Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy: an Inspector Sohlberg mystery (Inspector Sohlberg Mysteries) (27 page)

“Frøken Bøe . . . would you say that Karl was a happy boy?”

“Over all yes . . . but you know . . . children from divorced homes have a lot of stress . . . I noticed he got very sad whenever he came back from visiting his mother up in Namsos . . . I figured he wanted to stay up there and not come back to his father and stepmother.”

“Did he say anything in particular about wanting to live with his mother?”

“No . . . he wouldn’t talk a lot about his home situation . . . I always felt that someone at home had told him not to talk with me or other teachers . . . I did notice that he seemed distressed during the two or three weeks before he went missing . . . he could not focus on class assignments . . . he forgot everything he had to do . . . he would stare out into space. . . .

“Karl even got into a fight with another boy . . . that was a first for Karl since he was a very sweet and good natured boy. The even more weird thing about the fight was that he kept screaming at the other boy, ‘
I hate you. I hate you.
’ Now that was very very unusual for Karl . . . it was almost as if he was a little tape recording that just kept repeating something he heard at home . . . I’ve seen that before with my children. They repeat what they hear at home from the adults.”

“Any signs of physical abuse?”

“No. Had there been I would’ve immediately called the police . . . especially with his stepmother pestering me every single day to let her know
exactly
how Karl was doing at school as far as his academics and behavior. It’s no secret . . . Chief Inspector . . . that I found Agnes Haugen a little too much to handle. But . . . I must admit that I have two other former elementary school teachers who also go nuts in micromanaging their children and their education.”

“One last thing Frøken Bøe.”

“Yes?”

“Did Karl Haugen usually bring his lunch from home?”

“Agnes always packed his lunch.”

“Did he have a separate lunch box or did he carry his lunch in his backpack?”

“Let me think . . . Karl . . . in his backpack. He had small plastic tubs . . . like tupperware . . . that held his food. So the answer is no . . . he did not have a separate lunch box or pail . . . he took his lunch straight out of his backpack.”

“Thank you Frøken Bøe. We’ll be in touch.”

“Oh . . . I almost forgot.”

“Yes?”

“During the first few weeks after Karl disappeared we found out that Karl’s parents . . . especially the stepmother Agnes . . . had made an outrageous statement to the newspaper and televison reporters.”

“What statement?”

“Agnes Haugen insisted that she saw Karl talking to a science fair volunteer who was monitoring the children when she left the school that morning after the fair ended.”

Sohlberg nodded. “I read somewhere in the files . . . that the school had several parents who volunteered to watch over the children in the hallways and the auditorium.”

“That part’s true. The lie is that Agnes Haugen insists that the volunteer was a man wearing a volunteer badge. That’s simply not true . . . there were
no
male volunteers at the science fair that day.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. It was the first time that had happened in several years . . . we’ve always had male volunteers at the science fair . . . but not last year when Karl disappeared . . . all the teachers and administrators made comments about that.”

“Could anyone sneak in wearing a badge?”

“Not really. Inspector . . . don’t forget . . . I was there. I never saw a man posing as a volunteer . . . or wearing a volunteer badge. Trust me . . . all of us teachers would’ve noticed that immediately.”

~ ~ ~

Karl didn’t know how much longer he could hold out. He desperately wanted to see his father and mother. A few days ago he had fallen asleep and suddenly he had woken up and heard his mother’s voice calling him with wild despair:

“Karl! . . . Karl! . . . My son!”

She was after all still looking for him!

But she could not see him. Eventually her voice and her presence faded away and so did his hopes of ever seeing his beloved mother. His father had stopped looking for him. That made him even sadder. How could his father have given up so easily!

“Dad! . . . Mom!”

~ ~ ~

Wangelin drove four miles southeast to the giant Rikshospitalet National Hospital campus of Oslo Universitessykehus University Hospital. Dr. Julie Heldaas was on the last of her late morning rounds. She had agreed to meet them as soon as she was finished.

Sohlberg and Wangelin waited for the doctor at her small office. Sunlight poured in through the window now that the rainstorm had passed.

“This is quite a view,” said Sohlberg. He was surprised that although the hospital was at a much lower altitude than Holmenkollen the hospital still had lovely views of the broad Oslofjord which looked more like a vast lake surrounded by low mountains.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” said Constable Wangelin. “What with all the sunshine and the water sparkling like that. I wish I could be out there today.”

