The Munch Museum is a recurring meeting place for Kaja Solness and Mikael Bellman as they exchange information about the murder investigations. Its role is practical as well as visual: among the museum’s visitors, the two can speak away from their colleagues, while paintings give their conversations a shifting point of attention.

A discreet meeting place

The museum lies between the Criminal Investigation Service in Bryn and Oslo Police Headquarters in Grønland. That position makes it a convenient midpoint for Kaja and Bellman, whose exchanges take place across institutional lines. The museum also offers a degree of anonymity: as Kaja observes, the tourist attraction is a place where they are unlikely to run into colleagues, neighbors, or acquaintances in everyday life.

A changing focus for conversation

The meetings follow a quiet routine of looking and talking. Kaja and Bellman have previously concentrated on different details in the paintings—the eyes, the background landscape, the sun, or even Edvard Munch’s signature. Art does not stop their discussion of police work; it gives their attention something ordinary to rest on while they speak privately.

The murder inquiries in the gallery

During one meeting, Bellman stands with his hands buried in his coat pockets, looking at a painting of a pale, apparently dying girl. Kaja turns her attention to the girl’s mouth. Their chosen details frame a conversation about whether Tony Leike could have been involved in Marit Olsen’s murder, and what he had said about Elias Skog and Stavanger. The museum thus becomes a setting where disturbing case details are exchanged beneath the composed surface of looking at art.

Narrative significance

The museum’s value in these scenes comes from the contrast between public visibility and private purpose. Kaja and Bellman meet in a popular tourist venue, yet use its crowd and neutral surroundings to keep their conversations separate from the workplaces and acquaintances that might expose them. The paintings’ details also recur as a subdued counterpoint to their talk of violent deaths: each meeting can settle on a different feature, but the investigation remains the subject that draws their attention back.