‘He stayed where he was, I think. I really don’t remember. I wasn’t really interested in him, you know. I was standing in line to get a Coke from the kiosk.’

Yngve made a few notes on his pad.

‘OK’, he said eventually. ‘Thank you for your time.’

‘No problem. Hope I’ve helped.’

Yngve hung up. He thought about Frode Lindgren and what might have been going on in the Lindgren family before Mari was murdered. He contemplated calling Frode right away, but quickly decided against it. Not on a night like this. Parents argued with their children all the time. It didn’t have to have anything to do with the murders.

Still, he couldn’t get their odd behaviour out of his mind. The coolness he could feel in the living room of the Lindgren house, the distance between husband and wife – the way they sat far away from each other. And why did they act so strangely when he’d asked them about Jimmy’s car accident?

She was back again. Standing against the wall.

‘God,’ he said out loud.

Just get a good night’s sleep, she said, and you’ll be fresh and ready in the morning. You’ll get the answers you’re looking for.

A good night’s sleep.

Åse had asked for his help with a good night’s sleep. The really long one.

You must help me. You can. Please.

‘I couldn’t do it,’ he said to her. ‘You know that.’

She didn’t. Still, she didn’t.

‘It was never a question of wanting to or not, it was a question of whether I could,’ he said louder. ‘Even if I knew how much pain you were in, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.’

Yngve blinked, and hoped that she’d be gone when he opened his eyes again, but she wasn’t. She just stood there looking at him. That’s why he put a hand in front of his eyes. So she wouldn’t see that he was crying.

27

NOW

‘Have you been drunk like that a lot of times before, Even?’

Ms Håkonsen looks at me over her glasses.

‘How do you mean?’

‘I mean being sick.’

‘Not a lot, no. I usually stay away from alcohol.’

‘Because of your football?’

‘Yes. And…’

I hesitate. I don’t want to tell the court that my mother’s drinking habits aren’t something I’m keen to fall into myself.

‘But it has happened?’

‘Excuse me; what has?’

‘You have been excessively drunk before?’

‘Yes, it has happened a couple of times.’

‘Ever get blackouts while heavily drunk?’

I’m not sure how to respond to that. ‘I don’t think so,’ I finally say.

‘That’s not a very good answer, is it?’

‘I guess not.’

‘So what you’re basically saying is that you don’t know? You don’t remember?’