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

you imagine?’
    ‘You never know.’
    Frank Frølich sank back on the sofa. When I die, he thought, the angel coming to collect me will have the same voice as Gunnarstranda. The man is a spook. The spikes continued to attack his liver. He was incapable of thinking; he said: ‘So you’re ringing. Is it anything to do with the job or are you just missing me?’
    ‘Jonny Faremo is dead.’
    ‘Dead?’
    ‘Yes, dead. Drowned.’
    Frank Frølich had never felt a greater need for a glass of water. The words constricted themselves in his throat, his head. He managed to say: ‘Where?’
    ‘Some kilometres outside the city boundary, in Askim. He drowned in the Glomma and was picked up by some people working at the Vamma power station. His body was caught in a net.’
    ‘A net?’
    ‘Does that mean you know where the Vamma power station is?’
    Shit. The intonation . ‘No idea. Where is Vamma power station?’
    ‘I told you, didn’t I? Fifty kilometres east of the city boundary.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘Power stations are susceptible to getting logs and other junk caught in the turbines. That’s why they have a net to pick up the stuff. It picked up Faremo last night.’
    ‘Accident?’
    ‘If it was an accident we ought to have a heap of circumstantial evidence. In this case we don’t have anything.’
    ‘Suicide?’
    ‘Well, he certainly drowned.’
    ‘What’s your view?’
    Gunnarstranda chuckled into the receiver. ‘My view? I had a call from Krimpolitisentralen, Kripos, about ten minutes ago. But, well, I suppose I did run the man in and I did have him appear at a hearing on suspicion of killing the security man in Loenga. He gets off – on an alibi as thin as a pussy hair. Two days go by and then he’s found floating with his lungs full of water in the dam by a power station. Perhaps he was depressed and threw himself in? But why should he be depressed? Because you’d taken up with his sister? And if he was and drove off to kill himself, where’s the car? Where’s the suicide note?’
    ‘He drives a silver-grey Saab 95.’
    ‘How do you know that?’
    The intonation, the suspicion . ‘I have, as you yourself pointed out, some knowledge of the family.’
    ‘If he was thrown into the river, he wouldn’t have had much of a chance. It’s late autumn. There’s a strong current. Water temperature, maximum four to five degrees.’
    ‘Faremo’s well built. All muscle.’
    ‘The body was in a bad way. The doctor who wrote the death certificate has, it seems, used a local phenomenon to explain why. There’s a place called Vrangfoss just above the power station. It’s a narrow ravine and right there the river bends. This means that a few hundred metres above the power station all the water flowing serenely along in the Glomma is compressed and channelled through the ravine. A horizontal waterfall in other words, a kind of inferno of water and currents. If Faremo ended up in the river above the ravine his body would have been whirled around and thrown against the cliff face for a good long time before he emerged a few hundred metres further down. Most of the bones in Faremo’s body were simply smashed to pulp.’
    Frank Frølich saw in his mind’s eye the man of 1 metre 90, dressed like a commando with the same expression as his sister.
    ‘Is it known where he fell?’
    ‘Fell, you say?’
    ‘Or was shoved. Do you know anything about the crime scene?’
    ‘This power station – Vamma – is the last of three power stations in a row. The highest one is called Solbergfoss, a little lower down there is one called Kykkelsrud and right at the bottom Vamma, where Faremo was fished out of a kind of collecting net. So you can imagine. He was found in front of the last dam. The stretch between Kykkelsrud power station and Vamma is the interesting bit. Frølich?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Aren’t you wondering why I’m ringing?’
    ‘Haven’t thought that far ahead.’
    ‘It’s not my case. Follo police district is