“What about bad teeth?” Harry asked.
They turned towards the new arrival.
“Perhaps you could get me something to drink, Ringdal?”
Ringdal shook his head. “It’s not time yet.”
“I don’t want anything strong, just—”
“No beer or wine served before twelve on Sundays, Hole. We’d like to keep our license.”
“…a glass of water,” Harry said, finishing his sentence.
“Oh,” Ringdal said, putting a clean glass under the tap and turning it on.
“You said you asked Rakel if she wanted to carry on working for the Jealousy,” Harry said. “But you’re not in her email folder or in the list of calls made to her phone in the past few months.”
“No?” Ringdal said, handing the glass to Harry.
“So I was just wondering where, when and how you were in contact with her?”
“Youwere wondering? Or the police?”
“Does that make any difference to your answer?”
Ringdal stuck his bottom lip out and tilted his head. “No. Because I can’t actually remember.”
“You can’t remember if you met her in person or if you sent an email?”
“No, actually.”
“Or if it was recent or a long time ago?”
“I’m sure you can appreciate that sometimes there are gaps in our memories.”
“You don’t drink,” Harry said, raising the glass of water to his lips.
“And I have busy days when I meet a lot of people and there’s a lot going on, Harry. Speaking of which…”
“You’re short of timenow?” Harry looked around the empty bar.
“Before it happens, Harry, that’s when you should be busy. Preparation is everything. That stops you having to improvise. A good plan has nothing but advantages. Have you?”
“Have I what? Got a plan?”
“Think about it, Harry. It pays off. Now, if you’ll excuse us…”
When they saw the front door close behind Harry, Øystein looked around automatically—and in vain—for Harry’s empty glass.
“He must be desperate,” Ringdal said, nodding towards the newspaper in front of Øystein. “They’re saying the police haven’t got anything new. And everyone knows what they do then.”
“What do they do then?” Øystein asked as he stopped looking.
“They go back to their old lines of inquiry. The ones they’ve already dismissed.”
It took a while for Øystein to realise what Ringdal meant. Harry wasn’t desperate because the police didn’t have anything. Harry was desperate because the police would be looking more closely at their previous lines of inquiry. Such as Harry’s alibi.
—
