MORNING OF 1 YEAR AND 24 DAYS
AFTER THE DAY, FRIDAY, JUNE 4
Sohlberg and Wangelin met at 9:00 AM in his cubicle on the seventh floor. To Sohlberg’s surprise the cubicle had window views of the city and it was large enough to accommodate a small sofa and a round table for six. The cubicle’s wall panels did not have the cheap and depressing gray fabric that Sohlberg hated as a rookie cop. Instead this new form of cubicle offered pleasing and tasteful walls of wood and glass. Sohlberg wondered how much the new cubicles cost the taxpayer.
“Good morning Chief Inspector.”
“Good morning Constable Wangelin. Let’s sit at the table and go over your executive summary. Were you able to talk with all members of the team?”
“I’m still waiting for a few call-backs. . lots of people are on summer vacation.”
“Find them. . call them at home if necessary. Get everyone’s feedback two days from now at the latest. Who hasn’t called you back?”
“A couple of constables who interviewed witnesses. . and two KRIPOS experts. . one on cellphones and computers and the other one on D.N.A.”
“Did you ask everyone to tell you about anything unusual. . or anything that they wish that they or someone else had done differently?”
“Ja. I did as you told me.”
“Good. . proceed.”
She gave copies of the two pages to Sohlberg.
“Friday June the Fourth was not a regular school day but a special day for Karl Haugen and all the children at Grindbakken Skole. He and his classmates had a science fair in the morning before class began. The regular first period class was moved back by one hour to nine o’clock so that the principal could look at the exhibits and rank them. He was to award prizes later that day.”
“So. . it was an unusual day.”
“Right. And there’s more on how unusual the day actually turned to be. The media is wrong when they paint Karl Haugen as simply having vanished from school during a regular school day when the children are carefully looked after and accounted for.”
“Excellent. Proceed.”
“The science fair meant that the children and their parents or guardians had to arrive early at school to set up each child’s science project or exhibit. Therefore instead of taking the school bus as usual Karl Haugen came to school with his stepmother Agnes Haugen in the family car. . a Toyota Hilux.”
“A what?”
“It’s a monstrous four-door pickup. . I looked it up. . in America it’s the Toyota Tundra.”
“I see. . I just can’t believe that Norwegians now drive those types of cars.”
“Ja. Everyone likes the big cars that Americans drive. . even if they’re made by the Japanese.”
“They cost a small fortune to fill up at the gas station. Go on. . what else?”
“This white pickup is also unusual.”
“How so?”
“It’s not the stepmother’s regular car. Her car is an Audi sports car. . a red T.T. coupe.”
“Why did she drive the pickup?”
“She said that she drove the pickup because Karl Haugen’s science project would not fit in her sports car. Those Audi sports cars are very small. . they really have no space in the back.”
“Hhhmm. . interesting,” said Sohlberg. He took out his favorite pen — a Waterman Phileas fountain pen filled with green ink. He pulled the cap off and drew a rectangle around the words ‘science project’ and ‘Audi sports car’ in the summary. He drew the same rectangle around the words ‘white pickup’ before putting the cap back on the fat pen from France.
“Who’s the owner of the pickup?”
“Her husband. The boy’s father.”
“How did he get to work? What does he use the pickup for. . does he own a business that requires a van or a pickup?”
“No. He’s a highly-paid engineer at Nokia. . the cell phone company from Finland. He’s in charge of a team that designs some of their computer chips.”
“Yes. . Nokia. . I’ve heard of them. They’re in the U.S.A. too. Does she work?”
“No. She’s a stay at-home mother. She and Karl Haugen’s father have a nineteen-month-old baby daughter.”
“And this business with the school bus. In my day we all walked to school. . are children in Norway now taking school buses?”
“In the suburbs yes because of the distances.”
