'But-' I hesitated. The irony of it! 'Does Jorgensen know that it is Farnell who is alive?'
'But, of course. As soon as Kaptein Lovaas describes the man who escapes from his ship, Jorgensen knows it is Farnell. The little finger, you remember? No man can hide that. You did not know it was Farnell, eh?' He smiled as though it amused him.
'No,' I said. 'And nor did you.'
'Oh, but I did,' he answered. 'I knew as soon as Mr Sunde admitted that his partner and Einar Sandven had helped the man.'
'But how?' I asked.
'How?' His voice became suddenly harsh. 'Because Schreuder was an Austrian Jew and had worked for the Germans. You forgot that Sunde and Storjohann were of the Kompani Linge. Old Einar Sandven was also in the resistance. It had to be Farnell — Bernt Olsen, as they knew him. Listen. You wish to know how the message was placed in the whale meat. Well, I will tell you. Farnell came by boat from Fjaerland to Bovaagen after he had killed Schreuder. He came to Bovaagen because he had friends there who had hidden him during the war. He stayed at Nordhanger with Einar Sandven and his wife. It was Sandven who placed the package in the whale meat. It was Sandven who approached Kaptein Lovaas and got Farnell shipped as a hand on Hval Ti.'
I stared at him. I had no doubts about the truth of what he said. It all fitted in so easily with what I knew. It couldn't have happened any other way. Farnell had probably met Sunde or Storjohann at the whaling station when he was reporting for duty on board the catcher. Then, when his plan to get to the Shetlands failed, he had remembered the divers. He had probably known where they would be working and had planned his desperate escape from the catcher with that fact in his mind. Yes, it all fitted in. And I cursed under my breath to think that I had been talking to Lovaas on board his catcher and the man, locked up in the cabin below decks, had been Farnell himself. If I'd made Lovaas a high enough offer… But I hadn't. And now Farnell was up in the mountains, on the run with the police after him for murder — for murdering himself, It was a ridiculous situation. 'Where is he now?' I asked.
'I tell you — in the mountains.'
'Yes, but where?'
Again that crooked smile of his. 'First we go to Aurland.'