Free Pierced by Thomas Enger Page B

do is tell me a bit about Tore and how he got on with his friends, how they treated each other. You don’t have to talk about what they got up to if you don’t want to. And just to make it clear: I’m only interested in this story. If I should stumble across anything else while I’m sniffing around I’ll leave it alone.’
    Henning is surprised when he realises that he actually means what he says.
    Many seconds pass without Grønningen saying anything. At regular intervals he looks at Henning before his gaze breaks away. The waiter comes over to their table. Grønningen orders a Wiener schnitzel with extra potatoes and vegetables. When the waiter has gone, Henning leans across the table.
    ‘My son died,’ he says, and a lump forms instantly in his throat. ‘I tried to rescue him from my flat. Somebody set fire to it.’ Henning tries to swallow. ‘Tore says that he knows something about what happened that day. He has promised to tell me what it is – if I help him. That’s the only reward I’m looking for. I’ll do anything to make Tore tell me what he knows. No matter what that is or where it takes me.’ He pauses for effect. Grønningen stares pensively at the table. ‘And it’s fine if you don’t want to help me help your friend. But I promise you, Geir, I’m not going to go away. Not now, not ever.’
    Henning notices that his voice is trembling. Even so Grønningen remains silent.
    ‘You don’t happen to know something, do you?’ Henning continues after a pause.
    ‘Eh?’
    ‘About the fire in my flat?’
    ‘Me?’
    ‘Yes, you – given that you and Tore are such close friends. If Tore knows something then it’s not inconceivable that he might have told you.’
    ‘He didn’t.’
    Henning concentrates on Grønningen’s eyes. At the other table a family erupts in a collective giggling fit. Grønningen quickly turns in their direction before resuming his study of the napkin in front of him. He picks it up and spreads it out.
    ‘How was he?’ he asks.
    ‘Tore? I don’t know. I’ve never met him so I don’t know what he was like before. And I didn’t speak to him for very long.’
    ‘I haven’t spoken to him for a long time.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘He’s only allowed one visit a week and Veronica gets first pick. That’s all they’ve got, the two of them, so the rest of us tend to leave them alone.’
    Henning refrains from saying anything for a while. He senses that Grønningen has started to open up.
    ‘It has been difficult to talk about Tore since he went to prison,’ he says. ‘Nobody really wants to, and in a way we’ve put it behind us. I’ve tried to find out where everyone was the night that Jocke Brolenius was killed, but people were either with each other or they were out of town.’
    Henning nods. ‘But you knew that Tore was meeting Jocke Brolenius?’
    ‘Yes, several of us did. He came to the gym to work out before he drove up to the old factory.’
    Henning picks up a jug on the table and fills his glass with water. He looks at Grønningen to see if he wants some and Grønningen holds out his glass without nodding.
    ‘Can you describe Tore to me?’ Henning asks as he pours the water. ‘I mean from a friend’s perspective?’
    Grønningen sighs and starts to reminisce. Suddenly he breaks into a smile. ‘The first time I met Tore, he punched me in the face.’
    ‘Why?’ Henning asks, mirroring his smile.
    ‘Because I had just put Tore’s cousin in hospital for chatting up my girlfriend. Petter was only a boy then, so Tore had to step in. He broke my jaw.’
    Grønningen touches his face and briefly strokes the beard that decorates his chin.
    ‘When I came to, he squatted down in front of me and said, “I look after my own. I just want you to remember that.”’
    ‘And from then on you were best mates?’ Henning asks in disbelief.
    ‘Well, not straight away. But he saw that I had what it took and that’s why he recruited me for—’
    ‘The enforcer