“Do you—” Sohlberg interrupted himself. He was about to ask her if she liked water sports but that would have breached Norwegian office etiquette which meant avoiding friendships at work and not sharing any confidences or personal information. He missed people’s overall friendliness in Canada and the USA as well as the meaningful work friendships that he had made in those countries. Prosecutors and law enforcement officials in Mexico and Latin America had also befriended him to a degree unheard of in Norway.

“Do I what . . . Chief Inspector?”

“Do you think the doctor will be here soon?”

“She told me to be here at five minutes past noon.”

A minute later at exactly 12:05 PM the doctor walked in and shook hands while Constable Wangelin made the introductions. The petite 60-year-old doctor invited them to sit down.

Sohlberg started off with:

“Thank you for meeting us Dr. Heldaas. We have a few questions about your patient . . . the minor Karl Haugen.”

“Has he been found?”

“No. By the way . . . I’d appreciate you not informing anyone of this visit or this conversation.”

“Inspector . . . that’s unusual . . . you do understand don’t you?”

“Understand what?”

“That I won’t lie if the parents ask me about this visit. You need to understand that I also can’t reveal any confidential medical information about the boy unless I have a release from the parents.”

Dr. Heldaas was not subtle about her dislike for the police. She looked down on Sohlberg from the tip of her long pointy nose as if he was some contagious infection to be avoided. Over the years Sohlberg had met too many highly-educated professionals who looked down on the police. She struck him as the kind who hated the police but would not hesitate on calling the police if anyone as much as scratched her brand-new CL 600 Mercedes coupe.

“Doctor Heldaas . . . I’m not asking you to lie to anyone . . . or for anyone. What I want . . . and expect from you . . . is for you
not
to interfere with a police investigation. I don’t think you want to ruin your reputation or drag the university hospital into a major headache on charges that you obstructed an official government investigation.”

“I’m cooperating am I not?”

“Yes you are . . . and I thank you for that. Now . . . this little boy . . . Karl Haugen . . . has been missing for more than a year. Would you agree it’s important to find him?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“So we are on the same page.”

“Yes we are.”

“Alright,” said Sohlberg in a friendlier manner. “First . . . I need to know if you had an appointment to see Karl Haugen on June four of last year.”

“No. It was for June eleven.”

“Are you sure? . . . Do you want to check your calendar?”

“No need. I’ve gone over that matter with Gunnar and Agnes Haugen several times.”

“Please explain that.”

“Explain what? . . . I don’t understand you.”

“Explain when and how you went
over that matter with Gunnar and Agnes Haugen several times
.”

“I don’t remember setting up the initial appointment . . . you’d have to talk with my appointment secretary . . . or the call nurse. But after Karl went missing the mother and the father called me several times to make sure that we had the appointment written down for June eleven.”

“Didn’t you find that odd . . . them asking for confirmation of Karl’s appointment when Karl was already missing?”

“I did find it odd . . . until they explained that Karl’s teacher was trying to evade responsibility for not informing the administration that Karl was missing at roll call on the morning of June fourth. . . . Apparently the teacher is telling people that she was misled by the parents into thinking that Karl had an excused medical absence that Friday June four.”

“Did you have a conversation with Karl’s parents about him having seizures?”

“Seizures? No. Never. He was perfectly normal from a medical perspective.”

“Did anyone at the hospital or your practice . . . perhaps a call nurse on the telephone . . . speak to the parents about him having seizures?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“You’re that sure?”

“Yes. Right after your constable called me I checked the charts to refresh my memory about Karl . . . there’s nothing in his charts about seizures . . . no one ever mentioned anything about seizures to any of his healthcare providers.”

“Could someone have lost the note or not even written a note about him having seizures?”

“No. We’re totally paperless . . . we enter every medical note or observation into his computerized chart . . . including telephone calls from the parents.”

“Would you put your professional reputation on the line and declare under oath that without a doubt Karl Haugen did
not
suffer from seizures?”

“Yes. Again . . . he was perfectly normal from a medical and physical point of view.”

Sohlberg thanked the doctor and left the room with Constable Wangelin. They stood in the hallway. Sohlberg put his ear to the doctor’s door and heard nothing. He wondered if the door might be too thick for eavesdropping or padded for soundproofing.

“Please run down to the corner of the building . . . and find any room with a window that’s opposite hers and see if she’s making a call.”

Wangelin sprinted down the hallway. A few minutes later Wangelin met him by the elevators.

“She was on the phone.”

“Of course she might’ve been calling someone else on an unrelated matter . . . but I doubt it.”

“Do you think Chief Inspector that she called one or both of the Haugens . . . even after you warned her?”