“Huh! When he was a kid my father walked almost two miles to school. Alright. Keep reading. . ”
“On a normal day the school opens at eight thirty-five in the morning and the final bell to start classes rings ten minutes later. That Friday however because of the science fair the school opened early at eight o’clock. Karl Haugen and his stepmother and most of the students and their parents or family members showed up a little before eight to set up the children’s exhibits and walk around looking at everyone else’s exhibits at the fair. Dozens of children and parents and teachers saw the boy and the stepmother arrive at the fair at eight o’clock and stay there until quarter to nine.”
“So they were seen for a total of forty-five minutes inside the school?”
“Ja.”
“Continue.”
“Karl and his stepmother arrived at the school two or three minutes after the school opened at eight in the morning. They first went to his classroom where they dropped off his backpack. Then they went to set up his exhibit. . on the red-eye tree frog. . in the auditorium with the other exhibits.”
“His backpack,” said Sohlberg. “Where is it?”
“Good question. I’m not sure. It may be in the evidence room. I’m pretty sure we still have custody.”
“Good. Please find it as soon as you can. I’d like to take a look at it.”
“Or. . we may’ve returned it and left it at his home with his parents.”
“Not good.” He took the cap off his Waterman fountain pen and drew a rectangle around the words ‘backpack’ in the summary. “Alright. What else?”
“The stepmother took a picture of Karl Haugen and his science project. They had worked a lot of hours together on the project. When she got home later that day she posted the picture on her Facebook page.”
Somewhat amused Constable Wangelin studied Sohlberg and his routine with the Waterman pen as he drew another rectangle around the words ‘science project’ in the summary. She noticed that he had also drawn a small star on the left margin by each of his green ink rectangles.
“Keep on. What happened next?”
“After taking the photograph she and the boy looked at other projects in the auditorium. That day exactly three hundred-and-two students attended school and all of them contributed exhibits to the science fair. After checking carefully it appears that a total of two hundred thirty-five adults visited the science fair as parents or relatives or guardians of the children. No one observed any strangers inside the school building that day.
“Not even during the science fair?”
“No.”
“Any vendors or people delivering supplies or picking something up. . anything like that?’
“Not that day.”
“Did any teachers or staff or administrators or volunteers call in sick that day?”
“No.”
“Did any school employee have any periods of time that day when they should have been somewhere but were not?”
“No.”
“Do any of those people have criminal records?”
“No convictions other than. . three drunk driving guilty pleas. . and five convictions for marijuana possession. Karl Haugen’s mother was one of the drunk driving convictions.”
“I want everything on those convictions. And I mean everything.”
“Ja. But why-”
“Because I know how very sloppy and extremely careless Nilsen and Thorsen have always been when conducting investigations. Constable Wangelin. . did anyone in the team go through the files we have on the drunk driving and marijuana possession cases?”
“No.”
“Did the team call every witness and judge and lawyer in the convictions for drunk driving and marijuana possession?”
“No.”
“That’s your number one job this week.”
“I’ll do it as soon as possible. Definitely it should’ve been done. Also. . you should know that three years ago a man in his late twenties early thirties molested five girls at Grindbakken Skole.”
“What?”
“He just walked into the playground. . posing as a volunteer. . before anyone knew or had time to react he took three girls one by one into the bushes and forest around the school and fondled them. He did the same to twelve little girls at other Oslo elementary schools in Ulleval and Huseby.”
“Where is he now?”
“We don’t know.”
“What?. . No arrest?”
“No.”
“How can that be?”
“I don’t know. I was not here then. You’d have to check with Commissioner Thorsen.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“It’s. . well. . between you and me. . ”
“Ja?”
“The talk I heard among the older investigators was that Commissioner Thorsen got orders from the higher-ups to not investigate too thoroughly. . or make an arrest.”
“What?. . Why not?”
“The suspect was a dark-skinned man. That was the summer when anti-immigrant feelings started running high and boiling over.” Wangelin noticed a blank look on Sohlberg’s face so she filled him in on the details. “That was the summer when two Pakistani drug gangs had a shoot-out in Aker Brygge. . in the cross-fire they killed a tourist from Sweden and a grandmother from Trondheim.”
“Are you kidding me? A shoot-out in Aker Brygge?. . Where they have a Prada boutique and an Ermenegildo Zegna store?”
