‘But Kristian Lund’s mother was already dead when Harald Olesen started to write about D, J, N and O.’
There was a hint of irony in Patricia’s voice when she replied: ‘Precisely!’
I had a swift look through the papers in the hope that I would not appear to be as slow as I felt.
‘Kristian of course has her surname, as his father was unknown. Her first name was Nathalie.’
Patricia frowned and shook her head and gave a deep sigh.
‘I am afraid that the name Nathalie Lund is not of much help to us… Did she perhaps have a middle name or a nickname that she used or was known by?’
I looked at the sheet from the census records, and then the two pages about her trial for treason.
‘No known middle name, but in a subclause here in her case papers it mentions that she was often called Sonja during the war, as she apparently looked like the film star Sonja Henie.’
It was silent for a beat. When I looked up, I discovered that Patricia had fixed me with an accusing telescopic gaze.
‘You could have spared us the delay by telling me that immediately! That fits perfectly with the obvious scenario. We still do not have the murderer, but we have at least identified the mysterious N as the shop manager Kristian Lund, whose address is 25 Krebs’ Street.’
I looked at Patricia as if she were a green Martian on roller skates, not a white woman in a wheelchair. She rolled her eyes.
‘Given the information that “S” could stand for “Sonja” and that this plays on her resemblance to the beautiful and famous actress, the rest is rather elementary, my dear Kristiansen. The whole sequence is then almost too perfect for it to be a coincidence. Konrad Jensen was right when he claimed to have seen Harald Olesen picking up a young woman from an NS meeting in Asker in 1939. She came from Drammen and had a relationship with Harald Olesen. Which he absolutely did not want to be reminded of later, for various reasons I hope I do not need to explain. So “S”, who is mentioned briefly in Harald Olesen’s diary, stands for “Sonja”. He would naturally still use a pet name for an old love, which means that the N Harald Olesen met unexpectedly with S, and who later tried to extort money from him, is of course her son. In which case, it is not so surprising that Kristian Lund did not want to let you see his bank statements.’
I had remembered the story with the car when I visited the caretaker, but then quickly forgotten about it again. Which annoyed me, so I moved swiftly on.
‘What does “N” stand for, then?’
Patricia furrowed her brow with impatience.