"Ripped By mstoll" "Who are you?" "What do you want in this house?" "Watch out!" "You bloody fool!" "Get over!" "No!" "No!" "Can you give me a lift?" "Uh?" "Do you speak English?" "Jordahlsholmen." "Do you know Jordahlsholmen?" " Jordahlsholmen?" " Yeah." "Ya, ya, hop in." "I don't understand." "Jordahlsholmen." "Ya, ya, ya, ya." "Takk." "Thanks." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "It was Freya Jordahl." "It can't have been, can it?" "I told you, she was wearing the same dress she is there." "Or one very much like it." "The same." "You can't be sure of that, even." "Not at that distance." "And it could have been just about anybody." "Most likely a woman from some group who'd landed on the other side of the island for a midnight picnic or whatever." "And that would account for the accident, too, if they'd pulled out shortly after you got over there." "They had been drinking, well with a drunk at the wheel of a motor cruiser, anything can happen." "It wasn't like that, I didn't just happen to be in the way of that boat, it changed course and came straight at me." "Are you saying that it was deliberate?" "That someone tried to kill you?" "Well, it certainly looked that way." "I don't know!" "Why should anyone want to?" "Yes, why?" "It's not very likely, is it?" "But if you even suspect that, then you must report this to the police." "No." "It seemed like that at the time, but I could be wrong." "Anyway, what good would that do?" "I couldn't see who was steering, I didn't see anyone on board." "Besides, they'd probably just write it off as an accident too." "What type of cruiser was it?" "Oh, I don't know, it looked like so many you see round here." "And with only a vague description, what hope would anyone have of tracking it down?" "So, who opened up the house?" "Turned on the record player?" "And set up all the dolls?" "The drunken trespassers off the cruiser." "When they discovered the house was empty." "It's their idea of a joke." "And how did they get in?" "Windows?" "Had the door been forced?" "No." "Well, I don't think so." "Well, let's take a look." "We can't." "The door is at the bottom of the fjord." "There's a dinghy in the boat house, we'll use that." "Look, I'm sorry to have bothered you with all this." "Nonsense." "Only why didn't you call me the moment you got back?" "I was going to, I looked up your number." "But it was so late, and I was so tired." "All I wanted to do was sleep." "But when the phone rang, I hoped it was you." "Who was it?" "I don't know." "Whoever it was just hung up." "Come on." "They could have got in through a window." " I didn't lock it." " Hey?" "I was in too much of a hurry." "What is it?" "The dolls were here, arranged around the table." "There was a child's tea set on it, and this was open." "They're all back the way they were the first time I came over." "This was the only one up here last night." "It was sitting on a stool in that corner, with its face to the wall, like a child being punished." "Here it is, this is the tea set." "It must be close on a hundred dolls in here." "Freya collected them." "And look." "They're all full of dolls' clothes." "What's in here?" "I don't know." "I haven't got a key." "You see?" "Everything is the way it was before Freya killed herself." "Astrid Linderman said it was left like this because Jordahl believed one day she'd come back." "Someone was in this house last night." " I thought we'd..." " Don't tell me a bunch of drunks would have bothered to come back and clear up." "Who was it?" "Who else has a key to this place?" "Only the cleaning woman, as far as I know." "It's possible she's been out here this morning." "Where does she live?" "I don't know." "Let's find out, then." "Do you speak English?" "Yes, a little." "At school I learnt some." "We were told in the village that you look after the house on the island, at Jordahlsholmen." "Yes." "Well, this is Miss Durrell." "You've probably heard, she owns Jordahlsholmen now." "Yes, I have heard." "Have I done something wrong?" "My work is not good?" "No, it's nothing like that, Mrs Tovan, your work is very good and I'm happy with the arrangement." "We just wanted to know when you were last on the island." " Last week on......" " Thursday" "Yes, Thursday." "I go every two weeks on Thursday." "There is little to do now." "I touch nothing, as I was told." "I only dust and sweep." "That is not good, you want me to come other days?" " No, that's fine." " Well, takk." "That is why you came?" "Just to ask me that?" "How long have you been going to the island?" "F or three years only." "When the woman who worked for" "Hjalmar Jordahl moved away, then I... uh..." " Took over." " Ya." "And since you've been going there, have you noticed anything strange about the house?" "Apart from it being kept the way it is, I mean?" "It is just a house." "A house that is not lived in, that is all." "My wife does what she is paid to do." "She is not a foolish gossip." "As some women are." "Thanks again, Mrs Tovan." " I am sorry." " No, please, it's all right." