Tony Leike's arrest and release mark a sharp reversal in the murder investigation: Harry Hole assembles grounds for a warrant, but Mikael Bellman intervenes to arrest Leike first, and the suspect's alibis soon threaten the case. The episode shifts the question from whether Leike can be connected to the crimes to whether the police can justify holding him—and who will bear responsibility if they cannot.

Grounds for the arrest

Harry's case against Leike rests on a specific contradiction. Two days before Elias Skog was murdered, Leike had called him; later, Leike told Harry that he did not know Skog and had not spoken with him at Hävasshütte. Harry presents that denial as the leading ground for seeking a warrant. He adds Leike's conviction for aggravated assault, which Leike himself had described as attempted murder, then refers, without giving the lawyer much detail, to matches involving Congo-Kinshasa and Lyseren. The application seeks authority both to arrest Leike and to search his home.

The evidence sits within a widening pattern of connections. Borgny Stem-Myhre disappeared after leaving the Mono and was later found dead in a basement; investigators had not identified a link among the murders. Records showed that Borgny and Adele Vetlesen had each bought a train ticket to Ustaoset for November 7, while Iska Peller's account was charged for two beds in each of four mountain huts, including Hävasshütte. That hut was only half a day's walk from Ustaoset. These links made the mountain stay a promising line of inquiry, but they did not by themselves establish that Leike had committed the murders.

Harry presents his arguments to a police lawyer who marks both arrest and search on the application but asks for time to consider it. Harry believes the first argument will matter most and senses that the warrant is likely, yet he still has to wait. At one o'clock, he finally calls Kaja Solness with the news that the warrant has come through. She confirms that she has her vest and weapons; the tactical team will handle the weapons, and Harry tells her to bring the warrant from his mailbox.

The operation and Bellman's intervention

Ten minutes later, Harry and Kaja are travelling west through Oslo in a blue Delta tactical van. Harry explains that he had called the shared office where Leike rented space and learned that Leike was working from home. He then dialled Leike's landline and hung up as soon as Leike answered, confirming that he was there. Harry had specifically asked Milano to lead the operation. Eight tactical officers ride with them as they pass through the Ibsen Tunnel.

At Leike's home, the arrest does not unfold as Harry planned. When Björn Holm appears in the doorway, Harry sees Holm and the other forensic technicians inside, already conducting a search. He understands in an instant that someone else has reached the scene and reacts by striking Holm. Two tactical officers move forward with their weapons raised, uncertain about what they are seeing. Harry then orders one of them to report that the situation is under control and that the suspect has been arrested by Bellman. The distinction matters: although Harry's investigation and warrant application brought the operation to this point, Bellman has taken control of the arrest.

Harry later explains how Bellman could move so quickly. The prosecutor's office was across the street, in the same building as the forensic technicians. Bellman could obtain a warrant from a prosecutor in minutes, while Harry had spent two hours waiting for his. In Harry's account, the difference is not a stronger case but access and speed: Bellman gets to the suspect first and places the arrest under his own authority.

Leike's alibis

Bellman questions Leike, who has Harry's dates and times for the murders on a sheet of paper. For Borgny's death, between ten and eleven on December 16, Leike says he was in the Peer Gynt Hall at Ibsen House in Skien, speaking about his coltan project. The event organizer and more than a hundred potential investors had attended and could confirm his presence. Skien, he points out, is about two hours from Oslo.

For the murder of Charlotte Lolles, which took place between ten in the evening and midnight on January 3, Leike says he was at a dinner with investors in Hamar. He says he travelled by train, although he can no longer find the ticket, and points to twelve people who were at the table as possible witnesses. His manner is apologetic, but the substance is damaging: he has offered an account that could place him away from Oslo during at least two of the killings. Bellman recognizes that the case now faces a practical obstacle; Leike is expected to be released that day if those alibis hold.

Political fallout and the limits of the case

Bellman confronts Kaja over the information she gave him. He says that she called to tell him what Harry had discovered about Leike and that Harry intended to arrest him. Bellman says he relied on her tip, arrested Leike, and publicly suggested that the case was nearly solved. Now, with Leike apparently able to account for himself during at least two murders, Bellman expects that the suspect will have to be released and fears a lawsuit from his father-in-law, Galtung, whose lawyers can be mobilized nationwide. He also anticipates questions from the justice minister and believes that his own position—not Harry's or Gunnar Hagen's—is at risk.

The arrest therefore produces consequences beyond the immediate loss of a suspect. Bellman's public claim that the case was nearly solved has tied his reputation to an investigation whose central accusation is already under pressure. Kaja's disclosure has helped him act, but it also makes her part of the chain of decisions that led to the arrest. For Harry, the sequence exposes the gap between having investigative grounds to pursue Leike and having enough evidence to keep him in custody. The release does not erase the mountain-hut connections or resolve what happened there; it leaves the investigation with clues that still need interpretation and an arrest that cannot bear the weight placed on it.