His pounding headache was starting to ease off at last. Munch strangled a small yawn as he placed a mug of tea for Mia on the table.
‘Is that the best you can do?’ she said, scowling at the mug.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t you have anything stronger?’
‘It’s the middle of the night, Mia. Can’t we do this tomorrow?’
‘No, it’s important.’ Mia was slurring her words, and Munch realized that she was quite drunk already, yet eager and alert in her own way.
His colleague had not bothered taking off her shoes or her jacket; she had just plonked down on his sofa, looking at him with this glow in her eyes he had seen many times before. She had made a breakthrough. It had always been a mystery to him how Mia did it, but he had learned to trust this expression.
‘I don’t drink, Mia, you know that.’ Munch yawned.
‘I know, but come on?’ Mia smiled, nodding in the direction of a shelf below all the CDs.
Joke presents from his team. Every birthday. Let’s give the teetotaller something expensive he will never be able to drink. There were eight unopened bottles of whisky whose labels meant nothing to him, nor did he care to find out.
‘Help yourself,’ Munch said, shaking his head as Mia got up from the sofa, fetched one of the bottles and opened it.
‘Do you have a glass?’
Munch went into the kitchen, grabbed a glass from a cupboard and caught sight of a smiling face on a picture on the fridge door, then he remembered.
Miriam had called him.
And he had forgotten to call her back, in the midst of everything. Shit. He had made up his mind to be more available to his family. He carried the glass into the living room, where he realized that Mia had been talking the whole time.
What’s wrong with my head?
‘He came to me,’ Mia said, filling her glass.
‘Who?’
‘Skunk. He tracked me down at Lorry.’
‘Skunk?’ Munch was surprised.
‘Totally out of the blue.’ Mia smiled, taking a sip of her drink.
Munch nodded again.
‘Impossible to find.’ Mia smiled. ‘Impossible to contact.’
Munch let her carry on talking.
‘A live feed. That was what he said.’
‘What?’
‘The film we got. Of Camilla in the wheel. It wasn’t just a recording; he said it was a live feed.’
‘A feed?’
Munch began to wake up.
‘Yes.’ Mia nodded impatiently. ‘He said they had been filming her. Broadcasting her. For months.’
‘Oh my God,’ Munch said, with a feeling of revulsion.
‘Yes, sick or what?’
‘That’s dreadful …’
‘But that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you,’ Mia said, refilling her glass.
So she had been to Lorry, she had not gone home, and she had clearly had a fair amount to drink. She raised the glass to her lips again and pretty much drained it before she went on.
‘Mia, I—’
‘No, no, listen to me,’ she said passionately. ‘How would you know? That it’s not a recording. That it’s a live feed. Unless you …’ She grinned and looked at him again, almost coherent despite being so drunk.
‘Were a part of it?’
‘Exactly,’ Mia said.
‘Damn.’
‘Yep.’
‘He just turned up?’
‘Yes. Out of nowhere.’
‘And you think his conscience is troubling him? That he’s our guy?’
‘Yes.’ Mia nodded vehemently.
Suddenly Munch felt wide awake.
‘So what do we do?’ Mia asked.
‘We find him. Interview him. See if we have grounds for charging him.’
‘No, not him.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘What do we do about Gabriel?’ Mia said.
‘Come again?’
‘The two of them are close.’
‘So you think Gabriel knows more than he’s telling us?’
Mia shrugged. ‘Don’t you think it’s odd that Gabriel hasn’t told us who Skunk is and where we can find him?’
‘Mia …’
‘No, listen to me, please. A video suddenly pops up. Out of nowhere. And Gabriel – well, how long have we known him, really? Six months?’
‘Mia, you’re not suggesting that—’
‘No, I’m serious, Holger, I’m on to something.’ Mia cut him off. She drained her glass, and refilled it – again.
‘Yes, but—’
‘No, listen to me, Holger. Skunk knows something. I think he knows a great deal. And if Skunk knows something, I think maybe Gabriel knows it, too. We have to ask him, but it has to be done sensitively, that’s why I had to talk to you right away. Do you get it now?’
Munch nodded pensively. ‘It would be better for you to do it,’ he said at length.
‘Do what?’
‘Talk to Gabriel. Tomorrow. He likes you. Get him to tell you what he knows.’
It started to sneak up on him again. The taste of metal in his mouth. The feeling of someone banging a nail into his head.
‘OK,’ Mia said, emptying her glass.
‘But not in front of the others, promise?’
‘No, of course not.’
‘We have a team briefing at 10 a.m. Perhaps you could do it afterwards?’
‘OK.’ Mia nodded, getting up.
‘So you think it’s him?’ Munch said when they were back in the hallway. ‘Skunk?’
‘Yes. It feels like it, there’s definitely something there.’
‘All right, but be nice to Gabriel,’ Munch said, opening the door for her.
‘Of course,’ Mia said.
And disappeared down the stairs with a smile on her lips.