As the body is examined, a matchbox with the name of the nightclub “Red Square”, situated in Oslo, is found in the pocket of the dead man. Because of the Nordic connection, Pocienė calls an old friend and former lover, Vidas Janutėnas, a detective currently stationed as a liaison officer in Stockholm on the Nordic-Baltic anti-trafficking program. Janutėnas flies to Oslo to check out the club and to talk to the Norwegian police.

 

The first thing that Pocienė does is to interrogate Paulius Račkaitis, as the team returns to Vilnius. Račkaitis has hurt his jaw in an accident in the shower before the Tel Aviv game: speaking is painful and his speech is garbled.

 

During the inquiry Paulius Račkaitis tells that he has a twin brother Saulius in Norway, as their parents divorced in 1985 and their mother married a Norwegian sailor and moved to Oslo, where she was killed in a car accident some years later.

 

Pocienė conveys this information to Janutėnas in Oslo. Janutėnas finds out that Saulius, now called Saulius Knutsen, grew up in the eastern part of Oslo together with his stepfather. As long as his mother was alive he was just a physically active boy, after the mother’s death, however, already as a teenager he became involved in some small criminal cases but was never convicted. He was a frequent guest at the Red Square. Janutėnas visits the club and talks to the owners. They say that Saulius was well known there, and so were all his girlfriends.

 

The Norwegian police suspect that Saulius Knutsen was involved in the activities of a criminal group dealing with trafficking of women from the former USSR countries to illegal brothels in Scandinavia and Germany, but they have no evidence.

 

The Lithuanian press finds out about the twin brother soon, and the issue becomes major news.

 

Janutėnas contacts the Norwegian stepfather, who recognizes from pictures that the dead man found in Vilnius is Saulius Knutsen/Račkaitis. He tells Janutėnas that he hasn’t seen his stepson very often during the past years but some time ago he was telling that he has rediscovered his family in Lithuania.

 

In Lithuania, Pocienė contacts the father of Paulius and Saulius. The father, Juozas Račkaitis, 56, lives now in a nice seaside villa with money from his basketball star son. He also identifies the body.

 

Pocienė wants to check “the Duke’s” alibi, so she decides to interrogate Jonas Ambrazaitis, the head coach of “Lietuvos vakaras”. Nothing significant as far as Račkaitis is concerned is found during the interrogation. Paulius Račkaitis was on a plane back from Tel Aviv as the murder occurred, and the rest of the team can confirm that. Ambrazaitis says that Račkaitis was in pain because of his jaw injury, and couldn’t play for the rest of the game, but “Lietuvos vakaras” won all the same.

 

Ambrazaitis also tells Pocienė that Danvaistas sponsors the team “Lietuvos vakaras”.

 

Pocienė continues the investigation by interrogating Rūta Astrauskaitė. During the interrogation Rūta Astrauskaitė confirms that the Danish-owned pharmaceutical company “Danvaistas”, that she works for, is a sponsor of the “Lietuvos vakaras” team, providing them with band-aids and painkillers. Rūta also insists that she found the body by chance, and that she has never met Paulius Račkaitis. Rūta tells about the man at the square who helped her, but who didn’t say his name.

 

Meanwhile, Kęstas Gedvilaitis has voluntarily walked into a police station and says that he was at the murder site. Pocienė interrogates him. As to why he left so suddenly, he says that he was so shocked about the whole situation. Kęstas is still very nervous.

 

Under scrutiny by Pocienė Kęstas confesses that he has a sister – Vilma Gedvilaitė – who has been announced missing last year. Before disappearing Vilma was dancing in the support team for the basketball team “Lietuvos vakaras” where Paulius Račkaitis was playing. Furthermore, Vilma had a love affair with Paulius Račkaitis. Paulius abandoned her. Soon after this Vilma left Lithuania, and Kęstas says that he does not know where she is.

 

Kęstas blames Paulius Račkaitis for all this, including the fact that Vilma dropped her studies at Vilnius University, where she was a promising second year student. But Kęstas denies strongly having anything to do with the death. He insists that it was just by chance that he was at the Cathedral Square that night.

 

An Interpol search is instituted for Vilma. Pocienė finds Kęstas highly suspicious but has no evidence against him. Furthermore, Kęstas has a friend who can confirm that he was at the other end of the Square at the proposed time of the murder. Pocienė confirms the alibi by phone and has to let Kęstas go.

 

(To be continued on October 17)