I'm Travelling Alone (34 page)

‘How do you know?’

‘What would you have done?’

He looked at her without expression.

‘Taken you off the case,’ Mia said.

‘Of course you would,’ Munch said, and drove towards Mariboesgate.

‘What’s your opinion?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s a legitimate question. We’re investigating a major incident. The killer is coming after you personally. Will you be able to stay objective? Keep your emotions in check? I don’t think so.’

‘Remind me again whose side you’re on,’ Munch snorted.

‘Your side, obviously,’ Mia said. ‘But someone is bound to ask that question.’

‘It’s personal now,’ Munch said, and narrowed his eyes. ‘No one goes after my family and gets away with it.’

‘My point exactly.’

‘What?’

‘One comment like that in front of Mikkelson and you’re out.’

Mia ran her finger across her throat as illustration.

‘Hah,’ Munch scoffed. ‘Who else would they put in charge?’

‘Wenngård.’

‘Yes, all right.’

‘Klokkervold.’

‘For Christ sake, Mia! Whose side are you on?’

‘I’m just telling you, Holger. There are others. It is possible for you to step aside.’

Munch mulled it over before replying.

‘What would you have done? If it was a member of your family?’

‘You already know the answer to that.’

‘Exactly. So let’s say no more about it.’

‘Don’t you think you ought to get some sleep?’

‘Maybe, but it’s not going to happen.’ Munch sighed before finally opening the window. ‘Contact everyone. Office in one hour. Those who don’t show can start looking for another job. We’re going over everything again. We turn every stone until we find that bloody cockroach, even if it’s the last thing I do.’

Mia nodded and took out her mobile.

Chapter 53

‘What have we got?’ Munch said when everyone was gathered in the incident room. ‘And don’t say ìnothingî, because that’s impossible. Somebody out there must have seen something. I know that you’ve all been working round the clock, but from now on we need to work twice as hard. Who wants to start? Ludvig?’

Mia looked around the room. A sea of tired faces stared back at her; it was agony, everyone had put in a ridiculous number of hours in the last few weeks, but still they had almost nothing to show for it. Curry had grown a beard. Gabriel Mørk’s face was deathly pale and he had big bags under his eyes.

‘We have cross-referenced most of the names from Høvikveien Care Home with the Hønefoss case. So far, we haven’t found anything, but we still have a few names to check.’

‘Carry on with that. There might be something there,’ Munch said. ‘Anything else?’

‘I carried out a background check on the church you mentioned,’ Gabriel said.

Munch glanced quickly at Mia, who shrugged her shoulders and nodded back. They had let the church slip to the bottom of their list. Been too slow off the mark. They had been planning to go there when the girls’ bodies were found at Isegran Fort, and immediately after that they had discovered the threat to Marion.

‘What have you found?’

‘It’s a bit odd,’ Gabriel said. ‘They call themselves the Methuselah Church, but I found no companies or religious organizations registered under that name. They don’t have a website or anything, it seems they haven’t quite entered the digital age, or they’ve decided not to join, I don’t know.’

‘Is that all you have?’

‘No, there’s an individual whose registered address is the same as that of the church.’

Gabriel checked the information on his iPad.

‘A Lukas Walner. I did a quick search, but he didn’t show up anywhere else.’

‘OK,’ Munch said, scratching his beard. ‘I’ve visited the church myself and, as far as I remember, there were at least two people there. An elderly man with white hair and a man with short, blond hair, possibly in his mid-twenties. We have to dig deeper, and it’s important that we do it quickly. The killer caught us unawares and we need to regain the initiative. My mother attends services there, so I’ll see what I can get out of her, OK?’

‘I’ll get on it as soon as we’re finished here.’ Gabriel nodded.

‘Good,’ Munch said, scanning his team again. ‘Anything else?’

‘We’re keeping Benjamin Bache under surveillance but, so far, there’s nothing to suggest that he has anything to do with this,’ Kyrre said.

‘OK,’ Munch said. ‘We have plenty of resources, so just keep up the surveillance until we’re quite sure. Anything else?’

‘I’ve run a trace on the account margrete_08,’ Gabriel said. ‘It’s a Hotmail address created on Ö’

The young man looked at the iPad in front of him.

‘The second of March 2010. A few days before you got the first email from her, isn’t that right?’

