I nodded and threw my hands in the air to suggest that I hadn’t decided to engage some top lawyer to sue them. I preferred to stand on my own two feet. Besides, I had experienced worse, even in the police station.

‘So you found him? The deceased?’

I nodded. ‘Johnny Solheim.’

‘And you were … alone?’

I nodded again. ‘There wasn’t a soul to be seen. Although I did hear one.’ I told him about the footsteps.

‘You didn’t try to follow?’

‘When I heard them, I had no idea they were significant. I only realised when I found Johnny, and by then it was too late to give chase.’

‘And this place, the so-called Hot Spot. Did you go there on your own?’

‘No, no. I was there with an old classmate. Jakob Aasen. But he’d already left.’145

‘And this Aasen, who is he? Apart from an ex-school friend.’

‘He’s respectable enough, I think. An organist for the church. Composer in his free-time. Ex-star of the Bergen rock world. You may’ve heard of them. The Harpers? Harpegjengen?’

‘Him, too?’

‘Yes. The same band as Johnny Solheim. Once.’

He scribbled. ‘Interesting. Very interesting. And what did you do … in the band, I mean? Carry the instruments?’

I smiled. ‘In fact I did a couple of times. By and large though I just knew them. Johnny was from the same street as me. We grew up together in the same part of town.’

‘Right.’ He made more notes. ‘So the next interesting question is: why did you contact Solheim on Saturday?’ He glanced down at his notes. ‘You did manage to contact him, didn’t you.’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘Why?’

‘It was … a sort of favour to a friend.’

‘Mhm. And how long was it since you’d spoken to him?’

‘The day before. At Steinen, the club. I was there with Jakob and we visited him in the dressing room. He was performing.’

‘OK. And on Saturday you realised you wanted to talk to him some more?’

‘No.’ I leaned forward as if to emphasise the confidentiality of this information. ‘The thing is that Jakob has a wife, Rebecca, who, incidentally, also grew up in Nordnes with us. A few years ago she had a brief fling with Johnny. Now she’s left the family home again and Jakob … Jakob was wondering if she might’ve taken up with Johnny again.’

Vadheim had stopped taking notes. ‘I seem to remember you generally turned down that sort of work, Veum.’

‘This wasn’t a job. As I said, it was a favour. Jakob had asked 146me to check out Johnny first, as a matter of form. Later he gave me some names of girlfriends I could contact … today.’ I looked at my watch as if to confirm it was Monday.

‘And what was the result? Was she at Johnny’s?’

‘No.’ I pointed to the papers in front of him. ‘As you can see, I only met Johnny’s wife. She sent me to the video shop he co-owned, and I asked him to his face. He said no. That’s all I know. He may’ve been lying.’