Spirits of the Nordland: The Det. Greta & Dr. Alrik Quest

After her first day of work, Greta Woldensberg went home and grabbed a glass of wine. She was exhausted. The drive from Oslo to Hamar had been unpleasant as always, (traffic jams on the E6) but she knew it had to be done at least once a week. The job market in Norway was getting worse every year, and she couldn’t afford to let her career stagnate.

She looked out the window while sipping her wine, watching the street lamps flicker on. It was nearly midnight already. She had wanted to get an early start tomorrow, but it looked like she wouldn’t be able to do that. She sighed and made herself comfortable on the sofa.

The next morning, when she woke up and got dressed, Greta felt much more energetic than she had expected. Her new job wasn’t exactly what she had hoped for when she applied for it, but she had said yes anyway because it was the best offer she received. The pay was okay, and although the work itself wasn’t challenging, at least it kept her busy most of the time and gave her plenty of opportunities to learn new things about forensics. It was certainly not glamorous though; there were no exciting cases or adventures as in detective shows on TV. To be honest, Greta didn’t really like any of those shows; they always portrayed detectives as heroes who catch criminals and save the world single-handedly. That’s never how it is in real life though; most of the time they don’t even get a chance to prove their worth because they’re too busy filling out paperwork or waiting for some higher-up to give them something to do.

Today would be just another normal day as well: go see Monsieur Delacroix at the public baths; examine his books and check if they are all in order; check whether he has followed all the rules posted in his shop; make sure that everything is clean enough; move on to Madame Faroe at the circus tent; check if the animals have been treated properly; have lunch at noon; maybe ask around if anyone knows anything about these strange accidents that have been happening recently… It seemed like nothing unusual had happened for a long time now (there hadn’t been any serious crime in Hamar since 1997), but still people rarely left her alone whenever she interviewed them about some minor incident or other - it was quite annoying sometimes, especially since most of them were just trying to impress her so that she would remember their name when she caught some big criminal one day!

Greta sighed again as she tightened her hair into a bun with a small hand mirror. She didn’t know why everyone thought that female police officers were tougher or smarter than men or even better-looking. They weren’t! They were just like everyone else - they got tired after working long hours, they made mistakes just like everyone else, and they weren’t any better than men at catching criminals or saving lives or whatever crazy thing people in TV shows seemed capable of doing - so why did everyone think otherwise? Maybe it was because everyone also seemed to think that women should look pretty all the time? Even though Greta tried hard not to take any notice of other people’s opinions about her appearance (she knew very well that this wasn’t important), for some reason today she couldn’t help thinking about this question more than usual. After all, she had just turned thirty last week - where was all this pressure from society coming from? Why did it seem like women needed to look pretty every minute of their lives? If you didn’t fit society's ideal body shape or look like actresses in TV shows or magazines you were considered old before your time! Well, maybe things weren't THAT bad… But still…

"Oh God!", Greta exclaimed out loud when she realized how late it already was - 10:35! She quickly grabbed her bag and rushed out of her house toward the car parked outside, locking the door behind her as fast as possible before running across the garden toward her car.

She jumped into the driver's seat (not bothering with opening doors anymore) and quickly started up the engine before speeding off down Rådhusgata towards Varangerveien handling turns so sharply that gravel flew off onto passers-by walking along the sidewalk.

In less than five minutes Greta reached Strandveien where Monsieur Delacroix owned his bathhouse called "Cercle". After parking illegally close to its entrance (hoping someone wouldn't call the police) Greta ran inside panting heavily and slamming both hands down on Monsieur Delacroix's counter with an angry thud which caused him to jump up from his chair in surprise yelling "What?! What is going on here?!"