‘I’ve just discovered that Mari was my half-sister.’

Imo shot a look at me. He seemed to be thinking for a quick moment, then said: ‘So you’ve found out, too.’ Imo shook his head, before saying: ‘Ole Hoff had as well. Well, he would have anyway. Sooner or later.’

For a minute there, I had completely forgotten about Ole. The fact that his car was outside, but Ole himself was nowhere to be seen, worried me.

‘For over ten years,’ Imo continued, ‘your mother and Ole thought it was Julia, Ole’s wife, who’d had an affair with Jimmy. She didn’t. It was Cecilie.’

‘But…?’

‘It’s silly, really,’ Imo continued. ‘I had decided to switch lead singer on one of the songs we were doing. “Pie Jesu” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ever heard it?’

‘No’.

‘Ah, Even,’ Imo said. ‘It’s one of the most beautiful songs you’ll ever hear. Makes me cry every single time.’

‘Imo, what’s this got to do with—?’

‘Susanne found those sheets of music with Julia’s name on them in the backseat of her car. They weren’t hers, though – because I’d switched the roles around. Instead of printing a new set of notes for Cecilie, I just gave her Julia’s. And that started ten years of agony and heartache.’

I didn’t know what to say.

‘So Ole didn’t know about Cecilie?’ I asked.

‘No.’

‘He didn’t think to ask his wife about it?’

‘He did,’ Imo said. ‘Today. They had lunch together or something. He finally manned up.’

‘But why didn’t he do it before? Like, ten years ago?’

‘He was afraid to. He was scared of the truth. Besides, Jimmy died that day, so he thought all his problems were solved. Whoosh – like that. They could go on with their lives as if nothing had happened. He thought he’d let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak, so he just decided to forget about it.’

‘Until he couldn’t any longer.’

‘Yes. What’s happened this week has brought it all back, I guess. Running into your mother again like he did.’

I was still struggling to see where this conversation was going.

‘So Julia hadn’t cheated on him?’

‘No.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Ole wanted to see if I knew about any of this, so he called me.’

‘He called you from Solstad?’

Imo looked at me quizzically. I explained how I knew Ole had been there.

‘I don’t know where he called me from. It’s not important. We talked for a while, then agreed to meet up here to have a coffee and a chat – face to face is always better with things like that.’

I was getting more and more confused.

‘He got here before. I think that’s why he decided to have a little snoop.’

‘A snoop?’

‘A little look around. And that’s when he discovered that.’