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Eivind does not understand about such things." "He will not speak about them and he will not let me speak about them, because I think he is afraid." "But I will tell you:" "Many times in that house I have felt that I am not alone." "There is no one in that place now, but some days I go and I see that things have been moved and I have not moved them." "And when I am there, all the time I look and I do not stay long, that is all I can say." "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't believe in ghosts." "So your church doesn't disbar suicides from burial in consecrated ground?" "I doubt if that was how her death was described, officially." "This doesn't actually prove she's dead." "Pretty well, I'd have thought." "There'd have been an inquest, post-mortem for all I know." "Death certificate." "Anyway, what are you suggesting?" "Look, I've seen Freya Jordahl twice now." "Once on the ship, and once again last night on the island." "Someone who looks like her, perhaps." "Maybe." "But what if you're wrong and I'm right and it was Freya I saw?" "What's the explanation?" "There can only be one." "So what you're saying is, his wife was out of her mind." "But sooner than risk it becoming widely known" "Jordahl fixed it so that everyone believed she was dead." "And then put her away in a private clinic somewhere?" "Said like that, it sounds absolutely crazy." " It is." " No more way out than your theory that Jordahl was murdered." "Oh come on now." "Anyway, why would he do such a thing?" "You told me yourself, that he was obsessed with keeping his private life very private." "That fits in with him having brought Freya out here to Jordahlsholmen." "That was only later." "But first they lived in Alesund." "Precisely." "There has to have been some kind of personal trouble to have moved to somewhere as isolated as this." "A domestic crisis he didn't want anyone knowing about." "But he was happy enough to let people believe" " she'd killed herself." " Yes, he could handle that because he knew it wasn't true." "Perhaps he even encouraged it." "It was an easy lie for Jordahl to live with." "But having the truth come out, that his wife had gone mad, and that perhaps in some way he'd somehow contributed to her madness, now that would have been something else." "But to chance an even greater scandal if what he'd done was ever uncovered." "No." "Besides, to get away with something like that, he'd have needed the cooperation of the family doctor, Astrid Linderman, and a lot of other people." "And a guarantee of their silence." "He was an extremely powerful man, and very rich." "Even so, you can't buy everything." "And people aren't that easily intimidated into breaking the law." "It's easier to persuade them when they're dependent on you." "As far as Dr Albrigsten's concerned, well, they 'd been friends for years." "And Astrid Linderman could have been just as anxious as Jordahl to cover up the truth about her niece." "What hard evidence is there that Freya Jordahl had a complete mental breakdown?" "Well, for one thing, Ingrid said that Jordahl kept Anna-Marie and her away from their mother when they were children." "Why did he do that?" "Who knows." "Assuming that's true, of course." "And yesterday, Astrid as good as admitted that Freya was a bit strange." ""She'd not been well." "Not for some time."" "That's what she said." "If someone is physically ill, you don't shut them away on an island." "And what was Astrid doing living there with her, if not to keep an eye on her?" "I've seen paintings like this before." "The agency I worked for did a campaign on mental health and I visited a hospital for the criminally insane." "The art room was filled with paintings just like these." " Where did you find them?" " In the cellar, tucked away." "At first I thought they were some more of Ingrid's work." "That worried me too." "Ingrid paints as well, and she's obviously inherited much of her style from her mother." "So?" "When Astrid also said that Freya was an extremely talented artist, and then got very cagey." "Well." "Look, these are the product of a disturbed mind." "I mean, just look at them." "They have to be." "There's more than just a hint of madness." "All right." "But now she's escaped from the clinic he put her in and taken to travelling on the coastal steamer." "Maybe her condition has improved, dramatically." "She could be let out from time to time." "To roam the countryside and come back to