‘No, sorry,’ the woman said.

‘OK. Thanks.’

I had just got back out onto the road again when my phone rang. I guessed it would be Ole calling me back, but it wasn’t. It was Imo.

‘Even,’ he said. I could hear that his breathing was shallow. ‘I need some help. Can you come over?’

Something was up. But maybe it was simply that he’d done his back in again or something.

‘Yes, of course,’ I said, with the tiniest hesitation. ‘To your house? What’s going on? Is something wrong?’

‘I’ll explain when you get here.’

76

76

‘So what if Imo’s car was still parked there?’ Therese said. ‘It doesn’t have to mean anything. We know he stayed behind after the show.’

‘Yes, but he also told me that he left school somewhere between ten-thirty and ten-forty, and that there were about fifteen to twenty people still left inside the school when he did. According to Knut, there was practically no one there when he went inside to look for Mari, and that was closer to eleven. We now know that Imo’s car was still there. Which means that he was still there.’

‘Fuck.’

‘He could have got the time wrong, of course,’ Yngve continued. ‘But we can, for sure, place him at the school quite close to eleven.’

‘Unless he went home some other way that night.’

‘Why lie to me about that, then?’ Yngve said. ‘I don’t think he did. He told me he drove home all by himself. He was tired. It had been hectic the week before the opening night. Lots of rehearsals, blah-blah.’

Therese seemed to be thinking.

‘We haven’t got a single witness account of the person leaving the school via the roof,’ Yngve continued eagerly. ’Tic-Tac’s parking space is a short stone’s throw away from the fire ladder. Imo could have made it to his car from there without being seen.’

‘So there would be blood in his car, then?’

‘For sure.’

‘We need to check that.’

‘He probably cleaned it as soon as he got home.’

‘There might be some traces left.’

‘Which is why we need to search it immediately. We need to get back to Fredheim, too. As soon as possible. Tobias can wait.’

Yngve found an exit from the road. ‘Just think about it,’ he went on. ‘Imo’s leather gloves, which happened to go missing on the night of the school show. He was quick to let us know, wasn’t he? So we would rule him out. And when I woke Even on the night Børre Halvorsen had been killed, Imo was still up. He hadn’t gone to sleep.’

‘He was working, wasn’t he?’

‘That’s what he said. And Even had passed out from drinking.’