“Used to. . Chief Inspector. Prada closed the store and the men’s clothing store with Zegna products moved to Bogstadveien. . where it splits into Valkyriegata. . a very exclusive neighborhood as I remember.”
“Criminal gangs shooting away at Aker Brygge?. . That’s like a gang shooting in Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. . or Fifth Avenue in New York. Hard to believe. Norway certainly isn’t the cozy little isolated spot of paradise it once was. . eh?”
Sohlberg could not accept that a shootout was possible in Aker Brygge which is an elegant and pricey urban redevelopment zone in what used to be the derelict eyesore of the old and abandoned shipyards of downtown Oslo.
“Alright. What else do you have for me Constable Wangelin?”
“Agnes Haugen the stepmother. . she’s a volunteer at the school. . she went back with Karl Haugen to the boy’s classroom at about eight forty-five. The mother and the boy’s teacher agree on that fact. However the teacher says that a few minutes later something or someone in the hallway caught the boy’s attention and that he then walked out of the classroom as if someone was waiting for him or wanting to talk to him. Another teacher declared that she saw Karl Haugen leave his classroom and walk down the hallway more or less at the same time.”
“With his stepmother or alone?”
“Alone.”
Sohlberg took the cap off his Waterman fountain pen and drew a rectangle around the words ‘volunteer’ in the summary. “What is the relationship between the stepmother and the teacher?”
“Not good. The stepmother Agnes Haugen often volunteers at the school and works closely with the boy’s teacher Lisbeth Boe. . a little too closely according to the teacher.”
“Oh?. . What does that mean?”
“The stepmother is a frustrated teacher. She has a bachelor and master’s degree in education and a teaching license but no longer works as a teacher. The school has three more volunteers just like her. The teachers appreciate the help from the volunteers. . but the teachers don’t like the second-guessing that goes on from fellow professionals who make impossible demands because their own children attend the school.”
“I see.”
“There’s more. At the end of each week the school sends the children home with a colored paper slip that has their name on it. Green means that they behaved and learned well. Yellow means they have some issues with behavior or learning. And red means they had problems with behavior or learning.”
“I see,” said Sohlberg. After living abroad for a long time Sohlberg now found it bizarre as to how the Japanese and Norwegians teach school children to conform socially and always act and think as part of a closely cooperating team working for the common good. “I see the old Norwegian principal of dugnad is alive and well.”
“Ja. I think the Americans call it barn-rising?. . Like the Amish people?”
“Barn raising. . Ja. . the Mormons in Utah also practice that. . their state symbol is the beehive.”
“That’s where you investigated and solved the case of the missing nerve gas at the Dugway Proving Ground military base. . right?”
“No,” he said surprised at her knowledge of his career.
“No?”
“I only helped others investigate and solve the case of the missing nerve gas. How very dugnad of me. . aye?”
She nodded and continued reading the executive summary. “Anyway. . the stepmother demanded daily not weekly color slips. That meant much more work for the teacher because Agnes Haugen would then call her every Monday and have long conversations to find out exactly why the boy had been tagged with a yellow or red slip.”
“So there’s no love lost between teacher and stepmother.”
“Ja.”
“But Constable Wangelin. . it seems to me that at least the stepmother involved herself in the boy’s life and education. I see so many mothers and fathers nowadays. . they have zero interest on what goes on in the lives of their children.”
“Ja.”
“Keep on.”
“According to the stepmother the bell rang at quarter to nine and she then walked with her stepson down a hallway toward his classroom and the boy told her 'I'm going back to the classroom Mom' and he took off in the direction of the classroom while she waved at him and she left the school through another hallway thinking that he was safe at school just like he is everyday.”
“But it wasn’t just any day. . was it?. . This science fair. . it was the perfect cover for the boy’s disappearance unless the boy left on his own. . and then something or someone happened to him. I know about this Hasidic boy who got lost in New York on his first day walking home alone from school without his mother and a predator found him and took him.”
“Horrible. What happened?”
