Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery (Inspector Sohlberg Mysteries) (17 page)

“What errands? What chores?”

“She went back home to pick up the baby and post pictures that she took of Karl Haugen at the science fair . . . she uploaded the pictures into Facebook and other social network websites on the Internet.”

“Wait a minute . . . did she leave the baby alone at home?”

“No. Her husband stayed in that day.”

“What? Wasn’t he at work?”

“No. He called in sick. We confirmed this from Nokia. We also found out that he was logged into his company’s computers from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon. There’s no doubt it was him because the work involved is highly specialized design engineering on computer chips. According to his boss at Nokia only someone with his expertise and experience could have made the entries found that day in Nokia’s design systems.”

“But why was he working on his work computer if he called in sick that day?”

“Nokia told us that he called in sick for himself and not because his kids or wife were sick. He was very vague when we pressed him for details on his sickness and whether he had gone to a doctor or told anyone else that he was sick.”

“What did the team finally find out?” said Sohlberg who grew increasingly curious as to the little boy’s father.

“Gunnar Haugen admitted that he should not have called in sick but rather . . . should’ve taken family leave because his daughter was sick and crying all night long and keeping him awake.”

“And yet he was wide-awake enough to work for hours on complicated engineering and computer chip design.”

“Now that you mention it . . . his statement is nonsense if he worked all day on his computer and yet claimed to be kept up the previous night.”

“Did Nokia ever give you a minute-by-minute record on what he was doing on the computer? Is there a chance he could’ve just logged on and then walked away?”

“Oh boy . . . we sure didn’t get any information like that from Nokia.”

“Get it. Also . . . did he or his wife take the baby to the doctor or call a doctor?”

“No. They did
not
take the baby to a doctor . . . or call a doctor for the baby.”

Sohlberg rubbed his chin. “Strange.”

“You’ll see just how strange Chief Inspector. The boy’s father is an odd duck. Very intelligent and yet seems oddly detached . . . almost absent-minded . . . even dumb and naive on some things.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Yes. I always remember how strange it was to hear him repeat things that his wife had previously mentioned to us . . . his eyes always got a glassy look whenever she was around . . . it was like he was a zombie robot repeating verbatim whatever his wife wanted him to say to us.”

“Like what?”

“I just can’t put my finger on it. He was . . . an echo chamber of his wife.”

“And he’s a scientist type?”

“Oh yes Chief Inspector . . . he’s definitely Mister Cold Logic . . . a science and math guy.”

“People like that think the world is just about plugging numbers into some magical formula here or there. . . . Or is he a business type? . . . They think everything in life is profit or loss or that life is all about good
management
or good
marketing
.”

“He’s an egghead
and
a businessman . . . a Pointdexter.”

“A what?”

“A nerd. You know . . . book smart but not street smart.”

“Yes! This is a man whose naive or stupid enough to lie to his employer about being sick. Then he lies to us about being kept up all night by a sick baby and yet he puts in a day’s work the following day at his home computer
and
does not call or visit a doctor for his sick baby.”

“Like I said Chief Inspector . . . he’s an odd duck.”

“Did the baby’s mother Agnes call or visit a doctor for her sick baby daughter?”

“No. She took the baby and left her husband alone for a couple of hours . . . from eleven in the morning to two o’clock in the afternoon . . . she drove around with the baby to get the baby’s medicine at a pharmacy. She then went to her workout at the gym . . . with the baby.”

“She took the baby and left him all alone?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you take a sick baby in your car to go buy the baby’s medicines when one parent is already staying at home and not going to work? . . . Why would anyone take a sick baby to a gym . . . and drop off the sick baby at the gym’s daycare?”

“I . . . well at the time no one thought it strange. Both parents made it sound so natural. Now that you mention it . . . it does sound strange indeed.”
 

“This doesn’t make sense.”

“True. We found that she did indeed drive around with the baby looking for medicines.”

“What’s the proof?”

“At nine-twelve in the morning we have a credit card purchase by her for candy at a SPAR neighborhood supermarket that is three miles from the school. She claims that the Apotek One pharmacy next door did not have the baby’s medicines. She says that she then drove another four miles and at ten-fifteen we have her credit card purchase for baby diapers at one of the EUROSPAR mega-supermarkets. Fifteen minutes later at ten-thirty she buys the baby’s medicine at a nearby Apotek One with the same credit card.”

“This sounds to me like proof that she was busy establishing an alibi for herself.”

“Exactly. There’s too much time that’s unaccounted for her and him. Except for the three credit card purchases at nine-twelve and ten-fifteen and ten-thirty we really have no idea where the stepmother was at . . . especially from noon to one-thirty. The father is even worse since we’re still unsure if he really was on his computer.”

