Henning is sitting on his battered Stressless armchair, balancing his laptop on his thighs and resting his legs on a footstool in front of him. He has cleaned the cuts on the soles of his feet and applied a sterile bandage. He can feel that the healing process has already started.
The last few hours seem a blur to him. All he can remember clearly is his telephone conversation with Iver. Then nothing until he found himself coming to in the stairwell. And it’s not the first time that his body has short-circuited like this. What on earth is wrong with me? he wonders.
It’s almost 6.30 p.m., so he turns on the television. The commercial break is followed by the logo for TV2 News. He turns up the volume as he sees Tore Pulli’s tall figure in the same doorway where he himself met him only a few days ago. A breathless female voice announces that convicted killer Tore Pulli collapsed and died in Oslo Prison today. The picture disappears while the theme music is turned up a few notches before it fades away. The next headline story is introduced. Henning doesn’t listen to it but sees images of a concertinaed train with smoke rising from it. The final headline story is given five seconds to tantalise the viewer before the camera cuts to the studio where news anchor Mah-Rukh Ali welcomes the viewers to tonight’s programme. Henning turns the sound up even further.
Former enforcer Tore Pulli collapsed and died in Oslo Prison earlier today. Pulli was being interviewed by TV2 when he died.
Ali stares into the camera. The feature begins, but there are no pictures from inside the prison. Instead, they cut right to a green screen with a photograph of prison spokesman Knut Olav Nordbo next to a telephone. He makes a nervous attempt at telling the people of Norway what has happened, but for the time being he can’t release any information about the circumstances.
They cut to an outside broadcast from the entrance to the prison where a reporter is ready and waiting, clutching a microphone close to his face. He reiterates the facts of the case, before addressing Prison Governor Borre Kolberg. He can’t shed any light on what has happened either. Then back to Mah-Rukh Ali in the studio, who explains that viewers can see the final pictures of Tore Pulli on the nine o’clock news later that evening. In addition, on TV2’s website they can read an interview with TV2 journalist Guri Palme, who was about to interview Tore Pulli when he died.
Henning turns down the sound, flips open the laptop and connects to the Internet. The home page of 123news downloads itself. The breaking-news logo has gone and has been replaced with a standard headline accompanied by the media’s favourite photo of Pulli: the mug shot of him that cold October evening almost two years ago where his eyes are wide, his mouth open and his face displaying a gawping expression.
Henning experiences a sinking feeling, not just at Pulli’s death but also as he recalls the disappointment and incredulity in Iver Gundersen’s voice right before he hung up on him. Looking at all the stories Iver has written makes Henning feel even worse. Under the lead story there is a plethora of links, all with relevant and recent titles. Henning clicks on the lead story which still has no headline other than the obvious one that Pulli is dead.
The first thing that strikes him as he scrolls down the article is that Iver has done a great job. He has tried to dramatise today’s events, has written it in the present tense and has even produced a timeline. He concludes by reminding the readers what Pulli had been convicted of, complete with fact frames. The main text has been broken up with a large picture of Veronica Nansen, but she has yet to respond to 123news ’s requests for a reaction.
Henning sees that the news desk has pasted in TV2’s interview with Guri Palme. ‘The Shock of My Life’ is the headline. Neat, he thinks, producing an internet exclusive so promptly and then referring to the story during a live broadcast. ‘Synergies’ is the trendy word for it in TV circles. But he doesn’t click on it because he already knows what it’s going to say.
Iver has also spoken to Pulli’s solicitor, Frode Olsvik, who explained that he visited his client only a few hours before the interview and that there was nothing to suggest that he was unwell. Henning sighs, thinks about Pulli and hankers after a cigarette for the first time in ages. But he only needs to visualise his mother slumped over the kitchen table with the oxygen tank humming next to her and the urge goes away. What a life, he thinks. What a death.
At least Pulli’s was quick.