“A lucky break in the case led to the suspect a day later. . but it was too late. They found the boy cut up in garbage bags and in the man’s refrigerator.”
“Awful!”
“Ja. Can you imagine?. . What are the chances of that. . one in a million? On the one day of the year when the little eight-year-old boy asks to be allowed to walk home alone from school without his mother he meets a murdering predator. What a disaster.”
“Ja.”
“Anything pointing to that happening here?”
“Not really. In this case Chief Inspector Sohlberg it’s not likely at all that Karl Haugen took off on his own. The father and everyone we’ve talked to insists that he was afraid of the woods and being alone. He was shy and afraid of strangers.”
“What does the stepmother say?”
“Only that he had been acting oddly a few weeks before he vanished. . he’d stare off into space like a zombie. . was very distracted at times.”
“True?”
“Apparently. The father attributes it to the baby crying at night and keeping them awake. I guess that babies cry a lot when they’re nineteen months old.”
“Hhhmm. Wouldn’t you think Karl Haugen had his own room in the house since his father’s a well-to-do Nokia engineer?”
“Ja.”
“And wouldn’t you think that Karl’s parents would close the door to his room if and when the baby cried?”
“That crossed my mind.”
“By the way. . have you ever come across a seven- or eight-year-old who was not able to sleep because of background noise?. . I’ve seen some children sleep in the noisiest of trains or airports with no problem at all. I saw some kids sleeping right in the middle of a loud party that my wife and I attended for St. John’s Eve.”
“Ja. I saw my own little nephews and nieces in that age group at Sankthans. . they slept soundly through all the loud music and talking.”
“Continue please.”
“At nine o’clock the children were supposed to report to their classes where they’d be divided into small groups. . of a couple of students each. A volunteer was to chaperone each group during a tour of the science fair in the auditorium. Of course all of the teachers made sure that all of their little groups stayed together from the minute they left the classrooms to the minute that they came back to the classrooms. A half hour later they all returned to their classes for roll call and Karl Haugen wasn't at his class with Froken Boe. She marks him absent.”
“So we have a half-hour window for him to walk out or be taken out of the school?”
“Actually less than a half-hour. No one remembers seeing him go on the tour of the science fair with the chaperones and teachers.”
“Really?”
“We’re highly confident that he never went to the auditorium with a chaperoned group of classmates because more than twenty of us spent two weeks interviewing and re-interviewing all the teachers and chaperones and students and administrators. . And no one remembers seeing him at the auditorium from nine to nine-thirty. . or anywhere else in the school after nine in the morning.”
“So Karl Haugen disappeared in that fifteen minute time frame. . from eight forty-five to nine o’clock. . when his mother let him walk to his classroom?”
“Ja.”
Sohlberg closed his eyes as he tried to comprehend the mind-boggling implications of the place and time of the little boy’s disappearance. He rubbed his eyes with his fists as if he could squeeze an image into his eyes that would explain the mystery.
“Fifteen minutes?”
“Ja Chief Inspector.”
“And no one remembers seeing any stranger or anyone who did not belong at the school that day?”
“That’s correct. No strangers. Everyone recognized everyone else. Also. . extensive fingerprinting of all bathrooms and door-handles and rooms and desks and playground equipment etcetera. . revealed no prints for anyone who should not have been there that day. We also questioned and verified the whereabouts of all known sex offenders in a ten mile radius and none were near the school that day.”
“Thank God the team at least did the fingerprint dusting. . and they rounded up and ruled out the usual suspects. Well. . the case is half-solved.”
“How so Chief Inspector?”
“First of all. . remember to always work smart and not hard.”
“That sounds good. . in theory. . does it work in practice?”
“Ja. You see we could waste time and resources and exhaust our mental energies by going the hard route and calling in half the Oslo police force to look for someone who hid inside the school or slipped into the school to take Karl Haugen. But at this point there’s only one logical path to follow based on the evidence. . and only two people. . you and me. . are needed to crack this case.”
“How can just the two of us solve a year-old case that more than forty investigators could not?”
