Sand sat at his desk. Three days had passed since the televised press conference. Dag Moen had disappeared. He hadn’t surfaced or shown himself, he hadn’t messaged or threatened. He had simply vanished.
After the plea for the public’s help, the police had been inundated with reported sightings, leads and information. A special unit of officers was set up to sift through the hundreds of calls. One by one they were ruled out or dismissed. Not one of them turned out to be a solid, usable lead.
Brit Moen and Gerd Bøe had been released, they had nothing to hold them on and no more to learn from them.
Gabi had been discharged from hospital the previous day after a couple of nights under observation. She wanted to return to work straight away. Pedersen refused to let her. She had agreed to take the rest of the week off before being allowed to come back for desk duty only.
Sand leaned back. He had poured over the reports from the old Eckberg file, from Dahlia Solberg’s murder and even the case files on Bjarne the dead cat. He knew them all back to front and off by heart. There was no clue as to where Moen could have gone to ground. No hint at what he would do next in order to get to Sand, his ultimate aim.
Sand removed the wedding ring from his finger. It was a habit he had always had whenever he was thinking. He looked at it now. He hated that Camilla’s death had been brought into this investigation. He knew she had died from bowel cancer. It had been a painful last year watching her battle at first, then accept her fate and wither away. After Dag Moen had mentioned her death, Sand had gone over her medical files to satisfy himself there was no chance of anything suspicious in her death. He was becoming paranoid. Dag Moen was getting to him, needling under his skin, burrowing into his conscience.
He put the ring back on his finger. No. He wouldn’t let Dag Moen do this to the memory of Camilla. Grimly, he opened the Eckberg file again. There had to be something in there.
Eckberg was a fisherman. Sometimes he worked on whalers. He had spent months at sea each year. When he was not at sea he lived in Oslo with his sister, whom he subjected to a life of terror and abuse. Gabi had said Dag Moen had mentioned he had been told his father had been swept overboard while at sea. What else? There was something in there. Bergen. That was it. If you worked as a fisherman and you lived in Oslo, which had it’s own large port and industry, why would you travel across land to the smaller port of Bergen to get work? It was a seven or eight hour drive at least.
Bergen. That was it. Sand had a hunch. It always started with a hunch. This one felt right. He searched on the computer. Unsolved murders in Bergen from twenty years ago. Two. A sixty year old man found bludgeoned in his bed. Sand ruled that one out. The other, a teenager, a fisherman. Found floating in the harbour. His abdomen slit open. Not strung out like Bjarne Johansen had been, but still, enough similarities. Another search. The dead teenager had been working on a whaler called ‘The Queen of Bergen.’ Dag Moen had given Sand the Queen of Spades playing card as a message. It had to be deliberate.
Sand took it to Pedersen. Too close to be a coincidence he thought. There was a flight that afternoon. Pedersen called his counterpart in Bergen. An officer would be at the airport to meet Sand and assist him in anyway he needed.
Sand was on the aeroplane a little over two hours later. It was just a feeling but he trusted his intuition. Dag Moen was obsessed with his father. If he needed to hide, to get out of Oslo and his normal life, he would do the same thing his father had done, and that meant he was in Bergen.
This is part eighteen of my A to Z Challenge 2017. More information on the challenge, and other stories and blogs taking part in it, can be found HERE.
Throughout April I have published a section of the story a day, relating to a letter of the alphabet, which makes up a continuous story, all based round the objects found in this children’s jigsaw:
Other entries in the challenge, and a version of the final complete, joined up story can be found here: A TO Z CHALLENGE 2017.
46 responses to “R IS FOR RING”
And the plot thickens. Good thinking Sands, always go with your gut!
Nice way to get the “ring” in the story. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stand by for ‘Squirrel’ tomorrow! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe the squirrel will carry Moen (the NUT) away!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Following a hunch that would lead him to the path of a squirrel… Hmm can’t wait to see what else awaits in Bergen! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The big finale awaits hopefully 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The big finale does await. Believe it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The plot thickens and I am also wondering how will a squirrel fit in a crime thriller!
Reluctant
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will it be a good or a bad squirrel? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely done, awaiting the squirrel!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aren’t we all!
LikeLike
It’s been a right rivetting read (sorry) so far and I’m also intrigued as to how the squirrel will make its appearance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Debs, we’re getting into the really tricky end letters now 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, off he goes. I hope Moen doesn’t slip away this time!
LikeLike
The story keeps getting better 🙂 The way you fit in the alphabets, that’s just amazing 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are very kind, thank you. I hope you will enjoy the remaining days as well 🙂
LikeLike
I wonder what’s he going to find in Bergen. Now I’m all jittery. There are just eight letters left.
P.S. I do agree with all of the above commenters. You do have a knack of comfortably (to our eyes) slipping in the alphabetical word quite smoothly🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if someone was reading it from start to finish whether they would notice the alphabet words there in order! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You mean reading each post from start to finish or all the posts together? I don’t know about others but I would. Not only am I intrigued with the story but it’s also like a ‘find the word’ in the story thing for me. Sometimes I read them twice 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
The game’s afoot, Watson.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If only it was as good as a Holmes story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely done! Really looking forward to the squirrel tomorrow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, I hope you like it!
LikeLike
More intriguing by the day with more pieces of the puzzle still to come.
Another day in Amble Bay!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just hope I can remember all the details that have come before…!
LikeLike
Always one step ahead…must be driving Sand nuts…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hurtling towards the squirrel’s nuts…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah-ha! Now I wonder if the squirrel will be collateral damage or if Dag maybe has a rabid one on hand to sic on Sand?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve already killed enough animals in this story 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rogue squirrels afoot in Bergen? Hmmm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Notorious for squirrels is Bergen. Or perhaps that’s wishful thinking on the author’s part 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, if it wasn’t before, it will be tomorrow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The distance between the guy ahead and the guy getting ahead is narrowing. I like it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
All caught up. A big final week to go, thanks for reading 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The gesture makes sense, but if removing his wedding ring “…was a habit he had always had whenever he was thinking…” it seems we would have seen this happen before as a little foreshadowing.
On to Bergen and the squirrel!
LikeLiked by 1 person
True, although I don’t think we’ve really had him sitting at his desk with time to think too much in the story so far – too much running around!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow although he murders the same way, his victims seem random, varied ages she both male and female. Glad Gabi is okay and very sad about Sands wife! Hope he catches this creep!
LikeLiked by 1 person
One week to go or he’s out of time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes, the suspense!! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds reasonable. Let’s see what happens 🙂
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – 1940s Film Noir
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope he’s right – only got a week left to find him!
LikeLike
So another city in the map of things! Hope Sand’s hunch is correct. I liked that Sand removes his ring when he needed to think – his marriage addled his brain or what? :p
LikeLiked by 1 person
Go, Det Sand! Catch this guy before he hurts anyone else! You are on the right track, I have a hunch, too! 😀
This is really developing so well! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Hope you enjoy the final week of the story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure I will! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I went back a couple letters to get my mind back into things. Didn’t even take an entire entry! You’ve got a great story going, Iain, and now I get to bite off bigger chunks since I missed a few letters during vacation.
LikeLiked by 1 person