‘Sorry. Took a micro nap.’

‘DTV. Jon Bergman or whatever his name is and a cameraman. They’re waiting for you down in Stolt’s office.’

‘For me? Why?’

She asks even though she already knows the answer. Groans loudly when her boss flashes her a condoling smile and says the words she doesn’t want to hear.

‘We made a deal with them. An interview with you was one of their demands. And we have every reason to uphold our end of the bargain. Without it, media from all over the world would already be swarming.’

‘Can’t you do it? At least you’ve had time to put on a clean shirt.’

‘I assume that’s exactly why they don’t want to talk to me. “No press secretary and no fucking desk jockey”, were their exact words. And since you’re in the footage from the operation, I’d say they’re unlikely to accept anyone else now.’

‘But what am I supposed to say?’

‘You’ll have to go over the talking points with Stolt, of course. He’s fully briefed on all the details.’

‘And when they ask about the perpetrator? Am I supposed to give them Billy Formby, too? I won’t do it.’

‘Not his name, obviously. For now, the only ones who know about him are us and Dineke Vegen. And she hasn’t issued a warrant for his arrest yet since we hardly have to worry about him absconding.’

Smart move, Vegen, Karen thinks to herself. But if and when Billy Formby wakes up, they won’t be able to hold off on that warrant and once it’s issued it’s only a matter of time before his name is leaked, too.

‘You searched his flat, though,’ Karl says with a nod to Evald Johannisen. ‘One of the guys who helped with that could leak it at any moment.’

‘Well, Charlie-boy, maybe if it had been you in charge,’ Johannisen says. ‘But luckily for us, it was me. I made sure to lay down some, well – let’s call them smokescreens – and the boys had no idea what we were really looking for or why. Besides, they were hardly the sharpest knives in the drawer.’

‘All right, let’s cross our fingers, then,’ Smeed says in a tone that signals very clearly that he has neither the inclination nor the energy to hear about smokescreens intended to mislead colleagues in uniform. Or the media.

Then he turns back to Karen.

‘It’ll be fine. But like I said, go over the details with Stolt before you head down there.’

Chapter 64

64

Her quick sit-down with the press secretary before the interview unfortunately turns out to include Head of Police Viggo Haugen as well, and he makes no secret of his reservations about having Karen Eiken Hornby speak to the media.