“It’s simple. . we already know the kidnapper. . he or she is right under our noses. Don’t you see? We know the person who took Karl Haugen. . we just don’t know their exact name.”
Constable Wanglein frowned. “I. . I guess that no one ever wanted the investigation to come to this point. . where a parent or someone else at the school took Karl Haugen. . ”
“But all the evidence points to a parent.”
“I. . I hate saying this Chief Inspector. . but I guess that we didn’t really want to admit that we had a predator among the teachers or the staff or the administrators or the parents at Grindbakken skole or any other elementary school in Norway.”
“Exactly Constable Wangelin. We also know that the kidnapper probably won’t be a teacher or a staffer or an administrator since all of their whereabouts have been accounted for that day. . and evening. . right?”
“Ja. None were missing in school and all of their times and activities during and after school were checked and re-checked.”
“So I doubt if any of them would have had the time and opportunity during a fifteen minute period to overpower Karl Haugen and stuff him in a suitcase or bag and keep him there all day long and then take him away from the school when school ended in the afternoon.”
“True.”
“Now as for the school building and grounds. . I hope they were thoroughly searched. There’s a case from the nineteen-sixties where children disappeared from school. . it turned out that a camp of homeless bums raped and killed the school children who went to play in the schools’ basement where the bums lived.”
“Uhhh.”
“I imagine the team carefully searched the school?”
“Ja.”
“Every nook and cranny from roof to foundation and wall to wall. . right?”
“Ja ja,” said Constable Wangelin who nodded slowly as she came to understand the implications of what Sohlberg was saying. “This means Chief Inspector that. . all of our suspects are the normal and lovely and well-dressed and well-educated and law-abiding citizens of the well-to-do suburb of Holmenkollen. . home of the Holmenkollen Ski Festival and the Ski Museum.”
“Exactly Constable Wangelin. The banality of evil.”
“And. . the person who took Karl Haugen is most likely found in his circle of family or friends. . or less likely. . it’s someone else. . a parent. . who went to the school that day and left with him.”
“Bingo.”
“But we all thought the culprit would be a known sex offender. We thought-”
“That’s the problem Constable Wangelin. All of you thought. A detective should never ever think at the beginning of an investigation. He or she should only investigate and collect all the facts. . the good investigator must not think. . but rather keep an open mind as the evidence starts coming in. Once the evidence collection phase of the investigation is over then the good investigator starts thinking and following hunches or intuition or logic.”
“I see that now. I’m glad I’m training with you.”
“Thinking in the initial phases derails an investigation. . bias creeps in. . groupthink takes over. . I’ve seen huge and horribly botched investigations eventually collapse because investigators made a few small but very wrong assumptions from the start.”
“Rule number one. . work smart not hard.”
“Right.”
“Rule number two. . don’t think at the start of an investigation. Collect all the facts. Keep an open mind.”
“That’s it.”
“Anything else?”
“Get ready for some difficult interviews because it’s going to be nasty and difficult finding this most depraved of criminal minds among the suburban parents who live in pretty homes and drive nice cars and dress in Ralph Lauren and. . smell and look nice and are polite. . ”
“A monster,” said Constable Wangelin.
“Ja. .which leads us to Rule Number three. Never judge. That prevents you from understanding the criminal. Judging throws bias into the picture. No. . it’s best to just sympathize with the criminal. . understand what makes them tick.”
“Disgusting. . but I can see how effective your strategy is-”
“Not mine! I learned it from my mentor. . Lars Eliassen. . an old police officer in the Romsdal valley. Now I’m passing it on to you. . and one day you will pass it on to another generation.”
“Thank you.”
“Anyway. . we’re dealing in this case with an upper middle class parent who has the audacity to boldly launch his or her criminal enterprise in Pilot Hill Elementary School between quarter to nine and nine in the morning on the Fourth of June.”
“This is stunning. . hard to believe.”
“That. . Constable Wangelin. . is the audacity of evil.”
Karl Haugen woke up. He wasn’t sure if he had slept for hours or just dozed off for minutes. Nothing seemed real. Sadness rose in him as he realized that his father had not looked for him for a long long time. His father felt so far away. They had been so close.
