Henning puts down the mobile, runs his sweaty hands through his hair and resumes pacing up and down the living-room floor. How the hell could a man like Tore Pulli know anything about the fire? What exactly does he know, and why hasn’t he said anything before?
If it hadn’t been for the fact that Pulli was in prison, Henning would have called back immediately, grilled him and refused to let go until all his questions had been answered. But he can’t simply march down to Oslo Prison, knock on the door and demand to be let in. First, Pulli must add him to a visitors’ list, then Henning has to apply for permission to visit, and then the prison authorities will check his criminal record. And even though he is a journalist, it can take days, weeks even, for permission to be granted.
But then it strikes him that one important question has just been answered, perhaps the most important of all. Somebody knows something. Perhaps the fire in his flat was started deliberately after all.
Rattled, Henning sits down in front of his computer and googles Pulli’s name. He can’t remember the last time his heart beat so fast. A second later, the search engine brings up a list of thousands of hits. Henning sees Pulli’s mug shot, sombre photos of him outside Oslo Court and inside the courtroom in conversation with people Henning can only see the back of.
Pulli cuts a towering figure. Thick ox neck, broad shoulders, a huge chest and biceps the size of Henning’s thighs. His body matches his voice. Dark, big, terrifying. In some of the earlier photos he has pierced eyebrows. Together with the rings in his ears they reinforce his thuggish appearance, a look he clearly abandoned when he announced his new career as a property developer.
Henning clicks on an article from dagbladet. no. PULLI GETS 14 YEARS AND LAUGHS
Friday last, Tore Pulli was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for the murder of Joachim ‘Jocke’ Brolenius.
Joachim Brolenius, Henning mutters to himself and tastes the name. Never heard of him. He reads on:
The high-profile property speculator Tore Pulli smiled and shook his head in disbelief when he was sent to prison for fourteen years in Oslo Court Friday morning for the murder of Jocke Brolenius. His lawyer, Frode Olsvik, told dagbladet. no that his client received the verdict with composure but that he continues to maintain his innocence.
‘My client has already decided to appeal,’ Olsvik says. This means a whole new hearing in the appeal court. No date has yet been set for Pulli’s appeal.
Jocke Brolenius was found murdered in a closed-down factory building at the top of Sandakerveien on 26 October 2007. The Swedish enforcer is believed to have been beaten up with a knuckle-duster before being killed with an axe. Pulli’s fingerprints were found on the knuckle-duster, and the victim’s blood was found on Pulli when he was arrested.
The court chose to ignore the fact that the murder weapon has never been found as well as Pulli’s claim that Brolenius’s blood was on him because he was trying to help him. Pulli has always strongly denied any involvement with the killing though he admits arranging to meet with Brolenius.
When summing up, the judge took into account Pulli’s past as an enforcer, especially since Brolenius’s jaw had been broken, a type of injury Pulli was known to inflict on his victims when he worked as a debt collector. At Ulleval Hospital this particular kind of injury had become known as a ‘Pulli punch’, and the Institute of Forensic Medicine found that Brolenius’s jaw had sustained this type of fracture.
In addition to fourteen years’ imprisonment, Pulli was ordered to pay compensation and restoration to his victim’s parents totalling 256,821 kroner.
Henning rereads the article. Who was Joachim Brolenius? What was his relationship to Tore Pulli, and why were they meeting?
Brolenius was killed on 26 October 2007, Henning reads. Only six weeks after the death of Jonas. At that time, Henning was in Haukeland Hospital, and all he can remember doing is staring at the wall. He avoided newspapers like the plague. People too, as far as he could.
Henning scrolls down to the article’s list of links and clicks the first one:
PULLI SUSPECTED OF MURDER
The celebrity Tore Pulli has been arrested on suspicion of killing a Swedish criminal.
Henning reads on:
The call came in around 23.30 Friday evening. Oslo Police were called to an old factory where the Swedish enforcer Joachim ‘Jocke’ Brolenius had been found murdered. The celebrity Tore Pulli, who has himself a past as a hard-hitting enforcer, alerted the police that he had stumbled on the body, but found himself arrested for murder.
The background or the motive for the murder is unknown. For the moment police have released very little information, but they have told TV2 that evidence was found at the crime scene. The TV channel’s expert commentator, Johnny Brenna, who previously worked as a detective for Oslo Police, says it is most likely a revenge attack. He refuses to speculate on what could lie behind it.
Henning finds a Wikipedia article about Pulli.
Tore Jorn Pulli (born 19 June 1967 in Tonsberg) is a well-known Norwegian ex-enforcer and former member of a biker gang, who in 2008 was convicted of the murder of the Swedish enforcer, Jocke Brolenius. Pulli became well known in Norwegian media when he started dating the former glamour model and now model-agency owner, Veronica Nansen. They married in 2006. Pulli took part in an episode of the topical news quiz Nytt pa nytt, among others.
In a rare interview with Dagens N?ringsliv in the spring of 2007, Pulli claimed to have collected approximately 75 million kroner for clients during his time as an enforcer ‘just by breaking a few jaws’. He has never referred to himself as an enforcer but sees himself as a broker. Before he was convicted of murder he bought and sold property in Ostlandet, making considerable profits.
Henning looks up from the screen. ‘“Just by breaking a few jaws”,’ he repeats to himself. Why would an enforcer known for using his fists to solve problems ever kill anyone with an axe?
