And Even says he wasn’t there that evening? Check this, 1:23 into the clip.

Nina was a girl in my class. She had even tagged me; she wanted me to see the comment. Some people had responded to it: Shit; FFS; Knew it. I fucking knew it!

I swallowed and pressed play. The video was from the show. It started in the middle of Johannes’ solo number, his declaration of love for Fredheim. The sound was rubbish because the video was taken from the back of the auditorium, behind the rows of seats, but it was easy enough to see and hear that everyone was listening. No one was messing about, whispering to each other or answering a text. Johannes was really in his element up there on stage.

I watched the time. One minute. I waited impatiently for it to get to 1:23.

1:10 became 1:20.

Then 1:23.

And that was when I saw him.

There wasn’t much light at the back of the auditorium, so it was hard to see his face, but the camera itself gave off enough light for me to see the back of someone’s head, a boy wearing a baseball cap and a denim jacket.

Thoughts bombarded me from all directions.

‘Jesus,’ I whispered.

It was … me.

At least, it certainly looked like that way. It was my jacket, or one that was almost the same. The person was the same height as me. Had the same kind of baseball cap as the one I sometimes used. I rewound the recording a few seconds to see if I could get a better look at the face. No. His head was turned towards the stage.

I stopped the clip again and scrolled down through all the comments. My eyes stopped sharp at a reply from a girl called Ylva. I had no idea who Ylva was, but what she’d written made my heart jump.

Idiots. That’s not Even. It’s his brother.

48

NOW

‘Let me stop you right there.’

Ms Håkonsen waves her hand in the air, like she’s a cheerleader or something. It almost makes me laugh, but the seriousness of what we’re talking about quickly pulls me back.

‘Did you know that your brother was going to be there that evening?’

‘I really thought he wasn’t. A while before the show my mother asked him if he wanted to come along, but he just laughed unkindly and said no. Shows like that weren’t his thing.’

‘And yet, there he was.’

‘Yes. He was.’

‘What did you think about that, when you saw the video?’