“Daddy! Where are you?”
He wondered why no one heard him. It had been a long time since anyone had looked for him.
“Daddy! Where are you?”
He missed sitting with his father on the sofa after his father came home from work and telling him everything that had happened to him at school. He had so much he wanted to tell his father.
“Mom! Mom. . can you hear me?”
He missed his mother as badly as he missed his father. She had kept looking for him unlike his father. He wished that she was not living so far away. Namsos was too far away.
Why didn’t she ask Daddy to let him live with her throughout the year?
If she had asked then he would not be where he was.
Wangelin and Sohlberg took a short break. She went to re-fill her enormous coffee mug following the Norwegian tradition of consuming huge amounts of coffee at work. Meanwhile Sohlberg called his wife.
“Are your parents able to come?”
“Ja!. . My Dad said they’d need a day or so to pack up.”
“I won’t be home for dinner.”
“Case speeding up?”
“Drastically. . ”
“I’ll leave your dinner in the frig. . top shelf. . if you’re coming in after midnight.”
“I doubt it,” said Sohlberg. “I should be in by eleven. I have to go see someone at Halden Fengsel.”
“Wake me up when you get home.”
“But-”
“No buts. You wake me up so I know you’re home safe and sound.”
“Alright.”
“Love you.”
“For time and for all eternity.”
The Sohlbergs always said goodnight to each other with a little routine of one saying ‘Love you’ and the other one replying ‘For time and for all eternity’ or ‘Forever and ever always’. They had kept that routine during their more than 25 years of marriage because Sohlberg was permanently traumatized over the fact that he had never had the opportunity to say ‘Goodbye’ or ‘I love you’ to his first wife Karoline before and while she fell to her death. The sudden unexpected death of Sohlberg’s first wife had left him terrified of not being able to saying ‘I love you’ to those dear ones whom death steals without a warning.
Commissioner Thorsen walked into the cubicle just as Sholberg ended the call with Fru Sohlberg. Thorsen plopped down on the chair in front of Sohlberg. “So. . did you solve it?”
Sohlberg stared at Thorsen with undisguised contempt. “No. Not yet. . but we’re getting there. At least a few things were done right.”
“Imagine that. The great detective from Interpol approves of what us bumpkins do in Norway. Well now!. . How marvelous that you approve. . So tell me. . what did we do right?”
“Dusting everywhere possible for fingerprints in the school. . checking out the whereabouts of known sex offenders.”
“I pushed hard for a deep look into the S.O. population. . I’m sure you know by now that a young pervert had previously trespassed in that same school and molested some girls.”
“Wangelin told me. But that’s not who did it.”
“Oh?”
“I’m not telling you more.”
“Oh?”
“I know you’re here fishing for information that you can pass on to the higher-ups. . who will then interfere with the investigation. . or screw it up. But that won’t happen on my watch.”
“Oh?”
“I already instructed Wangelin not to leak or disclose any information on the investigation to anyone. . including you. . unless I tell her to do so.”
“Breaking the chain of command so early in the investigation?”
“Quite the opposite Thorsen. I’m following it. She reports to me and I report to you.”
“Make sure you do a lot of that. I need to hear from you twice a day. In the morning just before noon and in the afternoon no later than three-thirty.”
“Of course. Heaven forbid that you. . like everyone else in Norway. . be one minute late getting out of the office after four o’clock.”
“Sohlberg you’ve forgotten your own country. . haven’t you? We’re efficient here in Norway. There’s no need for overtime.”
“I’m sure you need to get out at four so you can hit the links during the summer.”
“Who told you I play golf?”
“Word gets around.”
“Well. . it’s outdated gossip. I no longer play golf.”
“Oh?” said Sohlberg who enjoyed his turn to act coy.
“I bowl.”
“Bowling?”
“Ja. I’m sure you’ve heard of it Mister International Traveler.”
“Oh?”
“I’m taking lessons and getting quite good at it.”
