‘Well, it was the same day my mother had slapped me when I suggested that maybe Mari had been killed because of something she’d discovered about Dad’s car accident. I wondered if Mum knew something about that, and if Knut did too, and wanted to protect my mother somehow.’

‘So, you thought he’d killed Mari to stop her talking? To keep her from revealing whatever she’d discovered about the car accident, maybe even about your mother?’

‘That’s what I thought, yes. Apparently he’d been in love with Mum since high school.’

‘And according to your own statement just now, you thought Knut would do whatever your mother wanted him to.’

‘Yes.’

Ms Håkonsen waits a few seconds. Then: ‘Did you think, at that time, that your mother might have put him up to it?’

‘I didn’t think that then, no. I was more worried about what was going to happen to me.’

‘Why is that?’

‘Because right after I’d spoken to Tobias at the hospital, Mum wanted Knut to drive me home.’

68

THEN

‘It’s school day tomorrow,’ Mum said. ‘You need to get some sleep.’

‘Yeah, but…’ I didn’t know what to say.

‘Of course I can drive him,’ Knut said. ‘But what about you?’

‘I’ll stay here,’ Mum said. ‘I’m not leaving Tobias.’

I looked at my brother. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of Mum staying, but, like me, his options were limited.

It was a strange feeling, to be standing in a room with three people who I, at some point during the past few days, had been or still was suspicious about, at least when it came to the murder of my ex-girlfriend. The weirdest part was that they were all family – or, in Knut’s case, almost. I wasn’t sure at all how I felt about any of them. Tobias’s explanation did make sense, but there was something odd about it all the same. I couldn’t understand why it was so important for him to get the photos back for Mum. He didn’t really care about our mother. He didn’t care much about anything. On the other hand, it had been a while since anything my brother did made much sense to me, so why should this be any different?

‘OK,’ I said carefully. Then to Tobias: ‘You’ll be alright?’

He nodded.

‘Sure?’

‘Yes.’

‘Alright,’ I said. ‘See you.’

Then Knut and I left.

We didn’t say a word to each other on the way out to his car. Just walking beside him made me uneasy. I wondered if he had Johannes Eklund’s microphone case hidden away somewhere. Maybe even in his taxi.

I sat in the passenger seat and put on my seatbelt. Knut drove like a priest, religiously sticking to the speed limit.