Chapter 39

‘All right, who’s going first, you or me?’

They’re in Karen’s Ford Ranger, on their way back to Lysvik. To make the best use of their time and have a chance to go over their impressions and information, they’ve asked one of the constables to drive Karl’s car back. The snow has temporarily stopped falling and the motorway has been ploughed and salted, but the smaller roads they pass are still blocked by deep drifts.

‘You start,’ Karl says. ‘Who did you speak to first?’

‘Björn and Laura Groth.’

She sums up their account of the evening and then segues into telling Karl about the Groths’ conference centre plan. When she gets to the part about the prominent guests who came in a helicopter, Karl Björken lets out a snort of laughter.

‘Isn’t that just bloody typical,’ he says.

‘What? I think it sounds unlikely enough to have been made up.’

‘Not at all! More like a textbook example of the global elite’s desperate attempts to alleviate their ennui, if you ask me. Apparently, it’s the new thing, you know, slumming it. A retreat in some poor remote mountain village, adventure travel to places no one has ever heard of. Anything, so long as no one has done it before.’

‘I hardly think a visit to a golf course on Noorö qualifies as adventure travel,’ Karen retorts sceptically.

‘Sure, but maybe as the one per cent’s latest pastime – living like the common people for a couple of hours. My brother-in-law is the master of the hunt in Hammerfors. You know what the manor owners want when they invite their mates to go hunting these days? They want to sit around in simple little huts and eat sausage sandwiches and drink Heimö liquor!’

‘Not caviar and champagne?’

‘Nope. And they want nothing to do with modern hunting clothes. Nowadays, they either wear nostalgic nonsense from the 1930s or stuff a UN soldier in Afghanistan would be jealous of. They obviously change into their regular penguin suits for dinner, but first they want a little journey into the unknown.’

‘Like a helicopter trip to Gudheim?’ Karen says, still not convinced.

‘Yes, that’s exactly the kind of thing that would attract that type. A virtually impossible golf course that none of their friends has ever played. Haven’t you heard Smeed and Haugen talk about how difficult it is?’

Karen shakes her head. When golf comes up in conversation, she usually stops listening.

‘Well, they do. The Gudheim golf course is apparently ridiculously difficult as well as uniquely situated, with a sea view on three sides. I can see why that might sound tempting to bored businessmen looking for a kick.’

‘Fine, but surely that kind of demand is pretty limited? Not really something to build a business on.’