“I’m sure you are. I wonder. . who else bowls in the department. . or in the Ministry of Justice?”
“None of your bee’s wax!” Ivar Thorsen jumped up and left. He almost slammed into Constable Wangelin and her giant coffee mug which offered third degree burns in any spill.
“What’s bothering him Chief Inspector?”
“His new hobby.”
“Hhhmm. Weird. Shall we continue with the summary?”
“Ja. Read on.”
“Agnes Haugen left the school no later than nine and went about her regular day doing errands and household chores.”
“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?”
“Ja. 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?”
“Ja 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 or bad management or advertising.”
“Ja! He’s an egghead. . and a businessman’s. . a pointdexter.”
“A what?”
“You know. . book smart but not street smart.”
“Ja! 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?”
“Ja.”
“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. They both 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.”
“Ja Chief Inspector. 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.”
“Why didn’t Nilsen call a press conference and ask for the public’s help that very same day and the next day. . to ask 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 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. Had 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 Sivertsen 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. It was almost as if Nilsen believed everything that she said as true while suspecting everything the husband said as a lie.”
“Really?”
“Well. . I think Nilsen. . ”
“What? C’mon. . say it.”
Constable Wangelin looked away from Sohlberg which move alerted him 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 liked the stepmother. He stared at her chest all the time.”
“Why?”
Steeling herself Wangelin said, “The stepmother has enormous breasts. Nilsen ogled 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.”
“Ja. 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.”
“Ja. 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.”
“Actually we did that a few months ago.”
“And?”
“They had the medicine in stock.”
“What did she say to that?”
“That the pharmacy must’ve been confused and thought she asked for another medicine.”
“How convenient for the father and stepmother. . to have her driving around looking for the baby’s medicines while he’s all alone. Keep on. . ”
“Karl Haugen was to have taken the school bus home. But he was not on the bus at three-thirty when the stepmother walked to the bus stop near their driveway. The bus arrived and another child from next door got off but not Karl. That’s when the driver told her that Karl had never gotten on the bus.
“She ran back home and called the school to tell them that the driver had just told her that the boy had never gotten on the bus. The school informed her that her stepson had been marked absent for the day by his teacher as soon as roll call was completed at about nine-fifteen. The stepmother dialed one-one-two and we immediately got involved. Nilsen ordered an inch-by-inch search of the school and the school grounds and the parent’s home and their one-acre property.”
“Who else was called in to help?”
“Of course Nilsen got KRIPOS involved. . they sent a crime scene investigator squad that arrived at eight-thirty in the evening.”
“But that was almost twelve hours after the boy disappeared.”
“True but Nilsen thought the boy had just wandered off or left with another family and that we’d find him before nine at night. Commissioner Thorsen got extra help for us from nearby districts that sent officers and two dog-sniffing teams. . we carefully searched the school and the hilly wooded area immediately around the school. We even searched the school’s roof.”
“Any videos. . close circuit cameras at the school?”
“Not in this school. Only in the newer schools”
“Explain something to me.”
“Ja Chief Inspector.”
“What’s the school’s procedure for visitors?. . What did the school do that day to accommodate all the visitors for the science fair?”
“The standard procedure is for all adult visitors to check in at the main office and receive a badge. But not everyone got a badge the day of the science fair.”
“Why?”
“Because of the huge crowds. . the science fair had to start before the official school hour of eight in the morning since a lot of parents came to help their children set up the exhibits before the parents rushed off to work. The school’s principal called the science fair a ‘semi-public’ event. She said the building was packed with more than two hundred adult visitors who went from classroom to classroom with their children and to and from the auditorium."
“Fascinating,” said Sohlberg as he massaged his increasingly tense neck muscles. Joint pain and muscular spasms plagued his neck whenever he was confronted with a complex case.
“What’s fascinating Chief Inspector?”
“The father and stepmother. They have six hours that are. . for the most part. . unaccounted for. . And the father seems to have a lot more unaccounted for time than the stepmother. He literally has a lot of explaining to do. At least the stepmother has some proof to establish some of her whereabouts when she went out on that medicine-buying trip. He on the other hand has little or nothing to show as to exactly where he was that day and exactly what he was doing those six hours.”
