‘No, it’s not…’

‘He loved her!’ she shouted. ‘He loved … me. Us. Our family. He could never have hurt Mari.’

‘I apologise, I didn’t mean to—’

‘Please leave,’ she said. Her voice was trembling. Fresh tears had formed in her eyes, too. ‘Don’t you people have a killer to catch?’ Her lower lip was shaking. ‘I’m sure it’s Even who did it. That’s what everyone thinks, and you’re standing here, saying that…’

She put a hand up in front of her mouth. Tears were streaming down her face.

‘I’m sorry,’ Yngve said, as softly as he could. ‘I didn’t mean to insinuate that…’

Cecilie stared at him with blood-shot eyes.

Yngve held his hands up in front of him. ‘It was … I’ll go,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll go now. Thank you for … thank you.’

You can’t really blame her, Åse said. She was sitting on the back seat, looking at him in the mirror. For some reason she was wearing her nightdress.

‘But I didn’t…’ he started. ‘I didn’t mean to suggest that Frode had killed her.’

Losing someone the way the Lindgrens had was completely different from what he’d gone through. He was able to prepare for his loss. Cecilie and Frode hadn’t received any warning. They had probably gone to work that morning, thinking about nothing and anything, only to have their world shattered in the blink of an eye, the flick of a switch. He muttered an apology again, hoping that Cecilie, in some way, would be able to hear him.

Yngve took a deep breath and dialled the number she had given him.

A man answered straightaway.

Yngve introduced himself. ‘I’m trying to reach your brother. Is he with you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Reidar Lindgren said. ‘Not right now, anyway. He’s been staying at my place for a few days, but I’m at work, so I don’t know if he’s there right now.’

‘A few days, you say. Since when, exactly?’

‘Um … Saturday? Yes. Saturday. I was going to a reunion party that night. Twenty-five years. Can you believe it?’

‘Are you far from your apartment?’

‘You mean as we speak?’

‘That’s what I mean, yes.’

‘A little.’

‘Would you mind going home to check?’ Yngve said. ‘I really need to talk to him. Could you have him call me? He’s got my number.’

‘Has something happened?’ Reidar Lindgren asked. ‘Something else, I mean?’ He sounded unsure.

‘Depends what you mean,’ Yngve said. ‘But I have some questions for him, and at this stage of the investigation, it’s imperative that I talk to the person who might have known Mari best.’

A loud bang in the background seemed to make Lindgren jump. ‘I’m at a construction site,’ he explained. ‘But I’ll hurry home. See if I can get hold of him for you.’

‘I appreciate it, thanks.’