She looked down at the confirmation form she was holding and nodded.

He patted her on the shoulder and let them pass.

‘Veum…’ he said with an ironic glint in his eye. ‘You’re a rare visitor.’

‘I’d like to talk to Jakob.’

‘Help yourself. And this is…?’ He focused on Thomas.

‘My son, Thomas.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ Berge Brevik said, smiled easily and let us follow the others.

I motioned to the door up to the gallery and Thomas came with me.

Jakob was ready to leave, wearing a winter coat of many greys, a beige and plum-red scarf around his neck and clutching a brown woollen hat with an orange pattern. He had a black briefcase under his arm. He sent Thomas a surprised look and greeted me hastily.342

‘I don’t have any time to talk, Varg,’ he said. ‘I’ve promised the kids…’ He nodded towards the exit.

‘I understand. I just wanted to ask you: have you seen Vadheim yet about the letter?’

‘Nah,’ he said flippantly. ‘I’m not taking this that seriously.’

‘Why not? Because you wrote it yourself?’

He gaped at me. ‘Wh-what do you mean? Wrote it myself? Why would I write something like that and send it to myself?’

‘To cover the fact that it was you who sent these letters to the others, maybe?’

‘Tell me, Varg, do you really think that?’

I eyeballed him. ‘Not necessarily. But it’s a possibility that has been nagging at me. Especially as you’re so unwilling to see Vadheim.’

‘Honestly, Varg, I can’t see—’

I went up close to him and whispered: ‘Isn’t it time you told me everything about what happened in 1975?’

His eyes went walkabout. ‘Everything? Tell you? Why would I…?’

‘Because it would make everything much easier. I’m going to find out anyway. And when I do, discovering what you haven’t told me will be even more shocking, and I’ll ask myself why. I’m beginning to get a pretty clear picture, you know.’

‘Then go home and finish painting it.’

‘Perhaps I’ll do that, right now. You know Ruth’s in Bergen?’

‘R-r-r…?’

‘Ruth Solheim, yes. You may even know where she is?’

‘I haven’t the foggiest. She … What about…?’

‘But I know someone who does. And when I finally meet her – Ruth I mean – I’m pretty sure the last pieces will fall into place – and you know that too, don’t you.’343

He looked past me. ‘Yeah, maybe. I’ll be off then,’ he said sheepishly. He knotted the scarf around his neck, glanced at Thomas again, as if he couldn’t understand what he was doing there and went down the stairs.

I stood watching him for a moment. I could feel it. Something had gone, forever.

I patted Thomas on the shoulder and we followed Jakob down the staircase.

The verger was waiting by the door, keen to see us off the premises. Office hours were over. God had gone home.

344

43

While we had been inside the church the main roads had been cleared and the tarmac salted. Dirty piles of snow had been piled along the kerbs and to free my car from the car park I had to get my little spade from the boot. Afterwards we followed dark strips of tarmac home, through the centre of Bergen and up through Fjellsiden. Around us the smoke from a thousand chimneys rose like the bonfires surrounding a town under siege.