The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

The silence filled the room.
‘Did I say that I was offered a finger prosthesis?’ Harry announced waving his right hand. ‘But
basically I like my hand as it is. Four fingers. Cartoon hand.’
‘What did you do with the finger that was there?’
‘Tried to donate it to the Anatomy Department, but they weren’t interested. So I’ll have it stuffed
and put it on my desk, just like Hagen does with the Japanese little finger. Thought an upright
middle finger might be a suitable Hole welcome.’
The other two laughed.
‘How are Oleg and Rakel doing?’ Beate asked.
‘Surprisingly well,’ Harry said. ‘Toughies.’
‘And Katrine Bratt?’
‘Better. I visited her last week. She starts work again in February. Going back to her old unit in
Bergen.’
‘Really? Didn’t she almost shoot someone in her excitement?’
‘Wrong call. Turns out she was walking around with an empty revolver. That was why she dared to
press the trigger so far back. And I should have known that.’
‘Oh?’
‘When you move from one police station to another you hand in your service revolver and get a
new one with two boxes of ammo. There were two unopened boxes in her desk drawer.’
A moment of silence followed.
‘It’s good she’s well again,’ Beate said, stroking the baby’s hair.
‘Yes,’ Harry said absent-mindedly, and it occurred to him that it was true; she did seem to be
getting better. When he had visited Katrine in her mother’s flat in Bergen she had just had a shower
after a long run on Sandviken Mountain. Her hair had still been wet and her cheeks red as her
mother had served tea and Katrine had talked about how her father’s case had become an obsession.
And she had apologised for having dragged him into the matter. He hadn’t seen any regret in her
eyes, though.
‘My psychiatrist says that I’m just a few notches more extreme than most people,’ she had laughed,
and shrugged. ‘But now I’m done with all that. It’s pursued me from my childhood. Now he’s
finally had his name cleared and I can move on with my life.’
‘Shuffling papers for the Sexual Offences Unit?’
‘We’ll start there, then we’ll see. Even top politicians make comebacks.’