getting mixed up in matters that she doesn’t strictly have anything to do with any longer .
Cecilie sends her very fondest regards. Typically, she’s most concerned about you! I’m thinking more about Norway, my Norway. It’s all completely crazy .
Write soon!
Your Hanne
02.49, KVELDSAVISEN EDITORIAL OFFICE
“O ut of the question, Little. We simply can’t do that.”
The editor was leaning over his desk looking at a draft front page, radically altered since the first special edition that had hit the streets before midnight. He was now faced with a front page emblazoned with an enormous photo of Benjamin Grinde, accompanied by a colossal, dramatic headline: “Supreme Court Judge Arrested”, and a subtitle: “Last person to see Volter alive”.
“We just don’t have any proof of this,” the man said, pinching his nose and adjusting his glasses. “It won’t do. We’ll be sued. For millions.”
Little Lettvik had no problem playing the martyr. She stood with her legs apart and flung out her arms over and over again, shaking her head and rolling her eyes in a grotesque fashion.
“Honestly!”
The roar was so loud that the constant buzz of the editorial offices was momentarily silenced. When they realized where the outburst originated, everybody continued what they were doing. Little Lettvik was no stranger to amateur dramatics, not even when they were inappropriate.
“I have two sources,” she snarled through clenched teeth. “TWO SOURCES!”
“Come with me,” the editor said, moving his hand up and down in a motion that was probably intended to be reassuring, but thatLittle Lettvik perceived as patronizing. Once well inside his impressive office, they plumped down in their respective chairs.
“What sources do you have?” he asked, looking at her.
“I’m not saying.”
“Okay. Then there won’t be any headline.”
He grabbed his phone and indicated with his eyes darting toward the door that she should leave. Little Lettvik hesitated briefly, but then stomped out and along the corridor until she burst into her own little shoebox. The tiny office was in blissful chaos, with books, newspapers, official documents, food wrappers and old apple cores everywhere. Rummaging around on the overcrowded desk, she located a folder she knew exactly where to find, amazingly enough, hidden between a pizza carton containing two dead pepperoni slices and an edition of the Arbeiderbladet newspaper.
“Bloody hell, it’s hard work trying to sell newspapers,” she muttered as she pulled out a cigarillo.
The folder on Benjamin Grinde was relatively comprehensive, as she had worked on it for several weeks. It contained everything that had been printed about his commission, from the very first interview with Frode Fredriksen, the lawyer who had initiated the whole enterprise. She located the newspaper cutting from Aftenposten .
NOTHING ABOUT HUMANITY IS FOREIGN TO ME!
Advocate Fredriksen celebrates 25th anniversary with acquittal in Brevik case
By Tone Øvrebø and Anders Kurén (photo)
Frode Fredriksen has certainly not stinted on his personal effects. His office contains many items that his far worse-off clients would kill for, literally speaking. A giganticpainting by the acclaimed contemporary artist Frans Widerberg covers one wall of his office, sending reddish-orange rays across a highly polished mahogany desk. On the desk, a family smiles from a silver frame: two adults and their fortunate offspring, one of each, and a wife who could easily be mistaken for a model. Which she is not: Frode Fredriksen is married to the well-known psychologist and social commentator Beate Frivoll. Yesterday, Fredriksen’s client Karsten Brevik was acquitted of triple murder, a serious setback for the prosecuting authorities. Today Frode Fredriksen celebrates twenty-five years as an advocate.
“How does it feel to have made a successful career from dedicating your life to losers?”
“First and foremost, it’s