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because of her obsession with the book and film Gone with the Wind . The Politimeister’s obsession included dressing up in lavish Southern antebellum clothing at her home. She also liked to show up—dressed in character as Scarlett O’Hara—at film theater re-showings of GWTW . Her chief deputies were of course known as Rhett and Ashley and her top-floor office suite was Tara .
     
     
     
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    Sohlberg refused to talk to his caller about the Zoo over the telephone. Instead he engaged in social pleasantries. A minute later Sohlberg nonchalantly headed downstairs to his rendevous. He had asked for and been granted a half-day off work by the acting head of homicide. Lunde in Vice was a pushover for time-off requests. And to prevent any problems down the road—about his unauthorized investigations—Sohlberg sent Lunde an e-mail explaining that he was “ following leads on two old homicide cases. ”
     
    As soon as he left the Grønland politistasjon Sohlberg had the eerie feeling that someone was watching and following him. He walked down the driveway to a low round fountain. Sohlberg made sure that he appeared to be admiring the metal sculpture of a fisherman in the fountain. He made sure that no one was tailing him while he circled the fountain. And yet he could not shake off the feeling that someone was watching him.
     
    Oslo after a winter storm always depressed Sohlberg. New snow piled up on old dirty snow. Snow and more snow; cold and more cold. Snow on the cities and the fields and the forests and the mountains. The snow covered everything and everyone under a clean blanket. But the pure snow—like the innocent souls that come into the world—would soon be soiled wherever men and women tramp about.
     
    Sin inevitably spots the human path whether it be in pursuit of good or evil.
     
    Sohlberg wondered if Henrik Ibsen had once said that. It sounded like something the great Norwegian playwright would say.
     
    Deep snow drifts from an overnight blizzard prevented Sohlberg from walking down to the Cafekontoret by taking a shortcut through the Grønlandspark. In winter the verdant bosky park was but a dim memory. Sohlberg took the longer route down Grønlandsleiret itself because the street was plowed clean. He stopped from time to time and discretely looked around to make sure that no one followed him.
     
    Sohlberg opened the front door of the Cafekontoret. He could not help comparing the dry frigid air outside with the warm and steamy interior. The waiter took him to his usual booth in a partly-hidden corner at the back of the pub.
     
    Thanks to its convenient location almost everyone in the Oslo police force had at one time or the other had a meal or quaffed a few drinks at the pub-style Cafekontoret which is appropriately named The Office Cafe. The pub is within easy walking distance of the police station on the corner of Grønlandsleiret and Schweigaards gate where Grønlandsleiret becomes Oslo gate. Reasonable prices and decent pub food made the locale all the more attractive. Maybe too attractive.
     
    A few years ago the Oslo Police Commissioner issued an official rule that prohibited detectives from meeting informants or witnesses at the Cafekontoret because almost everyone in the criminal underworld knew about the pub’s most favored eatery status among Oslo detectives.
     
    The Politimeister’s first case in point: after leaving his meeting with a Zoo handler at the Cafekontoret an informant in a major drug case was murdered in the middle of Schweigaards gate in broad daylight. The assailant used a pickaxe on the man’s forehead in front of dozens of pedestrians. The silent but effective killer was never caught.
     
    The Politimeister’s second case in point: six months after the pickax murder a 19-year-old female witness in a genital mutilation case was fatally stabbed 43 times. The teenager expired less than 30 yards from the Cafekontoret where she had met with the Zoo handler in