“Keep in mind Chief Inspector that her medicine-buying trip itself is a mystery. Why would she go to a second store when the first store had the medicine?”
“Ja. By the way. . what type of baby medicine are we talking about here?”
“I. . well. . here’s another strange thing that this couple made sound so natural when we first interviewed them.”
“Together or separate?”
“Both. . together and separate.”
“Not good. Interviews must always be separate.”
“Ja. . but in the rush to get basic information Nilsen and the first responding constables took statements from them in each other’s presence.”
“A huge mistake in this investigation.”
“Sorry. But as I was saying. . the Haugens took their sweet time to finally reveal. . four months after Karl disappeared. . that the baby’s prescription medicine was for colic and that any over-the-counter remedy would’ve been easy to find and a far cheaper substitute.”
“What did they say when confronted with this information?”
“That they do not buy cheap things. . least of all generic drugs. That they buy only the very best for their children. She even made the very arrogant statement that they don’t eat left-overs.”
“Interesting. Unfortunately I know people like that.”
“Wait till you hear this. . we calculated her total mileage that Friday for her shopping expedition for the baby’s medicine. . almost forty-five miles for a medicine that she could’ve bought for less than five dollars had she gone for the less expensive over-the-counter substitute.”
“Whose idea was it for her to go on that crazy shopping trip?”
“They both take responsibility for it.”
“Not his idea?”
“No Chief Inspector. She’s adamant about going though all the motions to establish to the world that they have money to spend. Of course the weird thing is that the father and stepmother dress like high school kids. . they mostly wear t-shirts and blue jeans and tennis shoes. . every time I saw him he was in long baggy shorts and sandals.”
“By the way. . what role did they take in the search for Karl that Friday and the weeks following?”
“Again Chief Inspector. . they are strange people. . an odd family. Everyone on the force made comments about how the Haugens are the first family that did not pArcticipate in the search for their missing child.”
“That is unusual. . the father or the mother or both or other relatives always get involved in the search. . they go on television and ask for the public’s help. They walk the streets and they post and hand out flyers with pictures. Matter of fact. . I’ve always looked carefully to see who in the circle of family and friends was not pArcticipating in the search for a missing person.”
“Ja. People don’t look if they think. . or know. . that the missing person is dead.”
“What about the biological mother?”
“Maya Engen. . she lives in Namsos. . north of Trondheim. . married to Police Inspector Arvid Engen of the Sor-Trondelag district.”
“Really?”
“Do you know him Chief Inspector?”
“No. But that’s another interesting twist in this case. Did Karl’s biological mother. . this Maya Engen. . look for her missing son?”
“No. Physically and mentally she could not. She was devastated. . She fainted at the news of his disappearance. She collapsed several times after she and her husband came down here the night of June fourth. Maya Engen suffered a great deal. . unlike the father and the stepmother who seemed rather cool if not lackadaisical about the whole thing.”
“You’ve personally seen the father and the stepmother after Karl disappeared. . right?”
“Ja.”
“Which one of them would you say was angry or in mourning. . or grieving over Karl?”
“Hard to tell.”
“What?” said a surprised Sohlberg. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“I. . I can’t describe it. . when you’re with them you feel everything is normal but when you leave them you realize something’s not quite right in that family.”
“That’s why I’m very interested in focusing on Karl Haugen’s family and friends. Are we done with the first page of your summary?”
“Ja. I’m ready to start going over the second page.”
“Good. But we’ll have to do that in the car.”
“Where are we going?”
“Halden Fengsel. I understand Norway's newest prison is something to behold.”
“Ja. I’ve seen it on television. . quite luxurious. . but I’ve never been there.”
“Let’s go.”
“Your car or mine?”
“Neither. We’re taking a marked car that Thorsen’s lending us for today. He already made arrangements for our visit.”
“Who?. . Who are we seeing?’
“The Smiley Face Killer.”