Henning skims several other articles about Tore Pulli. He clicks on an article headlined ‘Pulli Promises Million Kroner Reward’ and reads:
Convicted killer, Tore Pulli, has offered a reward of one million kroner to anyone who comes forward with information leading to his acquittal.
‘Wow,’ Henning exclaims. He clicks on other articles on the same subject without finding anything indicating an avalanche of tip-offs. What does that mean? he wonders. Surely someone must know something?
I want you to find out who should be sitting in here instead of me.
Well, that’s not going to be easy, Henning thinks to himself, when not even a million kroner could entice anyone to come out of the woodwork. And the prosecution appeared to have had a strong case. It was widely known that Pulli had invited Brolenius to a meeting at a place where they wouldn’t be disturbed. Pulli’s fingerprints were found on the knuckle-duster. He had Brolenius’s blood on his clothes, and Brolenius had been beaten up in a way which had Pulli’s MO all over it. Four bullets which were hard to dodge.
So, what happened?
Henning picks up his mobile and rings Bjarne Brogeland. The inspector replies after only a few rings.
‘Hi, Bjarne, it’s Henning Juul.’
‘Heyyy!’ Brogeland replies in a voice that reminds Henning of a stag party.
‘Are you busy?’
‘Not more than usual given it’s a Saturday. We’re on our way to Paradise Bay. Have you been there?’
‘Eh, no.’
‘Lovely beach, great water. How about you? What’s new?’
Henning places his thumb and index finger on the corners of his mouth and lets them glide down towards his chin. He hasn’t spoken to Brogeland since the Henriette Hagerup case, the girl who was stoned to death in a tent on Ekeberg Common earlier that summer. Given that Henning helped them crack the case, he feels entitled to call in a favour or two.
‘I’m working on an old story.’
‘That doesn’t surprise me, but for God’s sake, it’s Saturday! Don’t you ever stop?’
‘It doesn’t feel like a Saturday,’ Henning says, and realises he can’t remember when he was last aware that there was a difference between the days of the week.
‘The sun is shining, Henning. Buy yourself an ice cream. Get some fresh air!’
‘Mm. Listen, did you ever have anything to do with the Tore Pulli case?’
The voices of excited children in the background can be heard through the receiver. Henning tries to shut them out.
‘No, I was still working on organised crime at the time. Why?’
Henning pauses for a moment, not sure how to reply.
‘Oh, I was just curious.’
‘You’re never just curious,’ Brogeland scoffs. ‘What are you sniffing around after this time? Does it have anything to do with his appeal?’
‘His appeal?’ Henning replies, and frowns.
‘Yes, it’s being heard in a couple of weeks, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Is it? No, it doesn’t have anything to do with that. Or, at least, I don’t think so.’
Henning holds his breath for a moment.
‘The guy is guilty as hell,’ Brogeland says.
‘How do you know?’
‘Does the name Jocke Brolenius mean anything to you?’
‘Just about.’
‘Then you probably know that he killed Vidar Fjell?’
Vidar Fjell, Henning thinks, and runs the name over his tongue. It sounds familiar. ‘No?’
‘I thought you had a photographic memory?’ Brogeland teases him.
‘My camera is broken.’
Brogeland laughs. ‘You certainly haven’t lost your way with words. But here goes: Vidar Fjell managed a gym called Fighting Fit in Valerenga. He was murdered a couple of months before Brolenius. Or perhaps a bit more. Pulli worked out at Fighting Fit and was a good friend of Fjell’s.’
Henning is aware that his cheeks are burning hot. ‘Why was Fjell killed?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘But Brolenius was a Swedish enforcer, am I right?’
‘Yes. The Swedish gangs dominated Oslo quite considerably at the time, you probably already know that… Alisha! Don’t go up there, you could kill yourself if you fell down!’
Brogeland’s voice disappears for a moment. Henning remembers the case now. Fjell was killed not long before Jonas died. He had done a little bit of research on the story, but he can’t remember when he stopped.
‘But if Brolenius was killed to avenge the murder of Fjell, did anyone later avenge Brolenius?’
‘There was a rumour going around that somebody had knocked over Vidar Fjell’s gravestone, I seem to recall, but nothing more than that. I don’t suppose there was much point in carrying out a revenge attack once Pulli had been arrested. Why are you working on this story now?’
‘I don’t know if I am.’
‘Hello, you’re calling me on a Saturday.’
‘Yes, I’m — sorry.’
‘Yeah, right. Tore Pulli had this woman, I recall. Damn-’
‘What?’
‘Why is it always the biggest arseholes who get the hottest chicks?’
Henning makes no reply.
‘Anyway, talk to Assistant Commissioner Pia Nokleby,’ Brogeland continues. ‘She’s totally in charge of the case. And all other cases, for that matter.’
‘Good idea.’
‘But wait until Monday, please,’ Brogeland hastens to add. Henning says mm and hangs up.
It’s not going to be easy, he thinks. Murders and revenge killings in gangs that are practically impenetrable — especially if you’re a journalist. But if Pulli is innocent, then someone managed to kill Jocke Brolenius in a style that framed him. That in itself was no simple task. The killer would have to be devious and without scruples. And this killer would almost certainly not like it if I tried to stir up the past.