‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just that…’

‘I know,’ Yngve said quietly.

Kyrkjebø blinked. A tear squeezed its way out. Yngve looked up to the ceiling and sent another thought to God. An angry one.

‘Let’s search the rest of the school,’ he said. ‘For all we know the killer could still be here.’

3

3

Yngve asked to borrow Tic-Tac’s keys, then instructed him to go and guard the main entrance door. Once the janitor was in position, Vibeke Hanstveit agreed to stay where she was so she could both monitor the crime scene and keep an eye on potential movements by the door.

Yngve and Therese then began to search the ground floor, checking every schoolroom, washroom, closet or trash bin. But they didn’t find anyone – or anything that might have been used to kill Johannes Eklund.

‘We need to find out when they last cleaned this place,’ Yngve said.

‘I’ll get right on it,’ Therese said, her voice still only a whisper.

Yngve looked at her. Twenty-eight years old, one child at home, another one on the way – although this was hard to tell, except maybe in the slightly more rounded cheeks. He noticed how hard she was trying to steel herself, to think professionally and clearly, something she normally managed easily. Sights this brutal, though, especially with young kids involved, were impossible to prepare for. Pictures in books, however real, never came close to the real thing. Some things you just had to experience the hard way.

Vibeke Hanstveit was still on the phone when Yngve and Therese got back to the staircase. Just as they arrived, a tall, grey, bearded man emerged from the staffroom at the other end of the hallway. Yngve recognised him immediately. It was the school’s principal, Tor-Olav Brakstad.

‘How the hell did he get in?’ Therese asked.

Yngve started to walk towards the principal, raising a hand in the air to get him to stop.

‘There’s been a crime here,’ Yngve said to him. ’We have to shut down the whole school.’

‘What?’ Brakstad asked. He had a bewildered look on his face. ‘What’s happened?’

‘I can’t go into any details just yet,’ Yngve replied. ‘We only got here a few minutes ago. How did you get in?’

‘The janitor’s door,’ Brakstad explained and nodded in its direction. ‘On the other side of the school.’

‘The janitor has his own entrance?’ Yngve couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.

‘It’s right next to his parking space,’ Brakstad said. ‘For me it’s a short cut. But what…?’

‘I’m sorry, but you have to leave. No one but police or medical examiners can be here right now.’

‘But…’

Brakstad tried to look past Yngve. The police officer made himself as big as he could in order to block the view. ‘Have you seen or heard anyone else in the building – since you arrived, I mean?’