Cnut - The Last Reel - E-book - ePub

It is not unusual for Cnut to have to investigate a corpse pulled from the sea, but this corpse is not only unusual in that it is that of a foreigner, but that it leads the sheriff into the most important international case of his entire career. From the clothing on the body, it seems that the man was probably American. Checks on the passengers from the States coming into Gardemoen eventually provides Cnut with the man's name - Dirk Kramer, who gave his occupation as a film technician, and said that he would be working in Norway.
The company he works for is making a thriller, but even the director does not believe it is genuine. Cnut's FBI contact, Mason Dee, tells him of the criminal pasts of fourteen of the film crew, including two serial killers, both of whom Cnut forces to leave the country, and of another member of the crew who is in the Witness Protection Programme. When one of the other technicians goes missing, and his dog is found with its throat cut, Cnut believes the man to be dead, but when the team search for his body, they find instead that of a Russian FSB hit man, and Cnut realises that there are far more serious things afoot than first appeared.
Mason hedges when asked about it, which confirms Cnut's belief that he has a deadly serious case on his hands. Three men are shot dead in the RV they are living in - the same RV in which the man who is on the Witsec lives, but is absent that night. The killers have missed their target. The only thing those three men had in common was their use of two under-age Russian prostitutes, and Cnut has to investigate that too, causing their pimp to abscond, but they know the vehicle he drives and the registration number.
Cnut learns that a mafia killer is also in the crew. Checking the members of that crew, he finds an arsenal of weapons, supplied by a Norwegian dealer, and he too goes on the most wanted list. The case develops rapidly, with the death of the Russian pimp at the hands of the police, and that of the arms dealer by his boss, but the problem of the missing man remains, and when Cnut contacts Mason again, the FBI agent tells him he is going to fly over from the States, to help him handle it.
Believing that they are well on the way to a satisfactory end to at least one part of the case, Cnut and Ilse arrange to interview one of the mafia team responsible for killing the three men, but it is a devilish trap. The truth emerges that the case is one of massive international importance, and the missing man is the only one who can bring the matter to a successful conclusion.