The Fourth Man by K.O. Dahl Read Free Book Online Page A

if it wasn’t spot on.’ Gunnarstranda took a scrap of paper out of his coat pocket and read aloud: ‘Jim Rognstad, Vidar Ballo and …’ Gunnarstranda held the scrap up to the light. ‘Sometimes I can’t read my own writing … Jim Rognstad, Vidar Ballo and … can you read the name of the third man?’ he asked, straightening his glasses.
    Frølich read it first to himself before reading out aloud: ‘It says Jonny Faremo.’

7
     
    Frølich had felt the beast gnawing at his stomach all morning and decided to find out what had happened at the court hearing. However, as he was running down the steps between the court and Kafé Gabler he felt a growing reluctance to go on. So he retreated to Kristian Augusts gate to stand and wait on the pavement. Soon a group of people gathered in front of the court entrance. A little later the door opened. Elisabeth came out. He followed her movements. She left alone, taking small quick steps, without looking to the left or the right. He stood watching her slender back until she had rounded the corner and was gone.
    The moment Gunnarstranda came through the wide doors, Frølich showed himself and stepped out onto the tramlines to cross the street. Gunnarstranda detached himself from the crowd on the steps, strode down to the pavement and also crossed the tramlines. Frølich joined him.
    Gunnarstranda, uncommunicative, continued along the pavement at a brisk pace.
    Frølich cleared his throat: ‘How did it go?’
    ‘How did what go?’
    ‘The hearing.’
    ‘Shit.’
    ‘Which means?’
    Gunnarstranda stopped, let his glasses glide down over the bridge of his nose and scowled sharply over the top. ‘Are you wondering whether her brother will have to go to prison? Or whether all of them will have to go? Or are you wondering about your own future prospects?’
    ‘Just say how it went.’
    ‘Elvis has left the building.’
    ‘Eh?’
    ‘Jonny Faremo gave me the finger and walked out a free man. Because his sister, the little bit of fluff you’ve fallen for, alleges she was with her brother and the others in the flat at the time Arnfinn Haga was killed.’ The last word was delivered with a yell to drown the tram as it rumbled past.
    Frølich waited for the din to subside. ‘She said she was in the flat with her brother and two others – after she was with me?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘She sneaks out of my flat while I’m asleep, wanders off in the middle of the night, to her place where her brother, Rognstad and this Ballo are, then they party until dawn?’
    ‘Don’t you two talk to each other, Frølich?’
    Frølich didn’t know what to say.
    Gunnarstranda continued: ‘Jonny Faremo, Jim Rognstad and Vidar Ballo and your … sweetheart … were playing poker in their flat. She also mentioned your name.’
    Frølich felt his face go numb. ‘Me?’
    ‘She went into juicy detail about her night with you – prior to this round of poker.’
    Frølich could still hear an echo in his head of his pathetic ‘Me?’
    The silence between them grew. People passed them in both directions. A taxi trundled slowly by. The driver looked up at them questioningly.
    Frølich said: ‘You don’t buy the story about the poker game?’
    ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Why wasn’t I called in as a witness?’
    ‘Would you have been able to say when she left?’ Gunnarstranda’s tone was acid.
    ‘Listen,’ Frølich said, annoyed. ‘I don’t like this any more than you do.’
    ‘I doubt that.’
    ‘I don’t understand why the judge accepted her testimony. It seems bloody unlikely.’
    ‘Could you have refuted it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘So why should I have called you as a witness? I have no idea whether the judge believed her. The point is that her testimony denies us a reasonable cause for suspicion and hence their release is a clear sign to me: before the next round, produce more evidence against the Faremo gang or undermine Elisabeth Faremo’s testimony.’
    ‘What time of night are we actually