I was missing something here. I just didn’t know what.

‘So you found out.’

‘Yeah, I asked Mum.’

‘And then you told her. You told Mari.’

‘I did.’

‘When was this?’

‘Three or four days ago, maybe. Friday perhaps.’

I just looked at my brother for a few seconds. Once again I asked him what he’d been doing at the show that night and why he’d been in contact with Mari. It took a long time before he answered.

‘Mum had discovered that some of her photos of you and Dad were missing. You know what Mum’s like, how obsessed she can get. So I wanted to get them back before all hell broke loose at home.’ Tobias paused. ‘That’s why I went to the show. To talk to Mari. I couldn’t get hold of her, she wasn’t answering my texts. So I went in and found her. She said the pictures were in that school newspaper room, but that she couldn’t get them for me then, because she was working. She said I could just go in there and get them myself.’ He paused for a beat. ‘The room was locked, so I borrowed her keys. But I couldn’t find those fucking pictures, so I thought I’d catch her again after the show. I went outside to wait for her. But she never came out. I stood there for ages, waiting.’

‘So you…’ I couldn’t get my thoughts straight.

‘I had her keys,’ Tobias said. ‘I’d forgotten I had them – I’d just put them in my pocket when I couldn’t find the photographs. And then when she was dead, I…’ He opened his hands. ‘I fucking panicked,’ he said. ‘I knew how it would look.’

‘So where are the keys now?’

‘In a drawer in my room.’

‘God, Tobias.’

The police must have found them, I thought. And they must have drawn their own conclusions.

I was relieved and angry at the same time. Relieved that there was an innocent explanation why Tobias had been at the school that night – why Børre Halvorsen had seen him in the window, and why Tobias had had Mari’s keys. Angry because he hadn’t told me before. It could have saved us a lot of worry and heartache.

I asked why he hadn’t said anything. Again, it took some time before he answered. ‘I liked Mari as well, Even. She talked to me in a proper way, not like…’ He glanced to the side. ‘I didn’t want anyone to think that I had…’ He stopped himself.

We sat there in silence for a short while. I thought about Mari. The last day had been all about finding Tobias, about getting answers. Now she filled my head again, and I realised how much I missed her. There was so much I wanted to ask her. Tell her.

‘There’s something else, though.’