I shrugged. ‘Well, then let me accompany you to the bus at least.’

She shrugged and set off with an expression on her face that said it was a free country; I could walk where I liked.

‘Where are you going to catch it?’ I said as I drew level with her.

‘At the bus station.’

We waited for the lights in Strømgaten.

‘I didn’t want to meet you again, Rebecca, under these circumstances.’

‘No?’ She sent me an airy gaze as though she didn’t understand why I would wish to meet her again at all.253

The lights turned green and we crossed.

‘Berge Brevik … Was he here to … mediate?’

‘Excuse me, but that’s none of your business, Varg.’

‘No, no, of course it isn’t.’

On the left-hand side of the street Grieg Hall rose and faced south: rusty-brown lattice work, tall, narrow panes of glass and a wall incorporating a vinmonopol outlet and a bank branch. At the crossroads with Lars Hilles gate we had to stop and wait again.

‘What about the events of 1975? Are they my business?’

She stared ahead stiffly; there was something unnatural about her face. ‘1975?’

‘Yes. The sixteenth of October. You know what happened, don’t you.’

She shook her head.

‘The reason for The Harpers breaking up. Their swan song. What would you call it? The banquet of the fallen angels?’

The pedestrian lights changed to green and she began to walk. ‘Fallen ang— … I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Varg.’

‘You don’t?’

‘No!’

‘There was a kind of get-together at Johnny’s place. Everyone was there, plus Jan Petter Olsen, Johnny’s daughters Ruth and Sissel…’

‘They were just children, at that time.’

‘Exactly. But what happened that night, Rebecca? What happened?’

‘How should I know? I wasn’t there!’

‘No, you weren’t, but listen to what happened after this … get-together. A marriage hit the buffers, instantly. Johnny’s and 254Anita’s. The relationship between Arild Hjellestad and Halldis Heggøy broke up…’

‘Halldis Heggøy,’ she repeated softly, the way you speak a name you had almost forgotten.

‘Your marriage to Jakob developed serious cracks in the years afterwards…’

‘And what do you know about that?’

‘I…’

We had reached the last set of lights. In front of us was the old bus station, which was like one big building site. Behind the scaffolding you could make out the new station rising two storeys above the old one, an extension of the airport they had built there and called a multi-storey car park. To get to the buses you had to pass through a corridor of steel poles, hopefully strong enough to protect you from a landslide of cement and steel beams from above.

When we saw the green man, Rebecca stepped onto the zebra crossing.

I followed her. ‘Forget all that though. There’s a point that is more important, Rebecca. Of the five men who were present in Johnny’s house that night only one is still alive. And that’s Jakob. The other four are dead.’