Gabriel glanced up at Munch, who looked uncomfortable. Not only was his mother’s name mixed up in the investigation, but the killer had also been in contact with him privately. And Munch had allowed himself to be used. Mia knew him well enough to see what was going on behind his furrowed brow. He was trying to pull himself together to avoid giving the rest of the team the impression that he was letting it get to him.

‘That’s correct,’ Munch said.

‘This email account has only ever been used to send emails to you. It has been accessed from three different IP addresses.’

‘Norwegian, please,’ Curry yawned.

‘IP addresses. Internet protocol addresses. Each device connected to the Internet has its own address, which tells you where it is. Country, region, broadband supplier.’

‘Its exact location?’ Munch said.

‘Yes.’ Gabriel nodded, looking down at his iPad again. ‘Like I said, it was accessed from three different addresses. All Burger King outlets, in Karl Johan, Ullevål Stadium and Oslo Central Station. Using a laptop. Impossible to trace, to be honest. I have pinged it, but there’s no reply, so I guess it’s not connected any more; the user probably tossed it. That’s what I would have done.’

‘You can get the Internet at Burger King?’ Curry said.

‘We’ve received just under two thousand calls,’ Anette said, ignoring her tired colleague. ‘Most of them regarding the photofit of the woman from Skullerud. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but so far we have not received anything useful. The photofit is too vague, it could be anyone. As for the reward – well, you know how this goes. You wouldn’t believe how many people fancy having a million kroner and think their neighbour looks a bit suspicious.’

Munch combed his hand through his beard.

‘Offenders with a similar MO?’

Kyrre just shook his head.

‘Dammit, come on, people! We must have something! Someone must have seen something! Heard something!’

Mia gave Munch a hard stare.
Calm down.
Although this was a tight-knit team, she knew there would always be some who were keen to further their careers. She imagined Mikkelson had a hotline to several of them.

She cleared her throat and got up. Walked up to the board to divert attention from Munch.

‘I don’t know if everyone is aware of what we know so far, so let me go over it again. Not everything is proved; some things are just ideas in my head, hunches, and I need your help with them. Tell me what you think, believe, feel. No suggestion is too stupid. Everything is useful, OK?’

Mia looked around the room. They were quiet now. Everyone’s eyes were on her.

‘This is the story as I see it. In 2006, someone takes a baby from Hønefoss Hospital. There are two main reasons to take a baby. One reason is blackmail, but no demands have ever been made, so we’ll ignore that. The second reason is that somebody wants a baby. That’s what I believe. Somebody wants a baby. I’ve thought all along or, perhaps, felt it rather, that the killer is female. A woman wants a baby. Let’s imagine the following scenario. This woman has access to the maternity ward. As we have seen, and saw back then, it’s frightening how much easier it is to steal a baby than you would think. Especially a baby with no parents. Right, so this woman steals a baby. There’s outrage, obviously; everyone starts looking for the baby – the media, us, everyone. No one can withstand that much pressure. The woman finds a scapegoat, Joachim Wicklund. Very conveniently, he goes and hangs himself. Very convenient for us. The autopsy report tells us nothing, because no post-mortem was ever carried out. Wicklund hanged himself. He confessed. Case closed. Everyone can move on.’

She drew breath and drank some of her Farris. She hadn’t planned what she was going to say; she was talking just as much to herself as to the rest of the team.

‘It occurs to me now that if we had carried out a full post-mortem there’s a good chance that we would have found a needle mark in Wicklund’s neck. Very convenient and clever, isn’t it? An overdose in the neck, right under the rope, very hard to spot unless there was suspicion of foul play. Well, that’s one theory. So we have a woman. With a baby. Who knows how to perform injections. Who has access to drugs.’

‘A nurse?’ Ludvig suggested.

‘A definite possibility.’ Mia nodded and went on. ‘But we found no suspects among the nurses at Hønefoss. So, we have a woman who has stolen a baby. And everything is fine. The media is no longer writing about the kidnapping. We have given up. Then something goes wrong. Maybe the baby dies. Baby dies and she decides to come after us. It’s our fault that the baby died. We should have found her. We should have found the baby. And Munch is responsible. So she decides to come after Munch.’

She cleared her throat and took another sip of her mineral water. The room had gone very quiet now. Everyone knew Mia was good at this. No one wanted to interrupt her now that she was in full flow.