the scene of her supposed tragic end?" "All right, then, perhaps she has escaped." "And pops over to the island at will to play with her dolls, then clear up." "In between running you down in a boat that is." "And why do you suppose she did that?" "Maybe because she realised that by now I recognised her from the portrait." "And to protect herself." "Now you don't really believe that, do you?" "It was her." "It was Freya I saw last night and on the boat." "That was the woman you saw?" "Just as she is there?" "Yes, and last night she was wearing that dress." "And this, this apparition, how old would you say she was?" "I don't know." "I only saw her for a moment." "Roughly." "In her early to mid twenties." " No more than, say 25?" " No." "Look, if you'd been right in any of this, and if Freya Jordahl was alive today, she'd be 47." "Middle-aged." "So there goes one very inventive proposition." "And if you're still convinced that that was the Freya you saw, well then, it has to have been her ghost, doesn't it?" "Do you want one?" "Uh, yes, thank you." " Thanks." "Skål." " Skål." "Well, aren't you going to tell me about it?" "Tell you about what?" "The boat." "The boat?" "Which boat?" "We've only got one, the cruiser." "And it's taken a bad knock on the starboard bow." "Really?" "How annoying." "You haven't noticed it?" "Oh no, it was all right when I brought it back" " from Alesund yesterday." " It can't have been." "I'm sure it was." "No one else has been out in her." "Well, I suppose I could have hit something" " without being aware of it." " Hardly, there's a gash half a metre long." "I mean it's not the sort of mark you get from bumping into the jetty." "Now you must have felt something." "Lars, it's not my fault." "How did it happen, then?" "How should I know?" "Does it matter that much?" "No, not that much, but it's been damaged and I would like to know how." "I mean, the insurance for one thing." "Someone could have borrowed it." " Borrowed it?" " They could have." "Not without the keys." "And we don't leave those lying around, do we?" "And besides, who would want to?" "No one round here, they've all got boats of their own." "Well, I don't know anything about it." "You do believe me, don't you?" "Yes, of course I do." "Why would you lie about a thing like that?" "Two visits from my doctor in as many days, and on a Saturday." "I must be close to dying." "Nonsense." "I just happened to be passing, so I thought I'd drop these into you." " Oh, more pills." " They're new." "I'd like you to try them." "Take one, four times a day." "So I'm a guinea pig now, am I?" "Hardly." "They've done all the field trials on them, and the results were very encouraging." "How are you feeling today?" "Still wretched." "See how you get on with those." "Oh, your garden's looking beautiful." "I sometimes wonder why I bother to pay anyone to keep it up." "Except that I see little of anything else, nowadays." "Oh, there's no reason why you shouldn't go out more." "You've a car, Gerda to drive you wherever you want to go." "Only I can't leave the pain at home, can I?" "I saw Lars Nilsen last night at the club." "He told me Catherine Durrell came to tea with you yesterday." "So?" "What did you think of her?" "I like her." "I think she's got spirit." "Yes, I agree." "She asked a lot of questions, I imagine." "Well, wouldn't you?" "If a total stranger had left you a handsome legacy in his will?" "What did you tell her?" " That you're a fool." " Apart from that." "What could I tell her?" "I don't know why Hjalmar did what he did, any more than you do." "Did she ask about Freya?" "Naturally." "You didn't run on about her too much, I hope?" "I was curious about her as we all were, surely." "So I invited her to tea." "Where's the harm in that?" "Just as long as you were very careful what you said." "Oh, for heavens sake, Arne, bearing in mind my position, it's not likely that I would tell her the truth about Freya, is it?" "Of course not, I'm sorry." "But if she visits you again?" "I should be very pleased to see her." "And continue to guard my tongue." "F or both our sakes." "I feel such an idiot." "If it will make you feel any better, you almost had me convinced for a while." "What happened with the dinghy was just an accident?" "Course." "However it may have looked at the time." "That still leaves a lot of unanswered questions." "Like, for instance, how did the people on the island get into the house?" "Who tidied up?" " They could have done." " No." "It's the only explanation." "We know it wasn't Mrs Tovan." "They weren't going to go back to the island, having rammed a boat and possibly drowned someone." "If they'd all had too much to drink, they might not even have been aware that they'd hit you." "And later when they'd sobered up, and