‘… five hours. You don’t have much time.’

‘I’ve spoken to one,’ Selma said. ‘I’m meeting him tomorrow. Word of honour.’

‘That’s a few hours too late.’

‘He couldn’t see me today.’

‘Selma.’

He reclined, placing both arms on the back of the settee and his right foot on his left knee.

‘I have a philosophy in life,’ he said, raising his voice. ‘And that is to give everyone a second chance. That’s what people get from me, Selma. My employees. My friends. My …’

His hand made a gallant gesture in her direction.

‘My lawyers. One more chance. That’s what life gave me. An opportunity to correct my own mistakes and misdeeds. Never more than that. Never two. If you’ve been in touch with a psychologist today, however, I’ll temper justice with mercy. You’ve met the deadline halfway. A written declaration that you’re receiving treatment for your compulsive gambling must be on my desk by five o’clock tomorrow. OK?’

Selma put down the half-eaten bread roll on a plate. Brushing away some invisible crumbs from her deep-red jacket, she looked straight at him. Every trace of irony had vanished when she calmly said: ‘You do have a point, Jan.’

‘Yes or no? By five tomorrow.’

‘Fine. Promise. And you do have a point.’

‘I see.’

‘This unexpected turn of events with Haakon, this …’

She got to her feet. Stood for a few seconds, with her hands on her hips and a faraway look as she concentrated.

‘It might all be a coincidence, of course. There doesn’t have to be any kind of connection between Haakon and Hege’s cases. But there are some striking factors here that make it absolutely worthwhile to find out whether they might both have been sabotaged. And let us take first things first.’

She crossed to the bare fireplace, but turned all of a sudden in the middle of the room.

‘Clostebol, then, is a synthetically manufactured anabolicandrogenic steroid,’ she said. ‘The androgenic effect has to do with typical male characteristics, such as production of semen and beard growth.’

‘As if Hege could have …’

‘However, athletes are looking for the anabolic effect,’ she interrupted him. ‘Increased building of bones and skeletal musculature. Just like the testosterone that occurs naturally in our bodies, but administered to patients for a pretty broad spectrum of illnesses. The point is …’

She moved on towards the fireplace, crouched down and began to set a fire in the deep hearth. The logs in a woven basket on the floor were so old that they had gathered dust.

‘Clostebol isn’t found in any of the medications available on the Norwegian market,’ she said. ‘And why it should be necessary to include Clostebol in the ointment Hege told us about, the one that Hedda Bruun was given for her sore lip, is incomprehensible. The ointment also contained neomycin, which is more logical. That’s an antibacterial substance. Do you have matches?’