Chapters (61)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Imagine a girl
- Prologue
- The Foreigner
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- The Skeptic
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- The Spectator
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- The Assassin
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- The Hunter
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Imagine a girl
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Ben McPherson
- About the Publisher
Elsa came through from the bedroom at six and I explained to her what I was going to do. I expected her to ask if I was crazy, but she listened, then asked if I needed help.
“No,” I said. “But thanks.”
The conversation about the Glock would have to wait.
The Assassin
Thirty
At eight I stood on the courtroom steps. The cameraman looked up from the viewfinder, nodded, and looked down. The record light glowed red.
Ready.
I heard Carly’s breath in my ear.
“Over to Cal Curtis in Oslo, Norway. Cal—”
I didn’t wait for the question. “There’s something I’ve never understood about this little country: How could two armed men roam freely across an island near the nation’s capital for the best part of two hours, murdering young people at will, and not be stopped? If this were America or France, an armed unit would have been there in minutes. But last night a video came into my possession. And that video gives an answer, of sorts.”
Carly’s voice in my ear. “Cal, describe the footage that you have exclusively received.”
“It’s news video from a Polish helicopter pilot, from the day of the Garden Island massacre, and most of what it shows was never broadcast. This video is an important historical document, and records police failings that delayed the arrests of Paul and John Andersen.”
“Cal, how many of the ninety-one murder victims does this new information affect?”
“Roughly half. Plus my own daughter, who is not included in that figure of ninety-one dead. We already know that Police Chief Ephraim Tvist failed to act on information that identified the men responsible. We already know that a police cruiser was directly behind their car as they drove out to Garden Island, but did not have the information needed, because nobody had passed it on. What this video shows is that Mr. Tvist’s most highly trained men are badly equipped and underprepared. Because at 6:48 p.m., forty-five minutes after the first bullet was fired, at a time when we know that fifty-two of the victims were still alive, the police tactical weapons unit arrives at the slipway on the mainland. Yet it takes those same men sixty-three minutes to make the trip across the water to the island. And if you look at the footage—”
“Which is up on our website so that viewers can judge for themselves.”
“—you can clearly see that the rubber boat in which the tactical unit set off is inadequate for the job at hand. The boat is sinking under the weight of the men and their gear. The engine can barely move it. Halfway across the fjord they realize they’re not going to make it over, and the unit turns around and begins limping back toward the slipway on the mainland. It’s utterly pathetic.”