Frode, Mari’s father, sat next to his wife throughout the funeral. I noticed how they looked at each other from time to time, how she leaned her head against his shoulder. In the graveyard he pulled her closer, too. When Mari was finally lowered into the ground, and we all gathered around the family to pay our respects, he gave me a hug and squeezed me tightly. He didn’t say anything, but I could see all I needed to in his eyes. He was sorry. For a lot of things.

Afterwards Cecilie asked if I wanted to join the wake at their home, but I respectfully refused. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, especially people I didn’t know who were only going to ask me questions about Imo or what actually happened in the pig shed that day. I was done with all that. At least, that’s what I thought.

As I walked away from the graveyard, Ole Hoff came over to me.

‘Even,’ he said. ‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’

‘Yes, of course.’

He took me a few steps away from the rest of the mourners. We stopped by his car.

‘What is it?’ I asked – I could see that something was bothering him.

‘It…’ He waved to a man in a suit. I didn’t recognise him at first, then I realised it was Tic-Tac. I’d never seen him in a suit before.

Ole turned back to me and said: ‘Something’s not right here.’

I looked at him and said, with a slight tremor in my voice, ‘What do you mean?’

‘How much do you really know about what actually happened that night?’

‘Which night?’

‘The night Mari was killed.’

I thought about it for a second. ‘I only know what Imo told me. That he put his hands around Mari’s throat, and before he knew it, he’d strangled her.’

‘He didn’t say that he’d hit her first?’

‘Hit her? No,’ I said, getting anxious. ‘He didn’t say anything about that.’

He nodded. ‘Apparently Mari was hit before she was strangled. Before someone tried to resuscitate her. I read the autopsy report.’

I tried to think.

‘You knew your uncle best,’ he said. ‘Is he the sort of man who would punch a girl that young in the face?’

I thought about my encounter with Ida Hammer that night in her bathroom. What Imo told me afterwards about how a real man should treat women.

There are three things you must never do to a girl, Even. One, you don’t spread false rumours about her. That’s mean. Two, you stick to one girl at a time. And three… you don’t hit them. Not under any circumstance. A guy picks a fight with you, sure, you stand your ground. Not with a girl. Not ever.

Ole looked at me. ‘So, what are you saying?’ I asked, my voice shaking.