Tobias licked his lips. He looked like he was steeling himself. I felt uneasy again.

‘After I talked to Mari that night at your school, I went outside to wait for her.’

‘You’ve told me that already.’

‘I know, just hang on a minute. As I was standing there – it must have been quite a while after the show had ended – I … I saw Knut drive in and park his car.’ Tobias nodded at the door, as though I hadn’t understood who he meant.

‘What the hell was he doing there?’

‘To begin with, I thought he was just waiting for a fare, thinking people might need one after the show. But he just sat there.’

‘You didn’t go over?’

Tobias scoffed. ‘I barely speak to him at home,’ he said. ‘What would I ask him? How he was? How many fares he’d had that evening? I don’t give a fuck about Knut, you know that. After a while, though, he went inside.’

I swallowed. ‘What time was this?’

‘I don’t know. It was starting to get late, and most people had gone home. I’d been standing there waiting for so long, and it was starting to get cold, so I thought, to hell with the photographs, they can wait till tomorrow or another time. And then I went home.’

‘What about the iPad you stole?’

He seemed to have forgotten that small detail for a moment, but then he nodded.

I tried to digest what my brother had just told me. ‘So, you’re saying that Knut went into the school building not long before Mari and Johannes were killed?’

Tobias took a deep breath. ‘That’s what I’m saying, yeah.’

67

NOW

‘How well did you know your mother’s boyfriend?’

Ms Håkonsen has sat down again. She is leaning forwards on the table, eyes seeking mine.

‘I wouldn’t say that I knew him at all, really. He was full of surprises – that’s for sure.’

‘How so?’

‘That chill pill he gave my mother, for instance.’

‘Chill pill?’

‘I don’t really know what kind of pill it was. I hadn’t thought he was the kind of guy who had sedatives just lying about. I just thought he was someone who never said much, and basically did whatever my mother wanted him to. But maybe he was kind of secretive too.’

The prosecutor seems to give this some thought.

‘When your brother told you that Knut had gone into your school that night, what did you think? Did you think Knut might have been the killer?’

‘That was my first thought, yes. And my second and third thoughts as well, to be honest.’

‘Why is that?’