‘Tell me what you’re thinking,’ Kovic said as Blix heaved himself into the driving seat.
‘Even Eckhoff,’ Blix replied, turning the ignition. ‘He’s trying to trick us, the way he’s tricked us all along.’
‘How?’
‘Dahlmann was number two,’ he explained as the engine fired up. ‘The double murderer. The chronology and the countdown fit. He was just a useful idiot Eckhoff used until his turn came. He must have been at the farm, which is why no one could track him down. Eckhoff hired him to do minor tasks here and there, such as delivering an envelope to Radio 4 and planting a phone on the floor at a press conference. And then he was killed when the time was right, once Pastor Hansteen was dead and Eckhoff had no further use for him.’
‘What else?’
‘The final show,’ Blix answered through compressed lips. ‘Worthy Winner. Eckhoff has been in the wings the entire time. He’s prepared something for number zero as well.’
‘Shouldn’t we speak to Fosse about this?’
‘To hell with Fosse,’ Blix said, thumping the steering wheel impatiently as he waited for the garage door to slide open. ‘Phone the operations centre and tell them we’re on our way to Nydalen. Ask them to send backup.’
Kovic made the call, gave a brief summary, then listened for a moment.
‘They’ve broken into number ten Drivhusveien,’ she told him. ‘Martha Elisabeth Eckhoff is dead. She’s sitting there tied to a chair. Emma’s there too.’
Blix glanced across at Kovic. She put her finger into her ear to hear better.
‘They’re on the way to hospital with her now,’ she told him.316
He was relieved that Emma was safe. At the same time, she impressed him. Breaking a window with your head showed great single-mindedness.
The sound of their siren reverberated off the buildings flanking the road. Vehicles moved aside to let them pass.
‘What will we do when we get there?’ Kovic asked.
‘Find Eckhoff,’ Blix replied. ‘Stop whatever he’s planning to do.’
Blix checked the dashboard clock. The transmission had begun. He realised he should’ve been there already. A few things had got in the way, he thought grimly. He tried to put himself in Eckhoff’s mind, imagining what might be about to happen. His whole plan had been rigged up like a countdown. In the TV studios, the clock was still ticking down to zero – to the selection of a ‘worthy winner’.
When they arrived at the vast studio building, there was nothing to suggest anything untoward was about to occur. A man stood outside smoking, a woman tugged impatiently at the lead of a dog sniffing around one of the lampposts. Blix turned off the blue light and siren, and manoeuvred the car into the smoking area beside the main entrance. The man standing there looked at them inquisitively as he stubbed out his cigarette.
Blix checked his gun before holstering it to his hip, so that it was hidden beneath his jacket.
Then they marched in.
An enormous TV screen on the wall in reception was showing live images from the studio. Iselin and Toralf were seated on the sofa on stage chatting to the presenter.
One of the security guards Blix had spoken to the previous day got to his feet on the other side of the counter.
‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘Even Eckhoff?’ Blix inquired. ‘Is he here today?’
‘I saw him a minute ago,’ the guard replied, nodding. ‘He’s probably backstage.’
‘I need a pass,’ Blix said.317
Making no objection, the guard pulled out a drawer and took out a card marked Visitor.
‘Are you any closer to reaching a decision?’ Tore Berg Tollersrud asked on the TV screen, glancing at the clock. ‘In twenty-eight minutes we must have an answer.’
Blix took the pass and let himself into a corridor.
‘Stay here,’ he told Kovic who was standing behind him. ‘Wait for our backup.’
He used the pass again to open a side door leading into the studio, then fumbled his way through a dark curtain and peered inside. The stage was fifteen metres away from him. On the floor between the stage and the audience, four cameras were set up.
He scrutinised them before letting his eyes rove across the audience. He could see Merete and Jan-Egil, but saw nothing of Eckhoff.
His gaze moved on up to the roof. Under the ceiling, spotlights in various sizes and colours were rigged up. There were ladders and cable ducts, which meant someone could be up there, but the lighting made it difficult to see clearly.
Blix moved from the side door out into the corridor and found his way backstage. Several members of the production team were huddled around screens showing live images of what was taking place on the other side. The voices from the stage and the sound of the audience’s reactions were muffled and not completely in sync with the pictures on the screen.
‘You’ve been living in the house for ten weeks now,’ Tollersrud said. ‘The safe containing the prize money has been in there with you the entire time. One million kroner.’
A woman wearing a headset nodded at Blix and smiled in recognition.
‘Have you seen Even Eckhoff?’ he asked her.
The woman looked around, as if Eckhoff should really have been in the room with them. Then she shook her head and turned back to the screen.
Blix walked on into the area behind the stage.318
‘The safe has a coded lock,’ he heard Tollersrud explain. ‘Have you never been tempted to try to open it?’
‘Jonas did,’ Toralf answered, referring to the contestant who’d been eliminated in the previous show.
This comment provoked a ripple of laughter in the auditorium. Blix investigated a cubicle, where he found a number of coffee pots and plates of biscuits.
Tollersrud held up an envelope.
‘Inside this are the four digits needed to unlock the safe. You can take it with you, go back into the house and open the safe. But don’t forget: only one of you gets to take the million kroner out with you.’
Music and applause filled the air as the presenter announced that there were twenty-five minutes left until time was up.
Blix proceeded out into the corridor again to check the make-up room, then followed a spiral staircase up to a large break room. Two security guards were seated there. On a large TV screen, he saw Iselin open the envelope containing the code for the safe.
‘Three-two-one-zero,’ she read out, with a chuckle.
The camera located her mother in the audience. Merete laughed and clutched Jan-Egil’s hand beside her. The picture shifted to Toralf, who was keying in the code.
Blix’s phone rang. Gard Fosse’s name appeared on the display. Blix dismissed the call and tapped in Kovic’s number as he approached the guards.
‘Have you seen Even Eckhoff?’ he asked.
One of the security guards half turned towards him and shook his head.
Kovic answered.
‘Has backup arrived yet?’ Blix demanded. ‘We need more feet on the ground.’
‘One patrol car has turned up,’ she replied. ‘The emergency squad are apparently three minutes away.’
‘Didn’t he say we had twenty-five minutes left?’ Iselin said on screen.319
Blix could hear that she was confused, and there was apprehension in her voice. He pivoted around to the TV monitor. Saw the camera zoom in on the contents of the safe.
There was no money inside.
Instead he could see some red flashing lights: they were numbers on a clock. And it was ticking down from three minutes and twenty-one seconds.
Blix used his free hand to grab on to a nearby chair for support.
Something surged inside him.
‘Fuck,’ Blix swore into his phone. ‘Eckhoff has planted a bomb in the TV building. We’ve got three minutes before it goes off!’