‘This woman is incredibly clever,’ Mia continued. ‘Bordering on schizophrenic, possibly. She thinks it’s acceptable to steal a child and has no problem with killing. It feels morally right for her, so this woman must have experienced something, something …’

She struggled to find the words.

‘Yes, I don’t know what exactly, but it could have been any number of things. She’s logical and yet not seeing straight at the same time. Or, at least, she doesn’t see the world the way we do. She loved the baby, who is now dead. Perhaps. The baby was due to start school in the autumn. Now the baby is dead. I think that’s how she sees it. ìI’m travelling alone.î The sign. The girls are going on a journey. Yes, it’s a journey. Mark 10:14. ìSuffer the little children to come unto me.î The girls are travelling to heaven.’

Mia was increasingly talking to herself. Her knotted thoughts began to unravel, all the things that had lain concealed in the shadows of her mind.

‘This woman is incredibly caring. She loves children. She wants to protect them. She washes them and gets them ready. It’s not going to hurt. Now, two things.’

Mia coughed slightly. She felt exhausted, but she had to go on.

‘Two things. This was what confused me to begin with. The chaos, the symbols … I didn’t see at first, so many traps and hints, and yes, well, I didn’t see initially, but I think we’re dealing with two separate issues. One is the girls. She doesn’t want the baby to be alone. That’s it, that’s it. It was her fault that the baby died. She was responsible. She wants to make amends. Find some friends for the baby. But that was our mistake. We should have stopped her. Damn, I’m losing my train of thought here.’

‘Two things,’ Curry prompted her gently.

‘Yes, thank you. Two things. Number one: she kills the girls so that the baby, who is now six years old, won’t have to be alone. In heaven. Number two: she wants to get Munch. Sorry, it was obvious all along. But that’s why it was so muddled to begin with. That’s why we made such a mess of it. We need to look at everything from both of those angles, even though she’s mixing two motives to confuse us. Number one: she kills the girls so that the girl she stole won’t have to be alone in heaven. Number two: she wants to get her own back on the police. Take revenge. Get Munch. Somehow, she killed the baby, but she blames Munch. I think …’

Mia Krüger was completely exhausted now. She was barely able to talk.

‘What do you think, Mia?’ Munch said to support her.

‘She wants to be caught,’ Anette said.

‘What do you mean?’ Munch said.

‘She wants to be caught,’ Anette continued. ‘She shows us what she’s doing. Toni J. W. Smith. The girls at the Fort. Calling the journalists. She wants to be caught, doesn’t she, Mia?’

Mia nodded.

‘I agree. Good thinking. She wants to be stopped. She’s almost reckless. She’s revealing more and more to us. Because she’s going up there, too. To heaven. To be with her baby again. She’s going to be …’

Mia was unable to go on. She collapsed, exhausted, on the table, gasping for breath. Munch went up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

‘Are you all right?’

Mia nodded slowly.

‘This is starting to make sense,’ Munch said, turning to the team. ‘Bloody brilliant. A woman. I believe it. I can see it. So which women have we already considered?’

‘The woman with two different-coloured eyes,’ Ludvig said.

‘Someone from the church?’ Curry said.

‘Staff at Høvikveien Care Home,’ Gabriel said.

Mia looked at Ludvig Grønlie.

‘Anything? Any links? Veronica Bache’s mobile?’

‘I’m sorry, nothing yet. We’re still working on it,’ Ludvig Grønlie said.

‘Oh, Christ, I’m slow!’ Mia burst out.

‘What is it?’

‘Charlie. Charlie Brun.’

‘Who?’ Munch said.

‘A friend. He runs a transvestite club in Tøyen. He told me about her. The woman with different-coloured eyes. He’s seen her several times. God, I’m an idiot.’

‘Bring him in,’ Munch said. ‘We have to find this woman. Who knows, perhaps she’s the woman from the photofit, the one our eyewitness saw in Skullerud. God knows, it’s a long shot, but why not give it a go? We’ll let this Charlie meet every woman whose name has cropped up in the investigation who would have been in a position to pay Veronica Bache’s mobile bills after her death, all staff at the care home and anyone connected to this church. And if we get a hit, check with the pensioner if it’s the same woman.’