At 2.00 p.m. Blix locked himself in a vacant interview room to phone Enter Entertainment. He searched through the call list on his mobile and located the number for ‘TV-Eckhoff’.
‘Yes, hello?’
Blix introduced himself.
‘You’re Iselin’s father,’ the other man said.
‘That’s right. But I’m calling in my capacity as a police officer this 251time. I was wondering what security measures you’ve taken in connection with tonight’s broadcast?’
There was a moment’s silence at the other end.
‘Well … we have our usual security here – guards who watch over the entrances and so forth.’
‘You don’t check people’s bags?’
‘No.’
Blix gave this some thought before adding: ‘How easy or difficult is it for outsiders to get on to the actual stage – or behind the scenes, even?’
‘There’s no physical barrier between the audience and the stage,’ Eckhoff explained. ‘But we do have security guards present. After all, we can’t risk just anyone appearing in front of the cameras. To access backstage you need to have your own pass.’
‘What about the house itself?’ Blix continued. ‘Is it possible to get in there somehow?’
‘Not for outsiders,’ Eckhoff assured him. ‘There are two entrances: the security door we use to send in food and other equipment to the contestants, and the stage door that we only use during live broadcasts.’
‘And they are locked?’
‘They’re regulated from the control room,’ Eckhoff clarified. ‘You can’t just pop in or out.’
Blix jotted this down on the notepad in front of him.
‘The people working on the production side, have they been security cleared? Have you checked everyone’s background?’
‘We’ve checked their references and so on. We haven’t run them through criminal records, if that’s what you’re wondering. We don’t have access to them, anyway.’
‘Can you send me a list of everyone who works on Worthy Winner?’
Silence again.
‘Why do you need that?’ Eckhoff asked at last.
For a moment Blix considered how he should answer this. ‘We’re 252taking special measures, in light of what’s happened to other celebrities in Norway recently,’ he replied. ‘So we’re going to need extra manpower in the studios for today’s broadcast.’
Eckhoff seemed to consider this for a few moments.
‘We mainly use our own staff, but I’ll see what I can organise,’ he said in the end.
‘You’ll have to do more than just see what you can organise, Eckhoff. This is critical.’
‘Yes, yes, OK, I’ll get cracking on it. It’s just that there are a hundred and one other things to do on a day when we have a live broadcast.’
‘I understand that, but the safety of your participants must come before everything else.’
‘Yes, yes, of course.’
They hung up. Blix ran his hands over his face. He needed food. He needed sleep. But most of all he needed this case to be wrapped up ASAP so that he could relax in the knowledge that Iselin was out of danger.
Eckhoff’s list arrived less than an hour later, and Blix skimmed rapidly through it. There were twenty-five people involved in the actual production unit. He appointed a small group consisting of Kovic, Abelvik and himself to go through all of them, checking them against criminal records, and investigating whether they had any links to Walter Georg Dahlmann or any of the victims. By 6.00 p.m., they had checked the whole list. One cameraman had a previous conviction for violent crime from eight years earlier, but nothing more than that.
Blix took one last look at the list, scanning from top to bottom.
‘Hm,’ he said. ‘Eckhoff didn’t include himself.’
Kovic gave him a questioning look.
‘Do you think he has anything to hide?’
‘It wouldn’t surprise me if he has something on his conscience,’ Blix said.
He dug out Eckhoff’s date of birth and conducted the usual searches. There was nothing in criminal records. A wider search came 253up with several results in film and actor databases. In a profile photo in skuespiller.no, where Norwegian actors were listed, he had long hair, and reminded Blix of someone famous, but he just couldn’t remember who.
He sat back a little and rubbed his face with his hands.
‘When do the doors open?’ Kovic asked.
‘In an hour,’ Blix said. ‘I’m going up there shortly.’
‘I’m coming with you.’