We Shall Inherit the Wind by Gunnar Staalesen

Author:Gunnar Staalesen [Gunnar Staalesen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910633083
Publisher: Orenda Books Ltd
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

21

I left my car in the multi-storey car park in Markeveien, went down to my office, booted up the computer and started searching for the telephone numbers I didn’t have. While I was at it I went into the Kvasir search engine and hunted for interesting names. Mons Mæland came up hundreds of times, Jarle Glosvik closer to thousands of times. I found a nice portrait photo of Stine Sagvåg, while Bjørn Brekkhus only featured in a few newspaper articles from the time when he was still Chief of Police. Ole Rørdal was high on the list, whereas Stein Svenson had only a few entries. Kristoffer had nowhere near as many mentions as his father, Else only a few and I couldn’t find Ranveig anywhere. Neither Lars nor Kristine Rørdal produced anything of interest.

Finally I searched for Gunvor Matre. The sole entry for her was a brief address: 5970 Byrknesøy. There was ample evidence to suggest I should make another trip to Lindås and Gulen.

I sat staring into the distance, musing. Again I was haunted by the image of Mons Mæland hanging from the cross. There was something so graphic and brutal about this act that I was reminded of far more extreme action groups than those we were used to in Norway, with the exception of the neo-Nazis, and the remnants of that movement had never been interested in environmental politics, from my observation.

Religious fanatics had taken recourse to robust methods when the fight against the abortion law was at its peak, but, to the best of my memory, there had been no crucifixion. Lars Rørdal had been committed enough in his condemnation of the wind farm project, but I couldn’t imagine he would ever go as far as stringing up one of his main adversaries. In addition, his consternation at the discovery of the body had seemed genuine enough.

Mons Mæland had been undergoing a change of heart, but those who were fighting for the wind farm wouldn’t have gone to such extremes, either. Even a man like Trond Tangenes would have used far more subtle methods. A drowning accident, a hit and run, that kind of malarkey.

Could the motive lie somewhere else entirely? Someone settling one of life’s outstanding debts?

I tried another name in the search box. Lea Mæland. But the result was negative. Not a single entry. She was definitively dead and buried, in Kvasir and everywhere else.

I would have liked to know what progress the police had made in their inquiries. The only person I could ring there was Atle Helleve, but I felt fairly sure that not even he would be very talkative at this stage.

I established the facts of the case. Mons Mæland had disappeared from his cabin on Radøy late Saturday night. On Sunday his boat was found drifting in the Radsund. On Monday I was given an assignment to track him down. On Wednesday we all found him, with Lars Rørdal as the first on the crime scene.

But how long had he

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