‘I guess I should go on home,’ I said after a while. I had barely touched my coffee. Cecilie nodded and followed me to the front door.

‘You were right,’ she said. ‘It was good to talk to you about this. I think I needed to. And deep down I know you couldn’t have hurt Mari, Even. I know that you love … that you liked her.’

I tried to smile.

‘How is your mother?’ Cecilie asked.

I took a deep breath and wondered what I should say. ‘Not so good,’ I said. ‘My brother’s a little out of sorts these days, too, so … we’re struggling a bit – all of us, to be honest. But … we’ll get there eventually. One day at a time.’ I looked at her. ‘And don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I’m not going to tell her what you just told me.’

Cecilie gave me a thankful smile. We hugged again.

As we embraced, I wondered what the next few days and months would be like for her. If anything, or anyone, could help her fill the void somehow, if she would be able to get back on her feet again, to get back to teaching. If there would ever come a time when she could burst out laughing at something without feeling guilty. I somehow doubted it.

The text I’d got was from Ole Hoff. I opened it before getting on my bike. It said:

Call me. Important.

I rang him back, but the call went straight to voicemail. I sent him a text too, telling him that I could speak now, if it was urgent. Maybe he’d discovered something, I thought. Ole was a good journalist. He knew a lot of people in this town.

As I cycled towards the centre of Fredheim, I once more tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. I couldn’t see how Mum could have had anything to do with the murders. If she had found out about Cecilie and Jimmy, it would have had an enormous impact on her. She would have fallen apart completely. She would have cried and cried and made life a living hell for everyone. But she wouldn’t have held it against Mari. Not to the point where she killed her. And if she didn’t have a real motive to kill Mari, then I guess neither did Knut.

The tone in Ole’s text got me worried, though. So I cycled to his office in the centre of Fredheim, to see if he was there. I put my head through the door, and one of the women sitting closest to the entrance, told me he was out.

‘Do you know where he is?’ I asked.

‘I only know that he was going to Solstad earlier today. I don’t know if he’s still there now.’

‘Solstad,’ I muttered and thought about my brother. Our old neighbourhood. ‘Did he say about what?’