they were conscience-stricken about rearranging things in the house, they went back." "And got into the house a second time, without leaving any trace of how they did it?" "Eat." "Are you sure you wouldn't rather move back into town?" "Not to the Nilsens' again, if you don't want to." "And it doesn't have to be a hotel," "I'm sure I could find you a flat somewhere." "Why?" "I'm all right here." "It's a bit off the beaten track." "I quite like that." "Even so." "You're not worried about me, are you?" " No of course not, it's just..." " You've convinced me." "I was imagining things." "If I don't go swimming," "I'm not likely to come to any more harm, am I?" "Well, if that's what you want." "Our trip is still on for tomorrow, is it?" "Oh, of course." "I'm looking forward to it." " Thank you." " My pleasure." "And that's something else you were wrong about." "What?" "The first time we met, you said ours wasn't going to be a lasting relationship." "Bye." "Anna-Marie, what a nice surprise." " Hello, Catherine." " Come in." "I telephoned you several times this morning, but there was no reply." "No, I was out quite a bit today." " Are you all right?" " Yes, I'm fine." " Thank God for that." " What do you mean?" "Well the Mayor rang me at home a little while ago and said that a man that does odd jobs for him from time to time, told him some incredible tale about picking up a half-drowned Englishwoman on the road" "in the early hours of this morning." "She asked to be taken to Jordahlsholmen." " I assumed it was you." " Yes, it was." " But what on earth were you..." " I had an argument with a motor cruiser out on the fjord." "It rammed my boat." "That's awful." "And it didn't stop?" "No." "Then you must report this." "Well there's no point, I didn't see the name on the cruiser and I couldn't identify it in any other way." "Well who ever it was ought to be charged with negligence." "It's lucky you weren't drowned." "Why didn't you call me?" "I didn't want to bother you." "I wasn't hurt." "There was nothing anybody could do." "For heaven's sake, what were you doing out on the fjord at that time?" "I couldn't sleep, it was a nice night so I thought I'd go out in the boat." "Good idea, if it hadn't been for that idiot." "You should have called me, though." "Next time." "Please, we don't want anything like that happening again." "Would you like some coffee or a cup of tea?" "Cup of tea would be nice." "Fine, I won't be a second." "Catherine, wherever did you get this?" " What?" " This painting?" "I found it in the cellar." "So, Ingrid didn't destroy all her pictures after all." "She swore she had." "Ingrid painted that?" "Oh, yes." "The style's unmistakable, isn't it?" "Anyway, yes, I'm sure I remember it." "Still, I suppose it's possible she gave it to Jordahl ages ago, and then forgot all about it." "Are there any others?" "No, that's the only one." "Well, I won't tease her about it, it will only embarrass her." "Anyway, she'd probably insist on putting a match to it." "I just can't understand how anyone can react so violently against something they've spent so many hours working on." "Can you?" "No, I can't imagine why?" "Oh, hello." " Lars, Anna-Marie's here." " Oh hello, sister-in-law." " You're looking lovely." " Thank you." "Will you stay and eat with us?" "Oh no, Ingrid, I'm not stopping." "I've just been to see Catherine." " Oh, how is she?" " Well she's all right now, but she came close to being killed earlier this morning." "Some maniac ran her down in a motor cruiser." "What?" "Where?" "Jordahlsholmen, out near the island." "That's terrible." "How did it happen?" " I'm going to bed." " Ingrid?" "We must talk." "Not now, Lars, please." " But we have to." " Why?" "Now, you like Catherine Durrell, don't you?" "I'm not very good with strangers, you know that." "Yes, but you don't wish her any harm, do you?" " What are you saying?" " Oh, for God's sake," "I mean this morning, I discover our boat's damaged then Anna-Marie turns up and tells us that last night someone ran Catherine down in a motor cruiser and came close to killing her." "Now it might be a coincidence!" "I'm sure it is." "You think it was me?" "Well?" "It can't have been." "I was in bed." "Were you?" "I wouldn't know, would I?" "Oh Lars, please don't." "I realise what it must be like for you, but you agreed that we should, for a while anyway, and to be patient." "For a few weeks." "Months even, if necessary." "Until you got helped." "You won't even go and talk to Dr Albrigsten, and you won't say what it is that's made you so... well, so distant from me." "From everyone." "I know, I know and it's not fair." "I wouldn't blame you if you..." "I don't want anyone else." "Oh Lars, Lars!" "No, don't touch me." "I can't." "Leave me alone." "Ripped By mstoll"