Sohlberg and the Gift by Jens Amundsen

veered off to another thorny issue that had troubled him ever since Astrid’s grandmother had said:
     
    “ You don’t have to be a murderer to kill a family. ”
     
    The grandmother’s insightful truth released a flood of angry memories in Sohlberg’s mind about his wife’s family especially the antisocial misfit of her older sister—a frigid and lazy woman with no friends or education or career. The woman had of course latched onto and married the ultimate toxic jerk—a failed and lazy accountant who lied about being a military pilot and “war hero”. Soon after their wedding the misfit and the jerk adopted two Russian orphans. The lovely brother and sister from St. Petersburg grew up to loath the misfit and the jerk. Meanwhile the wife-beating moron set about poisoning the family of Sohlberg’s wife. The jerk caused turmoil and divisions and ultimately betrayals among the parents and the three sisters.
     
    “ You don’t have to be a murderer to kill a family. ”
     
    Sohlberg’s mother-in-law tolerated the jerk even after Sohlberg exposed the jerk’s lies about serving in the military and being “shot down over enemy territory”. Although everyone in his wife’s family detested the jerk Sohlberg’s mother-in-law insisted that jerk be accepted and tolerated because the jerk had—after all—married and stayed married to her oldest daughter who had ungracefully aged into a bitter and very bald hag.
     
    How did the Isaksens describe their jerk’s behavior? . . . Ah yes. . . . He had left them with insults and deceptions . . . lies and letdowns . . . hopes dashed over and over . . . one disappointment after the other .
     
    Sohlberg’s face twisted into a mournful grimace.
     
    How can one “family” member bring so much misery to others?
     
    It’s pure insanity for my wife’s family . . . especially her mother . . . to tolerate such garbage and not act decisively by nipping the jerk at the bud soon after he planted his seeds of havoc.
     
    It’s outrageous how my wife’s mother ultimately forced the entire family to bring the jerk back into the family after he had been expelled for his nasty comments and rude behavior. Of course . . . when we refused to go along with that stupid decision to bring the jerk back into the family then my wife got cut off by her own family.
     
    With his blood pressure about to explode Sohlberg decided it would be healthier to instead think about his investigation into the Janne Eide case. He was glad that at least his visit to the Isaksens had not been a total failure. Parts of Astrid Isaksen’s story had been confirmed by the small bits of information that Sohlberg had gleaned from her grandparents.
     
    At first I thought Astrid Isaksen was a liar . . . or maybe part of an office prank. But deep down I always had the feeling she was truthful.
     
    But there are truths that are part-truths.
     
    And truths that manipulate.
     
    And truths that hurt and destroy.
     
    Sohlberg regretted that he could not penetrate the wall posed by the physical and mental ruins of the older Isaksens. And now Sohlberg faced an equally difficult task: getting access to the Janne Eide case file inside the granite walls—1400 feet thick—of the high-security mountain fortress of the National Archives.
     
    After arriving at the Sandvika train station Sohlberg only had to wait five minutes before a red Audi sedan pulled up in front of the main doors downstairs. The driver was unforgettable: he was beyond pale and he sported a shaved head and no ears. The two little black holes on the side of the glistening head appeared almost quaint to Sohlberg whose red muffler was his less-than-unique identifier to the driver. The driver stopped near him for a few seconds and then started pulling away before Sohlberg remembered that he had to use coded passwords. He waved at the driver and walked up to the car’s passenger side and said through the lowered window:
     
    “Do they sell Ikea