath. She loved, loved the last edgy minutes when everything
seemed to be chaos but still fell into place.
Bosse and Støp returned from the side room. She gave Bosse the thumbs up. She heard the audience
clapping as the studio door slid shut. On the monitor she saw Bosse taking his seat and knew that
the floor manager had started the countdown. Then the signature tune began, and they were on air.
Oda realised something was amiss. The programme had run like clockwork so far. Arve Støp had
been brilliant and Bosse was revelling in it. Arve Støp had said he was perceived as elitist because
he was elitist. And that he wouldn’t be remembered unless he suffered a real failure or two.
‘Good stories are never about a string of successes but spectacular defeats,’ Støp had said. ‘Even
though Roald Amundsen won the race to the South Pole, it’s Robert Scott the world outside
Norway remembers. None of Napoleon’s victories is remembered like the defeat at Waterloo.
Serbia’s national pride is based on the battle against the Turks at Kosovo Polje in 1389, a battle the
Serbs lost resoundingly. And look at Jesus! The symbol of the man who is claimed to have
triumphed over death ought to be a man standing outside the tomb with his hands in the air. Instead,
throughout time Christians have preferred the spectacular defeat: when he was hanging on the cross
and close to giving up. Because it’s always the story of the defeat that moves us most.’
‘And you’re thinking of doing a Jesus?’
‘No,’ Støp had answered, looking down and smiling as the audience laughed. ‘I’m a coward. I’m
going for forgettable success.’
Støp had shown an unexpectedly likeable, indeed, even humble side of himself, instead of his
notorious arrogance. Bosse asked him whether he, as a single man of many years’ standing, didn’t
long for a woman at his side. And when Støp answered yes, Oda knew there would be an avalanche
of marriage proposals heading his way. The audience responded with a long round of warm
applause. Then Bosse dramatically announced: ‘Ever on the hunt, the lone wolf of Oslo Police,
Inspector Harry Hole,’ and Oda thought she caught an expression of astonishment as the camera
rested on Støp for a second.