”So neither the father or the stepmother can really prove
exactly
where they were from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon expect for some scattered drugstore purchases she made that morning . . . and whatever occasional computer entries he may have made on his computer throughout the day.”

“Unfortunately that is the situation Chief Inspector.”

“Nilsen should have called a press conference and asked for the public’s help that very same day and the next day . . . he or some official spokesperson from headquarters should have asked the public whether they had seen the parents anywhere that Friday or whether they had seen the white pickup or the red sports car at the stores or the school or elsewhere that Friday.”

“We did ask the public for help . . . but that was three months later . . . when the investigation was stalling.”

“Nilsen is such a moron! That delay made the request for the public’s help practically worthless. How stupid. People would forget such things three months after the fact . . . and their memories would be suspect even if they said they remember seeing so and so at a certain day and time.”

“That was a problem throughout the case. Nilsen always took the parents at their word. He thought that they were as perfect and pure as the first snowflake of winter. He never wanted us to verify or check their statements because ‘They’re good people’ according to him. He called them ‘solid simple folk’.”

“That was rather incompetent of Nilsen.”

“I know. But he was in charge and that was his decision. Of course. . . if Karl’s parents been very poor . . . or blue collar types . . . Nilsen probably would’ve arrested them or at least suspected of them of lying.”

“What a clown. How could he take what these people said at face value just because the father makes a lot of money as a Nokia engineer?”

“Well . . . Inspector Magnus Matningsdal was part of the team for a couple of weeks and he thought that Chief Inspector Nilsen was taking the stepmother too much at her word. As the investigation progressed all of us noticed that Nilsen began to believe everything that she said as true while suspecting everything the father said as a lie.”

“Really?”

“Well . . . I think Nilsen. . . .”

“What? C’mon . . . say it.”

Constable Wangelin looked away from Sohlberg. Her averted gaze alerted him to the fact that she was very embarrassed. Since arriving in Oslo he had come to appreciate all over again how Norwegians as a rule always look the other person straight in the eye when speaking to them. He was happy that the old Viking tradition still prevailed because the Vikings knew that the eye was not only the window to the soul but also the ultimate lie detector. Sohlberg fondly remembered unnerving his law enforcement colleagues in other countries and all the people he interviewed with his dead-on stare.

“I’m sorry Chief Inspector . . . I meant no disrespect,” said Constable Wangelin who gathered her composure and looked Sohlberg again straight in the eye.

“I understand. Go ahead . . . tell me about Nilsen.”

“He liked her . . . Nilsen
really
liked the stepmother . . . lusted after her. He stared at her chest all the time.”

“Why?”

Steeling herself Wangelin said, “The stepmother has enormous breasts. Nilsen stared at her every time he saw her. You could see his eyes undressing her.”

“He’s fifty-two . . . a little old to get distracted by such teenage boy nonsense.”

“Ah . . . it was repulsive . . . her breasts are obvious fakes. Even Nilsen knew it . . . he took down bets as to whether she had silicone or saline implants.”

“Ridiculous. I can see why this investigation went nowhere. Anyway . . . keep reading me your summary.”

“After buying the baby’s medicine the stepmother said the baby was irritable and crying and so she drove around for ‘a few minutes’ to get the baby to sleep with the rocking motion of the car.”

“Wait a minute . . . what car? . . . The white pickup or the red sports car?”

“She took her husband’s white pickup. She says that driving around always calmed the baby into sleeping. The father says that was news to him. I think that’s the first and only time that the father contradicted the stepmother.”

“Interesting,” said Sohlberg. “Proceed.”

“The stepmother then drove to the gym where she arrived at eleven-twenty. That’s when the main desk has her signing in. She leaves the gym an hour later at twelve-twenty. She then—”

“Stop. So her baby is sick and she goes to the gym with the baby.”

“Yes. She dropped the baby off in the gym’s daycare room.”

“Unbelievable.” Sohlberg shook his head in amazement at the selfishness of Norway’s newest generation of parents. “Then what does she do after the gym?”

“She says that she drove around with the baby . . . to calm her down . . . and finally arrived home at about one forty-five . . . almost two o’clock. Says her husband was not there and that he left her a note saying he went to pick up some takeout food for lunch. He arrives back in her red Audi sports car at around two in the afternoon. But she’s not sure exactly when he arrived because she took a shower and a nap.”

“So basically he’s all alone on the day that his son disappears . . . six hours . . . from nine to three.”

“Yes. It’s almost as if he used the need to buy the baby’s medicine as an excuse to get rid off his wife and the baby.”

“Call the pharmacy and see if it’s true that they were out of the baby’s medicine when Agnes Haugen went to buy the medicines.”